The Five Marian Mysteries of the Universal Orthodox Rosary (Part III of UOX series)
Before I begin - Liturgy has two dates left on our East Coast tour:
June 14 - Philadelphia at Milkboy with Mt. Ida and Gr/eay
June 15 - NYC at Le Poisson Rouge with Salomé, Emmett Palaima and Jade
This post initiates a series on the twenty five mysteries of the Universal Orthodox Christian Rosary. I’ve already discussed the set prayers and history of the rosary in two previous posts - now we turn to the mysteries, the second layer of prayer, imagined in the mind’s eye during the counting of beads and set prayers. I’ll start with an overall explanation of the logic of the selection of full set and then go through the first five mysteries.
Introduction: The Need for Five Additional Mysteries
At the time of the Council of Trent the Rosary included three sets of five mysteries - five Joyful, devoted to Christ’s birth; five Sorrowful, devoted to his crucifixion; and five Glorious, devoted to his resurrection and the events that followed. In 2002 (yes, just 22 years ago), the Pope added a set of five Luminous mysteries devoted to Christ’s actual ministry - a very strange oversight to have taken so long to correct, if you ask me.1
These twenty mysteries are placed in chronological order, and any one set of five can be used to pray an entire round of the Rosary, silently contemplating one mystery for each of the five decades (sets of ten beads).
In order to bring the Rosary in line with the Orthodox faith, it is necessary to add another six mysteries, dispersed across the chronology, to remove one, and to regroup things slightly, categorizing some of these in an initial added set of ‘Marian’ mysteries and arriving at not four but five sets total.
In other words, on top of the five-set added in 2002, which brought Catholicism closer to Protestantism, an additional five-set is needed to bring it in line with Orthodoxy. It is to the Marian mysteries - devoted to Mary’s life prior to the birth of Jesus, that this post is devoted. In the outline that follows, I will star the mysteries that I am proposing to add and leave already accepted ones unstarred.
The Marian Mysteries
The Birth of Mary*
Mary was born miraculously to parents who were until then seemingly unable to have children. There is disagreement between Orthodox and Catholic Christians over whether she was born ‘without sin’ and what exactly this would mean. But she and her birth were special. Mary was not God, but rather something like the greatest bodhisattva to ever walk the earth. In the Orthodox Faith, the birth of Mary is more prominently celebrated than in other denominations. Her birth is the beginning of the gospel.
Mary enters the Holy of Holies*
At age three she was brought to the Second Temple at Jerusalem to be initiated as a sacred virgin, and, in an unprecedented event, she entered its inner chamber, the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, and to which even priests did not normally have access except on special occasions. This was a sign of her identity as the Ark itself, the Shekinah (not as God but as ‘more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim’). It is also a sign both of Christianity’s divergence from and essential connectedness to Judaism, also evidenced by the presence of a Holy of Holies within the sanctuary of every Orthodox Church, something not found in any other denomination or even in most synagogues.
The Annunciation
Probably the most painted event in Mary’s life, the Angel Gabriel came to her to announce that she would give birth to God. She assents to her mission, not as a mere vessel but as an agent activity affirming it. Mary might have held back from this task but she did not - we owe her our gratitude for this. Each of us is called to walk in her footsteps and give birth to the portion of God allotted to us according to our circumstance and ability, and we each have the power to either respond to or turn away from this call.
Mary visits Elizabeth
While pregnant with Jesus, Mary visites her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist. The first sign that Jesus is the Messiah is received by an unborn child: John kicks in Elizabeth’s womb, indicating that he understands that the messiah is near. The meaning of this mystery is the immateriality of Jesus’s spirit, having nothing to do with the senses or the mind. A child in the womb was even able to rejoice at Jesus’s conception. And there is also an admonition here: John had the humility to rejoice in the conception of one greater than he, rather than be envious that he himself was not the messiah. As Christians we are called to recognize that, while each of us has a kernel of God in her heart, we are not God.
The three Magi*
Jesus provided a new law not just for Jews and Romans but also for Zoroastrians. The continuity between Zoroastrian religion and Christianity is an important dimension of UOX. The Zoroastrian Magi of the Persian empire were able to accurately follow a star to his birthplace, because he was a messiah for their own religion too. One meaning of this episode is that esotericism used correctly is not prohibited. This post is elaborated at length in Tomberg’s writings. Another essential meaning is that Zoroastrianism and Christianity have a common history, and that it is inaccurate and ideological to think of Christianity as a ‘Western’ religion at all.
Commentary on the Marian Mysteries
The only two of the mysteries just described included in the Catholic rosary are the Annunciation and the Visitation. This does not do her justice. Mary is the most important ordinary human being ever born, so her birth and presentation must be included. The three Magi must be included in part to underscore the importance of Zoroastrianism and Astrology, as well as because it is one of the most well-known episodes in Christ’s life, yet few understand who the Magi really were. Traditionally, the Annunciation and Visitation have been included in the Joyful mysteries, but given the three additions here, it is best to give Mary a set all her own as I’ve done here: The Marian Mysteries
Explained perhaps by the fact that the rosary was developed by a church which is somewhat less than faithful to Christ’s teachings