Gathering of 14 October 2025

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Original Sin and the “First Gospel”

 the First Mystery, we begin with the creation of Adam and Eve in the divine image and reflect on the fall of humanity from God's grace as sin and death enter into the world. We also ponder the first hints of the Good News as God promises "the Woman and her seed" would triumph over the deception of the Serpent. This is the first promise of the Savior one day to be born of the Virgin Mary, the beginning of God's loving plan of salvation.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

- Gen. 1:26-27

God’s Universal Covenant

In the Second Mystery, we meditate on God's judgment of sin in the world and His choice of Noah and His family as signs that His mercy endures forever. The rainbow, emblem of beauty and hope after the destructive storm has passed, foreshadows the covenant sign of God becoming human through the womb of the Virgin Mary who is the Temple of God's eternal Light from Light.

And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark; and cover it inside and out with pitch. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth; to destroy all flesh which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female." Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. - Gen. 6:13-14, 17-19, 22

God’s Promise of Fruitfulness

In the Third Mystery, we are invited to remember God's choice of Abraham to be the patriarch of God's People, Israel. Abraham's mission is to extend God's blessing to all the nations. which will be fulfilled in Christ and His Church. In particular, we recall "the binding of Isaac" when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son on Mount Moriah. This reminds us that all belongs to God and must be surrendered in service to His mysterious Providential design. By Abraham's act of radical trust and obedience. God's Angel holds back His hand, Abraham receives his son back as a pure gift, and God ratifies His covenant with Abraham to bless all nations through his descendants. This is also a foreshadowing of Jesus' own death and resurrection.

After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I" He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Morfah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." So Abraham rose carly in the morning saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; and he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. - Gen. 22:1-3

God saves His People, the Exodus

In the Fourth Mystery, we reflect on God's liberation of His People from slavery in the great Exodus out of Egypt through His chosen instrument, Moses. The Exodus story includes the sacrifice of the Passover lamb and the deliverance of the firstborn from death: Israel passing through the Red Sea into freedom; the feeding of God's People in the desert with heavenly manna; the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai in fire; and the forty-year journey to the Promised Land. These events remind us of our slavery to sin and need for a Savior, pointing to Christ's saving death and resurrection, the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Eucharist as a memorial sacrifice and the promise of eternal life.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, "…..Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; you shall take it from the sheep or from the goats; and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening. Then they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them..The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." - Ex. 12:1, 5-7, 13

God Prepares a Mother for His Son

In the Fifth Mystery, we contemplate the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary in the womb of St. Anne. Here, Mary was prepared by the Holy Spirit to be the worthy Mother of God, from whom God assumed our humanity as His own in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

From the very moment of her conception God preserved Mary from all stain of sin, and from all of the effects of sin, by the (future) merits of her Son's death and resurrection. Here is a great mystery: a Mother redeemed by her Son not even yet conceived! This great mystery was worked by the eternal God, who is outside of time. In this sovereign act. God the Father. through the working of the Holy Spirit, made Mary to be the "New Eve." She is the crown jewel of the saving work of His Son, Jesus Christ. She is the harbinger of a final masterpiece brought into being by the God who makes all things new. From Creation to Coronation, we cry out: Alleluia!

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" - Lk. 1:26-28