ISBN: 978-83-66020-24-5
TITLE IN ORIGINAL: Różaniec ratunkiem dla świata
Published by Wydawnictwo Sumus
SUMUS is a registered trademark of Wydawnictwo Sumus COPYRIGHT© 2018 BY WYDAWNICTWO SUMUS
All rights reserved www.sumuswydawnictwo.pl e-mail: sklep@sumuswydawnictwo.pl
PROOFREADING AND EDITING: Gene Kummerer
Cindy & Irek Mocarski Ks. Przemysław Tomczyk
Ks. Pawel Barwikowski
Izabela Dawid-Zalinski Ewelina Jaskiewicz Kasia Krzepisz
Anna Pliś
COVER DESIGN:
Tomasz Banasik (bananito.pl)
TYPESETTING AND TEXT MAKEUP:
Tomasz Banasik (bananito.pl)
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Internatioinal Version®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved
Table of contents
INTRODUCTION
JOYFUL MYSTERIES
First Mystery. The Annunciation of the Angel to Mary
Second Mystery. The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth
Third Mystery. The Nativity of Jesus in Bethlehem
Fourth Mystery. The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Fifth Mystery The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
LUMINOUS MYSTERIES
First Mystery. The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan
Second Mystery. The Revelation of Jesus at the Wedding in Cana of Galilee
Third Mystery. The Proclamation of the Kingdom and Call to Conversion
Fourth Mystery. The Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor
Fifth Mystery. The Institution of the Eucharist
SORROWFUL MYSTERIES
First Mystery. The Agony in the Garden
Second Mystery. The Scourging at the Pillar
Third Mystery. The Crowning with Thorns
Fourth Mystery. The Carrying of the Cross
Fifth Mystery. The Crucifixion
GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
First Mystery. The Resurrection of Jesus
Second Mystery . Ascension of Jesus to Heaven
Third Mystery . The Descent of the Holy Spirit
Fourth Mystery . The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Fifth Mystery . The Crowning of Mary as the Queen of Heaven and Earth
INTRODUCTION
The Rosary is a powerful weapon, given to the Church for the end of times, to overcome the devil’s influence on the lives of every Christian. To understand the Rosary and its great power of intercession, we must go back to the beginning of the Bible, where God commands Moses to build the tent of meeting (the tabernacle), which housed the Ark of the Covenant, the most sacred object of Israel. In the Ark was placed the tablets of the Ten Commandments, which Moses had received on Mount Sinai, Aaron’s rod, endowed with miraculous power and a divine sign of the priesthood of the tribe of Levi, and manna, a nourishment from heaven that allowed Israel’s survival in the desert. Over the Ark was the mercy seat with the golden cherubim. God promised He would speak with Moses when Moses approached the Ark which was full of God’s presence and sacredness.
By means of the Ark of the Covenant, God gave Israel incredible blessings and victories in battle. When, through their unfaithfulness, the Israelites became captives of the Babylonians, the Ark was hidden by the priests of Israel and has never been found.
Next, Jesus Christ gloriously appears in this history; He fulfills the prophecy of the redemption and salvation of all humanity, ascends into heaven, sends the Holy Spirit, and provides the foundation of the Church. The Gospels are written. Additionally, the last and most mysterious book of the Bible is written, the Book of the Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse. The Jews, who convert to Christianity in large numbers, read the prophecies of the Apocalypse and, with great surprise, discover the location of the Ark of the Covenant. Where? In heaven! They learn that God, at a certain time, will open His temple and show the Ark to the rest of the world. There is another surprise: the Ark is no longer a gold-covered wooden chest, but a woman, clothed with the sun and bathed in God’s mighty power, with a crown of twelve stars. She is not only Queen of the Earth, but also Queen of the Heavens and the Universe. She has the
moon under her feet which means symbolically that she conquers the powers of hell.
How marvelous God’s pedagogy! He allowed the Ark of the Old Testament to disappear and never be found because the Ark of the Old Testament was only a precursor of the true and the most beautiful Ark: Mary, the Mother of God.
Mary is the Mother of God, who carried in her womb the most sacred archpriest, Jesus Christ. He, in the most perfect way, fulfilled God’s commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai and, on Calvary, established a new, everlasting covenant between God and man. He remained with us as manna, the Bread from Heaven that gives eternal life and is offered at every Eucharist celebration in every corner of the world, till the end of time. The prophecy of the Apocalypse is fulfilled before our own eyes. The temple in heaven is opened, and God presents the true Ark of the Covenant, Mary, to the whole world!
Since the mid nineteenth century, the Church has documented over two thousand Marian apparitions throughout the world. These acts of heaven were so amazing that a special theological commission has been established to investigate such phenomena.
In every one of these apparitions, Mary the Ark of the Covenant unceasingly calls us to pray the Rosary. She tells us that this prayer is the most powerful weapon for the end of times! It has the power of an exorcism, vanquishing the devil’s influence in the lives of men and leading us to the final defeat of the Evil One by God through the intercession of the Mother of God and her army of saints. However, the Rosary is a weapon one needs to learn how to use to combat the Evil One.
Mary is the Master of the Rosary, and she wants to teach us how to fight with it on a master’s level! The secret of the Rosary has been hidden by God in the beginning of the Bible and revealed by Him in the last book of the Bible. Let us recall that God promised Moses
that He would listen to all petitions and would grant all victories and blessings when Moses prayed at the Ark of the Covenant. In the end of times, God promises He will hear our prayers and give us blessings as we pray at the new Ark, Mary, with her prayer, the Rosary. Enter God’s promises and receive the blessings of victory!
JOYFUL MYSTERIES
First Mystery The Annunciation of the Angel to Mary
In this mystery, repeat to God from the depths of your heart, “Yes, Father, as You wish, let it be Your will. ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to Your word.’ Let all things happen as You wish. I agree with everything You will do in my life. ‘Amen’ for everything You prepared for me.” Let these words of total submission to God be heard in your heart.
Deep inner joy always results from our submission to God’s will. When we do what God wants us to do, even if we find ourselves in the storms of adversity, deep in our hearts, we will rest in silence just as Jesus slept in the boat during a powerful storm that surrounded Him. His inner peace conquered the strong winds and huge waves. He knew that His Father was with Him. Pray in this decade of the Rosary, “Thy will be done.”
In this mystery, we take Mary’s hand and go with her to her little house in Nazareth. We ask her to show us the Annunciation. We ask her to reproduce in our hearts all she experienced when the angel came to her. While praying a couple Hail Marys, we imagine the scene as if looking through Mary’s eyes, as if we are feeling what is in her heart. Then we accept the grace of saying “yes” to God, “yes” to everything He wants to do in our lives.
The essence of this decade is “I agree.” I agree, God, that You may enter my life and, if it is Your will, turn everything upside down. You can upend everything, all my plans, but I say “yes” to everything, “Amen” for every event that completely changes my life. Let it be as You want. Come into my life the way You want. I am Your handmaid, I am Your servant. I agree with everything; Jesus, do whatever You want with me.
Take it all into your heart and say “yes.” Accept the joy of the Holy Spirit which is the result of your consent to submit to the will of God. However, we must keep in mind that this joy does not come from this world. We are afraid of change, especially change that completely alters our lives. In response to this fear, the Holy Spirit says, “I will give you joy straight from the heart of God.” Accept this joy, because it will have an enormous impact on your everyday life. If you are beset with problems, the only thing you need is the grace of saying “yes” to God for everything He can do for you this day.
Second Mystery
The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth
The visitation of Mary to Saint Elizabeth tells us that if you truly experience Jesus, you cannot keep it to yourself. The first procession with the Blessed Sacrament is Mary with Jesus, traveling to Saint Elizabeth.
During this decade of the Rosary, we need to awaken in ourselves the passion of evangelization. Many of us fear sharing Jesus with our loved ones, let alone other people we meet on our journey. We have knowledge of God, but we do not have the personal experience of His mighty power and love working in our lives. We do not live with the constant adoration of God’s power. If we truly experienced Jesus, we would talk about Him with such passion that we would inflame the hearts of everyone to whom we spoke. However, if we only have the knowledge of Him, but not the experience, we may be ashamed to share it, fearing others may challenge us, questioning our knowledge. We fear a quarrel. We know God in our heads, but not in our hearts.
If you both know Jesus and experience Jesus, who transforms your life, who is with you in your darkness, and who frees you from your darkness, you will not end up quarreling when you share Him. In this
decade of the Holy Rosary, the Mother of God enkindles passion in us, teaching us to worship God in every aspect of our lives.
You need the joy of bringing Jesus to another soul. This Rosary mystery is to help you with it. Mary is the first Evangelizer who brings Jesus to another person. In this mystery, we accept the joy of sharing Jesus with another human being. Praying the first few Hail Marys, we see, through the eyes of Mary, the scene of the visitation to Saint Elizabeth. We ask Mary, “Give me the joy of carrying Jesus within me so that I will radiate that joy on everyone I meet. Give me the ability to carry Jesus within me so that I may have the words, the feelings, and the heart to always know what to say about Him.” Embrace the joy of carrying Jesus in your heart.
Third Mystery
The Nativity of Jesus in Bethlehem
The birth of Jesus is the single most momentous event in human history, the intersection of the divine and the mortal, the infinite and the finite, but it is also the beginning of human rejection of God. In the prologue of the Gospel of Saint John, we read: “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.”
The greatest pain for God is the rejection of His love by His people. The story of Jesus’ life, from His birth to His death, is one great drama of rejection. Bethlehem did not want Jesus. When we enter this mystery, we see that Jesus chose a stable as His birthplace. Instead of a house, He was born among animals in a dirty stall, and instead of a crib, He layed in a manger, a trough from which donkeys ate. Who would like to be born in such a place? Who would like such a beginning for their life?
Rejection this is the essence of the Christmas mystery, not the blissful holiday we celebrate today with presents, carols, Christmas trees, family gatherings, and sumptuous dinners. While our modern
celebrations are important, we must be aware of what really happened when Jesus was born.
The phenomenon of Christianity lies in the fact that Jesus wants to be born in the place where you reject yourself most, the place where you hate yourself, where you are ashamed to acknowledge yourself— exactly in this spot, and not in a beautiful palace of pride and self sufficiency. Yet we promote the best image of ourselves to our family and friends, so that everyone will like us, accept us, and love the person we sell to them. We hide our weaknesses, our sins, and our failures because we fear that when others see the truth about us, they will reject us. We fear that nobody will love us.
We also pretend to be someone else in God’s eyes. Many of us do not have the true experience of God because we are dishonest with Him. He says, “No, show Me yourself in truth, and only then will I come to you. When you pretend to be what you are not, I cannot come to you, I cannot meet with you.”
Jesus will come to you when you show Him the stable of your life, that hidden squalid part of your soul. Jesus wants to come into these places within us, not to judge or to condemn, but to appear to us as the Child Jesus. God comes as a tiny child so that we are not afraid of Him. We have already suffered through sin. Jesus does not want us to suffer further. Instead, He wants to stroke our cheeks with His small hand, wipe our tears, smile, and tell us how much He loves us.
In the mystery of the Nativity, through these ten Hail Marys, let Mary, the Mother of God, and the Holy Spirit recognize the disappointments, humiliations, and transgressions of your life. Let Jesus be born in the middle of them. He will throw His small arms around your neck, hug you and tell you only one thing: “I love you. In the middle of your sins and bad choices, I love you, I do not condemn you. I love you in the midst of everything that shames you most.”
In this mystery, we receive joy and the gift of the Holy Spirit when we feel completely rejected; and when we feel rejected by others, we discover we are very much like Jesus. We discover joy where there is rejection. We experience God’s gifts that are not of this world, gifts that escape all logic. Love will be something completely different, joy will be something completely different, peace will be something completely different, all different from what it seems to us in human terms. We must accept values that are not of this world, that no one can give us in this world. Although it is very difficult, accept the joy of the Holy Spirit.
Ask, “Holy Spirit, pour Your joy on me and heal my rejection.”.
Fourth Mystery The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Our Lady offered Jesus, who she loved most of all, to the Father. She was acutely aware of what she was doing because, like no one else, she knew the prophecies about the Messiah. She knew He would be a suffering servant of Yahweh. She knew how He would die. She entrusted to the Father all of herself and her dearest treasure, Jesus, saying, “He is Yours.”
For us, the fourth mystery relates to the very difficult situation when we give to God something that is most precious to us. For Mary, Jesus was the most precious treasure in the world, yet she offered Him to the Father. At that time, she heard the difficult words, “A sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” It is not pleasant to hear something like that, yet it is a joyful mystery, the joy of suffering for God.
The mystery of the presentation is closely related to what Our Lady says in Medjugorje: “Offer me what is the most precious to you. Give me what is the most valuable to you.”
If we offer something to someone, we no longer have a right to it. We cannot offer something to God and say, “I give it to You, but do what I want with it.” We cannot offer to God what is the most precious to us and later want to take it back.
God should be the first and most important person in your heart; Jesus is to be your whole world. You should love Him with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your soul; and your husband or wife or children as yourself, neither more nor less. Unfortunately, we adore our loved ones and treat them like gods. We must learn what it means when God says, “I am asking you to entrust them to Me.”
Your task is to pray and fast for your loved ones, loving them as God loves them. However, from the moment you have given someone to God, He has the full right to them and directs their lives.
This task is difficult to understand and even harder to implement. It is not easy to have such trust in God. When we say, “God, I give You my child,” we do not know how He will guide the child; His ways are sometimes quite incomprehensible to us. However, we are not relinquishing our parental duties, having nothing to do with the child. The child may go through the worst fate, but we trust the child is in God’s hands, and everything will end according to His will.
In our lives, we have numerous material things and many people to whom we have become addicted. How many Christians “punish” God with atheism if God takes someone close to them! They say: “God is love? No, He is a monster because He took my loved one from me.” They claim the same in relation to the loss of material possessions.
Let us recognize that often, when we must suffer a little for God, we immediately rebel against Him and begin to accuse Him. “Why did this happen? After all, I go to Mass every Sunday, I say the Rosary every day, I am in a prayer group. So why this misfortune? Why this disease? Why did I lose my job?” Although we may not shout aloud at God, in our hearts, we scream our grievances. Can you admit that
in difficult situations you rejoice in suffering for God? Could you offer to Him what is the most precious to you? Could you offer Him your life?
In this decade of the Rosary, ask God, “Give me joy when I suffer for You. I am a sign of opposition for those who do not want to live the Gospel, and it hurts me a lot, but I am asking You to place in my heart a joy that is not of this world, the joy that I can suffer for You.”
Saints Peter and John, who were scourged, confessed in the pages of the New Testament: “We were glad that we could suffer for Jesus, for His name.” This is not a joy of this world, but from another world. In this decade, we ask for this otherworldly joy. Everything to which we become emotionally attached eventually will perish. Love is associated with freedom; it is not about the enslavement to someone or the enslavement of someone. Think about who is the most precious to you. Think about what is the most precious to you. Give it to the Father. Give to God everything that is most precious to you. Can you give it to God without fear, knowing you will not have it any more? When we say, “I give it to You, God,” it means that it is no longer our possession. This is yours, God, so I renounce all rights to what I give You. Yet, we often do not let God act the way He wants. With a loved one who has strayed from the faith, we might say to God, “I gave my son (or daughter) to You. When will my son (or daughter) return to the faith? Why have You allowed them to stray?” We entrust a child to God, yet we keep claiming our rights to the child’s life. We want things to be the way we want them to be. We want things on our terms. However, if we truly give something to God, we do not have rights to it any more. We give God control over something, which in reality is already His, and He can do what He wants, when He wants.
Pray in this decade of the Rosary for a love born of unconditional trust in God.
Fifth Mystery The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
Contrary to popular thinking, Jesus did not get lost, but Mary and Joseph did lose Jesus. It seems unbelievable, but it happened. The Mother of God lost her child. Saint Joseph, established before the creation of the world as the guardian of Jesus, lost his child.
In this mystery, parents should notice when they lose Jesus in their children, when their children become their gods, more important than Jesus. At this moment, the parents’ fear of losing the child transforms parental love into a controlling love. Yet love built on a fear of loss is not love, but enslavement, a twisted, controlling love that harms relationships, resulting in the rebellion of children who feel smothered. If we want to have control over someone, it means we are afraid. We claim we love them, but in reality, are afraid of losing those people. Instead of nurturing freedom in a relationship, we destroy it through control.
Many parents say they love their children, that they have given their children everything, but the children show signs of rebellion against the parents. Mary and Joseph experienced a similar situation: “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” Mary expresses her pain: “Why have you done this to me? You allowed me to suffer. You let me look for you with such great anxiety. You do not care about my feelings.” Very often we resort to such emotional blackmail in our daily lives. Perhaps we are focused a little too much on ourselves, on what we are feeling, and not on what God wants. This mystery is challenging, but is given to us so we understand that if we get attached to someone in a controlling way, nothing good will result. Sooner or later, we will begin to smother our loved ones, and they will leave.
In this decade of the Rosary, ask for the love that grants freedom and renounce all controlling emotions and attachments so that you can truly love, just as God loves you. He lets us choose in full freedom.
He says, “Come to me if you want, I will always love you – whether you sin or turn away I will always love you, I will never give up on you. If you want to come back to Me, I would be the happiest. If not, you have your free will, but I will always love you, I will always wait for you.” No addicting relations, no control, no manipulation—this is the way God loves us.
Let us learn such a kind of love in this decade of the Rosary because only such love allows us to create beautiful relationships. The fifth mystery is the joy of finding God in our life. But in order to find Him, we often have to lose Him first. How many times has God taken away something we thought was important so that we could find Him, who indeed is the most important? So, we ask for the joy of constantly finding God in our lives.
Many of us do not even realize that we have lost God. We are convinced that since we attend Sunday Mass, recite the Rosary, say morning and evening prayer, refrain from eating meat on Friday, go to confession, that means, we have Him. But in fact, we still may have lost Him; He still may be far from us. This mystery is, on one hand, an experience of pain because we have lost Him, and we keep losing Him; on the other hand, this mystery is the experience of the joy of finding Him and bringing Him back into our lives, of receiving the grace to continuously look for Him with all our heart, with all our strength, and with all our soul.
LUMINOUS MYSTERIES
First Mystery
The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan
During this mystery, while praying ten Hail Marys, imagine the heavens opening above you and the Holy Spirit descending upon you in peace and in joy, anointing you with strength, power, and glory, just as with Jesus at His baptism. Imagine you hear the voice of “Abba,” our Almighty Father, who looks upon you with the greatest love, regardless of the sins weighing on your conscience, regardless of how often you betrayed Him, how many times you abandoned Him.
We need to understand that only through constant reception of the Father’s love are we freed from sin, receiving a new identity, that of a beloved son or a beloved daughter of God. We must believe we are cherished with an improbable love, that we always have been loved, particularly when we have sinned. Jesus has never condemned us, but has always looked upon us with great love. With the deepest yearning, He desires us to return to His Sacred Heart.
Imagine the Holy Spirit hovering above you and listen throughout these ten Hail Marys for the voice of our Father in heaven who, while watching over you, says: “You are My beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. I love you!”
Accept the love of our Heavenly Father without fear or shame.
Second Mystery
The Revelation of Jesus at the Wedding in Cana of Galilee
In this decade, concentrate especially on the unbelievable influence Mary had over Jesus in effecting His first miracle in the Gospel; she is our key to the miracles Jesus performs in our lives. If you have not
received something you have prayed for, perhaps it is because you are not yet united with Mary and do not love her according to Jesus’ desire you must love her as intensely as He does.
During these ten Hail Marys, speak to Mary in your heart, asking for a miracle for yourself, for a miracle for those for whom you pray, for a miracle of love in your family.
Third Mystery
The Proclamation of the Kingdom and Call to Conversion
The essence of this mystery is the proclamation of God’s love for sinners. God loves the sinner, not merely the holy and the just.
During this decade of the Rosary, allow the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel to you and allow the Mother of God to tell you how much you are loved. Let Jesus heal you and free you from everything that is oppressing you. The proclamation of the Kingdom and the call to conversion calls for our own conversion and for our own proclamation of the Kingdom of God to others. When Jesus says, “Repent and believe in the Gospel,” He is saying that we ourselves are to repent and preach the Gospel to others. The key to the effective preaching of the Gospel is our own conversion, our complete surrender to God with humility and with the realization of how greatly sin destroys us and others. Conversion does not mean that we have come to the conclusion that we are entirely hopeless. Instead, conversion is perceiving how deeply we have wounded God’s love for us, how fully we have disregarded His desire to love us.
With conversion, the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom becomes the continual acceptance of the fact we are people whose minds are entirely directed towards God. The saints said they lived as if seeing the One who cannot be seen. With eyes wide open to the
invisible world, they moved in two parallel worlds: the visible and the invisible. In the invisible sense, we gaze unceasingly at the Father who acts in heaven, who is speaking to us in heaven. In the visible sense, we are to live in the absolute freedom of the Kingdom of God on earth and to establish that kingdom wherever we are: at home, at work, just everywhere. We are to entrust everything to God and accept that all places comprise the territory of the Kingdom of God.
Fourth Mystery
The Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor
It is imperative we live our lives in the radiant light of the transfiguration of Our Lord, to introduce the glory of the Lord into our lives and see ourselves as God sees us, as beautiful and magnificent, as we will be someday in heaven. In our lives, we must hear the voice of the Father saying, “You are My beloved Son. You are My beloved daughter,” so that, here on earth, we may live in His glory.
We also should be aware that the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor is a preparation for suffering. Before accepting the agony on the Cross, Jesus receives once more that touching, deep experience that He is beloved by God. Unless we have this experience, when it is time for suffering, the devil will overpower us. He will tell us that suffering is a punishment for sins, questioning God’s love; he will ask, why do you suffer so, where is that God who is love, who is almighty, why does He not save you from this suffering, why does He not help you? If we are not convinced we are beloved sons and daughters of God, then, while suffering, we will rebel against God.
Jesus shows us how important it is to ascend Mount Tabor and to be reassured of God’s awesome love, which has the power to transform us as if we were created anew by the Holy Spirit. Only when we have
this deep conviction of His love, will we be prepared to accept the grace of suffering.
Fifth Mystery The Institution of the Eucharist
In this mystery, we understand that the Eucharist is God’s greatest expression of His love for us, the most profound proof of His love that He can give to man. In the Eucharist, Jesus shows us that there is no greater love than to offer one’s life for others.
Jesus loves us even though we are sinners, even though we sometimes live our lives as if our lives are more important than God. Good and evil often exist according to standards established by us, with no regard for God’s values. Jesus offers Himself for us with the desire that the Eucharist shall be the reception of His Body into our own bodies, His Blood into our own blood, His Spirit into our own spirit, and His Feelings into our feelings. Jesus longs to transform us into love, so that by receiving Him in the Eucharist we will be ready to die for another as He died for us. On our own, we are reluctant to die in place of another, to sacrifice ourselves to the point of death. Only when Jesus lives in us and we in Him, on the strength of His love, His communion with us, can we truly die daily, sacrificing ourselves entirely for a husband, a wife, a child, a friend, but especially for God and for His love.
SORROWFUL MYSTERIES
First Mystery The Agony in the Garden
In this mystery, imagine you see Jesus kneeling in the Garden. Imagine Mary taking your hand and leading you towards Him. Can you see how anxious He is? How fearful He is? How He shivers? Can you see His sweat, like drops of blood, falling to the ground?
Do you realize how much fear and anxiety there is in your own life, how many things you fear, how many worries and torments you have, how your difficulties seem insurmountable? Yet, Jesus took the anxiety and fear of the whole world, for all people from Adam and Eve to the last man who will be born on earth. You do not need to fear anymore.
Offer Jesus all your fear, because in this mystery, He wants to take that fear from you and release you from it forever. Immerse yourself in the Blood of Jesus, shed like drops of sweat in the Garden, and accept the release and the healing.
Keep repeating in your heart, throughout each Hail Mary, “The Blood of Christ conquering evil, deliver me from all my fears.”
Second Mystery
The Scourging at the Pillar
Lord Jesus Christ, I am now standing in front of the pillar to which You are chained, and at which You will be scourged. I am standing with You, Jesus, along with Mary, and I want to repent for every sin of unchastity in my life, for the sinful addiction to pleasure, for the continuous indulgence of my senses, which results in my being a slave to pleasure.
Jesus Christ, in this decade of the Rosary, I want to apologize, from the bottom of my heart, for these sins. Let the words, “I apologize,” be in your heart like a refrain. While repeating Hail Marys, immerse yourself in the Blood of Jesus shed during the scourging and receive a purity of heart, eyes, thoughts, and words.
Jesus, through Your blood, release me from all temporal slavery, from all sensual addiction, from all worldly intemperance. Jesus, I accept Your Blood shed during the scourging so that I may be set free. Keep repeating in your heart throughout each Hail Mary, “The Blood of Christ conquering evil, deliver me from every impurity, addiction, and sensual pleasure.”
Third Mystery
The Crowning with Thorns
Lord Jesus Christ, Your suffering atones for the pride of my mind, for all those times when I think I know best, when I think I am always right, that everyone should listen to me, that everyone should adore me because I am the hub of the universe.
Jesus Christ, in this decade of the Rosary, I want to apologize for my pride, for my vanity and arrogance, and for my harsh judgement of others.
Let the Blood of Jesus, which flowed from the wounds of the thorny crown on His head, now flow on your head. Immerse your mind and heart in the Blood of Jesus.
Keep repeating in your heart throughout each Hail Mary, “The Blood of Christ conquering evil, deliver me from the pride of my mind and heart.”
Fourth Mystery
The Carrying of the Cross
Lord Jesus Christ, I am joining You, along with Mary, at the beginning of Your way of the cross. I want to witness every single station, to grieve with every drop of Your blood, to recoil with each beating, to cringe at Your pain, to hear each blasphemous insult hurled at You. I want to be by You, Jesus, and I want to help You. But there is no one truly able to carry Your cross. The most beautiful way I can help You is by accepting my own cross, because You asked us to accept our own crosses and invited us to follow You.
Jesus Christ, during the way of the cross, I want to thank You for every suffering in my life that is a cross to me, and I want to apologize for those times when I rebelled and blamed You for my suffering.
Ask Jesus that the blood He poured out during the journey of the cross wash your whole life, from conception until death. “Jesus, I immerse my whole life in Your blood, from conception until death.”
Keep repeating in your heart throughout each Hail Mary, “The Blood of Christ conquering evil, deliver me from cursing my life.”
Fifth Mystery The Crucifixion
I am standing by Your raised cross, and I am looking up at Your Holy Face, at Your holy pierced body. I know that You suffer because of me, that Your wounds and Your pain and suffering are Your penance for my sins.
Lord Jesus Christ, I want to totally renounce sin. I want to renounce Satan and all his efforts to incite division in my life. I want to completely succumb to You, to be all Yours, in full obedience to Your will, just as You, in full obedience, offered Yourself to Your Father.
Allow Jesus’ blood from the cross, from His wounds, to flow down on you and completely bathe your body, your spirit, and your soul.
Jesus, may Your Holy Blood from the cross saturate my mind, my spirit, and my soul so there will not be even the smallest part of me that is not completely imbued with Your Blood.
Keep repeating in your heart throughout each Hail Mary, “The Blood of Christ conquering evil, deliver me from resistance and disobedience to God’s will.”
GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
First Mystery
The Resurrection of Jesus
Accept with all your faith not only the fact Jesus is risen, but also that He rises time and again within you. The risen Jesus, His powerful presence, all the power of God, lives within you. We are called to live not in the life of misery, but in the life of Jesus’ ultimate victory.
Unfortunately, some people treat the cross as the centerpiece of their lives, constantly hanging on the cross, gasping for air and barely surviving. They are never truly risen and do not understand that the cross is the passage to resurrection. Look into your heart and see where you indulge misery, where your life lacks hope that you feel you cannot change anything, situations in your life that knock you down and leave you in despair. The mystery of the resurrection is the invitation of the great power of God into the deadly places of your life, places where something has died within you, where human solutions are no longer effective.
While you pray the first couple Hail Marys, tell Jesus about these instances of misery and despair, and invite the resurrected Christ to enter these difficulties. Try to realize that if God is for you, nobody can ever be against you. You are strong by His strength; nothing is impossible for you. When the resurrected Christ lives within you, the King of kings and Lord of lords establishes His realm within your soul, the God of the impossible.
Second Mystery
Ascension of Jesus to Heaven
Jesus is the first man who ascended into heaven. With Him, we too, through baptism, have ascended and now live in two parallel realms, citizens of heaven and earth.
Often, we have enough faith to get to heaven, but not so much to let heaven enter us. Our task, since the day of our baptism, has been to live in these two parallel worlds, visible and invisible, bringing the power of the invisible world to the visible one, bringing the power of heaven to earth. We can accomplish this task by simply realizing we are children of the heavenly kingdom who live on earth. Ask Jesus to open your eyes and heart, so you can remain in these two parallel worlds and accept in faith that heaven is within you. The Holy Trinity lives within you, all the angels and saints surround you. You live unceasingly in the peace and joy of heaven.
If you consciously and ceaselessly believe that, in your soul, you live in heaven, that you live in the heavenly atmosphere, you will experience God’s presence on a whole new level. In this mystery of the Rosary, ask the ascending Jesus for the grace of open eyes and an open heart, so that as a citizen of heaven and earth, you can live with ease in these two realms
Third Mystery The Descent of the Holy Spirit
In this mystery, we accept, with great faith and trust, God’s presence not only within us, but also upon us. There is a difference between the Holy Spirit that we received on the day of our baptism and His powerful presence that is sent upon us and manifests in God’s Kingdom. Saint Peter, before the descending of the Holy Spirit, already had received the Spirit of God, when Jesus breathed on the Apostles. That Spirit enabled Peter to be a great mediator of God’s power so that even his shadow could heal the sick. Jesus was with the Holy Spirit, but during His baptism in the waters of the Jordan, the presence of the Holy Spirit manifested Itself so powerfully that it was made visible in the mighty deeds of Jesus which astonished everyone. The Holy Spirit also comes to confront the darkness within us, and when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, the darkness
must be confronted; in that moment, all sinfulness, unable to hide itself, is revealed and confronted with the great power of God.
Often, the Holy Spirit comes in unexpected ways. We think that every time He comes, we will experience feelings of peace, love, patience, and goodness. We are surprised when we ask for the Holy Spirit and, in response, we have feelings of anger, fury, greed, jealousy, and impurity emerging within our hearts. We ask ourselves, “God, what is happening? I sing to the Holy Spirit, yet such a darkness comes out of me.” These distressing feelings are the result of the confrontation between light and darkness that is triggered by God’s presence. That is why, when we call for the Holy Spirit, we ask that He conquer the darkness emerging in confrontation with God’s light. The ultimate victory will be the victory of God within me, the victory over the darkness.
In this decade of the Rosary, ask from in your heart and repeat: “Come, Holy Spirit.” Receive His presence with all your heart, and during a couple of the last Hail Marys say: “Maranatha” which means, in Aramaic, “O Lord, come” or “Our Lord has come.” With all your heart receive the presence of the Holy Spirit, His descending on you.
Fourth Mystery
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This mystery expresses the great desire of the heart: the longing for heaven. In this decade of the Rosary, Mary prays with us for the desire of heaven, God, and eternal life with Him. If we do not have this desire for heaven, we fall into the desire for life on earth, the unhealthy attachment to worldly affairs; we dwell on our present lives on earth and live as if we would stay here forever. Holy Mary unceasingly calls us to desire heaven, to live with that heavenly perspective, to wait impatiently for death. Our desire for heaven removes our fear of death. Death becomes the gateway to heaven,
the entrance into paradise, where we are greeted with the loving embrace of the Father in the kingdom that will become our life for all eternity. We are created for life in heaven, not for life on earth.
Maybe your life is not perfect; maybe you have experienced failures and suffer with regrets. Perhaps the state of your current life is because God has prepared a more wonderful life for you in heaven. You may seem confused here on earth, but that is because you actually belong to heaven. Awake that desire for heaven within you. Ask Mary for the grace to desire heaven while praying this decade of the Rosary.
Fifth Mystery
The Crowning of Mary as the Queen of Heaven and Earth
In this mystery, we introduce the governance of Mary into those situations in our lives where we have lost control, where a sin controls us. While praying this decade of the Rosary, tell Mary about all the instances in which you fail, in which you yield to temptation, and ask her for her help so that she will come in her royalty and lead you through these trials. Allow her to set things right within you. She knows best how to control what you have given her, situations that spin out of your control. She wants to implement God’s plan within you, the best and the wisest plan that can ever be.
Do not give into the impulse to instruct God and Mary about the solutions you think are best for you. During the first couple Hail Marys, tell Mary about all those situations over which you have lost control, and then add an “Amen” as the sign of letting her reign over those situations. Do not hesitate to entrust and give her everything. May she truly become the Queen of every moment of your life.
