The Virgin Mary herself in the year 1214 A.D. gifted St. Dominic, and all of us, with the rosary. He and his fellow priests had been preaching against heresy and he believed he was failing to bring the heretics back to the church. In a vision, Mary, accompanied by three angels, asked Dominic, “Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?”
Dominic humbly replied that Mary knew about salvation. Mary responded,
I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter.
Mary’s “Psalter” is what we now know as the rosary. Initially “Mary’s Psalter,” or the “Poor Man’s Psalter,” was prayed as a substitution for the Divine Office said by priests. When recited with 15 mysteries, Joyful, Glorious, and Sorrowful, the 15 decades account for 150 Hail Marys, corresponding to the 150 Psalms.
In an Apostolic Letter in 2002, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, St. Pope John Paul II published a new set of themes which he had authored called the Luminous Mysteries.
- The First Luminous Mystery – The Baptism of the Lord
- The Second Luminous Mystery – The Wedding in Cana
- The Third Luminous Mystery – The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God and the call to conversion
- The Fourth Luminous Mystery – The Transfiguration
- The Fifth Luminous Mystery – The Institution of the Eucharist
JPII made it very clear that he was proposing this as an option and that there was no obligation or duty to use his personal new set of mysteries when praying the rosary.
This is true of all the mysteries of the rosary. None of them has to be recited, none of them has to be stated:
You are always free to pray using any mysteries of the rosary you desire. There is no obligation to do all of them, or to follow them in order, although that is what most people do (Catholic Answers).
So you may use the luminous mysteries if you desire . . . Actually, if you were to examine for example the meditations of St. Louis de Monfort or Bl. Alan de la Roche on the rosary, you would find that they consider many themes beyond the traditional fifteen mysteries. That is why the Church’s indulgences for the rosary do not require any particular mysteries to be used. The Ven. Paul VI, in his letter Marialis Cultus, gives great freedom in which mysteries may be considered in praying the rosary.
Comments by those who choose not to use JPII’s own mysteries are varied:
- The Rosary is a private devotion and there is no church requirement about the mysteries
- They don’t fit as well with the system I use to meditate during the rosary.
- Because they’re not what I grew up with, they’re not traditional.
- This is just another Vatican effort at globalism via creation of a new “tradition” from whole cloth.
- The practical effect in this new neoconservative hyper-papal-personality-cult Catholic ecosystem of the early 2000s was equivalent to an imposition.
- Every old pamphlet or sermon a Saint might have written about the rosary is now obsolete, or needs to have a footnote added or an appendix written by a modern person inserted.
- If you want to reflect on the rosary as you practice it, your only choice is documents 20 years old or less. You should have been able to inherit your great-grandmother’s hand missal and still have it be seamlessly useable. Instead, across the twentieth century, it’s you need a new edition every 15 years.
- When Mary prayed the Rosary with the children at Fatima and with St. Bernadette at Lourdes, she did not use these new mysteries
Only Three “Great” Popes
Church history includes three, only three, popes who have been accorded the unofficial title “Great.” This title is not officially proclaimed, but rather is a description some, and then many, give to a pope to honor his abilities, contributions, and leadership. The three “great” popes are: Pope St. Leo I (440–61 A.D.), Pope St. Gregory I (590–604 A.D.), and Pope St. Nicholas I (858–67 A.D.).
Pope Leo the Great led the church in a time of great upheaval and troubles, and dealt with the barbarian, Attila the Hun.
Pope Gregory I the Great was a leader in developing monasticism and he was celebrated for his writings and pastoral care.
Pope Nicholas I the Great was a staunch upholder of papal authority and resolved many disputes within the Church.
In my opinion, John Paul II achieved many things and provided leadership for many years; but he is not among the “great” popes. My primary reason for this opinion is that I cannot unthink the truth about: his knowledge of the crimes of priest and bishop sexual predators within the clergy such as Marcial Maciel Degollano and Theodore McCarrick; and his ignoring McCarrick’s sexual predations and promoting him while aware of the numerous reports over many years about what he had done.
Although he had been warned in 1999 by then-New York Cardinal John O’Connor about McCarrick’s crimes and that he was widely known to single out seminarians and invite them to sleep with him in the same bed, JPII appointed McCarrick as archbishop of Washington in 2000 and made him a cardinal in 2001.
Unfortunately I cannot erase from my memory the court testimony I have read about McCarrick’s homosexual rapes and other crimes and at the same time recite mysteries authored by the man who not only refused to punish McCarrick, but who also, knowing all that he did, promoted the man to the highest level of responsibility, service and honor in the church.
Yes, John Paul II achieved much but, in my opinion, he is not among the “great” popes.
66 thoughts on “Why I Won’t Use John Paul II’s Luminous Mysteries”
You will not pray with the mysteries not because they’re unbiblical but because you disagree with the life of the Man…. interesting
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Do you not think Saint Pope John Paul II, in handling the sex scandals, would not have repented and tried to rectify any mishandling that he may have ALLEGEDLY been guilty of?
Poor Pope. I remember reading that in learning of the degrees that priests were being accused of in sex crimes, the Pope had an extremely difficult time to think that priests, those who consecrate bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus, could ever be guilty of such unthinkable acts. How could they ever do such things? He wasn’t even familiar with all the different acts of immorality which I think left him in the state of shock!
I would not judge him. We don’t know what reasons he had or understand him for acting the way he did. Great Pope Saint John Paul II, pray for us.
Love is the highest attribute of man…especially if you say stuff like this..God is Mercy..we’ll all be needing it as soon as Good Friday!
Divine Mercy
Voluminous Books
World Evangelization of the Youth
His gift of prayer
Carried his cross to the end
Totus Tuus
One of the longest serving Pontiffs amid great trials and attacks at time when the Lord granted the devil increased power
Fall of Russia
for sure he is “The Great”
Of course! If you remember the Cold War, NO ONE other than John Paul II prayed for the peaceful collapse of Communism, so he must be solely responsible for it!
That was unique to him. In contrast, every Pope for the past thousand years has kissed the Koran!
Sarcasm off. Yes, John Paul II is a saint. How dare anyone, though, assume that his prayers were more effective than those of the many widows and orphans of Communism? God promises that He will hear the widow and the orphan; so far as I am aware, He nowhere promises that He will hear a priest, let alone the Pope specifically.
Everyone with any sense knew that John Paul II was a saint. But kissing the Koran, or (for a more recent Pope) giving liturgical honor to Pachamama, means that Pope is NOT ONE OF THE GREAT ONES. DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT KISSING THE KORAN IS ANY BETTER THAN KISSING THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO?
No doubt this is no big deal where you live. Sorry, that does not matter. Neither you nor I have been found worthy to suffer for the Name (Acts 5:41). To this day, however, many ARE found worthy, and some of their suffering came from a saintly Pope willing to kiss the Koran.
The devil is indeed in the detail Sham on this article written from someone who is probably a fan of our present woke pope that has changed the face of the catholic faith prayers for both
Also, as regards St. Pope John Paul II’s seeming lack of concern for Priests guilty of the sexual abuse of minors, he was hounded mercilessly by ill meaning critics with outright lies about Priests who were later found innocent, so after many years of this, he didn’t trust what he was hearing. I’m certain that he didn’t intentionally turn the other cheek. God Himself Saw this as true, remember, he is now a Canonized Saint.
Dear Lord Jesus Christ remove all negativity from this article!!! Only God Our Heavenly Father has the ultimate right to judge! Both McCarrick and St. John Paul 11 are deceased pray, pray, pray for them. And may God Have Mercy on your soul for disparaging St. John Paul 11💔St. Michael the archangel remove evil from this most negative senseless article. And let’s all continue to Pray the Holy Rosary 🙏🙏🕊️🕊️🌹🌹📿
This article need not have been written. Use the Luminous mysteries or don’t use them: it is your choice. However, the tone of the article is an excellent example of the devil trying to pit Catholics against each other. Look at the comments generated. It was unnecessary! I love the JP 2 and I love the Luminous mysteries but I DON’T love anything that seeks to set up apart from each other. Think twice about opining about certain hot button issues that are unnecessary for our salvation.
Absolutely it’s a subdivide of Catholic. I totally agree with you. He loved Mary and he saw that McCarrick was ordained, and unlike Francis he wanted to bring the lukewarm and the good as far as God would bring them, but John Paul II did this in silence. We must not forget that the Gallen $ Hierarchy killed his predecessor. For the youth, he knew he had more to live for than to die for just a percentage of men. Jemez Springs servant of The Paraclete also in the Philippines in East Asia maintained a, total black book of priests where priests are gone to cure had made HUGE mistakes in regard to curing by psychiatry. The priest who want to abuse just gave the right answers, the answers to getting into ministry again and abusing locally. That’s the big secret. The Pope had the youth he was trying to lead, and that is the future of the Church that has become the future now. The Pope would not sacrifice generations from these youth for a few men, and it truly is a few men when you’re talking generations. again, he was always the Pope of Hope and he is dedicated Totus Tuus and he gave every man the benefit of the doubt because he led by example example. This author is missing the biggest picture and cannot tell me he is not great.