The Fifth Glorious Mystery: The Coronation

Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death (CCC, 966).

What should we envision when we think of Mary, “Queen over all things?” One might look to the book of Revelation for help: “And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (12:1). Mary said “yes” to the will of God, and for her part in the history of salvation she was fully honored and glorified in heaven. She became our Queen, our Mother in Heaven, our Guardian in all things, and our Star of the New Evangelization.

While meditating on the crowning of Our Lady Queen of Heaven, say one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s, and a Glory Be.

It is the end of Mary’s month of May, and we have now come to the end of our Rosary. Conclude by reciting the Hail Holy Queen and by making a Sign of the Cross:
 
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.  To you we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To you we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.  Turn then, O most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus. O clement! O loving! O sweet Virgin Mary!

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Fourth Glorious Mystery: The Assumption

The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son's Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body (CCC, 974).

Remember in the Gospel of Luke, when Mary exclaims, "Henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me" (1:48-49)? Mary is so pure, so blessed, so holy, so lovely—that every part of her was swept up into the Kingdom of Heaven when her life on earth was complete. She is now united with her Son, and every day she lovingly protects His Church as a shining example and powerful intercessor.

While meditating on Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, say one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s, and a Glory Be.

The Third Glorious Mystery: The Descent of the Holy Spirit

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1-4).

On this day the Church celebrates Pentecost. This is the day when the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles, giving them the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They were given everything necessary in order to fulfill Jesus’ commands.

Blessed John Paul II reflected upon the descent of the Holy Spirit during his 1979 Mass at Victory Square in Poland:

The liturgy of the evening of Saturday the Vigil of Pentecost takes us to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, where the Apostles, gathered around Mary the Mother of Christ, were on the following day to receive the Holy Spirit. They were to receive the Spirit obtained for them by Christ through the Cross, in order that through the power of this Spirit they might fulfil his command: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Mt 28:19-20). Before Christ the Lord left the world, he transmitted to the Apostles with these words his last recommendation, his "missionary mandate".

In the face of a Communist regime which worked tirelessly to take God out of the Poland’s past, present, and future, Blessed John Paul II then fearlessly called for a “second baptism”—a baptism that would change the history of the twentieth century and eventually lead to the fall of Communism:

The Second Glorious Mystery: The Ascension

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" (Mk 16:19).

On this day the Church celebrates the Ascension of Christ into heaven. The One who came from the Father returns to the Father at last, and takes a seat at His right hand.

Blessed John Paul II spoke of the Ascension on this solemnity in 1979, early in his pontificate. He said:

… the meaning of the Ascension is found in this phrase: Jesus took his place. After having undergone the humiliation of his passion and death, Jesus took his place at the right-hand of God; he took his place with his eternal Father. But he also entered heaven as our Head. Whereupon, in the expression of Leo the Great, the glory of the Head became the hope of the body. For all eternity Christ takes his place as the firstborn among many brethren: our nature is with God in Christ. And as man, the Lord Jesus lives for ever to intercede for us with the Father. At the same time, from his throne of glory, Jesus sends out to the whole Church a message of hope and a call to holiness.

Christ was raised in glory, and one can imagine how much joy this gave Mary and the Apostles. His Ascension should fill us with wonder and joy as well.

While meditating on Christ’s Ascension into heaven, say one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s, and a Glory Be.

The First Glorious Mystery: The Resurrection

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen’ (Lk 24:1-5).

The Resurrection confirmed all of Christ’s works. It confirmed all of His teachings. And best of all, the Resurrection fulfilled every promise God made to humankind since the beginning. This mystery should fill us with hope and joy!

While meditating on Christ’s Resurrection, say one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s, and a Glory Be.

The Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

May is Mary’s month, so we will celebrate here on Open Wide the Doors by meditating on the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. Here’s what Blessed John Paul II said about The Glorious Mysteries in his letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae:

The contemplation of Christ's face cannot stop at the image of the Crucified One. He is the Risen One!”(29) The Rosary has always expressed this knowledge born of faith and invited the believer to pass beyond the darkness of the Passion in order to gaze upon Christ's glory in the Resurrection and Ascension. Contemplating the Risen One, Christians rediscover the reasons for their own faith (cf. 1Cor 15:14) and relive the joy not only of those to whom Christ appeared – the Apostles, Mary Magdalene and the disciples on the road to Emmaus – but also the joy of Mary, who must have had an equally intense experience of the new life of her glorified Son. In the Ascension, Christ was raised in glory to the right hand of the Father, while Mary herself would be raised to that same glory in the Assumption, enjoying beforehand, by a unique privilege, the destiny reserved for all the just at the resurrection of the dead. Crowned in glory – as she appears in the last glorious mystery – Mary shines forth as Queen of the Angels and Saints, the anticipation and the supreme realization of the eschatological state of the Church.

At the centre of this unfolding sequence of the glory of the Son and the Mother, the Rosary sets before us the third glorious mystery, Pentecost, which reveals the face of the Church as a family gathered together with Mary, enlivened by the powerful outpouring of the Spirit and ready for the mission of evangelization. The contemplation of this scene, like that of the other glorious mysteries, ought to lead the faithful to an ever greater appreciation of their new life in Christ, lived in the heart of the Church, a life of which the scene of Pentecost itself is the great “icon”. The glorious mysteries thus lead the faithful to greater hope for the eschatological goal towards which they journey as members of the pilgrim People of God in history. This can only impel them to bear courageous witness to that “good news” which gives meaning to their entire existence.

The Glorious Mysteries, which are typically recited on Wednesdays and Saturdays, are also quite appropriate for the season our Church is currently celebrating—Easter.

Let us begin to contemplate the face of the Risen One as we begin our Rosary. Find some quiet time for prayer today, and start your rosary with an Apostles’ Creed, an Our Father for the Pope’s intentions, three Hail Mary’s for the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love, and a Glory Be. As you begin, meditate on Blessed John Paul II’s reflection above.