Our Lady's Rosary, updating Guardini II

After his first mention of the mysteries of the Rosary towards the end of the fourth chapter of Part 1 of The Rosary of Our Lady, the next place Romano Guardini mentioned the sets of mysteries that together make up the Rosary in its entirety is in his introduction to Part 2.

Fr Romano Guardini walking in the foreground

In the 1998 Sophia Institute Press' paperback edition of The Rosary of Our Lady, Part 2 is entitled, "A Short Interpretation of the Mysteries of the Rosary." It is in this section that Guardini next mentioned the cycles of mysteries that together compromise the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the edition I am using, it is the second paragraph of page 65. Below is my attempt to integrate the Luminous mysteries into the introduction to Part 2. Again, my words are in brackets. I think figuring out what words of von Schuecking's translation I have changed is easy enough:

There are [twenty] such mysteries, divided into [four] cycles named in accordance with their character: the Joyful, [the Luminous], the Sorrowful, and the Glorious Rosary. The first one contains the events of Jesus' childhood, the second those of His [earthly ministry], [the third] those of His Passion and death, [and the fourth] those of His glorification. In this way they span His whole life, and, united with His own, the life of Mary

Again, it surprises me that the lacuna between the Joyful and Sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary remained all the way until 2002, when Pope St John Paul II added the Luminous mysteries. In order, the mysteries of Light are: His Baptism by John in the Jordan, the Miracle at the Wedding Feast of Cana, His Proclamation of the Gospel after His 40 Days and Nights in the Desert, His Transfiguration, and His Institution of the Eucharist.

It seems pretty obvious that the three cycles did not, as Guardini suggested, span the whole of the Lord's life. There was a huge gap between the Blessed Virgin and St Joseph finding Jesus in the Temple, which is the last of the Joyful mysteries, and His Prayer in the Garden, which is the first of the Sorrowful mysteries. What happened during that "time"? That was the "time" of what is reckoned to be His approximately 3 years of ministry, which culminated, at least in the Synoptic Gospels (i.e., Matthew, Mark, and Luke), with His going up to Jerusalem, where the events of His Passion, death, and Resurrection occurred.

Next comes the difficult part - providing "A Short Interpretation" of the 5 Luminous mysteries. I am doing this for no other reason than I want to as a devotional act during Lent. Yes, it's weird being me. I happen to like it.

To be continued...