[dsc]

So, has everyone just gone ahead and adopted the Luminous Mysteries?

[topher]

The other Mysteries are about the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Is it wrong to pray and meditate about the life of Jesus?

Originally, people (monks) would read the books of Psalms to meditate. But because it was not easy to make copies of the Book of Psalms, the Rosary was developed (which means Crown of Roses).

[Mrs. Don-o]

There is no Church legislation of any kind on how the Rosary is to be recited. Even when it's done in public, it is still considered a private devotion. Different religious orders long have different customary forms. Even the Chaplet of Divine Mercy can be seen as a distinctively different variation on the Rosary.

I have heard a little --- but only a very little ---- objection to the Luminous Mysteries: not because they're doctrinally wrong, of course but simply because they are, in the context of the Rosary, an innovation.

There may be some who simply would prefer the 15 mystery version for more personal reasons. I'm thinking of Rumer Godden's novel, "Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy" --- she liked to examine the balance between the mystical, spiritual aspects of religion and the practical, human realities of a believer's life.)

[DumbestOx]

No. Prayer is good, and the so-called luminous mysteries may be fine in themselves, but have nothing to do with the Rosary. The Rosary is also known as Mary’s Psalter, being essentially 150 prayers mirroring the 150 Psalms read regularly by Priests, but oriented to laymen who may be illiterate and certainly have no hand-copied Psalter available. The advent of the printing press changed the circumstances, but the Rosary is ‘canonized’ by immemorial custom and promoted as such by many Popes.

[Salvation]

All 20 of the mysteries, excepting two, pertain to Christ in some way.

[Mad Dawg]

FWIW, though aware of the breaking of the numerical association of the Rosary with the Psalter and of the lessened Marian connotations or emphasis, I find the luminous mysteries very fruitful.

I also, throughout my allegedly adult life (with its alleged thought) have been very much taken with the kind of “enlightenment” that is proclaimed in the Feast and the idea of “Epiphany.” I find the later Heidegger and the “phenomenological personalism” (Dawg, wash your mouth out with soap!) of St. JP Magnus really congenial. It's where my though and my “askesis” (such as it is) were taking me anyway.

So I'm always happy when Thursday rolls around and I get to meditate on these mysteries.