Open Your Heart to Pray the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary as Recommended by Saint Pope John Paul II and often Recited on Thursdays
In 2002 Pope John Paul II added a set of five mysteries to the Rosary, called the Luminous Mysteries. They bring the total number of mysteries to 20.
The Joyful mysteries are recited on Monday and Saturday, the Sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday, the Glorious mysteries are prayed on Sunday and Wednesday, and the Luminous on Thursday. Variations of these had already been in use by saintly people like St. Louis de Montfort and George Preca and Patrick Peyton.
Pope John Paul II recommendedthe Luminous Mysteries (or the "Mysteries of Light") in his apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (October 2002).
In the Letter St. John Paul II writes:
Moving on from the infancy and the hidden life in Nazareth to the public life of Jesus, our contemplation brings us to those mysteries which may be called in a special way “mysteries of light”. Certainly the whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of light. He is the “light of the world” (Jn 8:12). Yet this truth emerges in a special way during the years of his public life, when he proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom. In proposing to the Christian community five significant moments – “luminous” mysteries – during this phase of Christ's life, I think that the following can be fittingly singled out: (1) his Baptism in the Jordan,
(2) his self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana,
(3) his proclamation of the Kingdom of God, with his call to conversion,
(4) his Transfiguration, and finally,
(5) his institution of the Eucharist, as the sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery.
Each of these mysteries is a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus.
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