Category: WR

The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery is perhaps one of the most visual images of our faith. Everyone seems to know what a cross is, and most people have seen an artistic rendering of Crucifixion.  The image below is form Giotto’s Life of Christ, as are many of the works used to illustrate this series. When we…

Christ carries the Cross.  It is at this point that his path has grown into full parallel with ours for we are each called “to take up your cross and follow” Christ. What is your cross?  You want to, I’m sure, look for some great thing to be your cross. Forgive me if I am projecting.…

The Crown of Thorns was of great interest to the Faithful of the Late Middle Ages.  This instrument of torture and mocking was as important as the scourging (perhaps in that it added to the number of drops of blood) and also as important as the cross: it was to house the Crown of Thorns…

The Scourging of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Romans – at the command of Pilate – is a favourite visual image: it has more action than the Crucifixion and also more blood.  Movie makers love it: it’s gory and allows them to play others off Jesus as bad guys.  See how cruel the Romans…

The Passion in the Garden is Jesus’ last “alone time” before the climax of his ministry.  He often went aside to pray, but, as it were, those might be considered “training prayers” for this one.  He experienced stress, certainly (as seen by the bloody sweat) and probably fear.  He asked his Father if there was…

The Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world” was also conceived before the foundation of the world, raise by Joseph, potty trained by Mary, educated in the synagogue of Nazareth, raised from the dead, and crowned in glory from before the foundation of the world. Jesus is God’s eternity participating in our time,…

In the Mystery of the Transfiguration, God is revealed as he really is: a human man, fully divine, enfleshed, and loving us so dearly. In the Transfiguration, the Son of God is revealed as God the Son. There are some religions that insist the divine has no body. They are wrong. Full stop. They speak…

The Proclamation of the Kingdom is a special mystery because it involves not only Christ and it is not limited in time or space. Anywhere the preaching of Christ is embodied in the world the Kingdom is taking place. Of course, the Kingdom here is a Mystery, not fully present outside the presence of a…

It is true that it is from Christ’s presence at Cana that the Church develops a sacramental idea of marriage.  It is also true that for the longest time marriage was seen as a secular issue with which devout Christians could work out their salvation.  First it was a state of life, governed by the…

In the East this event is commemorated on 6 January, which feast is called the Theophany, or manifestation of God.  In the West, the Baptism of Our Lord is commemorated on 13 January: the Octave Day of Epiphany, which feast commemorates the coming of the Magi and the manifestation of the Messiah to the Gentiles.…

To the traditional 15 Decades of the Rosary, Pope St John Paul II suggested another 5, the Mysteries of Light or the Luminous Mysteries. He did this in his letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae on 16 October 2002.  Whilst these have been accepted by most Roman Catholics, they are not in very common use by other Christians…

The Fifth Joyous Mystery contemplates the time when, as a child, Christ lingered in Jerusalem after his parents had departed for home. The Gospel text relates that they were traveling with a party so large they assumed he was someplace out of sight and didn’t discover he was gone until three days into their homeward…

Candlemas is one of my favourite feasts. The following from the Catholic Encyclopedia shares a little bit of the history of the feast: According to the Roman Missal the celebrant after Terce, in stole and cope of purple colour, standing at the epistle side of the altar, blesses the candles (which must be of beeswax).…

By way of introduction to the Third Joyous Mystery of the Rosary, please remember the scripture: Jesus was born in to a family that owned its own business. Jesus was born in a manger not because no inn would house a poor pregnant woman, but rather because the inns were full. Church tradition tells us…

The second of the five Joyous Mysteries is known as the Visitation and commemorates the visit of our Blessed Lady to St Elizabeth, the mother of the Forerunner, John Baptist.  The Visitation is a later-comer to the Calendar and devotional life of the Western Church, having been introduced by St Bonaventure in 1263. The Franciscans,…