It is a mental type of prayer because we no longer use words to give attention to God. Christian meditation aims to find out what God wants us to do, so it should not be confused with Eastern meditation, whose goal is tranquility.

The third form of prayer is contemplation. There are two sub-types of this prayer mode. The first is regular contemplation, where we put ourselves in front of God – usually beholding the Blessed Sacrament – simply to bask in his presence. The other sub-type is infused contemplation. This is when God himself lifts us so we can gaze at him profoundly and spiritually. We cannot produce infused contemplation because it is a gift from God. We have no control over when or where it happens or how long it will last. The only thing we can do is accept it.

Clearly, from this definition, it is not infused contemplation we are being asked to do. Instead, from context, “contemplating the mysteries of the Holy Rosary” means to reflect on the mystery at hand while praying the vocal prayers, so we become present in that scene in Christ’s life.

This might come as a shock to most of us who have been taught to concentrate on every word that is being said in prayer. It might also seem odd to think about something while saying the rosary because praying vocally and reflecting on something else do not instinctively go together. We usually stop one to do the other. But saying the vocal prayers while meditating simultaneously is precisely what Popes Saint John Paul II and Paul VI advocate us to do. Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen has this to say about the rosary:

“It is a prayer that has a beautiful combination. I don’t think there is any prayer in the world that has the combination of the rosary. First of all, it is vocal: we say some prayers with..."

At the Descent of the Holy Spirit, Mary was with the apostles when it was time for the Paraclete to be sent to them as representatives of the Church. Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, we may imagine Christ is with the Father when they send the Holy Spirit to them.

At The Assumption and The Coronation of Mary as Queen, how can we not imagine Christ there to receive his mother and crown her? When her body and soul were taken up to heaven, it would be absurd that no one would receive her there. And if there were persons there to do so, it would be doubly absurd if Christ was not one of them. The same thing goes for The Coronation. As we will see later, the reason why Mary is Queen is that her son is King. How nonsensical it would be for a Queen to be crowned without the King, who is the cause of her queenship.

With this as context, let us ensure Christ is in each mystery, for his is the face we want to “read.”

Gaze at Christ the way his mother did

When Jesus was born, Mary gazed tenderly at her son's face as she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. With that gaze, she was filled with so much adoration and wonder that she would never leave him – not even taking her eyes away from him until his death.

No one ever devoted themselves to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary did. When she found Jesus in the temple, her way of contemplating him was to ask him, “Son, why have you done this to us?”

Her penetrating gaze can deeply understand Jesus to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, just like in the Wedding in Cana. We try to replicate this kind of gaze, so we know Christ with such intimacy.

If they were filled with dread and weakened from the angel’s manifestation, Mary did not fear and become weak at Gabriel’s presence. Maybe it was because her perfection by grace was far more magnificent than his was.

There are two parts of the angel's message that is the cause of Mary’s distress. The first is “Hail, full of grace.” This seemingly short and trite greeting should not be distressing at all – unless we break it down to its structure. Usually, the name or title of the person comes after “Hail.” Romans, for example, greeted their leader, “Hail, Ceasar!” In the later and darker years of World War II, the Nazi party greeted their Führer as “Heil, Hitler.” Therefore, when we apply this syntax to Gabriel’s greeting, it is as if “Full of Grace” is the name or title of Mary.

If this is so, we don’t think it was Gabriel who gave Mary a new name, but God himself. From Old Testament times, it was God who changed the names of people. He changed Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, and Jacob to Israel, to name a few. Since he is the creator, he reserves the right to change the names of people according to the role they are to play in his plan.

The second part of Gabriel’s greeting is, “The Lord is with you.” Mary, being a devout Jew, must have known this is a phrase uttered whenever God asked something from someone. For example, when an angel asked Gideon to lead God’s chosen people against the Midianites, the greeting was, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior!” Also, when Jeremiah prayed for counsel on what to do when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, the Lord told him, “Do not fear the king of Babylon, as you do now. Do not fear him – oracle of the LORD – for I am with you to save you, to rescue you from his power.”

Jesus is the word, and he is the light – could the transfiguration be the inspiration for John to start his Gospel this way since all the elements are found in it?

If Jesus is the Word, the implications are tremendous. He is the Torah. He is Scripture, for isn’t it the word of God? The same John would write many years at Patmos, the Book of Revelation. There he relates a vision of a scroll no one can open. Only the Lion of Judah, who turns out to be a lamb as if slain, can unlock it. In symbolic terms, John explains that Christ is the key to understanding Scriptures. This is why “The redeemer of man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the universe and history.”

Suggested scenes to focus on each bead of this mystery:

1. Jesus ascends Mount Tabor bringing along Peter, James, and John.
2. They begin to pray, but the appearance of Jesus changes; his face becomes radiant, and his clothes become dazzling white.
3. Moses and Elijah join Jesus. They speak of Christ’s “Exodus.”
4. Thinking or hoping this “meeting” will last long, Peter suggests to Christ that the apostles there will put up tents.
5. The apostles become frightened when a bright cloud descends and envelopes them.
6. The apostles hear a voice that says, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
7. Frightened, the apostles prostrate themselves as a sign of total submission to God.
8. With their faces to the ground in fear, Jesus touches them and says, “Rise, do not be afraid.”