The Holy Rosary

(Edited to add a thanks to Amy for letting me know that we are actually encouraged to pray the Joyful on Saturdays...I was wrong on that one (4th paragraph below)!)

I try to pray a decade of the Rosary every day. It doesn't take long and is a beautiful way to meditate on the life of Christ and participate in an ancient tradition of the Church. I was excited when our late Pope John Paul II added a new set of mysteries to the Rosary, the Luminous Mysteries. Each of them helps me to know the Man of Christ better, remembering his Baptism, the Wedding at Cana, the Proclamation of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration, and the Institution of the Eucharist.

My favorite set of mysteries is the Joyful...the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, and Finding in the Temple. The Visitation is the one I relate to the most as a mother and friend, as I meditate on Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth, where the Prophet and the Lord first met in the wombs of their mothers. The Sorrowful Mysteries help me to understand redemptive suffering and to know just how much my Lord loved me as he suffered and died for my sins.

But the Glorious Mysteries are the ones I have the hardest time with. The Resurrection, Ascention, Descent of the Spirit, Assumption of Mary, and Crowning of Mary. For me they are a harder meditation because, aside from meditating on Pentecost and recognizing my own need for the Holy Spirit's guidance, the other ones are just hard for me to relate to. They seem more theologically deep and deal with the body and Heaven, both of which are concepts I am still learning to grasp.

And so I mentioned to Steven that I don't like how the Church recommends we pray the Joyful on Mondays, the Luminous on Thursdays, the Sorrowful on Tuesdays and Fridays, but...the Glorious on Wednesdays, Saturdays AND Sundays. That's 3 days a week to meditate on my least favorite mysteries! Why not even it out and do the Joyful or Luminous on one of those days?

But my wise hubby reminded me that those are the ones I need to meditate on even more, since I have a hard time with them. Bingo! And so I'll make a concerted effort to ask Christ to help me understand these mysteries of our Faith better, especially as I meditate on our eternal home. Here is a website I find really helpful with pictures and verses for each mystery:
http://www.rosary-center.org/howto.htm

Oh, and my friend Veronica also mentioned last week a great idea to try for our families...to laminate images of each mystery and bind together to put on the wall so we can reflect throughout the day. Great idea!