{"id":1865,"date":"2007-09-19T11:19:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-19T11:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/09\/let-there-be-light.html"},"modified":"2007-09-19T11:19:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-19T11:19:00","slug":"let-there-be-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/09\/let-there-be-light.html","title":{"rendered":"Let there be “Light”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> How time flies. <\/p>\n

It was five years ago next month that Pope John Paul added the Luminous Mysteries, or Mysteries of Light, to one of the Church’s most enduring devotions, the rosary. And Our Sunday Visitor has taken note<\/a> of this: <\/p>\n

Baptism in the Jordan. Wedding at Cana. Proclamation of the kingdom. Transfiguration. Institution of the Eucharist. Pope John Paul II brought these major events in Jesus\u2019 life to the beloved Rosary, and catechized millions of Catholics at the same time.<\/p>\n

In October 2002 \u2014 five years ago \u2014 he published his apostolic letter \u201cRosarium Virginis Mariae\u201d (\u201cOn the Most Holy Rosary\u201d) and launched a Year of the Rosary for Catholics around the world to pay special notice to this important devotion. <\/p>\n

With this document, Pope John Paul, like many popes before him, proposed the Rosary as a rich source of spiritual nourishment and prayer. \u201cWith the Rosary,\u201d he wrote, \u201cthe Christian people sit at the school of Mary and are led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love.\u201d <\/p>\n

But he also added his own personal stamp on how the Rosary is prayed in a way his predecessors never did. Set in a pontificate loaded with important teaching documents, \u201cRosarium Virginis Mariae\u201d remains among the most dramatic, most personal and most accessible of them all. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis letter is one of the most accessible things that he wrote. It\u2019s a wonderful introduction to the Rosary,\u201d said Amy Welborn, co-author of Praying the Rosary (OSV, $6.95). \u201cIt situates the Rosary within the whole spiritual life in a very helpful way.\u201d <\/p>\n

To sense that this apostolic letter was a personal matter for the pope, one need look no further than its date of publication: Oct. 16, 2002, the 24th anniversary of his election to the papacy. <\/p>\n

He chose to make the letter public on this day, despite that just a few days earlier, on Oct. 6, the church celebrated the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary \u2014 a seemingly perfect day for such an event. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow many graces have I received in these years from the blessed virgin through the Rosary,\u201d Pope John Paul wrote. Of course, his devotion to Mary was widely known and an intense personal matter. When ordained an auxiliary bishop of Krakow, Poland, in 1958, he took the motto \u201cTotus Tuus\u201d (\u201ctotally yours\u201d) \u2014 words taken from a prayer to Mary penned by St. Louis de Montfort. He also strayed from episcopal tradition and included the letter M, for Mary, in his coat of arms. <\/p>\n

In addition to writing about the rich meaning of this prayer, Pope John Paul proposed the addition of five new mysteries to the 15 that already had made up the traditional Rosary for many centuries. <\/p>\n

For generations, Christians prayed the Joyful Mysteries, which highlight events from the early life of Christ; the Sorrowful Mysteries, which highlight the suffering he endured at the end of his life; and the Glorious Mysteries, which focus on the heavenly glory of the Lord and his mother. <\/p>\n

To these, the pope added the Luminous Mysteries (sometimes called the Mysteries of Light), five significant events from the public ministry of Jesus as it is presented in the gospels. <\/p>\n

In this way, Pope John Paul filled the significant and centuries-old \u201cgap\u201d in the Rosary between the beginning and the end of Jesus\u2019 life on earth. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe addition of these new mysteries,\u201d he wrote, \u201cis meant to give it fresh life and to enkindle renewed interest in the Rosary\u2019s place within Christian spirituality as a true doorway to the depths of the heart of Christ, ocean of joy and light, of suffering and of glory.\u201d He added that the new mysteries would help the Rosary \u201cbecome more fully \u2018a compendium of the gospel.\u2019\u201d <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can read more analysis at the OSV link above. <\/p>\n

And you can read John Paul’s beautiful letter on the rosary at the Vatican website, right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How time flies. It was five years ago next month that Pope John Paul added the Luminous Mysteries, or Mysteries of Light, to one of the Church’s most enduring devotions, the rosary. And Our Sunday Visitor has taken note of this: Baptism in the Jordan. Wedding at Cana. Proclamation of the kingdom. Transfiguration. Institution of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLet there be "Light" - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/09\/let-there-be-light.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let there be "Light" - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How time flies. 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