THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES
W
BY BISHOP
FULTON
J.
SHEEN
THE MEDITATIONS ON
The
Fifteen JWgsteries of the ftosarg
By BISHOP National Director,
The
FULTON
J.
SHEEN
Society for the Propagation of the Faith
COVER PAINTING BY
E.
JOSEPH DREANY
ILLUSTRATED BY MARY ZIMMER
CATECHETICAL GUILD EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY ST.
PAUL, MINNESOTA
COPYRIGHT 1944, 1951, 1952 BY CATECHETICAL GUILD EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ARTISTS
DESIGNED AND PRODUCED BY AND WRITERS GUILD, INC. PRINTED IN THE
Deadened
U.S.A,
-Cite
Meaning
the
Rosarg
BISHOP FULTON
By
of
SHEEN
J.
National Director, The Society for the Propagation of the Faith
59 G^ou have sometimes heard a radio program in
which a voice spoke, while
at the
same time
music was playing in the background.
When
we say the Rosary, something like that occurs. Our lips say the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father, but our mind, thinking about the less
life
of our Lord, creates a sound-
background symphony of thoughts.
The Rosary
is
psychologically one of the
greatest of prayers, because
human
tered
energies,
it
draws
mind,
lips,
all
our
and
into a single, unifying purpose.
who
find prayer difficult, the rhythmic
ment
finger-
To
tips,
scat-
those
move-
of the fingers induces spiritual thoughts.
the fifteen mysteries of the rosary
4
To
those
who
are used to mental prayer, the
spiritual gains a
new dimension when
it spills
over into the body and comes out on the tips of the fingers.
Ours
is
not an age in which the heavenly
therapy of prayer-by-beads
One of the reasons why
is
people today are so
quently worried and fearful their
generally used.
minds too busy and
is
fre-
that they keep
their fingers too idle,
or else tap a jerking syncopation to the noises
The
of a nervous world.
Rosary, by contrast,
and
gathers together our dispersed forces
fixes
our minds on holy, simple thoughts, while the fingers, too, are
drawn
of worship. Because
it
into the magnetic field focuses the
whole
man
towards a single, uplifting purpose, the Rosary
can be the greatest of
all
therapies for troubled
modern men.
A
begun
faint suspicion of this fact has
penetrate into
some
hospitals.
to
Nervous and
combat-fatigued patients are taught to knit or
weave, to relax their nervous tension.
advantage of
this
treatment
partial; the patient’s
mind
is
is
that
The
it is-
dis-
only
not involved. But
THE MEANING OF THE ROSARY
5
in the Rosary, all faculties, mind, will, imagination,
memory,
desires,
hopes and muscles, are
directed to the Divine.
There
is
seemingly
much
Rosary; but actually this or
is
repetition in the
no more wearying
monotonous than a man’s
telling a
woman
“I love you” for the 20th time. Since there
is
a
new moment in time to be redeemed by love, his words may be the same, but the meaning of each avowal Rosary,
You.
we
I love
The
slighdy different. So, in the
is
say over
You.
and over
And
to
God,
“I love
love You.”
I
beads carry the burden of the prayers,
while the decades record the 15 scenes played out in the great drama of our Redemption.
Bead by bead, decade by decade, the soul climbs from one Mystery to the next, to that “Love
we
fall
short of in all love, that Beauty that
leaves all other beauty pain.”
We
need these Mysteries to engage our
thoughts.
We
apprehend
God
as
He is
Himself.
Our
natures
weak to stand the shock of such sublimThe sun is so rich in varied brightness that
are too ity.
are not sufficiently spiritual to
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
6
must be shot through a prism before our weak eyes can see the glory of its seven colors.
it
So, too, the life of our divine Saviour abounds
in beauties that our frail
human
hearts cannot
through the prism of a
see unless filtered first
prayer such as the Rosary, which breaks
up
them
into the 15 separate Mysteries.
The
Mysteries
fall
naturally
into
three
groups, which are also the three divisions of
every ideal Christian glory.
life:
joy, suffering
and
3 op Masteries
THE ANNUNCIATION
TOie Jogful ftlgsteries
1
THE ANNUNCIATION the Annunciation, the
birth of the
Son
God in the flesh is made to hinge on the consent of a woman, as the fall of man in the garof
den of Paradise hinged on the consent of a man.
God human lays
His power might have assumed a
in
hold of a
His great
But
He willed not to invade
freedom without a
Through
the angel
in words that have
of the Hail is
rose.
gift of
free response.
Mary
man
nature by force, as the hand of a
Mary, “Hail,
with thee,” Mary
is
become
creature’s
who the
salutes
first
full of grace, the
asked
if
part
Lord
she will give
God a man! Mary
learning that she will conceive without
10
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
human
love,
but with the overshadowing of
divine Love, consents,
and a new humanity
be-
with Mary as the new Eve, and Christ the new Adam. The Annunciation is the Mystery of the joy of freedom. Our free will is the only thing in the world that is our own. God can take away gins,
anything
God
else,
our health, wealth, power, but
will never force us to love
Him. The charm that
of Yes
lies
Him or
to obey
in the possibility
one might have said No.
Mary done
to
has taught us to say Fiat to God. “Be
me
according to
Himself has taught us
Thy word.” But God
He would not woman, then a man
that, since
invade the freedom of a should never do
it
so.
2
THE VISITATION '
Mary
tells us,
rose
“In the days that
up and went with
all
fol-
haste to
THE VISITATION
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
12
a city of Judea, in the hill
country,
where
Zachary dwelt; and there entering in she gave Elizabeth greeting.
No
sooner had Elizabeth
heard Mary’s greeting, than the child leaped in her
womb; and
Elizabeth herself was
filled
with the Holy Ghost; so that she cried out with a loud voice, “Blessed art thou
and
blessed
is
among women,
womb” (Luke
the fruit of thy
I: 39"4 2 )*
The earth
first
miracle worked by our Lord on
was performed while
womb. He
Mother’s
He
was
stirred the
and brought consciousness
of
still
in
His
unborn John
His presence
to
Elizabeth, the cousin , of His Mother. Thus,
long before Cana, our Lord shows that
through His Mother that
He
seen wonders in the heart that
He
The
is
it
is
works His un-
and through her
brought into the souls of men.
joy of the second Joyful Mystery
is
that
New, and
of the
Old Testament meeting
of the
young maiden greeting the old woman,
as
Mary
that
burst into the
the
most revolutionary song
was ever sung, the Magnificat,
foretelling
THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES
the day
from
when
13
would be unseated and the poor would be
the mighty
their thrones,
exalted.
Yet
moment, when Elizabeth is the her the Mother of God, even before
at that
first to call
our Lord
is
born,
that her greatness
Mary answers in her song due to Him, and that she
is
was chosen because she was lowly.
It
may
very
Mary was chosen to be the Mother of God after she had in her vow renounced the honor. Though greater than Elizabeth, she visits her in her hour of need. Only as we become little do we ever become great in the eyes well be that
God.
of
\
5
THE NATIVITY love tends to become like that which
God loved man; therefore, He became man. Thanks to His human nature, He could it
loves.
the fifteen mysteries of the rosary
14
take on our woes and our sorrows, and feel the effects of sin as if
But all ing
this
Him
a
they were His very own.
was conditioned upon Mary’s
human
nature.
would never have had hungry in the
giv-
He
Without her
eyes to see the multitude
desert, or ears to hear the plead-
ing of the lame
man
of Jericho, or
hands
to
caress children, or feet to seek the lost sheep.
own body was the which God shared com-
For nine months, her natural Eucharist, in
munion with human
life,
that greater Eucharist,
when human
commune with
thus preparing for life
would
the Divine.
Mary’s joy was to form Christ in her body; her joy souls.
In
this
now
is
Mystery,
nant with the Christ
to
form Christ
we pray spirit,
to
own
in our
become preg-
giving
Him new
He may speak of His Father, new hands with which He may feed the poor, and a new heart with which He may love lips
with which
everyone, even enemies.
THE NATIVITY
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
i6
1
THE PRESENTATION
* 3 **®wery child bow
of
its
is
an arrow shot out
mother, but
its
target
is
of the
God. Chil-
dren have come through mothers, but they do not belong to them.
Mary acknowledges
this
claim of divinity on her Child by presenting
Him
back again to God, as she
ple of
offers the
tem-
His Body in the temple made by hands.
Mary
here
anticipated
the
joy
of
every
mother who brings her child to the baptismal font,
where God may claim His own. But in
the case of Mary, the Child sacrifice, as
the aged
Simeon
was claimed
said that
sign to be contradicted, for the cross
for
He was a
is
the con-
tradiction.
Mary was even soul
would
pierce.
told that a
sword her own
That would happen when
her Son on the cross would have His heart pierced with a lance.
Through His Body and
her soul would go that one stroke of the sword.
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
18
She was the only mother life into the
It is
not so
wants from our
life
world to
to
who
ever brought a
die.
much
us, as it is
our presents that
God
we
offer
our presence, as
Him.
THE FINDING OF OUR LORD IN THE TEMPLE
f:"here are two kinds
of souls in the world;
who hide from God and those from whom God hides. But when God hides, He those
He might be sought the draw out a deeper love.
hides in order that
more, as
if
to
During the three days when the divine Child was lost, the Blessed Mother became the mother of of
God, and Mary
physically.
to
sinners.
The lost
essence of sin
God, not
During those
know something
is
the loss
spiritually,
three days, she
but
came
of the solitariness of the
sinner, the loneliness of the guilty,
and the
THE FINDING OF OUR LORD IN THE TEMPLE
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
20
aloneness of the frustrated. years later,
would
Her
feel it for
when He would doned Him.
cross,
ask
divine Son, 21
Himself on the
why God had
aban-
Let no sinner ever despair of Divine mercy, because
Mary understands
heart, but
above
all,
the tortures of the
because she
knows where
knows how to bring the sinner to her Divine Son. As the Madonna of the Empty Arms, she awaits your embrace.
to find Christ.
She
also
Che 3orrotoful
Mgsteries
THE AGONY
IN
THE GARDEN
'Che ^orrotoful Mgsttries
)
THE AGONY 91
IN
a kind person
THE GARDEN
in the face of pain seeks
to relieve the sufferings of his friend, so does
moral kindness in the face of
take on the
evil
punishment which
evil deserves.
would
she could, bear the aches of
willingly,
her child.
ward son
if
Every mother
A father will pay the debts of his wayas
if
Our Lord,
they were his own.
though guilty of no
sin, nevertheless
in His
agony in the garden permitted Himself to the inner effects of sin, as
on the
cross
perienced also the external effects of internal effects
were sadness,
fear,
He
sin.
feel
ex-
These
and a
sense
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
24
of loneliness. “I looked for one that
grieve together with
if
Me, and
I
would
found none.”
He
permits His head to feel blasphemies as
His
lips
had pronounced them; His hands
feel the sins of theft, as if
body
He had
stolen;
His
to sense the guilt of defilement, as if
were the cause. Innocence knows
to
it
sin better
than the guilty, because the guilty are already part of
Sin
it.
is
in the blood.
The drunkard,
have registered
tine, the tyrant
the liber-
sin not only in
their souls, but in their brains, the cells of their
body, and the very expressions of their faces.
If,
in the blood, to atone for
it,
therefore, sin
is
blood must be poured out.
Our Lord
never in-
tended that any other blood than His should be shed in expiation for
men
sins.
own
Because
have not invoked the blood of Christ for
their sins, they are
now
at
war shedding one
another’s blood.
The agony the plans mies, but
in the garden
and the schemes is
is
not a triumph of
of betrayers
and ene-
permitted by divine decree. “This
THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES is
25
your hour,” our Lord said to His enemies.
Evil has
its
hour, but
God
2
has His day
.
THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR (T^even centuries before, it had been foretold that our Lord would be so wounded for our sins that we would have “thought Him, as it were, a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted.” The time has come for the fulfillment of that prophecy. Omnipotence is bound 0
to a pillar in the hour
bound His
oh His death,
as
in swaddling clothes in the very
He
was
hour of
birth.
The
scourging at the pillar must have been
terrible,
because whenever our Lord foretold
His passion,
He
always
made
particular refer-
ence to His scourging, as
if
outrage of His suffering.
St. Peter, after
Resurrection, recalling
how
to
emphasize the Ihe
he stood in the
outer court listening to the fall of thongs
upon
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
26
His
flesh,
and
yet heard our
Lord not complain,
“Who when He was reviled, did not when He suffered, did not threaten.”
wrote: revile;
The
scourging
is
an
act of reparation for the
excessive cult of the body.
“The body
is
for the
Lord.” In expiation for self-indulgence, His body, as the second
Ark of the Covenant,
is dis-
closed to profane eyes, as the Spouse of souls
now becomes the plaything of mockers. How many strokes He received, no one knows. The prophet foretold that that the bones of
We
are saved
those
on the
be so scourged
His body would be numbered.
by other flag;
stripes of Christ,
mined
He would
—by whose
and
stars
stripes
namely, by the
by whose stripes
stars
we
we
stars
than
and
are illu-
are healed.
5
THE CROWNING WITH THORNS d| the scourging was
the reparation for
the sins of the flesh, so the crowning with.
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
28
thorns was the atonement for the sins of the
—for the
mind
atheists
who
wish there were no
God, for the doubters whose
evil lives
becloud
their thinking, for the egotists, centered
on
themselves.
The
soldiers cursed as the thorns pricked
Then
their fingers.
they cursed the Lord, as
they drove the crown of thorns into His head, as a
mockery
of a royal diadem. Into
His hands
they placed a reed, the symbol of His kingdom,
and unstable
presumed
to be false
His
already hanging
flesh,
ple rags, ridicule
is
now
His claim
Him
down
before
like pur-
to kingship of hearts
Him, they
to prophesy, or tell
delivered
that
Him
covered with a purple robe to
nations. Blindfolding
asking
from
like the reed.
the blow.
Him
in His face, that
in
all
struck
who
and
Him, it
was
They then bowed
mock
reverence, spitting
the subsequent Mindszen-
and martyrs of the world might have courage in their hour of martyrdom.
tys,
Stepinacs,
In
this
Mystery
is
verified the truth of our
Saviour’s warning: “If the world hates you, be
sure that
it
hated
Me
before
it
learned to hate
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
30
you. If you belonged to the world, the world
would know you
for
its
own and
love you;
it is
because you do not belong to the world, because I
have singled you out from the midst of the
world, that the world hates you.” pects
to
preserve
mocked by
He who
ex-
His faith without being
weak in it, or else not so bold in goodness as to draw upon himself the mocking insults of another purple the world
is
either
robe and a torturing circle of thorns.
THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS
a
rNY cross would be easy to bear
could only
tailor it to fit ourselves.
Our
was not made by Him, but
if
we
Lord’s
Him. Crosses and burdens are thrust upon us. Our acceptance makes them personal. Our Lord even said that there would be at least seven cross
for
the carrying of the cross
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE' ROSARY
32
crosses a
week: “Take up your
and
cross daily
follow Me.” Crosses are of
come from tion,
and
two kinds: pure
ones,
which
the outside, such as pain, persecu-
ridicule;
which come
and
inner, or
impure
crosses,
as the result of our sins, such as
sadness, despair,
and unhappiness. These
latter
They are made by conGod. The vertical bar of
crosses can be avoided.
tradicting the will of
the cross stands for God’s will; the horizontal
bar stands for our other,
we have
wills.
When
one
the cross.
Our Lord never promised without a cross;
He
that
we would
only promised that
would never be overcome by one. loved the cross that his execution
crosses the
when
St.
the time
be
we
Peter so
came
for
he asked to be crucified upside
down.
May He who was found
guilty of
no other
make us made His cross. The
crime than that of the excess of love hate the load of sin that
whole
cross
borne in union with His will and
following in His footsteps the splinters against
is
easier to bear
which we
rebel.
than
THE CRUCIFIXION
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
34
5
THE CRUCIFIXION ur Lord spent 30
years of His life obey-
ing, three years teaching, three hours
how
But
ing!
did
golden chalice
is
He
redeem-
redeem? Suppose a
from an
stolen
and
altar
beaten into a large ash tray. Before that gold
can be returned to the into a
altar, it
where the dross
fire,
then the chalice must be blessed
and restored
man is
Sinful
to
its
of a
is
burned away;
recast,
and
finally
holy use.
like that chalice
livered over to profane uses. like
must be thrown
which was de-
He
lost his
God-
resemblance and his high destiny as a child
God. So our blessed Lord took unto Himself
human
plunged
nature,
it
making
of the
stand for
all
of us,
into the fires of Calvary to have the
dross of sin burned rising
it
and purged away. Then, by
from the dead,
He
new humanity,
are all to be patterned.
became the new head
according to which
we
THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES
The
cross reveals that unless there
Friday in our ter
lives,
35 is
there will never be
Sunday. Unless there
is
a
Good
an Eas-
a crown of thorns,
there will never be the halo of light. Unless
there
is
the scourged body, there will never be a
glorified one.
Death
to the lower self
condition of resurrection to the higher
is
the
self.
The world says to us, as it said to Him on the cross: “Come down, and we will believe!” But if He had come down, saved us. It vine to
is
hang
there.
of the world,
own,
as
human is
to
He never would have come down;
it is di-
A broken heart, O Saviour
love’s best cradle!
Smite
my
Moses did the rock, that Thy love may
enter in!
.
%he (Blorious
Mysteries
THE RESURRECTION
'Che (Slorioos Mysteries
i
THE RESURRECTION ur blessed Lord compared Himself
to a
seed, saying that unless the seed fell to the
ground and life.
died,
He now
it
would not spring forth
by the power of
God
rises
with
the flowers of springtime in the newness of
and
to
life,
wound it wound of an
gives to the earth the only serious
ever received
empty
The
—the
irreparable
grave. birth of the
Son
man was announced
of
God
in the
form
of
to a Virgin; the first an-
nouncement of His Resurrection was made a repentant sinner, Magdalen, that
to
none of us
would be without hope. Thomas the Apostle
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
40
would not
he had put
believe until
into His side,
and
hand
his
his fingers into our Lord’s
Thus do we know that our Lord kept not His wounds but His scars as proof of His love: “With these was I wounded in the house hands.
of those
The
who love Me.” Resurrection begins to affect our lives
the day of Baptism.
When
plunged into the waters
as
baptized, if
we
are
“buried in the
sepulcher to sin and death; emerging from the
waters clothed with grace as the principle of
Divine Love, the
tomb
we are
like the Christ rising
from
in the glory of the Resurrection.”
Though we
are risen in spirit with Christ, so
that “our conversation
is
in heaven,” our bodies
will not share that glory until our resurrection.
own
final
In the meantime our body must
be crucified with Christ’s that
we may
rise
with
Christ.
On
the road to
Emmaus on
our Lord said to His
disciples,
Easter Sunday,
“Was
it
not to
be expected that the Christ should undergo these sufferings,
and enter
so into
His glory?”
THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
But
if
that be the
41
law of Innocence, then how
we, the guilty, hope to escape from
shall
it?
THE ASCENSION ur blessed Lord did not ascend
to
heaven
immediately after the Resurrection but
mained on earth
re-
for 40 days, speaking to the
Apostles about the
Kingdom
of
God.
It
was
He gave the details which He said would have
during these days that
of
His Church,
its
visible manifestation
“And
so the
Lord
on
Jesus,
ished speaking to them,
and
is
seated
“Seated” pose, sin.
is
now
Pentecost.
was taken up
at the right
hand
fin-
to heaven,
of
God.”
a figurative expression of eternal re-
which
He has merited by His victory over
“At the right hand”
power of
when He had
is
a symbol of His
eternal intercession before
enly Father
on our
behalf.
His heav-
42
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
The Ascension our
own
of Christ
is
the assurance of
ascension into heaven after the Last
Judgment. Not yet ascended in body, theless enjoy the ascension of
union with Him. heaven. for the
He
It is to
heaven that
will
this
things obey
O
we look
home
is
in
expectantly
Jesus Christ to save
humbled body
into the
fied body, so effective
our minds in
find our true
coming of our Lord
form anew, modeling it us;
We
we never-
of ours
image of His
glori-
His power to make
all
Him.
Communion draw our body and blood to Thy own, that already following Thee in heart, we may later heavenly Magnet, in each
ascend with Thee in the flesh
5
THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST UPON THE APOSTLES
m
any have wished
had remained on
earth,
Our Blessed Lord that we might have
that
THE fifteen mysteries of the rosary
44
heard His voice, seen His compassionate eyes, and brought our children to be blessed by His hands. But better for
He
you
said, “I
I
Him
send If
if
only
I
come
to
you unless
make my way
do
to you.”
He would
have been only a symbol to be copied be lived.
Father,
I
to
there, I will
our Lord had remained on earth,
life to
it is
He who is
should go away;
befriend you will not go, but
can say truly that
He
By
—not a
returning to His heavenly
could then send both from the
Father and Himself the Holy Spirit that would
make Him which
is
live
on earth in His new Body,
the Church.
The human body
is
made up
of millions of
and yet is one because vivified by one
cells,
soul,
presided over by a visible head, and governed
by an invisible mind. So on Pentecost, the Apostles,
who were
like the cells of a body,
Christ’s Mystical
Body, because vivified by His
Holy
Spirit,
Peter,
and presided over by one
governed by one
Christ in heaven.
became
Our
glorious
visible
head,
invisible head,
Church
is
not
*//•
///
THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST UPON THE APOSTLES
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
46
an organization, but an organism. As our Lord once thought, governed, and sanctified through a
human body, which He
of
His blessed Mother, so
and
erns,
sanctifies
the Church,
took from the
womb
now He teaches, gov-
through His Mystical Body,
which
He took from the womb
humanity overshadowed by His Holy
of
Spirit.
when He talked through human body; He is still infallible when He Christ was infallible
a
teaches through a mystical Body. Christ sanctified
He
when He
sanctifies
still
when He
through the power of His erned through His erns
still.
“He
As a drop cannot
lips;
forgives
sins
priests.
Christ gov-
human Body, and He
that heareth you, heareth
gov-
Me.”
of blood can five in the body, but
live apart
any of us
human
forgave sins with
from the body,
so neither can
live the fullness of the Christ Life ex-
cept in His Mystical Body, the Church.
THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
47
1
THE ASSUMPTION aim
what the Ascension was to our Lord, that
the Assumption
the
is
to our
Lady. Certainly she,
new Garden of Paradise,
in
which grew the
Lily of divine sinlessness and the red Rose of the Church, should not be delivered over
and
forgotten by the heavenly Gardener. She, in
whose
womb
eternity If
was celebrated the nuptials
and time
is
more
of
of eternity than time.
husband and wife in marriage are made two
in one flesh, then shall not she,
Eve
new Adam, with Him?
of the
spirit
As
be also
is
the
made two
new
in one
Christ ascended into heaven to the unity
of the divine nature, so
Mary
heaven in the unity of Christ’s
Her
who
mystical flight
is
is
assumed into
human
the event to
nature.
which our
whole generation moves.
Our age beautiful,”
of carnalities, is
lifted
which
out of
its
loves the
“body
despair by the
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
48
Assumption, to honor a body that because
it is
which the
Tower to kiss
is
beautiful
a temple of God, a gate through
Word
of heaven passed to earth, a
up which climbed divine Love upon the lips of His Mother a mystic
of Ivory
rose.
To this
daughter of the
new Eve
goes
prayer: \
The
celestial traitress
And
all
With
And
mankind
play
to bliss betray;
sacrosanct cajoleries starry treachery of
Tempt
your
us back to Paradise.
eyes,
up our
THE ASSUMPTION
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
50
5
THE CORONATION Our Lady went into a strange country, Our Lady, for she was ours
And had run on the little hills And pulled small flowers;
behind the houses
But she rose up and went into a strange country With strange thrones and powers.
And
there were giants in the land she
walked
in,
Tall as their toppling towns.
With heads so high in heaven, Served them for crowns;
And
their feet
the constellations
might have forded
like a
brook the
abysses
Where
Babel drowns.
And moving
in innocence
and in
accident,
She turned the face That none has ever looked on without loving On the Lords of Space; And One hailed her with her name in our country
That
is
full of grace.
own
THE CORONATION
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
52
Our Lady went
And
into a strange country
they crowned her for a queen,
For she needed never to be stayed or questioned But only seen; And they were broken down under unbearable beauty As we have been. But ever she walked till away in the last high places One great light shone From the pillared throne of the king of all that country
Who sat thereon; And
she cried aloud as she cried under the gibbet
For she saw her Son.
Our Lady wears a crown The crown He gave,
in a strange country,
But she has not forgotten to
call to
her old com-
panions,
To And
call
and crave;
to hear her calling a
man might
arise
and
thunder
On
the doors of the grave.
—REGINA ANGELORUM
by G. K. Chesterton
Encyclical tetter
of
pope
XII
pas
on the
Hosarg
—September
15,
1951
XII, Pope, Greets and Gives His Apostolic
Blessing to the Venerable Brethren:
Since
We
of Peter,
were raised
to the
supreme Chair
by design of Divine Providence,
ing the advancing to intrust to the
evils,
We
see-
have never ceased
most powerful protection of
God
human fam-
the
Mother
ily,
and, for this aim, as you know, several times
of
We have written It is
what
known zeal
the fate of the
letters of exhortation.
to you,
Venerable Brethren, with
and how much spontaneous and
unanimous approval the Christian people everywhere have answered Our It
invitation.
has been magnificently testified
many
times by the great demonstration of faith and
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
54
love towards the august
above
all,
which,
Queen
o£ Heaven,
and
that manifestation of universal joy
Our
last year,
eyes
had the pleasure
to
behold, when, in St. Peter’s Square, surrounded
by an immense multitude of solemnly
Heaven
The
proclaimed
Assumption
the
of the Virgin
believers,
into
Mary.
recollection of these things
pleasantly to
We
Us and
encourages
comes back
Us
to trust
firmly in Divine Mercy.
However, for
We do not lac\ reasons
at present,
profound sorrow which torment and sad-
den Our paternal
You know
heart.
vvell,
Venerable Brethren, the sad
conditions of our times. Fraternal union nations,
among
broken for such a long time, has not
yet been re-established everywhere. Yet, every-
where we
see souls upset
while threats of
over the peoples. violent
form
by hatred and
new bloody
To
this,
rivalry,
conflicts still
hover
one must add the
of persecution, which, for a long
time, has been unleashed against the Church,
saddening
it
very cruelly with calumnies and
ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE PIUS
making
miseries of all kinds, tyrs
XII
55
the blood of mar-
flow again.
To what and to how many snares souls of so many of Our sons submitted areas to fathers,
are the in those
make them reject the Faith of their and to make them break, with the ut-
most
disgrace,
them
to this Apostolic See.
the
over in silence a
utmost sorrow,
tie
new
of union
which
Nor can
links
We
pass
crime to which, with
We want earnestly
to
draw not
only your attention, but the attention of the clergy, of parents,
and even
of public authori-
ties.
We refer to
the iniquitous campaign that the
impious lead everywhere to harm the shining souls of the children.
Not even
On
the innocent age has been spared.
the contrary, audacious efforts are unfor-
tunately
made
with a gesture, from
to snatch,
the mystical garden of the
most beautiful
flowers,
hope of religion and
society.
one cannot be surprised
Church even
which
if
constitute
Considering
the the this,
peoples groan under
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
56
the weight of the Divine punishment,
under the nightmare of even greater
However, consideration of a
and
calamities.
situation so preg-
nant with dangers must not depress your
O
Venerable Brethren.
teaching: seek,
“Ask and
and you
it
live
souls,
Instead, that Divine shall
shall find;
be given to you;
knock, and
it
shall
be
opened to you” (Luke 11:9) spontaneously raises your hearts with greater hope towards the
Mother
of
God. There, the Christian people
have always sought refuge in the hour of danger, because “she has been constituted the cause of salvation for the whole (St.
human
race”
Irenaeus).
In the light of the above,
we
look forward
with joyful expectation and revived hope to the
coming month
of October, during
the faithful flock in larger
numbers
churches to raise their supplications to
which to the
Mary
by means of the Holy Rosary.
O Venerable
Brethren,
We
desire that this
prayer should be offered with such greater fer-
vor of heart as
is
demanded by
urgency of the need.
the increased
ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE PIUS
XII
57
We well know the Rosary’s powerful efficacy to obtain the
maternal aid of the Virgin. y
By no means is
there only one
way to pray
We
obtain this aid. However,
to
consider the
Holy Rosary the most convenient and adequate means, as
is
clearly suggested
by the very origin
more divine than human. What prayers are more adapted and more beautiful than the Lord’s prayer and the angelic salutation, which are the flowers with which this mystical crown is formed? Adding to the vocal prayers the meditation on of this practice
and of
its
nature,
the Sacred Mysteries, there emerges another
very great advantage, that
all,
even the most
simple and least educated, have in this a prompt
and easy way
And
truly,
to feed
and keep
their
from the frequent meditation on
the Mysteries, the soul draws
and impercepti-
bly absorbs the virtues they contain,
up with extraordinary hope virtues,
and
lights
of the immortal
and becomes strongly and
pelled to follow the path self
own faith.
easily
im-
which Christ Him-
and His Mother have followed. The
reci-
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
58
many
tation of identical formulas, repeated so
times, rather than rendering the prayer sterile
and boring, has on the contrary the admirable quality of infusing confidence in -him
who
prays and makes a sweet compulsion toward the maternal heart of Mary.
Endeavor with particular Brethren, that the Faithful, the
coming month
this rite
care,
O
Venerable
on the occasion
of
of October, should perform
with the utmost possible
zeal,
and that
Holy Rosary become always more esteemed and more diligently recited. Through your effort, the Christian people the
should be led to understand the excellence, the value and the salutary efficacy of the Rosary.
But that to
it is
We
bosom of the family the custom of the Holy Rosary
above
desire
all
in the
be everywhere adopted, religiously preserved
and ever more In vain
is
intensely practiced.
a remedy sought for the wavering
fate of civil life if the family, the principle
foundation of the
human community,
is
brought back to the norms of the Gospel.
and not
ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE PIUS
To
undertake such a
a most efficacious means.
—most pleasing the Christian
—
home
We
Holy Rosary
What a
God when,
to
59
duty,
difficult
affirm that the recitation of the is
XII
sweet sight
at eventide,
resounds with the frequent
repetition of the praises to
honor the Queen of
Heaven Then the Rosary, recited in common, assembles before the image of the Virgin, in an admirable union of hearts, the parents and their children, who come back from their daily work. !
It unites
them piously with those absent and
those dead. It links
love,
them more
tightly in a sweet
bond
of
with the most Holy Virgin, who, like a
come among her children bestowing upon them an abundance of the gifts of concord and family peace. loving mother, will
Then
the
home
of the Christian family, like
that of Nazareth, will of sanctity,
become an earthly abode
and a temple, where the Holy
Rosary will not only be the particular prayer
which every day
rises to
sweetness, but will also
Heaven in an odor of form the most effica-
-
6o
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
cious school of Christian
life.
This meditation
on the Divine Mysteries of the Redemption will teach the adults to live,
admiring daily the
shining examples of Jesus and Mary, and to
draw from sity,
these examples comfort in adver-
striving towards those heavenly treasures
“where neither stroys”
thief
draws near, nor moth de-
(Luke 12:33). This meditation
bring to the knowledge of the
little
will
ones the
main truths of the Faith, making love for the Redeemer blossom almost spontaneously in their innocent hearts, while, seeing their par-
ents kneeling before the majesty of will learn is
from
their very early years
the value of prayers said in
We do that We
God, they
how great
common.
not hesitate to affirm again publicly
put great confidence in the Holy
Rosary for the healing of
evils
which
afflict
our
times.
Not with
human
force, not
with arms, not with
power, but with Divine help obtained
through the means of
David with
this prayer, strong like
his sling, the
Church undaunted
ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE PIUS
61
XII
be able to confront the infernal enemy,
shall
him the words of the young shep“Thou comest to me with a sword, and
repeating to
herd:
a spear, and with a shield; but in the
name
armies
.
that the for this
.
.
of the
and
Lord
I
come
to thee
God of shall know
of Hosts, the
assembly
all this
Lord saveth not with sword and
is
his battle,
and he will
deliver
spear,
you into
our hands” (i Kings 17:45-47).
For
this reason,
We
earnestly desire, Vener-
able Brethren, that all the faithful, following
your example and your inspiration, should respond solicitously to
Our and
tion, uniting their hearts
paternal exhortatheir voices
the same ardor of charity. If the evils
with
and the must
assaults of the
wicked
the zeal of
good people increase and become
more
ever
from
all
increase, so likewise
vigorous. Let
our
most
them
loving
strive to obtain
Mother,
especially
through the means of the Holy Rosary, that better times
and
may
quickly return for the Church
society.
The
very powerful Mother of God,
moved
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
62
by the prayers of so obtain
of her sons, should
—we
—that astray
many
from her own Child those
who
beseech her
have been miserably led
from the path of
renewed in
all
truth
and virtue, should
their souls find it again.
Grant us that
finally hatred
and
rivalry, the
and every sort of mishap, should shine again upon individuals, families, sources of discord
peoples
and
nations.
Grant that
finally
Church are secured influence deriving
after
as
is
the rights of the
just,
the beneficent
from her and penetrating
without obstacle the hearts of men, classes
and the
people
among
arteries of public life,
social
may
join
themselves in brotherhood and
them to prosperity which regulates, defends and co-ordinates the rights and duties of all and establishes itself ever more for mutual and common collaboration. Venerable Brethren and beloved sons, while lead
running your fingers over the beads of the Rosary, do not forget those erably in prison camps,
jails
who
languish mis-
and concentration
ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE PIUS
camps. There are
among them, from
also bishops dismissed
63
XII
as
you know,
their sees solely
for having heroically defended the sacred rights of
God and
the Church.
There are
and mothers, wrested from compelled to lead unhappy
their lives
sons, fathers
homes and far away in
unknown lands and strange climates. As we embrace them with that particular which
charity
ligion, unite
derives
from the Christian
Virgin Mother of
God and recommend them
motherly heart. She doubtlessly
to her
re-
your prayers before the altar of the
will,
with exquisite sweetness, revive in their hearts the hope of eternal reward
hasten the end of so
and
will not fail to
much sorrow, as We firmly
believe.
We
do not doubt that you,
O
Venerable
Brethren, with your usual burning zeal will
bring to the knowledge of your clergy and people these
which
Our
paternal exhortations in a
will appear
We feel certain
that our sons throughout the
world will respond earnestly to tation.
way
most appropriate to you. this
Our
invi-
THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY
64
To of
all
of you, to the flock entrusted to each
you and particularly
to those
who
during the month of October will
especially recite de-
Holy Rosary according to Our intenWe impart from the fullness of Our heart
voutly the tions,
the Apostolic Blessing.
Issued in Rome, near St. Peter’s, the 15th day pf September, the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary, in the year 1951, the 13th of Our Pontificate.
Published by THE CATECHETICAL GUILD EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY • ST. PAUL, MINN.
_
