Joyful Mysteries (Monday, Saturday)
The Joyful Mysteries invite us to contemplate the Incarnation, and we enter into the wonder of Jesus coming to earth as a baby. We see the incredible story unfold through Mary’s eyes – the angel appear (The Annunciation), her cousin Elizabeth’s greeting (The Visitation), the birth of her son (The Nativity), and the significant events that point to who this child is and what he will do (The Presentation and Finding in the Temple). We are invited to do as Mary did and “reflect on them in [our] heart[s]” (Luke 2:19).

                                                Sorrowful Mysteries (Tuesday, Friday)
The Sorrowful Mysteries help us relive the passion and death of Jesus. We not only remember it, but we also enter in – we keep watch with Jesus in his distress before his arrest (The Agony in the Garden). We enter into his suffering with The Scourging at the Pillar, The Crowning of Thorns, and The Carrying of the Cross … and then we stand at the foot of that cross beside Mary as we witness his Crucifixion and Death. We attempt to understand the depths of God’s love for us as we reflect on the cost of our salvation and redemption. We feel this sorrow and contrition even more deeply as we imagine it through the eyes of his mother.

                                                    Luminous Mysteries (Thursday)
Through the Luminous Mysteries, we meditate on the events of Jesus’ public ministry: his revelation as the Beloved Son of the Father at the Baptism in the Jordan, his first public miracle at the Wedding at Cana, his Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, Jesus’ Transfiguration, and the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “In the Luminous mysteries, apart from the miracle at Cana, the presence of Mary remains in the background … Yet the role she assumed at Cana accompanies Christ throughout his ministry. The revelation made directly by the Father at the Baptism in the Jordan, also echoed by John the Baptist, is placed upon Mary’s lips at Cana, and it becomes the great maternal counsel that Mary addresses to the Church of every age: ‘Do whatever he tells you.'”

                                          Glorious Mysteries (Wednesday, Sunday)
In the Glorious Mysteries, we meditate on the awe-inspiring miracles that take place after Jesus’ death. These events show how Jesus is who he says he is – the Son of God. We experience the joy of the risen Christ and imagine ourselves as Mary or the first disciples (The Resurrection). As we pray, we see Jesus’ Ascension into heaven and the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The last two mysteries, though not explicitly mentioned in Scripture, come from hundreds of years of tradition based on passages from Revelation and the Song of Songs. We celebrate the grace and the role Jesus has bestowed upon his mother (The Assumption and Coronation of Mary), and we pray that where Mary goes, we will one day as well.