THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES

 It is suggested that, while praying the Hail Mary's, you gaze at the picture below the meditation to assist in contemplating its mystery. 

The First Glorious Mystery:  The Resurrection ~ Christ's Resurrection and the Risen Christ Himself is the source of our future resurrection: "Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.... For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." The Risen Christ lives in the hearts of His faithful while they await that fulfillment. In Christ, Christians "have tasted...the powers of the age to come" and their lives are swept up by Christ into the heart of divine life, so that they may "live no longer for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised."

THE RESURRECTION

The Second Glorious Mystery:  The Ascension ~ When His visible presence was taken from them, Jesus did not leave His disciples orphans. He promised to remain with them until the end of time; He sent them His Spirit. As a result communion with Jesus has become, in a way, more intense: "By communicating His Spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as His body those brothers of His who are called together from every nation.

THE ASCENSION

The Third Glorious Mystery:  The Descent of the Holy Spirit ~ The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. This joint mission henceforth brings Christ's faithful to share in His communion with the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit prepares humankind and goes out to them with His grace, in order to draw them to Christ. The Spirit manifests the Risen Lord to them; recalls His word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of His Death and Resurrection. He makes present the mystery of Christ, supremely in the Eucharist, in order to reconcile them and to bring them into communion with God, so that they may "bear much fruit”.

THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Fourth Glorious Mystery:  The Assumption ~ The motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the Cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven, she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. Therefore, the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.

THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY

The Fifth Glorious Mystery:  The Coronation of Mary ~ The splendor of an entirely unique holiness, by which Mary is enriched from the first instant of her conception comes wholly from Christ: She is "redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son." The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person "with every spiritual blessing," and chose her "in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love."  

THE CORONATION OF MARY