Fr. Roger J. Landry
Meditations for the Worldpriest Virtual Rosary
March 31, 2022
On Thursday March 31, 2022, I was asked to lead the Rosary for the Worldpriest Virtual Monthly Rosary. Below is a recording of the prayer of the Rosary as well as the meditations prepared on the Luminous Mysteries, together with an introduction and concluding prayer.
To listen to the audio recording please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.31.22_Luminous_Mysteries_Meditations_1.mp3
Here are the written texts that guided the meditations:
Introductory Words
Earlier this month, on March 12, the Church celebrated the 400thanniversary of the most famous canonization ceremony of all time, when Pope Gregory XV proclaimed the sanctity of Ignatius Loyola, Teresa of Avila, Francis Xavier, Philip Neri and Isidore the Farmer, giants in the history of the Church who, through their example, writings, ecclesial foundations and heavenly intercession, continue very much to help and guide the Church.
Their 400thanniversary is something that should joyfully be celebrated not just on March 12 or even the whole month of March but all of 2022.
For that reason today, as we ask them to join us in prayer for all the intentions we bring to God through our Lady during this holy Rosary, we will ponder, during each of the mysteries, some aspects of their life and writings.
Let us begin: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The First Luminous Mystery — The Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan
When John was baptizing at the Jordan River, it was a sign of conversion and the need to be washed free of sin, but it was not yet a sacrament capable of cleansing us from sin. Everything changed when his cousin Jesus approached and descended into the waters. He sanctified the waters so that Christian baptism would be able to deliver on what John’s baptism indicated needed to be done — wash us free from all sin — and even more than that, have God the Father adopt us as his beloved sons and daughters in whom he is well pleased and have the Holy Spirit not only come down on us but dwell in us as his temple. What an awesome gift Baptism is!
This was the gift Saint Francis Xavier, the greatest missionary in the history of the Church after Saint Paul, brought to multitudes in Goa, the Pearl Fishery Coast of India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Japan and died on the shores of China seeking to bring there, too. By the reports he sent to St. Ignatius in Rome, he ended up personally baptizing 700,000 Christians. In Travancore on the southern tip of India, he baptized 10,000 in a month, until his arm went completely numb. That right arm is now enshrined in the Church of the Gesù in Rome as a witness not only to his heroic perseverance in bringing so many to the Christian life, but also of the importance of baptism for salvation.
We pray through his intercession asking for the grace of wonderous gratitude for the gift of our baptism, the most important day of our life, and for zeal like him to do our part in carrying out the Lord’s great commission, going to the whole world, proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to carry out everything Jesus has commanded, conscious that Jesus is with us always until the end of time.
The Second Luminous Mystery — The Wedding Feast of Cana
In Cana of Galilee, due to his Mother’s intercession, Jesus worked his first public miracle, changing 180 gallons — the equivalent of 912 seven-hundred-and-fifty-milliliter bottles — of water into precious wine. But the Church has always grasped that that act of co...