The Glorious Mysteries close the Rosary. Where the Joyful set ends in a temple and the Sorrowful on a hill, this one begins at an empty tomb and ends under a crown. They trace what happened after Good Friday: the Resurrection, the Ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the two mysteries the Church holds about Mary, assumed into heaven and crowned there.
Before sunrise the women carry spices to the tomb and find the stone rolled back. An angel says he is not here; he has risen, as he told you. Peter and John run and see the burial cloths lying where the body had been. Mary Magdalene stays behind weeping in the garden until the risen Christ speaks her name, and two disciples walking to Emmaus recognize him only when he breaks the bread. Hold in mind that grief does not get the last word.
Forty days after rising, Jesus leads the disciples out toward Bethany, lifts his hands and blesses them, and is carried up while a cloud hides him from their sight. Two men in white ask why they stand staring at the sky and promise he will return in the same way. He has already told them they will be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. Hold in mind that Christ is not absent; he is present everywhere at once.
On the day of Pentecost the disciples are gathered in one room with Mary when a sound like a driving wind fills the house and tongues of fire rest on each of them. They begin to speak in other languages, and the crowd outside hears its own tongues telling the mighty works of God. Peter, who had denied him, stands and preaches, and three thousand are baptized that day. Hold in mind that courage is given, not summoned.
The Church teaches that Mary, having finished her earthly life, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, a doctrine defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Revelation shows a woman clothed with the sun and crowned with stars, and the Church reads her as the mother of the Messiah, kept from the corruption of the grave. What happened to her is promised to us in part: the body too will rise. Hold in mind the resurrection of your own body.
Revelation sees the woman crowned with twelve stars, and the Church names her Queen of Heaven and Earth: crowned not for her own sake but because she is the mother of the King, and she serves him still by praying for us. Her last recorded words in Scripture are, do whatever he tells you. At Cana she noticed what was missing and brought it to her Son. Hold in mind that her crown points away from herself, toward Christ.
The Glorious Mysteries are prayed on Wednesday and Sunday. Sunday comes first: it is the day of the Resurrection, the weekly celebration of Easter, and the Church keeps it as the Lord's Day, so the Resurrection and what follows are the fitting mysteries for it. Wednesday carries no feast of its own; it was set aside for this set so that the week would not pass without the Resurrection announced in its middle. The arrangement is custom rather than law. Any mystery may be prayed on any day, and the Glorious set is often chosen at funerals and in Eastertide.
Pray the Glorious Mysteries in Rosaria
Rosaria shows the day's mysteries already chosen, steps you through every prayer, and keeps a simple streak. Free, no account needed, works offline.