The Glorious Mysteries

On the third day after his death and burial, Jesus Christ rises from the dead, conquering sin and death. The women who come to anoint his body find the tomb empty; angels announce that he has risen. He appears first to Mary Magdalene, who mistakes him for the gardener until he speaks her name. He appears to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, in the upper room, and at the Sea of Galilee. The Resurrection is the foundation of Christian faith. St. Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile” (1 Cor 15:17). The fruit of this mystery is faith — the living certainty that Christ has conquered death.

Forty days after the Resurrection, Jesus leads his disciples to the Mount of Olives near Bethany and is taken up into heaven as they watch, until a cloud conceals him from their sight. Two men in white garments appear and tell the disciples that Jesus will return in the same way they have seen him go. Jesus, in his glorified humanity, takes his place at the right hand of the Father — the humanity he assumed in the Incarnation now enthroned in God. The fruit of this mystery is hope: the confident expectation of sharing in the glory of the risen Christ.

Ten days after the Ascension, on the feast of Pentecost, the Apostles are gathered in prayer with Mary in the upper room when a sound like a mighty wind fills the house. Tongues of fire rest upon each of them and they are all filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in other languages so that pilgrims from every nation in Jerusalem hear the Gospel in their own tongue. Peter stands and preaches; three thousand are baptized. The Church is born. The fruit of this mystery is love of God: the charity poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5).

At the end of her earthly life, the Virgin Mary was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory. This dogma was defined by Pope Pius XII in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus (1950), which held that the Assumption is revealed truth “in virtue of which Mary, the immaculate perpetually Virgin Mother of God, after the completion of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into the glory of Heaven.” Mary is the first-fruits of the resurrection of the body that awaits all the faithful. The fruit of this mystery is the grace of a holy and peaceful death.

In the glory of heaven, the Virgin Mary is crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth, sharing in the eternal reign of her Son. The Book of Revelation describes a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head (Rev 12:1). Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of the Queenship of Mary, now celebrated on August 22. Mary’s queenship is a participation in Christ’s kingship — she reigns not with power of command but with the power of intercession and maternal love. The fruit of this mystery is trust in Mary’s intercession for all her children.