Ad Imaginem Dei: The Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

Thursday, April 12, 2018

The Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

Benedetto di Silvestro, The Resurrectin
From the Vita Christi
Italian (Lombardy), c. 1500-1550
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 508, fol. 39r

The Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary ask us to reflect on the joyful event of the Resurrection and its aftermath.* Thus we begin with the first Glorious Mystery, the Resurrection of Our Lord. Then we move on to the last sight of the glorified Risen Jesus on this earth, the Ascension, as He is taken up into heaven. The next sight of His glorified body will be at the second coming.

The last three of the Glorious Mysteries are reflections on the early history of the Church, the first being the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The fourth Mystery is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, when Mary’s mortal remains were taken up into heaven, where she lives as a fully alive human being.

The final decade of the five Glorious Mysteries is speculative. It is the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven. We believe that, on the arrival of her body in heaven, the complete person that is Mary was crowned by her Son as Queen of Heaven. As the human mother of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, she receives special honor from all the angels and the other saints. She herself adores the Holy Trinity, along with those angels and saints, of which she is the highest in rank.

The five decades of the Glorious Mysteries are:

1. The Resurrection

· The Women at the Tomb
· Noli Me Tangere
· Jesus, the Gardener
· The Incredulity of St. Thomas (Doubting Thomas)
· Emmaus -- The Journey
· Emmaus -- The Recognition
· Climbing from the Tomb
· Hovering over the Tomb
· Bursting from the Tomb
· An Awkward Resurrection Image
· Good Shepherd Sunday
· The Lake of Galilee -- The Disciples Go Fishing
· Commission to Peter -- The Good Shepherd Transfers Responsibility
· The Commission to the Apostles
· Christ Appears to His Mother
· Christ Presents the Redeemed to His Mother

2. The Ascension

· Jesus Striding into Heaven
· Jesus Lifted by a Mandorla or on a Cloud
· The Disappearing Feet of Jesus
· The Direct Approach

3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit

· Tongues of Fire
· Veni, Sancte Spiritus
· At This Sound, They Gathered in a Crowd
A Dove Descending

4. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin

5. The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin

· Ave Regina Caelorum –The Queenship of Mary

As with the recitation of the Rosary in general, the intent of praying the Glorious Mysteries is not the simple recitation of well-known prayers but the contemplation of the outcome of the sacrifice of Calvary. While reciting the prayers we may mentally witness the Easter events in the lives of the Risen Jesus, the early Church and the Blessed Virgin Mary and gain a foretaste of what will come for us at the end of time.

* For a general explanation of the Rosary see: http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-rosary.html

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Uniquely among the monotheistic religions Christianity permits the use of images of God. Why? The answer lies in the Christian belief in the reality of the Incarnation. Since God has assumed human nature and form the Biblical prohibition against making images of God ceases to apply. As the second Council of Nicea declared in 787 "Following the divinely inspired teaching of our holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church (for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her) we rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother of God, and the venerated angels, all the saints and the just, whether painted or made of mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, in houses and on streets."
(Council of Nicaea II: DS 600)

This decree of Nicea II was promulgated for the entire church, both Greek and Latin speaking, and was a response to the strongly held beliefs of the iconoclasts, who wished to suppress the use of images, which had convulsed the Byzantine Empire and the eastern churches for almost 100 years. In addition, St. John Damascene, last of the Greek Fathers and a staunch defender of images, had written in De imagine ("In Defense of Images") "Of old, God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was never depicted. Now, however, when God is seen clothed in flesh, and conversing with men, (Bar. 3.38) I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter." (St. John Damascene, De Imagine, Part I, 15-16, from Internet Medieival Sourcebook.)

The ways in which this imaging of the divine has been accomplished in the course of time is the subject of Christian iconography. To quote from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, iconography is "1: pictorial material relating to or illustrating a subject; 2: the traditional or conventional images or symbols associated with a subject and especially a religious or legendary subject; 3: the imagery or symbolism of a work of art, an artist, or a body of art".

The iconography of any subject develops and changes over time. Christian iconography develops and changes too, as reflection on the Gospels and Tradition develops over time and as the act of making art develops and changes as well. This is the background for this blog.

Ad Imaginem Dei

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Thursday, April 12, 2018

The Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

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