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Opening to the Holy Spirit:

Praying the Rosary with Dominican Saints

Nihil Obstat: Father Alfred Wilder, O.P., Ph.D.

Censor Librorum

November 20, 2015

Imprimatur: David R. Choby, D.D., J.C.L.

Bishop of Nashville

December 3, 2015

The Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal and moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur agree with the opinions expressed.

The artworks accompanying these meditations are, with two exceptions, the work of Blessed Giovanni of Fiesole, a Dominican Friar of the 15th century, known to many as Fra Angelico. Fra Angelico was beatified and named the patron of artists by Saint John Paul II for his holiness of life and the radiant beauty of his art. Most of the images here were painted to draw his fellow Dominicans, like the Saints, into loving meditation on the events of the life of Jesus and Mary.

The images for the Finding of Jesus in the Temple and the Wedding at Cana are the works of Duccio di Buoninsegna, a Sienese painter of the late 13th and early 14th centuries, who is considered one of the most influential Italian artists of his time and whose work decorates many buildings in the hometown of Saint Catherine of Siena.

Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation 801 Dominican Drive Nashville, Tennessee 37228-1909

Opening to the Holy Spirit:

Praying the Rosary with Dominican Saints

composed

Sister Mary Madeline Todd, O.P.

Luminous Mysteries

First Luminous Mystery — The Baptism of Jesus

(Matthew 3:11-17)

The Spirit’s Gift of Understanding

Humility awakens us to knowledge of our limits and our need. When John the Baptist began his ministry, he said, “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I . . . He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”26 Baptism not only cleanses, it also strengthens the soul by the gift of the Spirit. As Jesus was baptized, “He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”27

Jesus is one with the Father and the Spirit by nature; we receive communion with them by grace. One of the gifts flowing from this grace is understanding, which Saint Thomas describes as “intimate knowledge.” He notes that human reason has a finite capacity to know; therefore, it needs “supernatural light in order to penetrate further still so as to know what it cannot know by its natural light.”28 To know the things of God, we must have light from God, the Spirit given us in Baptism.

Saint Catherine understood that Baptism receives its power from Christ’s self-offering on the cross. Referring to his pierced side, Christ said to her: “There you find my heart’s secret and it shows you, more than any finite suffering could, how I love you. And I show you this without limit. How? Through the baptism of blood poured out in my burning love, and through the common baptism given to Christians . . . the baptism of water that is one with the blood and the fire, where the soul is fused with my blood. It was to show you this that I willed that blood and water should come forth from my side.”29 May we come to understand the infinite riches of God’s love for us, a love that makes us his children by the gift of Baptism.

Second Luminous Mystery — The Wedding Feast at Cana (John 2:1-11)

The Virtue of Temperance (and the Spirit’s Fruits of Modesty, Chastity, and Self-control)

Thegoodness of creation is evident in its eloquent beauty, yet the struggle to enjoy it as God wills has been a constant challenge for humanity. Jesus and Mary attended the joyful celebration of a wedding, and they were concerned that the guests be able to share the wine of celebration. Their very presence in Cana for that feast and Jesus’ miraculous provision of abundant wine — all six stone jars filled “to the brim”30 — point to the fact that both the experience of marital love and the delight of sharing good food and drink with one another are part of God’s loving design.

In his commentary on John’s Gospel, Saint Thomas points out the goodness of marriage lived with purity, as well as the goodness of material realities well-used, noting, “And so the Lord performed many miracles using created and visible substances in order to show that these substances are good and were created by God.”31 In his teaching about virtue, he affirms that temperance does not turn us from the pleasures we desire by nature; rather, it orders our desires according to reason.

The goodness of material realities, and of human nature and life in a special way, is made clearest in the Incarnation, in the Son of God taking on a human nature. Saint Catherine of Siena uses the imagery of marriage to reflect on this great mystery, as she ponders the fullness of time “when the bridegroom was joined with his bride — the divinity in the Word with our humanity — and the medium of this union was Mary, who clothes you, the eternal bridegroom, in her humanity.”32 May we respect the goodness of all creation, especially each person, and so enjoy the fullness of life Jesus came to bring.33

Third

Luminous Mystery — The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God

(Mark 1:14-15)

The Virtue of Justice

Inthe kingdom of God, all the seeming injustices of this world will at last be made right. Some find relief in this thought; others experience fear, unsure of their own merits in the light of divine justice. Mark writes, “After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: ‘This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’”34 The proclamation of the kingdom of God is explicitly linked to the call to repentance.

This call to conversion, to turn away from all that is not God’s will and toward all that is His will, rests not only on our effort to be just, but also and primarily on God’s justice. Saint Paul writes to Titus, “For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our Savior Jesus Christ.”35 As Saint Thomas reflects, divine mercy does not oppose justice, but rather presupposes it: “God acts mercifully, not indeed by going against His justice, but by doing something more than justice.”36

Saint Catherine also highlights the mercy of God, as given to us in Christ, as the true source of our justification. God says to her, “Constrained not by any justice or virtue of yours but by my own goodness, I clothed you anew in the person of this gentle loving Word, my only begotten Son. He, by stripping himself of life, clothed you anew in innocence and grace (cf. Gal 3:27).”37 May we welcome the kingdom of God by accepting the mercy of God, relying on his justice to transform all that is unjust in us.

Fourth

Luminous Mystery — The Transfiguration

(Luke 9:28-36)

The Spirit’s Gift of Fear of the Lord

the face of greatness, we find ourselves filled with awe. The beauty of a sunset, the power of a storm, the vastness of the sea, the miracle of new life — words fall away, and we are lost in wonder. When Peter, James, and John received a glimpse of the glory of God shining through Christ as “while He was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white,”38 they were overwhelmed. They were even more awed when they heard a voice speak, “This is my chosen Son; listen to Him.”39

Saint Thomas reflects that the fear the apostles experienced was the fitting response to a revelation so far beyond human senses and understanding. Citing Saint Jerome, he writes, “Such is human frailty that it cannot bear to gaze on such great glory,” adding hopefully, “but men are healed of this frailty by Christ when He brings them into glory.”40 Truly, we are unable to stand before God until we are transformed by grace from within.

God revealed to Saint Catherine the contrast between fear of God under the Law of Moses and the holy fear experienced by those redeemed by Christ: “The law of love is the New Law given by the Word, my only-begotten Son . . . He thus joined the law of fear with that of love. The imperfectness of the fear of suffering was taken away by love, and what remained was the perfectness of holy fear, that is, fear simply of sinning, not because of personal damnation but because sin is an insult to me, supreme Goodness.”41 May we stand in awe before the constant revelation of God’s love, the perfect love that casts out servile fear and makes us fear only to turn from One so great.