— Mysteria Gloriosa —

The Glorious Mysteries.
The King who came back.

Pray the five Glorious Mysteries — Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost, Assumption, Coronation — saying one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and a Glory Be while meditating on each. Traditionally prayed on Sundays and Wednesdays.

The five mysteries of victory. Christ rises, ascends, sends the Spirit, and brings his Mother home to reign beside him. The Rosary as the Church has prayed it for five centuries — given back with sacred art rendered for the man who wants to see what he is meditating on.

“Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia.”

He is risen, as he said, alleluia.

Full-screen images, one mystery at a time. Made for praying with a phone in your hand.

The Risen Christ stepping from the open tomb at dawn, the angel of the Lord seated on the rolled-back stone, four Roman guards fallen as dead men in the foreground, Jerusalem in the distance — sacred art for the First Glorious Mystery.

I.The First Glorious Mystery

The Resurrection of the Lord

— Resurrectio Domini —

“He is not here, for he is risen, as he said.”

— Matthew XXVIII : 6

He came back under his own power, and by the traditional reading the angel rolled the stone away after — to show the women what had already happened.

The body the Romans had broken three days before now bore the wounds of his Passion as marks of glory. Wrists pierced, feet pierced, side opened — all of it luminous now, none of it bleeding. The Glorified Body is the same body that died. It is not a different man. It is the same man, transfigured.

The guards quaked and became as dead men. They were not killed. They were unmade — pinned to the dirt by the weight of a moment the natural order was not built to contain. This is what God's enemies do when he steps forward.

This is the dawn the whole faith stands on. If he did not rise, none of it matters. If he did, nothing else does.

Fruit of the Mystery — Faith

The Risen Christ ascending into heaven from the Mount of Olives, hands raised in blessing, the Blessed Virgin Mary central among the Eleven Apostles below, two angels in white apparel flanking, Jerusalem in the western distance — sacred art for the Second Glorious Mystery.

II.The Second Glorious Mystery

The Ascension of the Lord

— Ascensio Domini —

“Whilst he blessed them, he departed from them, and was carried up to heaven.”

— Luke XXIV : 51

He went up by his own power. Not lifted. Not raised by another. He returned to his Father by right.

Forty days after Easter, on the ridge of the Mount of Olives looking west to Jerusalem, he gathered the Eleven and blessed them. Then he was taken up — and a cloud received him out of their sight (Acts 1:9).

Behold two men stood by them in white garments — Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven.

This is the answer to the man who wants to know where his Lord is. He is at the right hand of the Father, in the Body that walked the road to Emmaus. He has gone ahead to prepare a place. Because he has, you also know where you are going.

Fruit of the Mystery — Hope of Heaven

Pentecost in the Upper Room — the Blessed Virgin Mary kneeling at center surrounded by the Twelve Apostles, cloven tongues of flame above each, a column of divine light descending from the parted ceiling, Jerusalem visible through the arched window — sacred art for the Third Glorious Mystery.

III.The Third Glorious Mystery

The Descent of the Holy Spirit

— Descensus Spiritus Sancti —

“And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”

— Acts II : 3–4

The Promise made operational. The Spirit who had hovered over the waters at the beginning now came to rest on the men who would build the Church.

The Cenacle, the third hour of the morning. A sound like rushing wind filled the house. The fire divided into individual tongues and rested on each disciple — not a generic blessing on a crowd, but a specific gift to each man in the room. Mary among them, the only one of them who had been bearing the Holy Spirit since the Annunciation.

Within hours these men would walk into the streets of Jerusalem and begin proclaiming a Risen Messiah to the city that had crucified him a few weeks earlier. By ancient tradition all but one of them would die for that proclamation. The Spirit they received that morning is the same Spirit you received at Confirmation — the same fire on your head, only quieter, waiting for the moment you stop refusing it.

Fruit of the Mystery — Love of God & the Gifts of the Spirit

IV.The Fourth Glorious Mystery

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

— Assumptio Beatæ Mariæ Virginis —

“the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

— Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, MCML

The Mother followed her Son. Not in spirit only — body and soul. The dogma the Church defined in 1950.

She had borne him, raised him, watched him die, and stood with the Eleven at Pentecost. When her course was finished, the King would not leave his Mother in the dust. He came to meet her. In the old tradition the apostles found her tomb empty, filled with white lilies and red roses where her body had lain.

What was promised to her by privilege is promised to you by inheritance: the resurrection of the body, the life of the world to come. She is the first of the redeemed to receive it. She is what every soul in a state of grace is on the way to becoming.

Pray for the grace of a happy death. The Mother who was assumed will not abandon her sons in their last hour.

Fruit of the Mystery — Devotion to Mary & a Happy Death

V.The Fifth Glorious Mystery

The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

— Coronatio Beatæ Mariæ Virginis —

“And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

— Apocalypse XII : 1

She is Queen because her Son is King. Not by metaphor. Not by sentiment. By the custom of the House of David, the Mother of the King reigns at his right hand.

In the kingdom of David, the king's wives were many; the king's mother was one. So Bathsheba sat at the right of Solomon: a throne was set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right hand (3 Kings 2:19). So Mary sits at the right of the Son of David, and so the saints have brought their needs to her.

She is the woman of Genesis 3 who crushes the serpent's head, and the woman of Apocalypse 12 clothed with the sun. Her queenship is real queenship. Her intercession is real intercession. The Catholic man who does not call on his Queen Mother in his fight has misunderstood the kingdom he was baptized into.

End the Rosary at her feet. She brought you to her Son the first time. She will bring you to him at the last.

Fruit of the Mystery — Trust in Mary's Intercession

Free printable · The Rosary Card

All twenty mysteries, which set to pray on which day, and the prayers for one decade, on one sheet for your pocket, your car or the kitchen table. Enter your email and we’ll open the card; you’ll also get the Sunday Sanctum Dispatch. Unsubscribe any time.

Pray it tonight.

The Rosary works whether you feel anything or not. The mind goes where the eyes go — that is why the Church gave you images. Set the painting before you, say the decade, let the mystery do its work.

Per Mariam ad Iesum.
Through Mary, to Jesus.

The other sets — Joyful · Sorrowful · Luminous · All four sets

Questions on the Glorious Mysteries

What are the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary?

The Glorious Mysteries are the five mysteries of Christ's victory and his Mother's glory prayed in the Holy Rosary: (1) The Resurrection — “He is not here, for he is risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:1-10); (2) The Ascension — he led them out as far as Bethania, blessed them, and “was carried up to heaven” (Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:9-11); (3) The Descent of the Holy Ghost — at Pentecost “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:1-4); (4) The Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into heaven; (5) The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven, read with the “woman clothed with the sun” who wears “a crown of twelve stars” (Apocalypse 12:1).

What days are the Glorious Mysteries prayed?

Wednesdays and Sundays. Until 2002 the custom was “Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday,” as Saint John Paul II recorded in Rosarium Virginis Mariae (October 16, 2002). To make room for the Luminous Mysteries on Thursday, he suggested that the Joyful Mysteries “could be moved to Saturday,” which leaves Wednesday and Sunday to the Glorious. The pattern “is not intended to limit a rightful freedom in personal and community prayer.”

Where does the Church's teaching on the Assumption come from?

The Church holds it as dogma: on November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII defined in Munificentissimus Deus “that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” He noted that theologians and preachers “have been rather free in their use of events and expressions taken from Sacred Scripture to explain their belief in the Assumption,” and that “All these proofs and considerations of the holy Fathers and the theologians are based upon the Sacred Writings as their ultimate foundation.”

What is the Coronation of Mary?

The fifth Glorious Mystery contemplates Mary as Queen. John Paul II: “Crowned in glory – as she appears in the last glorious mystery – Mary shines forth as Queen of the Angels and Saints, the anticipation and the supreme realization of the eschatological state of the Church.” Pope Pius XII established a feast of Mary's Queenship, “to be celebrated every year in the whole world,” in his encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam of October 11, 1954.