Product Description

The Fourth Luminous Mystery – The Transfiguration plaque depicts Jesus standing in a boat and proclaiming the coming of God’s Kingdom. The Fourth Luminous Mystery – The Transfiguration plaque is of course an especially fitting gift for the pastor of your church who preaches the Word every Sunday. But this plaque – as part of the complete set of plaques of the 20 Mysteries of the Rosary – is also a wonderful gift for a school, parish, convent, retreat house, hospital, hospice, or monastery.

The Fourth Luminous Mystery – The Transfiguration Plaque – A Wondrous Labor of Love, Faith, and Hope

The Fourth Luminous Mystery – The Transfiguration plaque is 8.25 inches high, 6.75 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. The members of a cloistered religious community of nuns in France conceive, mold from dolomite stone and resin, and finish by hand each and every plaque in their atelier. Each member of the community prayerfully completes an assigned task needed for finishing every plaque. How, where, and by whom the Fourth Luminous Mystery – The Transfiguration plaque is created gives proof to how profoundly ”culturally authentic” – and what a wondrous labor of love, faith and hope this plaque is!

The Transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9:28-36)

About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.  Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)  While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

The “Luminous Mysteries” of the Rosary

A standard fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary, based on long-standing custom, was established by Pope Pius V in 1569. The fifteen mysteries were grouped together in three sets: the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries. Pope St. John Paul II introduced the Luminous Mysteries in his October 2002 Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae for Roman Catholics to commemorate while praying the Rosary on Thursdays. The Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary – or the “Mysteries of Light” as they are also called – focus on the public life of Jesus, that is, the years of his preaching between His Baptism and His death. They are called the “Mysteries of Light” because Jesus is the light of the World. Jesus as the light is mentioned repeatedly Gospel of John:   The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. (John 1:5-9) — While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. (John 9:5). Pope St. John Paul II felt that it was important to add these mysteries to the history of the rosary since there was a yawning gap between Jesus’ childhood meditated upon in the Joyful Mysteries and his suffering and death meditated upon in the Sorrowful Mysteries. He also added the Luminous Mysteries to revive interest in the Rosary which in his words illumines an “ocean of joy and of light, of suffering and of glory” in the lives of Jesus and Mary.

The Mysteries of the Rosary

JOYFUL MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

1. The Annunciation of the Lord to Mary
2. The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth
3. The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ
4. The Presentation of Our Lord
5. Finding Jesus in the Temple at age 12

SORROWFUL MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

1. The Agony of Jesus in the Garden
2. The Scourging at the Pillar
3. Jesus is Crowned with Thorns
4. Jesus Carries the Cross
5. The Crucifixion of our Lord

GLORIOUS MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

1. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
2. The Ascension of Jesus to Heaven
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit
4. The Assumption of Mary into Heaven
5. Mary is Crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth

LUMINOUS MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

1. The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan
2. The Wedding at Cana
3. The Proclamation of the Kingdom
4. The Transfiguration
5. The Institution of the Eucharist

THE TABORIC LIGHT

FEAST OF TRANSFIGURATION by Dale M. Coulter, First Things (8/5/14)

On most Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox liturgical calendars today marks the Feast of the Transfiguration. For conservative evangelicals, the transfiguration has apologetic weight since it points toward the deity of Christ. As important as this aspect of the transfiguration might be, however, it’s greater significance resides elsewhere. Standing between Jesus’s baptism and ascension, Christian tradition interprets this event both in its iconography and doxology as a revelation of Christ’s divinity, a foretaste of the eschaton, and a pledge of the perfectibility of the human person.

It is a moment of ecstasy on the part of the disciples in which they behold with unveiled faces the deified Christ. Maximus the Confessor and Gregory Palamas bring out the full meaning for the Orthodox tradition as the manifestation of divine power in the beauty of the transfigured Christ. The body of Christ became translucent when the Taboric light illuminated every dimension thereby underscoring both his divine nature and the complete transformation of creation.

One finds the connection between power, participation in the divine nature, and transfiguration in Second Peter. The epistle begins by linking divine power and sharing in God’s own life (2 Pet. 1:3) before declaring that the proclamation of “the power and coming of Christ” came through the testimony of the majesty revealed on the holy mountain (2 Pet. 1:16-18). In this way, the epistle fuses the divine power that transforms believers with the glory of Christ at his transfiguration. For Mark’s Gospel, the connection occurs almost immediately as Jesus’s statement that some “will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power” prefaces the event of the transfiguration (Mark 9:1-2).

Maximus the Confessor interprets this event as a moment in which the disciples passed from flesh to spirit because “having both their bodily and spiritual senses purified, they were taught the spiritual meanings of the mysteries that were shown to them.” The light that shown all around caught the disciples up into a heightened state from which they could now perceive more fully the divine identity of Christ. In the west, Richard of St. Victor would say something similar when he claimed that the journey up the mountain was the arduous ascent to knowledge of the self. Upon arriving at the top, revelations begin to occur as Christ shines upon the soul. The sudden fainting of the disciples symbolizes the passage into ecstasy. For both Maximus and Richard, there is a synergism in which ascetic ascent gives way to grace-induced vision.

The transfiguration also points toward the connection between holiness, happiness, and resurrection. To explain its relationship to resurrection, John Wesley draws an analogy with human experiences of joy and laughter, stating “the joy of the soul, even in this life, has some influence upon the countenance, by rendering it more open and cheerful.” Rejoicing together in the give and take of family life, bantering with friends, or experiencing the deep laughter that arises from the recesses of the soul changes persons, transforming sorrow into gladness even if for a moment. The joy humans experience in their many relationships breaks through in transformed faces. Wesley finds in these experiences an analogue to the end.

The glory of Christ on Mount Tabor embodies a joy that is unspeakable. In other words, the transformation of human affections impacts bodily states, causing a change in countenance. There is a radiance on the face of the joyous that pulls out the beauty of the divine image, which lays buried underneath the veils of the passions. If holiness concerns reintegrated and redirected emotion and desire so that perfect love reigns in the heart, then it creates a joy that alters human existence. The transfiguration symbolizes the Psalmist’s admonition to taste the Lord and see that he is good. Every moment of joy is but a foretaste of that deeper bliss, and it breaks through in serendipitous ways as C. S. Lewis discovered.

The transfiguration, then, symbolizes the life to come and thus the goal of ascetic pursuit. It reminds the believer that the vision of God unfolds amidst the splendor of holiness while also pointing toward the way in which the final movement to ecstatic wonder is always grace-filled and joy-laden. It is the sudden burst of divine light as when Helios peaks over the horizon casting his rays on all creation so that the world glows in the golden haze of dawn, translucent and transformed.

Additional Information

Weight	2 lbs
Dimensions	9 × 8 × 2 in