Hold on to Your Beads: Here Come the ‘Synodal Mysteries’ of the Rosary!

‘U.S. Catholic’ suggests you ‘expand’ your Rosary…

Hold on to Your Beads:
Here Come the ‘Synodal Mysteries’ of the Rosary!

Today we are happy to present to you a new addition to your ever-increasing ‘You can’t make this stuff up!’ folder.

The progressivist Novus Ordo rag U.S. Catholic, published by the USA-Canada province of the Claretian Missionaries, has published an article entitled “Expand your rosary with the ‘synodal mysteries'”. It was written by one Kevin Beck and proposes not just five mysteries to be added to the Holy Rosary but as many as 35 new ones — divided into “attentional”, “pentecostal”, “ecclesial”, “evangelization”, “reconciliation”, “missional”, and “pilgrimage” sets. But more on that in a moment.

In a way, the article is worth reading. It provides a glimpse into the frightful state of the Vatican II Church today.

The author relates:

When reciting the rosary during the synodal process, I wondered if scripture contained any mysteries resembling what I had been learning about synodality. The church’s original synod as described in Acts 15 seemed like a reasonable starting point. Five parallels became readily apparent, and they readily confirmed the church can address serious problems and new situations through a spiritual practice. I began praying them as the synodal mysteries of the rosary.

What Beck refers to as the “original synod” was in fact the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem, at which the Apostles, aided by the Holy Ghost (see Acts 15:28), settled the question of whether Gentiles who become Christians are subject to the Law of Moses and must be circumcised first, as the Judaizers maintained: “And the apostles and ancients assembled to consider of this matter”, we are told in Acts 15:6. When the deliberations were over, Pope St. Peter arose to announce and explain the verdict — in the negative, of course — and then Saints Barnabas, Paul, and James also spoke, the latter in his capacity as bishop of Jerusalem.

What does this have to do with ‘synodality’? Nothing. Nonetheless, the author is convinced he is on to something:

I paid special notice to occasions when disciples made decisions, encountered conflict, or proceeded in unexpected directions. Seven sets of five mysteries emerged, and I dubbed them the attentional, Pentecostal, ecclesial, evangelization, reconciliation, missional, and pilgrimage mysteries. Praying them has informed my understanding of synodality and shaped a fuller appreciation for the entire body of Christ.

Just as the traditional mysteries bear certain fruits, I have found these ones to have specific results.

The following is a list of Beck’s ‘synodal’ mysteries from the Acts of the Apostles, listed along with the fruits or results to be obtained, in his opinion:

Synodal Mysteries of the Rosary

Each Mystery (Acts of the Apostles). Fruit of the Mystery

Sunday: Attentional

1. Reading the Gospel (Acts 1:1–5). Listening to the scriptures
2. Waiting on the Spirit (Acts 1:6–11). Patience
3. Praying in the Cenacle (Acts 1:12–14). Inclusion
4. Peter Stands to Speak (Acts 1:15–22). Reciprocity
5. Selection of St. Matthias (Acts 1:23–26). Discernment

Monday: Pentecostal

1. Descent of the Spirit (Acts 2:1–4). Boldness of speech
2. Multitude in Jerusalem (Acts 2:5–13). Diversity
3. St. Peter’s Sermon, (Acts 2:14–40). Encounter
4. Baptism of the 3,000 (Acts 2:41–42). Generosity
5. Growth of the Church (Acts 2:43–47). Joy

Tuesday: Ecclesial

1. Healing at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:1–10). Giving what one has
2. Prayer after Persecution (Acts 4:23–31). Prayer
3. Care for the Needy (Acts 4:32–37). Generosity
4. Selection of Deacons (Acts 6:1–7). Collaboration
5. Burial of Stephen (Acts 8:1–2). Compassion

Wednesday: Evangelization

1. Philip and the Ethiopian Treasurer (Acts 8:26–40). Dialogue
2. Raising of Dorcas (Acts 9:36–43). Charity
3. Mission to Cornelius (Acts 11:1–18). Transformation of conflict
4. The Church in Antioch (Acts 11:19–26). Unity
5. Deliverance of St. Peter (Acts 12:11–17). Listening to unexpected voices

Thursday: Reconciliation

1. Controversy Concerning Circumcision (Acts 15:1–6). Discernment
2. Synod of Jerusalem (Acts 15:7–21). Communion
3. The Jerusalem Decree (Acts 15:22–29). Sensus Fidei
4. Reception of the Decree (Acts 15:30–35). Joy
5. The Disagreement between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:36–40). Evangelical frankness

Friday: Missional

1. Mission to Derbe and Lystra (Acts 16:1–5). Inculturation
2. Conversion of Lydia (Acts 16:9–15). Hospitality
3. St. Paul’s Speech in Athens (Acts 17:16–32). Proclamation
4. St. Paul in Ephesus (Acts 19:1–7). Conversion
5. Raising of Eutychus (20:7–12). Devotion to the Eucharist

Saturday: Pilgrimage

1. Arrival in Troas (Acts 21:1–6). Fruit: Setting sail
2. Prophecy of Agabus (Acts 21:7–14). Fruit: Trust
3. Sailing Toward Italy (Acts 27:6–9). Fruit: Perseverance
4. Shipwreck at Sea (Acts 27:9–44). Fruit: Listening in the Spirit
5. Arrival on Malta (Acts 28:1–10). Fruit: Assuming the best in others

If we add these to the traditional 15 mysteries — joyful, sorrowful, and glorious — and then also add the so-called ‘luminous’ mysteries ‘Pope’ John Paul II introduced in 2002, plus the five ‘hopeful’ mysteries proposed by ‘Bishop’ William Wack of Pensacola-Tallahassee, we get a whopping 55 mysteries in total. If Novus Ordos really want to pray all these during the week, a pamphlet to help remember them won’t do — they’ll need a whole catalog.

It is tragic and repulsive to see that the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is effectively becoming a toy for people who appear to have a love of novelty.

Let’s not fool ourselves here. This sort of thing is not an ‘expansion’ of the Rosary, it is its dissolution. Something like this doesn’t augment Mary’s Psalter, it gradually catapults it into irrelevance, at best. What may start out as a sincere and pious effort will quickly have the effect of cheapening and deconstructing it because once the tinkering begins, there is — logically — no stopping it. In the end, anything will do for a mystery, and at this point, the possibilities are endless: How about ecological, evolutionary, or cosmic mysteries? Or mysteries of accompaniment, discernment, and fraternity?

It’s not like the mysteries have to be Scripture-based. After all, the Vatican II Sect teaches: “The Church esteems the ways in which God works in other religions, and ‘rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions. She has a high regard for their manner of life and conduct, their precepts and doctrines which… often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men and women'” (Antipope Francis, Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, n. 271; quoting Vatican II, Declaration Nostra Aetate, n. 2).

Clearly, then, even interreligious mysteries shouldn’t be out of the question. Here are is a suggested set:

• First Interreligious Mystery: Paul VI signs the Vatican II Declaration Nostra Aetate
• Second Interreligious Mystery: John Paul II visits the Synagogue of Rome
• Third Interreligious Mystery: John Paul II presides over the Interreligious Prayer Meeting for Peace in Assisi
• Fourth Interreligious Mystery: John Paul II kisses the Koran
• Fifth Interreligious Mystery: Francis signs the Document on Human Fraternity with Muslim Imam Ahmed Al-Tayyib

‘Ecumenical mysteries’ would also have a nice ring to it. Just picture ‘Cardinal’ Kurt Koch together with the head of the Lutheran World Federation praying side-by-side in St. Peter’s Basilica, announcing: “The first ecumenical mystery: the nailing of the 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle”.

Such a scenario is not quite as absurd as it may seem at first. After all, a few years ago Martin Luther and his disciple Philipp Melanchthon were honored on a Vatican postage stamp to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the so-called Protestant Reformation, and the Vatican’s department for ecumenism has, in all seriousness, referred to the arch-heretic Luther as a “witness to the Gospel”. The Vatican II Church really is its own best parody.

Returning to sanity for a moment, we must point out that the 15 traditional mysteries with their 150 Haily Marys are no mere accident to be changed at whim. Each individual mystery centers in some way either on our Blessed Lord and Savior or on His Most Holy Mother, or on both. (In the Third Glorious Mystery, which commemorates the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Mother of God is gathered in the Cenacle with the Apostles.) Furthermore, the total number of Hail Marys in the 15 decades of the full Rosary corresponds to the number of Psalms found in the Old Testament.

As Pope St. Pius V explained:

And so [St.] Dominic looked to that simple way of praying and beseeching God, accessible to all and wholly pious, which is called the Rosary, or Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which the same most Blessed Virgin is venerated by the angelic greeting repeated one hundred and fifty times, that is, according to the number of the Davidic Psalter, and by the Lord’s Prayer with each decade. Interposed with these prayers are certain meditations showing forth the entire life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, thus completing the method of prayer devised by the by the Fathers of the Holy Roman Church.

(Pope Pius V, Bull Consueverunt Romani)

Furthermore, Pope Leo XIII made clear that

…in the Rosary all the part that Mary took as our co-Redemptress comes to us, as it were, set forth, and in such wise as though the facts were even then taking place; and this with much profit to our piety, whether in the contemplation of the succeeding sacred mysteries, or in the prayers which we speak and repeat with the lips”

(Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Iucunda Semper Expectatione, n. 2)

And in another place, the same Pope Leo taught:

And indeed in the Rosary, along with the most beautiful and efficacious prayer arranged in an orderly pattern, the chief mysteries of our religion follow one another, as they are brought before our mind for contemplation: first of all the mysteries in which the Word was made flesh and Mary, the inviolate Virgin and Mother, performed her maternal duties for Him with a holy joy; there come then the sorrows, the agony and death of the suffering Christ, the price at which the salvation of our race was accomplished; then follow the mysteries full of His glory; His triumph over death, the Ascension into heaven, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the resplendent brightness of Mary received among the stars, and finally the everlasting glory of all the saints in heaven united with the glory of the Mother and her Son.

This uninterrupted sequence of wonderful events the Rosary frequently and perseveringly recalls to the minds of the faithful and presents almost as though they were unfolding before our eyes: and this, flooding the souls of those who devoutly recite it with a sweetness of piety that never grows weary, impresses and stirs them as though they were listening to the very voice of the Blessed Mother explaining the mysteries and conversing with them at length about their salvation.

(Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Magnae Dei Matris, nn. 16-17)

Lastly, in a letter to the Master General of the Dominican order, Pope Pius XI wrote:

Among the weapons St. Dominic used to convert the heretics the most efficacious, as the faithful well know, was the Marian rosary, the practice of which, taught by the Blessed Virgin herself, has so widely spread throughout the Catholic world. Now where does the efficacy and power of this manner of praying come from? Certainly from the very mysteries of the Divine Redeemer which we contemplate and piously meditate so that we may rightly say that the Marian rosary contains the root and foundation on which the Order of St. Dominic depends, in order to procure the perfection of life of its own members and the salvation of other men.

(Pope Pius XI, Letter Inclytam ac Perillustrem, Mar. 6, 1934; found in English here.)

It may be doubted that contemplating dialogue, diversity, or inculturation as supposedly found in the Acts of the Apostles in Beck’s ‘synodal mysteries’ will do anything to help convert heretics or bring about the salvation of souls.

Obviously, it is not wrong to meditate on any particular portion of Holy Scripture. Certainly, one can meditate with profit on the creation of the world by God out of nothing, for example, or on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or on Our Lord’s cursing of the fig tree. But as spiritually profitable as meditation on these biblical texts may be, the mysteries they reveal are not part of the Holy Rosary.

Beware, then, of ‘expansions’ of the Rosary. They are not expansions, they are replacements. It is yet another way the devil is trying to get people to spend time doing something other than praying the Holy Rosary.

By the way, there is another truth of the Faith one can profitably meditate on outside of the Holy Rosary, and that is eternal punishment in hell for those who die impenitent.

We suspect, however, that no one in the Synodal Church will be terribly interested in meditating on that mystery.

Image source: composite with elements from Shutterstock (joscreative and Tetyana Afanasyeva)
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