The Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary

By Ivonne Hernandez

To honor Our Lady, for the month of October, I will be re-posting the Eucharistic Meditations on the Mysteries of the Rosary, one set of mysteries each Saturday.

​This post includes all five meditations on the Glorious Mysteries, so it is longer than usual. I encourage you to mark this page so you can come back to it as you pray the Rosary this week.

​"All the mysteries have some relation to the Eucharist, for the Eucharist completes them all. They all tend toward the Eucharist; with the help of grace we must discover what is Eucharistic in the mysteries in order to nourish our devotion toward the Most Blessed Sacrament." – St Peter Julian Eymard

1.     The Resurrection 

"It is true that the glory of the Saints and of the blessed is a flower that blooms only in the sunshine of Paradise and in the presence of God. This dazzling glory cannot be ours on this earth; people would offer us adoration. But we receive the hidden seed of it which contains it in its entirety as the seed contains the ear of wheat. The Eucharist deposits in us the leaven of resurrection, the source of a special and brighter glory, which after having been sown in our corruptible flesh will shine in our risen and immortal body." [1]  - St Peter Julian Eymard
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“The last (effect of the Eucharist) is to make us share in His glorious Resurrection. Jesus Christ sows the seed of His own life in us; the Holy Ghost will quicken it and through it will give us a new life, but a life of glory that will never end.” [2] - St. Peter Julian Eymard
 
​Meditation:

The mystery of the Resurrection speaks to us of faith. We see in the Risen Christ the promise that we will rise up with Him one day, and in the Eucharist we receive the seed of that promise, of a life of glory that will never end.

“The Eucharist deposits in us the leaven of resurrection.”  Leaven is a pervasive presence that permeates everything, transforming it into something better.[3] The Eucharist, being the Risen Lord Himself, sows the seed of His own life in us, transforming us until we become what we eat.
We need to look for that little germinating plant in each other, amid the weeds in the garden, and be careful not to trample on it. We need to look for the saints God has placed in our lives, those whose flower is not yet in full bloom, but that might need our help to fertilize and tend to their garden. Helping each other to grow in Holiness as we remain close to the Eucharist and encouraging one another, we will then join St Paul when he says: “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18)

It is this faith in a life of glory with Christ that keeps us growing here below.  It is this faith that sustains us when we remember that “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (John 12:24)  We can’t skip over Good Friday to get to the Resurrection. We must patiently wait for the light that dispels all darkness. In the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist we have the hidden seed of the Risen Lord in its entirety. We have the flicker of light that will become dazzling in the sunshine of Paradise, in the presence of God.

 
2.     The Ascension 

"In order to keep the hope of Heaven in us and make it more efficacious, in order to have us wait patiently for the Heaven of glory and lead us there, our Lord has created the beautiful Heaven of the Eucharist. For the Eucharist is a beautiful Heaven; it is Heaven begun. Is it not Jesus glorified coming from Heaven to earth, and bringing Heaven with Him? Is not Heaven wherever our Lord is? His state there, although hidden from our senses, is one of glory, triumph, and blessedness. He has done away with the miseries of this life; when we go to Communion, we receive Heaven, since we receive Jesus Who is the whole joy and glory of Paradise.
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Through Communion his soul ascends to God. Prayer is defined an ascension of the soul to God. But what is prayer compared to Communion? What a difference between the ascension of our thoughts and desires in prayer and the sacramental ascension wherein Jesus raises us Himself to the very bosom of God!" [4] - St. Peter Julian Eymard
 

Meditation:

The mystery of the Ascension speaks to us of hope, the hope of Heaven. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” (John 14:3)  These words from Jesus can be applied to the Eucharist, as He, “in order to keep the hope of Heaven in us”, “has created the beautiful Heaven of the Eucharist.” 

In Communion Jesus comes down to us.  Love seeks His beloved. He knocks on the door and finding a contrite heart, a garden enclosed, in which to make His home, He lifts us up to Himself, “to the very bosom of God.”  In the Eucharist we find all the sweetness and delights of Heaven, for Heaven is where Jesus is. We get a taste of Heaven and it leaves us wanting more.  Our desire grows along with our hope each time we hear our lover speak and say to us, “Arise, my friend, my beautiful one, and come!” (Songs 2:10)

The Eucharistic presence of Christ endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist, usually around 10-15 minutes after receiving Communion. Let us keep this reality before our eyes each time we receive Him.  Let us give Him our whole hearts and minds for those precious minutes that the species are still in our bodies and we have Him, all glorious and immortal, with us. Let us let our minds and hearts ascend to Him like incense in the Heaven of the Eucharist as we patiently wait for Him to bring us with Him to the Heaven of glory.

 
3.     Coming of the Holy Spirit 

"...God is all love. This gentle Savior pleads with us from the Host: "Love Me as I have loved you; abide in My love! I came to cast the fire of love on the earth, and My most ardent desire is that it should set your hearts on fire." Oh! What shall we think of the Eucharist at the moment of death or after death, when we shall see and know all the goodness and love and riches of it! " [5] - St. Peter Julian Eymard
 
​Meditation:

The mystery of the coming of the Holy Spirit speaks to us of the love of God.  The Holy Spirit, loud as a mighty wind, descended upon the Apostles and upon Our Lady in the form of tongues of fire. He doesn’t always make so much noise when He comes. This is the same Holy Spirit who during Mass quietly transforms the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Our Lord, and comes gently into our hearts to set them on fire with the love of God.
 
The action of the Holy Spirit during Mass is quiet and gentle, like the dewfall.  That moment when, through the ministry of the priest, the Holy Spirit changes the gifts human hands have made into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, is almost too elusive for our senses.  Just like the precise moment the sun rises gives way to the fullness of light, the coming of the Holy Spirit gives way to His full power and action. This quiet and gentle Presence brings the fire of God’s love with Him, because He IS God’s love Himself. 

In one of the Eucharistic Prayers we hear the priest say the words, “Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall…” Once Jesus is present on the altar we can almost hear Him speaking to our hearts: “Open to me, my sister, my friend, my dove, my perfect one! For my head is wet with dew.” (Song 5:2)  He brings the dew of the Holy Spirit with Him in the Eucharist and knocks at the door of our hearts. He wants to fill us with His love.

How can we welcome such a guest? We can unite our prayers to the priest’s and ask the Father to send His Holy Spirit upon us to transform us and make us holy; to make us a fitting dwelling for His Son.  Thus when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist we can let His Love fulfill his most ardent desire, to penetrate deeply into every recess of our beings and set our hearts on fire.
 

4.     The Assumption of Mary 

“Mary died of love. The longing to see her Son, and to be fully united to Him, snapped her thread of life. Jesus is about to accord her a grand triumph. O what passed between Jesus and Mary at the moment of their meeting! We know the joy of a mother and a son meeting after a long separation.” [6] - St. Peter Julian Eymard

"In Communion we receive an unfailing pledge of immortality. ‘He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has everlasting’ eternal life. We lose our temporal life. But it is not a life worthy of the name; it is only a halt on the journey to true life.” [7]  - St. Peter Julian Eymard
 
Meditation:

The mystery of the Assumption speaks to us of the resurrection of the body. “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.” (CCC, 968)  Just like Mary has been taken up into Heaven, body and soul, we live in the hope of the Resurrection, in that “unfailing pledge of immortality” we receive in Communion.

In the book “Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament”, St Peter Julian explores the life of Mary in the Cenacle in the early years of the Church. He writes: “The Blessed Virgin had so powerful an attraction for the Eucharist that she could not live away from It.” [8] It is sometimes hard to imagine that Our Lady’s love for Jesus could grow even more than when she stood at the foot of the Cross, but we have to remember that love, being from God, if nurtured, can always grow.  Mary’s love for Jesus, nurtured by Holy Communion and Adoration, grew until her longing “snapped her thread of life” and she “died of love”.

When we meditate on Our Mother being taken up into Heaven, into the loving arms of the Father, and reunited with her Son, we are filled with hope.  She is always our mother, and as such, she is interceding for us, and she is teaching and encouraging us.  Let us then imitate her, remaining close to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Let us receive Him often with great love and adore Him in the Tabernacle.  Let us see His Body, glorious but hidden in the Host, and remember that He wants to sow the seed of His own Life in us, and raise us with Him on the last day. 

 
5.     Coronation of Mary

 “Jesus led His Mother by the hand up to the throne of God. ‘Behold, O Father, her with whom You are associated, by choosing her to give Me My Humanity!’ —And the Father crowned her with her three most beautiful titles, Queen, Mother, Mediatrix. In Mary's diadem, three pearls are shining with dazzling brightness, namely, that of her humility, that of her poverty, and that of her sufferings.” [9] - St. Peter Julian Eymard
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"THE tendency of love-----its final tendency-----is the union of two beings who love each other, the fusion of two into one, of two hearts into one heart, of two minds into one mind, of two souls into one soul. …We abide in Him, He abides in us. We are one with Him until the ineffable union that was begun here below by grace and perfected by the Eucharist is consummated in Heaven in an eternal and glorious union. Love lives therefore with Jesus present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. It shares all that belongs to Jesus. It is one with Jesus. The demands of our heart are satisfied; it cannot ask for anything else." [10] - St. Peter Julian Eymard
 
Meditation:

The mystery of the Coronation of Mary speaks to us of eternal happiness.  At the end of her earthly life, God gave Mary her reward: she will forever remain by her Son as Queen of Heaven and earth.  When we receive and adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in the company of Mary, we have with us a Mother, Queen, and Mediatrix, who will always lead us to Christ. “Mary, the exalted Daughter of Sion, helps all her children, wherever they may be and whatever their condition, to find in Christ the path to the Father's house.” [11]  This path to Heaven is found in the Eucharist, where love lives, and fulfills all the desires of our hearts. 

Mary’s diadems’ “three dazzling pearls” shine for us to see and imitate, as they light up the way for us to follow. The first two reflect the virtues of Our Lord’s poverty and humility in the Eucharist, and the third one, that of her sufferings, reminds us that she shares so closely in His glory now in Heaven because she shared so closely in His sufferings on earth.  We can see that these pearls do not shine on their own, but reflect the light from the Monstrance.  In that Monstrance is Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, the One we have been looking for, the One who will satisfy the demands of our hearts.

It is there our quest must end. “When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” (Mat 13:46)  We must let go of anything that divides our hearts, for the price for this pearl is our whole hearts.  Love dwelling in the Blessed Sacrament calls “Arise, my friend, my beautiful one, and come!” (Song 2:10), for the final tendency of love is the union of two souls.  This union “perfected by the Eucharist” will satisfy our hearts until that final day when we say, “Before I knew it, my desire had made me the blessed one of the prince’s people.” (Song 6:12)             


[1]Eymard, The Real Presence, p.276
[2] Eymard, The Real Presence, p.74
[3] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/leaven
[4] Eymard, The Real Presence, p.275
[5] Eymard, The Real Presence, p.167
[6] Eymard, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament p.158
[7] Eymard, The Real Presence, p. 237
[8] Eymard, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament p.34
[9] Eymard, Our Lady of The Blessed Sacrament, p. 160
[10] Eymard, The Real Presence, p.86
[11] St John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, 47