All for Mary: New Mysteries Kick Off a Year of the Rosary

VATICAN CITY—Pope John Paul II celebrated his 24th anniversary as Pope by signing a new apostolic letter, “The Rosary of the Virgin Mary” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae), in which he announced a “Year of the Rosary” and added five new decades, called the “mysteries of light” or “luminous mysteries.”

The Pope began the Wednesday audience of Oct. 16 by signing “The Rosary” and then repeating the words he spoke during his recent visit to Poland.

“Mother Most Holy, obtain also for me strength of body and of spirit, so that I may be able to complete to the end the mission assigned to me by the Risen One,” he said. “To you I return all the fruits of my life and of my ministry; to you I entrust the destiny of the Church; in you I trust and to you I declare once again: Totus tuus, Maria! Totus tuus! Amen.”

At 24 years in the See of Peter, Pope John Paul II is now the fifth-longest reigning pope in history; only St. Peter, Blessed Pius IX, Leo XIII and Pius VI have had longer pontificates.

Proclaiming the “year from October 2002 to October 2003 the Year of the Rosary,” the new apostolic letter speaks of an “urgent need to counter a certain crisis of the rosary, which in the present historical and theological context can risk being wrongly devalued and therefore no longer taught to the younger generation.”

The rosary has been a “genuine path to growth in holiness” for many saints, notes the Holy Father, specifically mentioning St. Louis de Montfort and St. Padre Pio. He quotes Blessed Bartolo Longo (1841-1926), a “true apostle of the rosary,” who said: “Whoever spreads the rosary is saved!”

Blessed Bartolo Longo's devotion to the rosary led him out of interest in the occult. He built the shrine of Our Lady of Rosary of Pompeii near Naples, Italy. The image of Our Lady of Pompeii was specially brought to St. Peter's Square from the shrine for the signing of “Rosarium,” accompanied by 1,500 pilgrims on two special trains who came for the anniversary.

New Mysteries

“The Rosary” proposes five new mysteries for the rosary: the “mysteries of light” or the “luminous mysteries.” The new mysteries “bring out fully the Christological depth of the rosary” according to John Paul, applying the “luminous principle” of Vatican II that Mary is the one who most fully participates in the mystery of Christ.

The five luminous mysteries of Christ's life are: “(1) his baptism in the Jordan, (2) his self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana, (3) his proclamation of the Kingdom of God, with his call to conversion, (4) his Transfiguration, and finally, (5) his institution of the Eucharist as the sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery.”

These mysteries broaden the rosary to “include the mysteries of Christ's public ministry between his baptism and his passion.”

As to the practicalities of the new mysteries, “The Rosary” proposes that the luminous mysteries be prayed on Thursday. The joyful mysteries, traditionally prayed on Monday and Thursday, would now shift to Monday and Saturday—“Saturday has always had a special Marian flavor [suitable for the joyful mysteries in which] Mary's presence is especially pronounced.” The sorrowful mysteries would remain on Tuesday and Friday, and the glorious mysteries would be prayed Sunday and Wednesday.

John Paul is not enforcing or legislating these changes, but only proposing them, for “The Rosary” does “not intend to limit a rightful freedom in personal and community prayer ... what is really important is that the rosary should always be seen and experienced as a path of contemplation.”

The new mysteries made the front page of USA Todayand the paper also included a feature teaching readers how to pray the rosary. Scott Hahn, a theology professor at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, reacted with enthusiasm.

“When I announced it to students, it blew their minds. They think it's awesome because it connects Jesus and Mary even more than before,” Hahn said.

“It doesn't seem so much an addition to a tradition as the filling of a gap,” wrote Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal, demonstrating that the rosary was news beyond just Catholic circles. “The new mysteries seem like something that had originally been there but was somehow lost to time. ... It was odd to contemplate the joyfuls one day and jump to the sorrowfuls the next; something was missing.”

While the rosary has maintained its traditional format for about 900 years, the changes proposed by the Holy Father are “not something out of the blue” according to Msgr. Arthur Calkins, a Vatican official and Marian expert who has written a book on John Paul and Mary: Totus Tuus: John Paul II's Program of Marian Consecration and Entrustment.

“When Pope Paul VI wrote Marialis Cultus (The Cult of Mary) in 1974, there was already a movement toward new mysteries, but it was thought—I think wisely—that there were already too many changes going at the time,” Msgr. Calkins said.

“There have long been complaints that the rosary goes from beginning to end, from the infancy to the passion,” he added. “I think the Holy Father must have been aware of this the background and has now deemed that the time is right.”

As to the practical aspects of the new mysteries, Msgr. Calkins noted that it remains only a proposal that will have to be accepted or rejected by common practice.

“This shouldn't hurt anything,” he said. “This is not being imposed—those who say the 15 mysteries are free to continue to do so. Those who wish to use the new mysteries can do so.”

Father Raymond J. de Souza writes from Rome.