The Healing Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary
THE HEALING MYSTERIES OF THE MOST HOLY ROSARY
The 1st Healing Mystery: JESUS HEALS THE MULTITUDES OF SICK
The 2nd Healing Mystery: JESUS HEALS THE LEPER
The 3rd Healing Mystery: JESUS HEALS THE MAN BORN BLIND
The 4th Healing Mystery: JESUS HEALS THE GERASENE DEMONIAC
The 5th Healing Mystery: JESUS RAISES LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD
My infant son was in the NICU for two nights this past weekend (note: he is back home and safe now, praise the Lord) and I felt a deep yearning from Our Lord to pray the Rosary—but which of the four mysteries to do I felt no clarity around. I reflected briefly on those myriad ways that our Lord heals in the gospels, and understanding that the purpose of the Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary is to provide an object of contemplation so that we may engage both forms of prayer in praying the Rosary—vocal and mental—I decided to pray this Rosary with each mystery dedicated to a different way in which our Lord healed people in his time here on earth.
I thought of those who are generally sick—the multitudes that he healed—; those who are born with some sort of handicap… I thought of those cleansed of what we would typically consider shameful diseases; I thought of those cured of blindness… I thought of those possessed of demons; and I thought of Lazarus, whom our Lord raised from death back to life. As the days went by I honed it in on the five mysteries enumerated above, and I decided that I would share these with others. There are so many times that people are sick or facing some form of affliction where a yearning to go to Our Mother arises. In practicing circles we’ll often even hear, “I will pray a Rosary for you”, but which mysteries to rightly pray has always escaped me, and I suspect it has escaped others too. I hope that others can find solace in these prayers, as Our Lady consoled me repeating them over and over.
The healing mysteries are meant to be systematic, from transient (innocent) illnesses, to culpable illnesses, to congenital defects, to spiritual illnesses, to death itself. In covering the whole range of possible types of illnesses, we pray for all the modes of healing that Our Lord showed us he desired to heal us in, and most certainly did, and most certainly continues to do. May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you in your trials and your afflictions, and may we not waver in our hope confronting & enduring them.
God is good and all His ways are just.+
Reflections
The 1st Healing Mystery:
JESUS HEALS THE MULTITUDES OF SICK
“And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or country, they laid the sick in the market places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched it were made well.” (Mk 6: 56)
Mt 8: 5-13; Mt 8: 14-17; Mt 15: 29-31
Mk 3: 7-12; Mk 6: 53-56
Lk 4: 38-41; Lk 6: 17-19
Cf.: Mk 1: 29-31; Jn 4: 46-54
The 1st Healing Mystery pertains especially to those who are transiently sick—those we take to be without any guilt for the illness they are afflicted by. Jesus healed all that came to him, and there were none that he turned away.
The 2nd Healing Mystery:
JESUS HEALS THE LEPER
“And a leper came to him begging him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. (Mk 1: 40-42)
Mt 8: 1-3
Mk 1: 40-42
Lk 5: 12-13
The 2nd Healing Mystery pertains especially to those who are sick by an illness they may even possess some guilt in having contracted. The Lord is moved by pity for us even in our sins, on account of our weaknesses, so that even when we sin—and even when we are moved imperfectly to regret our sins not for the sake of the sin itself, but on account of its consequence—He yet still desires always to heal us.
The 3rd Healing Mystery:
JESUS HEALS THE MAN BORN BLIND
“As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Silo’am” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.” (Jn 9: 6-8)
Jn 9: 1-12
Cf.: Jn 5: 2-9; Mt 9: 1-8; Mk 2: 1-12; Lk 5: 17-26
The 3rd Healing Mystery pertains to all those illnesses of congenital defects and analogizes to the defects and blindness of our spiritual nature. When asked why the man was born blind, Jesus responded, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.” We are given a profound peek into the divine workings of providence, allowing for our fall, and also for the myriad sufferings we face in this life—some of which we come into this life with. None of it is beyond the scope of God’s mercy, and he shows how ardently he desires to heal every part of us—most of all the defects of our souls.
The 4th Healing Mystery:
JESUS HEALS THE GERASENE DEMONIAC
“And they came to Jesus, and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the man who had had the legion; and they were afraid.” (Mk 5: 15)
“That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word.” (Mt 5: 16)
Mt 8: 28-34
Mk 5: 1-20
Lk 8: 26-39
Cf.: Mt 8: 16
Jesus, as God, has the power over all things in creation. He has the power to cast out demons at his command. Whereas the prophets of the Old Testament had to pray to God to cast out the demons they cast out, Jesus cast them out with perfect authority. “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” (Mk 5: 8). We see that the Lord desires not only to help us prepare for the Kingdom, but also to defend us against all the afflictions of the demons we may encounter in this life, and heal us of all our spiritual ills.
The 5th Healing Mystery:
JESUS RAISES LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD
“When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (Jn 11: 43-44)
“Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi”; which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and walked; for she was twelve yeaers old. And immediately they were overcome with amazement.” (Mk 5: 41-42)
Jn 11: 38-44
Cf.: Mt 9: 18-26; Mk 5: 38-43; Lk 8: 51-56
Jesus is the Lord of life and death—something he did not fail to prove in his time walking the earth. He raises Lazarus back to life from the dead; he raises the little girl back to life from the dead. He even gives the full extent of this authority and power to his Apostles (Acts 20: 9-12) in whom he says, “Verily, verily, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do.” (Jn 14: 12) If we but have faith, we will see that God works all things for good for those who love him (Rom 8: 28), that all God’s ways are just (Deut 32: 4), and that God is able to raise men even from the dead (Heb 11: 19).
Let us not fret the loss even of life, nor grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thess 4: 13), for we have an advocate in Heaven, and in the end we will see with sublime clarity the great perfection of all the works of God & His creation. +