THE
FIVE
GLORIOUS
MYSTERIES

“On their way down the mountain,
he urged them not to tell anyone
what they had seen
until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
They seized upon those words,
and discussed them among themselves
what this ‘rising from the dead’ could mean.”
Mark 9: 9-10

1

THE RESURRECTION

And on the third day
Jesus rose from the dead.

It was a new day.
It was the eight day.
It was a new creation.

The new Adam was calling us
back into the Garden of Earth
to make it a new creation.

The Father lifts up the Son
to dawn on all the world.
There is light.
Darkness and night are never forever.
Easter.
Resurrection
Meaning.

Life has a new beginning,
when all seems ended.

Life has meaning
when all seems ended,
when everything seems like a cemetery,
when things are burnt to the ground;
we can start once again.

We can always start again.

Resurrection means
there is an around the corner.

Resurrection means
there is greener grass in our yard too.

Starting again.
Conversion.
Baptism.
Rebirth.

Graves, flowers, minds opening.
A great awakening.

And on that first day of the new week
Mary and the women went to the grave
and they found it empty, open.

Hope.

And they experienced Resurrection.
They experienced Jesus,
the dove returning from the other side of death
with the olive branch, the sign of peace.

And they rushed to tell the apostles.
There they were still in the darkness of the upper room –
a tomb, and suddenly Jesus stood in their midst
and also gave them a sign of peace.

Easter.
A new day,
a new way of seeing things,
a new way of seeing Christ.
a new way of seeing each other.
a new way of seeing life.

Easter:
the day the apostles rose from the dead!
And Mary again rejoiced in God her savior,
because he who was humbled has been exalted, alleluia.
And the early church began to bud,
began to green, began to grow.
The fig tree we all thought dead has suddenly come to life and gives fruit.

2

ASCENSION

“And I –
once I am lifted up from the earth –
will draw all to myself.”

Jesus’ life can be described
as a life of perpetual motion,
an eternal dance,
in Mary, in Bethlehem, in Nazareth,
in the desert, in the synagogues,
in the streets, in the valleys,
in the mountains,
and finally in making that last trip to Jerusalem,
to the temple, to the upper room,
to the garden, to the cross.

“And I - once I am lifted up from the earth –
will draw all to myself.”

But his being lifted up to die on the cross
was not the end of the motion or “commotion” called “Christ.”

We believe in the resurrection of the body.

Appearances to women,
to the apostles, to Thomas, to 500, Emmaus, Galilee,
and now in this moment of ascension to the heavens.

“And I - once I am lifted up from the earth –
will draw all to myself.”

And the motion continues,
the going to prepare a mansion for us,
the going into the innermost sanctuary of heaven
to pray for us, the eternal journey to the Father.

“And I - once I am lifted up from the earth –
will draw all to myself.”
And yet Jesus is still with us all days
even to the end of the world.

Mystery. Paradox.
Here and not here.

Are we now his motion,
his presence, his witnesses, his servants,
his Body, his Light, giving people hope,
lifting people up,
helping this generation in their journey to the Father,
to the mansion, the innermost sanctuary of heaven,
to pray with Jesus for the next generation?

“And I - once I am lifted up from the earth –
will draw all to myself.”

3

THE DESCENT
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Mary was there in the Upper Room
when on the day the Spirit –
a howling wind –
shook the house
where they were staying.

The Upper Room
was the Inner Room
of the Early Church.
There, Mary,
and the other women
and the apostles
hid, gathered, helped each other.

They gathered themselves
in prayer, in poverty, in community, in fear and in love.

Then on the feast of Pentecost,
the Wind, the Breath, the Fire,
the Spirit of God came
and burst and filled the Upper Room.

It was a new day,
the next day of creation,
the Wind sweeping over the waters,
and once again the voice, “Let there be light!”

Come Holy Spirit!

There was a New Pillar of Fire
burning its WAY across the desert
into the Promised Land,
into Jerusalem, into the upper room.

“Let there be fire.”

Come Holy Spirit!

It was the Spirit
whom all the prophets,
especially Isaiah and Jesus spoke about,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me;
therefore, he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives,
recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners.
To announce a year of favor from the Lord.”

Come Holy Spirit!

And Peter stood up
and began to speak
with spirit, with fire.
The fisherman
began to proclaim glad tidings to the poor,
that their nets can be filled with the Lord.

And cripples walked.
And prisoners were released.
And a new year, a new age, a new people arose.

As Ezekiel predicted,
the dead bones came back to life,
came back filled with Spirit.
Look at the change in Peter.
Look at the change in Paul.
Imagine what could have happened to Judas.

And the crowd thought
these men were drunk with wine.
They were new wine
in new wine skins,
about to ferment,
about to burst
and be poured out upon the earth.

They spoke and all understood them.
The word the seed,
was scattered to the Wind,
to Antioch, to Ephesus, to Greece, to Rome,
yes to the very ends of the earth.
Come Holy Spirit!

Day by day they increased in numbers.

Day by day the poor in spirit
began to inherit the kingdom,
to “inherit the Wind”,
to inherit the gifts of the Spirit.

The fiery hand of God burned their hearts.

The people in darkness have seen a great light.

4

THE ASSUMPTION

“Death where is thy mortal sting?”

And Mary was assumed,
taken up to heaven.

And Mary went with haste
into the hill country.

“Eye has not seen,
nor ear heard,
nor has it entered into the human heart
what things God has prepared for those who love him.”

The Mother of God,
the Mother of Jesus,
the Mother of the Church,
was taken to the mansion prepared for her by her Son.

The New Eve,
the maid servant of the Lord,
is returned to the Garden of Paradise.

The assumption was an annunciation,
a visitation, a nativity, a presentation,
and a finding of Mary in the temple of the Lord.

The assumption of Mary
was a resurrection,
an ascension into heaven,
a message to all of us
that if Christ had not risen from the dead,
none of us can arise from the dead.

We believe in the resurrection of the body.

Christ is risen from the dead, Alleluia.

Mary is assumed into heaven, Alleluia.

All who die in Christ
are taken into the Father’s house,
into the banquet hall,
into the hall of Light.

This is our faith,
our belief in a beyond,
where with Christ
we will be whole again, body and soul.

We believe in life after death.
“O death where is your mortal sting?
O death where is your victory?”

O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to you.

5

THE CROWNING OF MARY
QUEEN OF HEAVEN

And Mary is crowned Queen of Heaven.
The Son honors the Mother.

The Father honors the Daughter.

The Spirit honors the Bride.

And on her head is placed
a crown of twelve stars.

A great sign appeared in the sky.

And heaven rejoices in Mary’s crowning in heaven.

And earth sings her praises every since
in the Magnificat, the Salve Regina,
the Ave Maria, the Regina Coeli,
the songs, Hail Mary: Gentle Woman,
and Immaculate Mary.

And shrines are built at
Ephesus, Rome,
Chartres, Notre Dame,
Lourdes, Fatima,
Guadalupe, Medjurgoria.

Blessed are you among women.

And women and men after Mass in church,
and women and men driving to work,
and families ever since,
say the Rosary,
saying on and on and on,
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.”

And icons, pictures, statues,
medals, churches,
have been made to her ever since.
Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help,
Handmaid of the Lord,
Queen of Peace,
watches over us your daughters and your sons. Amen.

GROWING OLDER

Lord,
as I grow older,
help me to be wiser,
having learned from my successes,
but especially from my failures,
becoming sweeter, not bitter, not sour,
not angry at myself or others
because of doors and dreams never opened.

Lord,
as I grow older,
I don’t want to be a burden
to others, but if I need help,
help me to accept another’s hand
without resentment, without rejection,
growing older, ever so graceful,
ever so grateful. Amen.

(c) Andy Costello,  Reflections, 2007