The Nighttime Mysteries


Like much of the population over 50 in this country, I don't sleep well. So in the middle of the night as I lay awake, either never having fallen asleep or having woken up, I often say the Rosary. The Rosary is a Catholic prayer that takes about 20 minutes or so to pray. It is divided into five decades, with ten Hail Mary's and one Our Father and one Glory Be prayed for each decade. 

While praying the Rosary, we focus on different mysteries of the faith for specific days of the week. Sundays and Wednesdays are the Glorious Mysteries (Resurrection of Jesus, Ascension of Jesus, Descent of the Holy Spirit, Assumption of Mary, and Coronation of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth), Monday and Saturday are the Joyful Mysteries (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, Finding Jesus in the Temple), Tuesday and Friday are the Sorrowful Mysteries (Agony in the Garden, Scourging at the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns, Jesus Carries His Cross, Crucifixion and Death of Jesus), and Thursday is the Luminous Mysteries (Baptism of Jesus, Wedding at Cana, Proclamation of the Kingdom, Transfiguration, Institution of the Eucharist). While the Glorious, Sorrowful, and Joyful Mysteries have been part of the Church's teachings for centuries, Pope John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries in 2002 so that the public ministry of Jesus would be included in the Mysteries. 

Above are some of my Rosaries, though when I'm praying the Rosary in bed, I use my fingers. 

After years and years of saying the Rosary, I sometimes tire of the Mysteries so have taken to inventing new ones, often based on whatever my prayer is concerned with. Last night, I was concerned with not being able to fall asleep, so I thought about events from the Gospel that took place at night. Here were the mysteries I concocted. We'll call them the Nighttime Mysteries.

1. The Shepherds see the angels and star and find the Baby Jesus in the Manger.

2. Jesus wakes up in the boat with his disciples and calms the stormy seas.

3. Jesus goes up on the mountain and prays at night.

4. Judas betrays Jesus after his Agony in the Garden

5. Mary Magdalene sees the Resurrected Jesus before dawn at the tomb. 

I was happy to include the mystery of Mary Magdalene seeing Jesus at the tomb from the Gospel of John as it is one of my favorite scenes in scripture. 

But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell. me where you laid him, and I will take him." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher.  John 20:11-16

There are lovely details in this passage: Mary is the only of Jesus's followers at the tomb. As she announced his Resurrection to others, she has been bestowed with the title Apostle to the Apostles. She mistakes Jesus for the gardener, such a human detail to include. Then, in the speaking of her name, Mary recognizes Jesus. We love when those we love speak our name.

After I attended my spiritual needs with the Rosary, I got up to attend to my physical needs with a bowl of Cheerios with blueberries. I was only a little bit hungry but thought that perhaps the blood rushing to my stomach to aid digestion would help me fall asleep. Sitting at the kitchen table at 3:30 in the morning I pondered for the umpteenth time why Mary did not recognize Jesus, the person she loved more than anyone else, when it hit me. It was so obvious. Other than the fact that of course Jesus had died and Mary wouldn't be expecting to see him, Mary didn't recognize Jesus because it was dark in the early morning hour. 

We are all walking in darkness to a certain extent, but if we listen for the voice of Jesus, He will lead us to the light.

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