The Glorious Mysteries make Easter present each time we pray them. Each and every time we turn to these mysteries we recall the great victory of Christ over sin and death. The Lord Jesus, who once was dead, now lives! The extraordinary graces of Easter morning sound forth from the Holy Sepulcher, echoed in our recollection of these incredible moments.
Pope Francis describes Easter, saying, “Easter is the feast of tombstones taken away, rocks rolled aside.” The Holy Father teaches, “God takes away even the hardest stones against which our hopes and expectations crash: death, sin, fear, worldliness. Human history does not end before a tombstone, because today it encounters the ‘living stone,’ the risen Jesus.”
The Glorious Mysteries systematically crush all the stones that separate us from God. Jesus defeats death, undoing Adam’s first sin. He ascends to heaven where he intercedes for us before the Father. He sends his Holy Spirit to enlighten and encourage. Then he draws his Mother to himself, making her the first to know the glory of the Saints to come.
Praying the glorious mysteries increases the three great Christian virtues: faith, hope, and charity. Our faith is increased whenever we confess that Jesus died and rose again. Our hope is strengthen as we ponder the arrival in heaven of Jesus and his Mother. Our charity grows as we long for union with God, when we shall see him face to face.
As we conclude this month of the Rosary, may we never cease to grow in our love for the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Rosary is the kind of prayer that we can never exhaust. As St. Therese of Lisieux says, “I take refuge, then, in prayer, and turn to Mary, and our Lord always triumphs.”
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Resurrection: The last laugh
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Ascension: Jesus cannot simply go back to life as it was
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Pentecost: He comes, too, bearing gifts
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Assumption: Could the dwelling place of the Word be given to worms?
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Coronation: All her queenly authority is for defeating her sworn enemy
And today we celebrate...