Friday, October 23, 2020 –
The Third Glorious Mystery: The Descent/Coming of the Holy Spirit
Christ sends the Holy Ghost to look after His Church
MANY HAVE WISHED that Our Blessed Lord had remained on earth, that we might have heard His voice, seen His compassionate eyes, and brought our children to be blessed by His hands. But He said, “I can say truly that it is better for you I should go away; He who is to befriend you will not come to you unless I do go, but if only I make my way there, I will send Him to you.”
If our Lord had remained on earth, He would have been only a symbol to be copied – not a life to be lived. By returning to His heavenly Father, He could then send both from the Father and Himself the Holy Spirit that would make Him live on earth in His new Body, which is the Church.
The human body is made up of millions of cells, and yet is one because vivified by one soul, presided over by a visible head, and governed by an invisible mind. So on Pentecost, the Apostles, who were like the cells of a body, became Christ’s Mystical Body, because vivified by His Holy Spirit, governed by one visible head, Peter, and presided over by one invisible head, Christ in heaven. Our glorious Church is not an organisation, but an organism. As our Lord once thought, governed, and sanctified through a human body, which He took from the womb of His blessed Mother, so now He teaches, governs, and sanctifies through His Mystical Body, the Church, which He took from the womb of humanity overshadowed by His Holy Spirit.
Christ was infallible when He talked through a human body; He is still infallible when He teaches through a mystical Body. Christ sanctified when He forgave sins with human lips; He sanctifies still when He forgives sins through the power of His priests. Christ governed through His human Body, and He governs still. “He that heareth you, heareth Me.”
As a drop of blood can live in the body, but cannot live apart from the body, so neither can any of us live the fullness of the Christ Life except in His Mystical Body, the Church.
For each bead (1-10) in the decade, meditate (think) on the list below:
- The apostles are gathered in the upper room where Jesus had held the Last Supper.
- They are persevering in prayer with Mary the Mother of Jesus.
- A sound comes from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it fills the whole house.
- The Holy Spirit descends on each of them in the form of tongues of fire.
- Filled with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, they are enlightened and strengthened to spread the Gospel.
- Having lost all fear of the Jewish leaders, the apostles boldly preach Christ crucified.
- The multitudes are confounded because every man hears them speak in his own tongue.
- The Holy Spirit comes upon the Infant Church never to leave it.
- That first day Peter goes forth to preach and baptizes three thousand.
- The feast of Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, for on that day it begins to grow.
Spiritual Fruit of the Mystery: Love of God and Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Queen of virgins, pray for us!
NOTE: These meditations are a compilation of several different sources that I have found helpful over the years:
- Meditations on the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary by Fulton Sheen
- Praying the Rosary without Distractions from The Rosary Center and Confraternity
- Pray the Rosary Daily from Marian Press
- Quick Meditations on Every Mystery of the Rosary by Ascension Press
