Tim Gray - The Luminous Mysteries: Biblical Reflections On The Life Of Christ

Emmaus Road Publishing
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, Ohio 43952

2004 by Tim Gray

Reflections from the Fathers adaptations
2004 by Emmaus Road Publishing
All rights reserved. Published 2004
Printed in the United States of America
07 06 05 04 1 2 3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2004109980
ISBN 1-931018-20-0
ISBN 978-1-931018-08-1

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken
from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible,
1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the
United States of America. Used by permission
All rights reserved

Excerpts from the English translation of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America
1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Modifications from the Editio Typica 1997,
United States Catholic Conference, Inc.
Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Cited in the text as Catechism

Cover design and layout by
Beth Hart

Cover artwork:
Michael OBrien, The Transfiguration
www.studiobrien.com
Used with permission

Nihil Obstat: Rev. James Dunfee, Censor Librorum
Imprimatur: R. Daniel Conlon, D.D., J.C.D., Ph.D.
Bishop of Steubenville
Date: May 5, 2004

The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations
that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error.
No implication is contained therein that those who have
granted the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur agree with
the contents, opinions, or statements expressed.

Lady, thou art so great and so powerful,
that whoever desires grace yet does not turn to thee,
would have his desire fly without wings.

Dante

I
The First Luminous Mystery
The Baptism in the Jordan

II
The Second Luminous Mystery
The Wedding of Cana

III
The Third Luminous Mystery
The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God

IV
The Fourth Luminous Mystery
The Transfiguration

VI
The Fifth Luminous Mystery
The Institution of the Eucharist

A t the dawn of the third Christian millennium, our Holy Father Pope John Paul II has written to us on three matters relating to the heart of our life in Christ: the pastoral plan for the new evangelization (apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte ); the praying of the Rosary (apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae ); and the Holy Eucharist (encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia ). The teaching contained in these papal documents, which are closely related to each other by our Holy Fathers express intention, focuses our attention on the heart of the new evangelization required in our time ( EE 6)namely, the teaching, celebrating, and living of the Gospel as if for the first time, with the energy and enthusiasm of the first disciples. It focuses our attention on Christ alive for us in the Church and our daily response of unconditional love to Gods all-merciful love of us.

The apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae , the Marian crowning of the Holy Fathers teaching at the dawn of the new Christian millennium ( EE 6), invites us to uncover anew the simplicity and depth of this powerful prayer given to the Church in the first centuries of the second Christian millennium, loved by countless saints and encouraged by the Magisterium ( RVM 1). The Holy Father, in a wonderful way, describes for us the nature of the Rosarya drawing close to our Blessed Mother through prayerin order that, with her, we may look upon the face of Christ and enter into conversation with Him who alone is our salvation. In describing the inspiration for writing this apostolic letter on the Rosary, our Holy Father states: I have felt drawn to offer a reflection on the Rosary, as a kind of Marian complement to that letter [ Novo Millennio Ineunte ] and an exhortation to contemplate the Face of Christ in union with, and at the school of His Most Holy Mother ( RVM 3).

Contemplating the face of Christ is, at one and the same time, the contemplation of the mystery of our life in Christ, leading us to grow in Christs likeness, to grow in holiness of life (cf. RVM 5).

This apostolic letter on the Rosary not only helps us to uncover anew the power of this beloved prayer for our daily conversion of life to Christ, but it also contains a wonderful gift for our deeper contemplation of Christ and of the mystery of our life in Him. Our Holy Father offers to us five new mysteries of the Rosarythe Mysteries of Light or Luminous Mysteriesin order that our contemplation of the face of Christ could include the mysteries of Christs public ministry between His Baptism and His Passion ( RVM 19). Taking his cue from the words of the Gospel, While I am in the world, I am the light of the world (Jn. 9:5), our Holy Father has named the new mysteries The Luminous Mysteries. As the Holy Father observes, reflecting upon the public ministry of Jesus, beginning with His baptism in the Jordan and concluding with the celebration of the Last Supperor more accurately, the Institution of the Holy Eucharistwe see how Christ sheds divine light upon every aspect of our being and of our world.

In a certain way, the Holy Fathers gift of the Luminous Mysteries is inspired by the description of the Rosary given by Pope Pius XII and quoted by Pope Paul VI in his apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus : the compendium of the entire Gospel ( RVM 1, 19). The Luminous Mysteries permit our prayerful contemplation of the face of Christ and reflection upon our life in Christ to be more complete, to include the words and deeds of our Lord during His public ministry. The Holy Father, in a striking way, describes our spiritual life, our life of prayer and devotion, as the way to unite our poor hearts more completely to the Sacred Heart of Jesus ( RVM 19). Clearly, all of the mysteries of the RosaryJoyous, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Gloriouslead us to the heart of Jesus, to that font of immeasurable love. The mysteries of the Rosary lead us to God the Son who, through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, took a human heart under the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in order to save us from sin and everlasting death. Our Blessed Mother, who united her Immaculate Heart completely to the Sacred Heart of Jesus from the moment of the Incarnation, draws us to His glorious pierced Heart through the praying of the Holy Rosary.

Inspired by Rosarium Virginis Mariae , Tim Gray has prepared a series of meditations on the Luminous Mysterieshis own meditation and the meditation of one of the Fathers of the Church on the Word of God in which each mystery is revealed. His meditations, enriched by those of the Fathers of the Church, achieve the noble end for which he wrote them. They enrich our contemplation of the life of Christ and thereby deepen [our] Rosary meditation.

Tim Gray is an outstanding teacher of the Catholic faith, as he has demonstrated by his other writings and his presentations given to a variety of audiences. His love of Christ is transparent in his writing and inspires the reader to love Christ more fully and ardently. The Luminous Mysteries: Biblical Reflections on the Life of Christ is a most worthy tool for growth in the knowledge of Christ and growth in Christs likeness. It is a most worthy instrument for carrying out the new evangelization. It is my hope that his meditations will inspire the regular praying of the Rosary in all homes, so that they will become ever more the first place in which we come to know Christ and to live in Him. The new evangelization begun in the home will extend to our parishes and local communities, to our nation and our world.