The Combined Tuesday Mysteries:
Sorrowful & Loveful
Here we will see that both the Sorrowful and Loveful Mysteries of the Rosary work very well together when prayed together on Tuesdays. Each set of mysteries has its own day. But on Tuesday, these two sets of mysteries come together. Before starting each decade, say the Sorrowful Mystery for that decade. Next, add on the Loveful Mystery for that same decade. Then pray the decade. Repeat for all five decades.
The Thoughts–in–Prayer reflections below are not intended to provide a full contemplation on these combined mysteries for our prayers. Over time, we should go even beyond them. Be quiet within yourself. Take as long as you need. As we continue praying the Rosary over time, our contemplation and understandings increase the time we spend with each decade. Here, we have just a starting point for that.
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First Decade
Sorrowful:
The Agony in the Garden;
Loveful: No Greater Love.
Thoughts in Prayer: Jesus is about to lay down His life for us. There is no greater love for us than what He is about to do.
“No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13;NCB)
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Second Decade
Sorrowful: The Scourging at the Pillar;
Loveful: Whatever You Do For One (You Do For Me).
Thoughts in Prayer: What can we do for Jesus in His terrible suffering? There is so little we can do. But Jesus gives us something. He tells us that whatever [good thing] we do for another in our lives, we do it for Jesus. Are we doing enough?
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Third Decade
Sorrowful: The Crowning with Thorns;
Loveful: The Greatest Commandment: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Everything in the Law and the Prophets depends on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40.)
Thoughts in Prayer: The crowning with thorns was worse than most people think. Here is more agony on the eventual road to Jesus’s death on the cross. But what, today, can any of us do?
The Greatest Commandment tells us that we must love God with everything we are. It is through love that we communicate with Jesus, who is God, in prayer. Here, our own love must reach back across the millennia to touch Jesus Himself in the midst of His great suffering. It is suffering He chose for our sins. He loves us. Our own love for God must be fuller than it is. Jesus has commanded us that it must be.
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Fourth Decade
Sorrowful: The Carrying of the Cross;
Loveful: The Beatitudes.
Thoughts in Prayer: Jesus made a terrible walk towards His eventual crucifixion. Yet, even on the way, He touched the lives of others. We commemorate some of those He touched through the Stations of the Cross.
We, too, walk through what is sometimes a difficult life. The Beatitudes give us the guidance we need to become stronger and holier. In that way, we might find ourselves welcomed by Jesus at the end of our own walk.
Along with much else, the Beatitudes contain a call to mercy (“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”). Mercy has been called the highest form of love. Yet, even beyond that, the Beatitudes is anchored with love. Read each of them. Consider how we might be affected or called.
Indeed, then, the Beatitudes are part of the help needed on the roadmap of our own lives. The Beatitudes help to guide us in the right direction trusting that the road we are traveling might eventually lead us, when we finally leave this world, to the love of Jesus. Yet they are not always easy to follow. They are not always even easy to understand.
To more fully understand this is to understand love as it is more correctly and more broadly defined.
(See: Is God The Actual Entity of Love?. Also see: The Rosary: The New Loveful Mysteries, Meditation Beads, and More.)
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Fifth Decade
Sorrowful: The Crucifixion;
Loveful: Pray Without Ceasing.
Thoughts in Prayer: Without prayer, there is no ongoing relationship with God. However, it is difficult for people to understand that love is, or should be, the vehicle of our prayers to God. Love provides us with the strongest connection with God because God Himself is Love (1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16).
Again I suggest that to better understand John’s words telling us that God is actually Love, you might read the book: Is God The Actual Entity of Love?
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We see that all of the Loveful Mysteries are indeed found within the framework of love. Each mystery supports that love.
But so did and does, the Passion of our Lord as we find in the Sorrowful Mysteries. Together, these two sets of mysteries provide us with an even greater understanding of our Lord’s Passion, as well as of His love for and within each of us.
©L. S. Scarpitta