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Intro Mary Garden
Flower Meditations on the Five
Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary
John Stokes December, 2004
Pope John Paul II has proposed that as the Luminous Mysteries can be
seen discursively as following the Joyful Mysteries, meditatively,
they should be prayed between them and the sorrowful Mysteries - as
the best introductory position.
However, as mystically they can be viewed as following upon the
fifth Glorious Mystery of Mary's crowning as Queen of Heaven and
Earth, as mysteries of the mediations of graces of her queenship for
the building and coming of God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven
- (which, interestingly, corresponds to their proposed weekly
scheduling by the Pope for praying on Thursday, following the
Glorious Mysteries on Wednesday) - they are presented here as
mysteries of her Queenship, and thus appropriately represented as a
group by the heraldic color of purple, for Royalty; in addition to
white for the joyful, red for the sorrowful, and gold for the
glorious mysteries.
The symbolism of flowers for each of the luminous mysteries, as for
those of the other mysteries, is through their various individual
forms or colors; but the overall color symbolism for each group
serves to quicken corresponding reflections on flowers viewed from a
distance, as in approaching a garden.
One flower, the purple iris, has come to represent the fleur de
lys, heraldic symbol of royalty - originally represented by the
lily, and then the yellow flag iris. Ten fleur de lys, for
example, surround the figure of Mary and Jesus in the rose window
of Chartres Cathedral as an Annunciation symbol of Mary's "Root
of David" earthly royal descent.
Suggested flower symbols of the individual Luminous Mysteries are
1. Christ's baptism in the - Columbine, symbol of the
Jordan River. descending baptismal Holy
Spirit, as a dove.
2. Christ's self-revelation at - Grape, symbol of the wine
the marriage of Cana. of Christ's first miracle;
Mary's first intercession.
3. Christ's announcement of the - Mustard, Gospel symbol of
kingdom of God with the the growth of the kingdom
invitation to conversion. like that of the tall
mustard plant from a tiny
seed.
4. Christ's Transfiguration, - Goldenrod, "Heavenly
when he revealed his glory to Radiance" on earth.
his Apostles
5. The institution of the - Honesty, with its thin
Eucharist at the Last Supper round, white seed pods
as the sacramental expression resembling hosts.
of the Paschal Mystery.
In accordance with the concluding prayer of the Rosary,
"Grant...that while meditating on these mysteries of
Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary we may
imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise",
we meditate on the luminous mysteries as they illumine our
contribution to the earthly/heavenly culmination of the divine plan
for Creation: through sanctifying grace and grace-inspired action
(1st Mystery); through recourse to Mary's intercession for Christ's
action (2nd Mystery); through specific action for the building of
God's earthly Kingdom (3rd Mystery); inspired by our envisioning of
the ultimate transfiguration of God's kingdom at the Last Judgement
and General Resurrection into the eternal New Heaven and New Earth
(4th Mystery); with primary focus now on our union with Christ
through the Eucharist and Mass (5th Mystery).
1) Meditation on the Baptism of Christ brings to mind
first of all - as we are instructed in the Finding in
the Temple - that Jesus, while True God Incarnate, as
True Man grew in grace through the nurturing of Mary and
Joseph; was guided in his ministry and passion by the
promptings of grace; and from the Cross returned his
Spirit into the Father's hands - thus emphasizing the
imperative that we all are to purify our thoughts . . .
that we, likewise in our humanity, may always, in
imitation of Christ, live by and be responsive to the
inspiration and promptings of the bestowed graces by
which we are to cooperate and share with God in the
building and coming of the Earthly Peaceable Kingdom.
We are ever prompted in grace to offer all our duties
and works, and also all our daily frustrations,
sorrows, and pains, sacrificially for and with Christ
in redemptive reparation for the effects of sin in the
world, that - thereby increasingly delivered from the
evil of these effects - all, and especially world
leaders, dissidents, and insurgents, may, in their
innate created goodness, be responsive to the graces of
peace and renewal whereby we are prompted and guided
in the building of the Kingdom in the fullness of
divine/human sharing for which God created the world.
2) Mary's intercession with Christ for others at Cana,
and Christ's self-revealing response, signify both
Christ's divinity and also his union with Mary as
mediative sharer in his divine action, as well as mother.
Jesus' affirmation of Mary most broadly as relating
spiritual person, as well as mother and woman, is
evidenced by his Gospel response to "Blessed is the
womb that bore you . . ." of "Yea rather, blessed are
they who hear the word of God and keep it"; and to
"Thy mother and thy brethren stand without . . ." of
"My mother and my brethren are they who hear the word
of God and do it," - such that Jesus relates to Mary as
spiritual soul, as well as mother, and she is thus
more broadly seen as co-redemptrix, intercessor and
universal mediatrix; and also "bridally" for our
emulation in the mystical marriage with Christ to which
we all are called, men and women, as imaged by the
relationship of the spouse and the beloved in the Song
of Solomon - in culmination of God's creational desire
for divine/human sharing, for which he has created us
"in the divine image and likeness."
3) In our prayers and work we are to be converted to a
fullness of seeking the coming of the Kingdom of God here on
earth, in accordance with God's will - for which we pray in
the Our Father - in fulfillment of the divine/human sharing
desired by God in creating the world: in truth, justice,
love and freedom; as well as devotionally, morally and
mercifully in the personal hope of heaven when we die.
Of this, Pope John Paul II has said,
"This is our great hope and our invocation: 'Your
Kingdom come!' - a Kingdom of peace, justice, and
serenity, which will re-establish the original
harmony of creation."
4) As motivation for kingdom we are ever to envision its
ultimate luminous transfiguration, at the Last Judgement
and General Resurrection, into the eternal new heaven and
new earth of divine/human union and sharing.
5) Contemplative adoration of Christ in his real presence
in the Eucharist furthers our effective union with him; and
our sharing in his sacrifice of Calvary, as enabled through
its continuation and re-enactment in the Mass.
In the Mass we first of all participate in the infinity of
Jesus' sacrifice as God the Son in satisfaction to God the
Father for all the sins of the world, including all new sins
since the last Mass - thus continuing the Pentecostally
restored distribution of the graces of sanctification,
redemption and kingdom to the world.
Secondly, through Jesus' taking upon himself of all our
personal difficulties, frustrations, sorrows, and pains,
along with those of all the persons of the world - for
inclusion in his sacrifice as True Man - our own sacrificial
offering of these for and with him, becomes a fulfillment of
God's creational desire for the sharing with us, and for our
sharing in, all the divine action for and in the world,
"filling up those things that are wanting of the sufferings
of Christ" (Col., i, 24), which sharing, Jesus, as true God,
applies in reparation for the temporal effects of sin in the
world.
In her divine revelation at Fatima, Our Lady beseeched a fullness of
such personal sacrificial offerings, through her Immaculate Heart,
for and with Jesus, in reparation for the aggregate temporal effects
of sin in the world that, as said above, the hearts and minds of
all, and especially of world leaders and dissidents, delivered from
the evil of these effects, may, in their innate created goodness,
respond to the graces of peace on earth beseeched in all the Rosary
prayers and sacrifices of the faithful - for the building and coming
of the earthly kingdom of God and its transfiguration into the
eternal new heaven and new earth.
o O o
Commentary, following the death of Pope John Paul II - April, 2005
At this point in sacred world history of the building and coming of
God's earthly kingdom, for its transfiguration on the last day, with
the general resurrection, into the eternal new heaven and new earth
of divine/human sharing - in which we have faith, and for which we
pray each day in the Our Father - human society has reached the
point where we can see how this is indeed materially possible
through the arts, crafts, manufacture, science, technology, finance
and trade.
However, we humans have been blocked in the building of God's
Kingdom through our insufficient attunement to the divine grace,
light, wisdom and power lovingly offered by God to this end in
creating the world, and in redeeming it from its fall - such that we
have failed both 1) to undertake sufficiently the hardships,
adversities, sorrows and sufferings of life for and in union with
the redemptive sacrifice of Christ on Calvary in reparation for the
kingdom-blocking effects of sin in the world; and have failed also
2) to live sufficiently by the Gospel teachings of Jesus, in the
Sermon on the Mount, of the forgiveness, mercy, turning the other
cheek, going the second mile, returning good for evil, praying for
those who persecute us, etc. in order to live in the truth, justice,
love and freedom bringing peace.
Rather, national leaders, have sought for two thousand years, and
continue to seek, world peace, and now universal sufficiency of
material goods, primarily - and therefore unsuccessfully - only
through human idealism, dialog, negotiation. compromise and
cooperation within the overall context of the strategy, tactics,
timing of diplomatic and military power - with consequent wars and
terrorism of ever-increasing violence and expenditure of material
resources.
In the midst of all this, the late Pope John Paul II, of blessed
and holy memory, R.I.P., has given the world an unique personal
example of reaching out to all peoples in love, justice and
sacrifice as the necessary basis for peace. But more than this, he
has shown us the spiritual way to be emulated by us all for this -
of mystically opening ourselves to the heavenly grace, illumination,
wisdom and power to reach out to others steadfastly in peace in all
regions and at all levels of world society.
The spiritual way for us to this is not our attempted emulation of
John Paul II's outward spiritual practices, but, more profoundly,
our emulation of his inner meditative, contemplative, communing
mystical opening to the heavenly grace, light, wisdom and power
which enabled him, according to God's will, to live, work and pray
in the world redemptively and renewingly in love, for peace and
kingdom. He has distilled this way for us all to emulate in his call
for meditative praying of the additional five luminous mysteries of
the Rosary.
The meditative key of these five mysteries - following the call of
the first two to recourse to the movements of grace and to Mary's
heavenly mediation - is the graced, illuminative, transfiguring
viewing, of the third and fourth mysteries, of the world and its
creatures according to their ultimate kingdomal and eternal
transfiguration in Christ. This illuminative view of creatures
comes through our contemplative perception of their penetration with
a ray to earth extending from their radiant heavenly essences, such
that in following this ray back to heaven, our souls, in emulation
of Mary's Assumption, are received into the heavenly levels, as with
Dante in the Divine Comedy.
Ultimately our souls are drawn, with Mary's guiding, to the Heaven
of the Trinity, and then, in emulation of Mary, come forth back
to earth "as the morning rising; fair as the moon, bright as the
sun, and terrible as an army set forth in battle array", in divine
grace, light, wisdom and power for kingdom and transfiguration.
In this we are to emulate St. Paul's example that when our souls are
drawn mystically to heaven, we are ever to return our focus to earth
and the guidance of our actions by God's grace, that spiritually
empowered, we may reach out to others in redemption and peace for
the building and coming of God's kingdom.
" . . . For such an one (mystically ascending) I will
glory: but for myself I will glory nothing but in my
infirmities. . . And (the Lord) said to me: My grace
is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in
infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I
powerful."
(II Cor. 12:1-10)
In this, we have the example ("to imitate what it contains and
obtain what it promises") of Mary's mystical rising to heaven when
she was on earth - in the words of the lesson in the Liturgy of the
Hours for the feast of Mary's Queenship, August 22nd:
"While still in the flesh, at one moment she withdrew to God
in ecstasy; at the next she would bend down to her neighbors
with indescribable love."
Once our souls, in heavenly mystical union with God, have been
filled the divine grace, light, wisdom and power, and have returned
to earth, following the example of St. Paul, for contribution as
members of Christ to the work of redemption and kingdom, we are ever
spiritually refreshed through our earthly unitive sacramental
communion with and adoring contemplation of Christ in the Most
Blessed Sacrament of the Altar - to which we turn on meditating on
the fifth luminous Rosary mystery.
With the observation that "Mystics are not special kinds of persons;
rather, each person is a special kind of mystic" and that "Each
person, like each flower, is created for perfection", we view a
major challenge of Pope John Paul II's legacy to be to motivate
commitment of his many young admirers to emulation of his mystical
and eucharistic recourse to the divine grace, light, wisdom and power
to reach out to all in love.
A key to this is the inspirational instruction of these young
admirers that moral discipline, and the sacraments of Holy
Communion, Reconciliation and Confirmation, are ever to purify us
that we may become mystically opened to and receptive of the divine
grace, light, wisdom and power effectively to further the building,
coming and eternal transfiguration of God's earthly kingdom.
Our own experience at Mary's Gardens, over a period of years, has
been that while meditating devotionally on sacramentally blest
flowers - as we have cultivated them, examined them, and reflected
on them for their symbolic mirroring of revealed truths - their
luminosity as God's beautiful, pure, direct creations, has quickened
our illuminative perception of them, with mystical drawing of soul
to heavenly filling; from which we now appreciate the universal
kingdomal and transfigurational potential of Pope John Paul II's
luminous Rosary Mysteries, with their culminative leading to our
constant inspiration through devotion to Jesus in the Most Blessed
Sacrament of the Altar.
May Mary and the Holy Spirit, with Pope John Paul II's heavenly
intercession, inspire the discovery of as many ways as there are
persons to the mystical reception of the divine grace, light,
wisdom and power for the peaceable building, coming, and eternal
transfiguration of God's kingdom in love and justice!
Copyright Mary's Gardens 2004, 2005