Mysteries of the Holy Rosary

JOYFUL MYSTERIES

1st MYSTERY - Angel Gabriel announces to Virgin Mary, bride full of grace, what she already knew: God had chosen her since eternity to become the Mother of the Word. Mary also knew that she would have suffered a lot, in spite of this, renews her "fiat" she pronounced since the first time she had the use of reason.
Because of Mary's "yes", God the Son was made flesh in her virginal womb.

2nd MYSTERY - Mary, together with her spouse Joseph, set out and travelled with solicitude to go and care for her cousin Elizabeth. The Messiah, present in Mary's virginal womb, sanctifies forerunner John, present in his mother's womb. Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaims Mary Mother of the Lord and Our Lady answers by singing the hymn of love: the Magnificat.

3rd MYSTERY - The Son of God is born in the cave in Bethlehem, as it was prophesied by Micheas. The angels sing hymns of praise to the Child-God. The shepherds go to the cave to meet the Messiah and they go back home glorifying and praising the Lord for what they had seen and heard. Eight days later the Child is circumcised and was given the name of Jesus, as it was announced by the angel. Jesus, in the day of his circumcision, addressing his Mommy, says to her: "You are the Mother of the Eucharist".

4th MYSTERY - The Mother of the Eucharist and her spouse Joseph present Jesus in the temple to the Father. Together they raise to Heaven the One who is the only and true mediator between God and man. Mary is purified and she is told by Simeon, moved by the Holy Spirit, that she should have to suffer united with her son Jesus.

5th MYSTERY - The Holy Family goes from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. During the return trip the Mother of the Eucharist and Joseph lose their child Jesus. The parents find the twelve year old Jesus in the temple and listen to him with rapture while he talks to the teachers. All three of them come back to Nazareth where Jesus "advanced in wisdom and age and favour before God and man".

SORROWFUL MYSTERIES

1st MYSTERY - Jesus, after establishing the sacraments of Eucharist and priesthood, goes to pray to the Garden of Gethsemane where he is in agony, sweats blood and he is strengthened by an angel. He wanted, for our love, to endure the greatest suffering, the one that he alone would be able to impose on himself: not to feel loved by the Father. Betrayed by Judas and abandoned by the apostles he is arrested by the guards of the great priests.

2nd MYSTERY - Jesus is taken to the Sanhedrin, where he states to be Son of God. Then he is dragged to the Roman governor. Pilate, while acknowledging him innocent, condemns Jesus to scourging, for he thinks that this compromise would appease the members of the Sanhedrin. The Roman scourging was the most vicious instrument of torture.

3rd MYSTERY - Jesus is crowned with a bundle of thorns, a reed is placed in his hands and he is wrapped in a mantle. He is insulted, mocked, spat upon and dealt with as a king to tease. The soldiers strike with the reed the bundle of thorns so that they penetrate further into the head of the Saviour.

4th MYSTERY - Jesus is sentenced to death and sets out towards the Calvary. He is helped by the Cyrenian to carry the cross, he is followed by a large crowd and he is mourned by the devout women. Silently the Mother of the Eucharist goes with her Son Jesus to Golgotha and turns a loving and encouraging gaze to the few that approach the convicted to pity him.

5th MYSTERY - Jesus is crucified, insulted and mocked. Promises the Paradise to the repented thief, entrusts his Mother to John and John to his Mother. Invokes forgiveness for his crucifiers, he lets himself go to the Father and dies. A soldier thrusts his lance into Jesus' side and from the wound blood and water flow out. John saw and bears witness and his testimony is truthful, he knows he tells the truth, so that we may believe.

GLORIOUS MYSTERIES

1st MYSTERY - Jesus rises from the dead and passes through the closed sepulchre. The resurrection of Jesus takes place in the most complete silence and in the midst of indifference or hostility of men. Only Mary keeps wake, prays and waits for the resurrection; first to her Jesus appears, glorious and triumphing. Thereafter he appears to the women, to the disciples of Emmaus, to the eleven and to others that were with them.

2nd MYSTERY - Jesus sends the apostles to the world to continue his mission. Promises that he will be with his disciples each day till the end of the world. Jesus is really present in body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist; the Eucharist makes the Church. The Son of God, under the look of the Mother of the Eucharist, of the apostles and of the disciples, ascends to Heaven from where he has descended and goes back to the Father.

3rd MYSTERY - The Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus, descends on the Mother of the Eucharist and the apostles gathered together in the cenacle. Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, becomes Mother of the Church that is born in the day of Pentecost. Her powerful prayers sped up the descent of the Holy Spirit that teaches everything to the apostles and makes them strong and authentic witnesses of Christ the Word and Christ the Eucharist.

4th MYSTERY - The Mother of the Eucharist, who has always been united with the suffering of the Son Jesus, wants to share with him even the experience of death.
Mary dies, she is immediately transfigured and she ascends to Heaven in body and soul. Jesus, Joseph, the angels and the saints introduce her to the glory of Heaven.

5th MYSTERY - The Mother of the Eucharist is declared by the Most Holy Trinity Queen of Heaven and Earth. Mary is true Queen, but without crown, for she wants to go towards her children with the sweetness of motherhood and not with the power of royalty. Mary is Queen because the Son Jesus put his power in the hands of the Mother.

MYSTERIES OF LIGHT

1st MYSTERY (Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist) - Jesus, Lamb without stain, stood in the queue with repentant sinners to be baptized by John. The Redeemer did a great act of love and humility to teach men that the only path to God is that of conversion. Jesus came, stayed and walked away from the Jordan always praying, because prayer fosters communion between the Creator and his creatures. Every person living in a state of grace is a child of God and to this child can be addressed the same words that the Father said about the Divine Son: "Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11).

2nd MYSTERY (Jesus worked his first miracle at the wedding at Cana through Mary's intercession) - The brief dialogue taking place between mother and son, may generate an incorrect interpretation. Jesus is not opposing his mother asking him to work a miracle, but instead he wants us to understand that he is respecting her and welcomes her request for the grace, otherwise Mary would not have ordered the servants: "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it" (John 2:5).

3rd MYSTERY (Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God with the invitation to conversion) - The Divine Master has preached that in order to become his disciples one has to accomplish a total change of our way of being and acting. We must forsake the worldly way of thinking and to live, with no exception, the great commandment of love extended equally to all. Love is the pass-card for Heaven.

4th MYSTERY (Jesus is transfigured before the three apostles at Mount Tabor) - Jesus transfigured before Peter, James and John so they may teach all men that He is the Son of God, sent by the Father, the Messiah for centuries awaited. If we want to show others that we are truly children of God, we must live in a state of grace and stain not our soul with mortal sin. The more we will increase in our state of grace the more we will look like God. Mary, the one full of grace, is the creature who is more like God.

5th MYSTERY (Jesus institutes the Eucharist at the Last Supper) - Jesus, as he sat at table with the apostles, was thinking to the bloody sacrifice which, in a few hours, He would have offered to the Father on the Calvary. Jesus is God and for Him there is no difference between past, present and future. He rendered actual the future and instituted the Eucharist, a mystery that includes his passion, death and resurrection. In the same manner He renders to the present what is past and we can say that Jesus suffers, dies and is resurrected in any H. Mass celebrated at different times and at different places. Mary was certainly present at the Last Supper, when Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Order, two sacraments that are a function of each other.