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| The Transfiguration by Ivanka Demchuk |
Something was missing from the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, mainly the earthly life of Jesus and the founding of His Church with the Seven Sacraments he established for the salvation of souls. Therefore, John Paul II filled in the absent 33 years with the Luminous Mysteries which are the Seven Sacraments.
The first, second and fifth Luminous Mysteries are self explanatory. They are the Sacraments of Baptism (The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan), Holy Matrimony (The Wedding at Cana) with the fifth mystery being both Holy Orders and Holy Eucharist (The Institution of the Eucharist).
The third Luminous Mystery represents Confession and Extreme Unction (The Proclamation of the Kingdom, with a call to repentance and conversion) both of which leave us ready to enter the Kingdom sinless (Extreme Unction includes Confession).
That leaves the fourth Luminous Mystery (The Transfiguration) to signify Confirmation.
The Transfiguration is a vision of a vision. While Moses (the Old Law) and Elijah (the Prophets) are having a vision of Jesus and conversing with Him, Peter, James and John are witnessing that vision through their own vision of the scene. They're having a vision of the vision of Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus. How does that apply to Confirmation? It applies because through his Transfiguration, "Jesus confirmed them in their faith."
Many websites delve into the Transfiguration in depth identifying all aspects of this particular scene in Christ's life and the meaning of it. Whole books have been written on the Transfiguration, particularly Light on the Mountain: Greek Patristic and Byzantine Homilies on the Transfiguration of the Lord, published in 2013. The homilies are by Greek and Byzantine fathers back when the Church was one.
Here are a few of their observations:
Leontius of Byzantium (6th century)
He brought them up the mountain, and briefly opened the door of his Incarnation for them, and showed them clearly what great glory was concealed within him. He made it perfectly clear to the Apostles that he is "the Lord of all things, in heaven and on earth and under the earth." He lured Elijah down from above, he fished Moses up from below, he set Peter and James and John alongside him from those still on earth: for the whole is known from the extremes.
Cyril of Alexandria (5th century) - Homily 51 on Luke
The appearance of Moses and Elijah beside him, then, and their conversation with each other, was a divine stratagem for actually revealing that our Lord Jesus Christ had been preceded on his way by the Law and the Prophets, revealed by the Law and the Prophets themselves to be their Lord, in those very respects in which, constantly with each other, they had foretold him. For what the prophets said is not at variance with what is said by the Law. This, I think, is what is meant by the fact that holy Moses was speaking with the best of all the prophets - and that is Elijah.
For Christ was transfigured, not simply to be so, but that he might show us the transfiguration of our nature that is to come - his second coming, for our salvation, which will be on the clouds, with the voice of archangels. For he is the one who has "wrapped himself in light as in a garment" since he is "judge of the living and the dead." Therefore he brought Moses and Elijah into the scene, to offer the confirming sign of these figures from ancient times.
Pantoleon, Deacon and Chartophylax - 6th century
For we ourselves were also "night", but now having put on Christ, we fit better with the appellation "day". For we were once darkness, but now are light in the Lord. Blessed are you Christ, through whom the human person has come to be called "light". Blessed are you, Christ, through whom human nature lent a covering to God, and the divine nature has wrapped its outward appearance around human substance.
Anastasius, Monk and Presbyter of Sinai - 7th century. Anastasius of Sinai is the abbot of St Catherine's Monastery depicted in Rembrandt's 1631 painting "Anastasius".
Be changed by a good and holy transformation, leave the world behind, depart from the earth, abandon the flesh. Let go of this creation, and go over to the Creator...So then, let each of us who has received God in his heart, and who has been transfigured into that divine form, say in our joy: "It is good for us to be here, where everything is full of light...where God is to be seen."
Anastasius
by Rembrandt, 1631
Andrew of Crete - 8th century
They will put off their former life, and receive only your grace, which comes to fullness in your Spirit and your divine fire, according to the Gospel's exclusionary decision; grace that is exalted, immaterial grace that never ends or grows old or decays, but that, in the limitless way grace acts, always advances, and is lifted up to what is greater and more divine, by the burning heat of the Spirit.Become, in every fiber of your being, the pure devotee of better, heavenly things, and receive in the Spirit the pure and blessed gift of sharing in the life of the Word, whose outcome is divinization and the enjoyment of ineffable blessings. As a result, true virtue, shaped and stamped by all the virtues, will be revealed in you; and in your steady contemplation of what is, truth will be revealed in you. Wisdom itself will become known..
John of Damascus - 680 - 750
For just as soldiers and boxers and field laborers and merchants take up their hard work with great eagerness, and face the waves of the sea and wild beasts, and pay no heed to pirates, so that they might lay hold of the prize they long for...so spiritual infantry and spiritual boxers and spiritual field workers and merchants do not yearn for earthly gain...They will be fitted out...for contests where they are not ranged against human opponents...but they fight against the rulers of darkness, and struggle by being beaten, and gather wealth by stripping it away, and thrust the rudder of the Cross against the triple waves of the world and the wicked spirits that stir them up, and drive out howling beasts by the power of the Spirit, and sow the word of religious reverence in human hearts.
Through the Transfiguration Jesus confirmed Peter, James and John in their faith. As John of Damascus says, It was fitting, surely, that those who were going to become witnesses of his sufferings later on should gaze on his glory...Moses and Elijah stand, as servants, alongside their Lord in glory, and are observed by their fellow servants as conversing with him. For it was right that when they saw the glory and the freedom of access accorded their fellow servants, they should be amazed at the loving adaptation of the Lord to their needs, and should become all the more eager and courageous with regard to their coming struggles.
Wait a minute. I thought Our Lady gave the rosary to St. Dominic. How could she have missed something? Please, I don’t mean to sound snarky about this. Actually, I find your post timely as this is something I’ve been struggling with recently. If anyone can give me a good explanation as to how this came to be, I am definitely open to hearing!
ReplyDeleteHi Toni, I'm not an expert or historian but here's my attempt.
ReplyDeleteI, too, used to be dubious of the Luminous Mysteries as an innovation. But it is worth noting that the mysteries themselves were not given by Mary to Dominic. As far as we know, those came about by Dominic of Prussia some time in the fifteenth century. Moreover, historically, the Assumption and the Coronation of the BVM were combined as the fourth Glorious Mystery, and the fifth was the Last Judgment. That, too, has changed over time. So, the mysteries are not necessarily set in stone.
That being said, I still don't typically pray the Luminous Mysteries except for, e.g., on one of the feasts found in those Mysteries. My preference, at least, is to keep the traditional "schedule" of when to pray the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries, and that the 150-bead symbolism not be broken. After all, it is a private devotion, albeit a highly recommended one, so there is room for modifications.
I would tend to agree with you, Toni, on this.
ReplyDeleteI cannot say that I struggle with the Luminous Mysteries, but I always considered the Traditional 3 decade Rosary as the perfect prayer.
Since it was handed to St Dominic by Our Lady, I don't see that it needs "updating" or improvement.
But then again, I am an old curmudgeon.
Toni, My sentiments exactly. Here we have bishop Strickland who is being investigated by the vatican because he is so (opus dei) "traditional" flying all the way to Ohio to lead the luminous mysteries on SUNDAY - day reserved for the glorious mysteries, even by that great vatican council ii saint, john paul ii, who invented these luminous mysteries. One wonders who indeed Strickland was praying to and why his prayer results in defeat of the issue. It would have been better for him to stay home--but maybe that was the whole point of his visit and this rally to displease God and earn defeat so they can stay in their 'prolife' business continuing to mislead Catholics and steal their money.
ReplyDeleteWhile Bishop Strickland led all present in praying the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary...
Thanking those present “for taking the Lord’s Day…to do what we should do on a Sunday ...introduced the Rosary, saying, “Now we turn to the greatest power we have: the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” (but it was the rosary of jpii luminous mysteries to lucifer (?))
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-strickland-leads-rosary-at-prayer-rally-against-radical-ohio-abortion-transgender-amendment/
Even the SSPX say nope to the pope who promulgated the Luminous Mysteries.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/x1X6DYpa958
I totally agree with Toni. These extraneous things added by JP2 infuriate me. Regarding the rosary. As Toni said it was given to St. Dominic, a gift from heaven. But our Lady also explained that the Lord wishes everyone to say the psalter or the book of psalms which the rosary is a short form of, with each Hail Mary, 150 over 15 decades representing the 150 psalms. Each Hail Mary is a psalm. Tampering with it in any way is an insult to our Lady. Regarding the 15th station of the cross, the resurrection. The Stations of the cross are about the passion of Christ. His ascension is a different story which is reflected by the erroneous 15th station. Of course what can you expect from a pope who kissed the Koran.
ReplyDeleteI'm at work right now. Will answer later this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteToni...I didn't say that the Blessed Mother herself had missed something. I said that something was missing. You have to admit that Jesus' entire earthly life was left out...missing. According to the traditional Rosary he was born, died, and went to heaven. What about his entire life of 33 years here on earth? The entire Bible is about Jesus; the OT foretold him and the NT is him. Why would that be left out of the Rosary, if not on purpose?
ReplyDeleteSo did the Blessed Mother leave out her Son's earthly life on purpose when she gave the Rosary to St Dominic? The answer is most likely yes so that at a later time, 700 years later when JPII was pope, an emphasis would be on Jesus's earthly life and what he did here, that is, establish the Church with the Seven Sacraments for the salvation of souls.
There are many websites online telling how and why JPII added the Luminous Mysteries. We can agree with the addition or not. I prefer to say the Luminous Mysteries. I go to the SSPX and think they don't include them. That's fine but I say them because I think that contemplation on the earthly Life of our Lord is worthwhile.
For me, I'm not concerned who says we should or shouldn't pray the Luminous Mysteries. I prefer to make up my own mind on this and I doubt seriously the Blessed Mother is upset about it. Think about it - probably on purpose she didn't include the Luminous Mysteries so that at a time of great heresy (St Dominic received the Rosary at the time of the Albigensian heresy) and all the protestant churches and Vatican II, that Catholics would be strengthened by knowing their salvation comes thorough the Church with adherence to the Seven Sacraments.
I hope you give that SSPX link a listen Susan. Father gives very good reasons for not praying them. One reason is because Our Lady Herself called it Her Psalter. And of course the Psalms 150 chapters.
ReplyDeleteI've never read JPII's encyclical on the Rosary which introduced the new mysteries, but father read some of it and just like the VII docs, it's full of ecumenism.
I hope you'll consider listening to it. It's right at an hour long, but you can listen at a higher speed, no problem.
I realize that you, Susan, didn’t state that Our Lady missed something. Let me back up. My husband and I were in Pompeii this past May. I have a devotion to Our Lady of Pompeii, and we just happened to be there for the 150th anniversary of the dedication of the Basilica. The portrait over the altar of Our Lady of Pompeii had pictures of each of the mysteries of the rosary around it, 20 of them. I learned that when Pope John Paul II and then Pope Benedict XVI visited there, there were only 15 mysteries portrayed. After Pope Francis visited they were changed to 20. Now that may be neither here nor there, but it did spark a comment from a friend we were with. She herself posed the question as to why the original mysteries given by Our Lady weren’t enough. That’s what got me questioning.
ReplyDeleteI once heard that John Paul gave us the luminous Mysteries because he knew we would need them for these times. I can buy that. Sort of. But gee, I sure do feel guilty when I pray them and prefer to stick with the original 15.
I'll listen to it tonight, Debbie, but doubt it'll change my mind...however we shall see. Will let you know.
ReplyDeleteWell, Debbie, so far I'm 15 minutes into the video and Fr seems clueless that these are the Seven Sacraments. Maybe he gets into that further on. He's said nothing yet that makes me think JPII was wrong.
ReplyDeleteDebbie - Halfway through. Thoroughly disagree with him. He says the traditional Rosary is all about Mary but that the Luminous Mysteries are what JPII called "Christocentric" so are not about Mary. He is blind to the fact that the Luminous Mysteries are the Seven Sacraments of the Church. In many cases, Mary represents the Church, so the Luminous Mysteries are all about Mary.
ReplyDelete3/4 of the way through the video: ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz. Have heard all this before. Not convincing me in the least.
ReplyDeleteDebbie - I managed to make it through this unfortunate video which I found to be disingenuous, snarky and a bit weird. That, I am certain, makes me not a very good SSPXer.
ReplyDeleteWow. Ok Susan. Maybe because I'm a sede I thought father was right on. I don't think the Rosary needed to be "improved". The 15 mysteries were given to St. Dominic by Our Lady and then a Koran kissing, Assisi praying, ecumenical zealot thought we needed 5 more. I'll stick with Mary and St. Dominic and the advice of traditional clergy.
ReplyDeleteI always thought the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, i.e. the third glorious mystery was confirmation. Seriously not sure how you can associate the transfiguration w/confirmation when at the Passion of Christ Peter denied Christ. It was only after Pentecost, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost that the apostles went into the streets and Peter preached the sermon given in Acts of the Apostles.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I was taught to associate transfiguration with the agony in the garden (and I would think most necessary to do so if you are going to talk about sacrament of confirmation). And I would say the same about JPII's separate mystery "Institution of the Eucharist." There can be no separation of the Eucharist from the Crucifixion -- the holy sacrifice of the mass is the unbloody representation of Christ's sacrifice on cavalry. In addition, The Agony in the Garden, the Scourging, the Crowning with Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross and the crucifixion are ALL PART of Jesus Christ's "public ministry." In fact these MYSTERIES are the summation or as he put it the consummation of His public ministry.
You can say it's about the sacraments (what is mysterious about the sacraments?), but according to VC2 religion that jp2 professed, the sacraments do not confer grace. You do not need to be baptized to go to heaven: Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and even atheists are going to heaven and all worship the same God you do (themselves) w/out baptism. Hell is empty so everyone is going to heaven and confession/penance is not needed. All Christians are priests by baptism (even though it's not needed to get to heaven) and the priests are presiders with no special marks to distinguish them from the people. The Church is a hospital for sinners even though hell is empty so sin has no meaning as a concept. If you listened to SSPX priests preach about hell you would probably find it disingenous, snarky and a bit weird. As Francis says, and jp2 implemented: any catholic marriage can be annulled (and most people no longer bother because hell is empty and sin has no meaning). The anointing of the sick is a chance to introduce charismatic faith healing where people fall into each other's arms and all stand around in circles laying hands on one another praying for the Holy Ghost (except when there's a fake pandemic, then they all stop visiting the sick, burying the dead, and even worshiping God, but hide under their beds wearing masks). [Suggest you actually check out the sacrament of extreme-unction which isn't given in VC2 churches (it's doubtful any sacraments are given in VC2 churches since they replaced sacramental theology with theology of the body).] It's a great stretch to say "proclamation of the kingdom" covers either penance/anointing -- it actually a very general statement that says nothing.
It's funny that it takes 800 years for someone to perceive a hole in the rosary that needed to be plugged. But VC2 was full of fools thinking they know better than God, the BVM and all the saints. So sure the rosary needed their improvement too. VC2/JP2 can separate Christ's life from His death, separate the transfiguration from the agony and the "eucharist" from the crucifixion to make a gnostic religion where the people are transfigured w/out suffering into Gods themselves. As Bishop Strickland did on Sunday 'pray' these new 'mysteries' (are they mysteries?) exclusively and forget all about what Our Lady told us to ponder in our hearts--while calling it a 'rosary' to 'Our Lady.' That's what I call disingenuous, snarky and bit weird.
Bravo anonymous!
ReplyDeleteI'm at work. Will answer when I get home later.
ReplyDeleteHere’s my question… what would be wrong in using the rosary beads for other contemplation in addition to the rosary we were given? Say the standard rosary and also use the beads for other meditation. I find no harm in that. In fact, I once read of a person who used each of the Hail Mary beads to think of and thank God for a blessing that they had been given in their life. It doesn’t stop a person from recognizing the importance of the original rosary.
ReplyDeleteFrom St. Paul's letter to Titus:
ReplyDelete"4But when the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared: 5Not by the works of justice which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost. 6Whom he hath poured forth upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour: 7That, being justified by his grace, we may be heirs according to hope of life everlasting. 8It is a faithful saying. And these things I will have thee affirm constantly, that they who believe in God may be careful to excel in good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.
"9But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law. For they are unprofitable and vain."
Is it a sin to pray the Luminous Mysteries? The contention is "unprofitable and vain" and I am shutting down the comments.