Imagine that someone close to you returned from a retreat during which he had a transforming experience with the intimate presence of God. He came to you in a state of wonder and awe, sharing how God touched him in his very core, how he sensed His most loving and personal presence, and how he was overwhelmed by that love.
Further imagine that during your conversation, he asked you a very simple question: “How do I become a saint?” You sensed the sincerity and newfound burning desire within his voice. After asking that question, he looked at you and waited for an answer. What would you say?
Perhaps you would tell him to consult a priest or find a good spiritual director. Maybe you’d suggest that he start to pray every day, go to Mass during the week, or spend time in Eucharistic adoration. But imagine he probed further, asking how to pray, what to do in adoration, and how to become like the greatest of saints. What practical advice would you give?
In addition to daily prayer and a fuller participation in the sacramental life of the Church, especially regular confession and the Eucharist, one of the best and most practical pieces of advice you could give him is to pray the Rosary. Not just say the Rosary, but pray the Rosary in the way it is intended to be prayed.
Why the Rosary? Why not some other devotion? Why not point to some of the great spiritual books? Because when we pray the Rosary as our Blessed Mother intends it to be prayed, we discover the perfect path to the highest heights of glory in Heaven. We discover the path to Seraphic Glory, the glory in which the greatest saints participated while on earth and now enjoy forever in Heaven.
The meditations found in the Rosary reveal to us the human life of the Mother of God and that of her divine Son. Our Blessed Mother’s life shows us the ideal way to be a humble servant of God by her perfect cooperation with God’s grace. Jesus’ life is not only the exclusive source of all grace and salvation, He also modeled in His human nature the way to climb what Saint Matilda of Hackeborn called “the golden staircase” toward the summit of heavenly glory, Seraphic Glory!
The Heavenly Hierarchy
Seraphic Glory refers to the highest choir of the angelic hierarchy, the Seraphim. The role of the Seraphim is to surround the throne of God and eternally worship Him. They are the “burning ones” who are immersed in the fire of God’s pure love and are the closest to the Trinity, enjoying the clearest and most intense experience of the Beatific Vision of all the heavenly hosts.
Angels are pure spirits with an intellect and will, created to love and serve God in accord with His divine plan. Though they were created in a state of sanctifying grace, they did not behold the Beatific Vision from the moment of their creation. Those who responded to grace with charity immediately merited the Beatific Vision, which permanently conforms their loving will to God’s will.
Though every angel and saint is perfectly happy in Heaven, the clarity and intensity of the Beatific Vision differs for each. The “clarity” of the Beatific Vision refers to the angelic or human intellect’s perception of God’s essence, resulting in an understanding and knowledge of divine mysteries, and of God Himself. The “intensity” refers to the angelic or human will’s participation in divine love, resulting in an all-consuming charity toward God, His angels, and the saints. In humans, the clarity and intensity correspond to the degree of grace they attained during their lives on earth. This degree of grace determines the human person’s depth of holiness and, thus, one’s corresponding degree of merit and eternal glory. For angels, too, their clarity and intensity are determined by their different degrees of grace. But the greater or lesser degrees of grace among the angels were apportioned to them by God according to the greater or lesser capacities of their natural gifts, which they received in accord with God’s will for the fulfillment of their individual angelic mission. Hence, the higher an angel is within the hierarchy of God’s creation, the greater is the angel’s grace and glory, and the clearer is the angel’s vision of God in Heaven. Despite their different degrees of grace and glory, each angel is perfectly happy by seeing God as He is.
Structure of this Two-Part Book
The first part of this book begins with the innate desire we all have for happiness. This unshakable desire, written into our human nature, drives us to seek satisfaction in life. Because we suffer from the consequences of Original Sin, we sometimes make poor choices in an attempt to satiate this desire. Therefore, we need to know the ideal for which we must strive. Since our Blessed Mother is the only human person to ever make every good choice according to God’s will, we will ponder her perfect fulfillment in Heaven as the end to which we must strive to attain true happiness.
Next, because the Nine Choirs of Angels provide us with a guide toward the heights of Heaven, we will delve into the Celestial Hierarchy as taught by saints and Scripture. This includes an exploration of their distinct spiritual natures and roles, and their participation in the various grades of heavenly glory. After looking at the Celestial Hierarchy, a brief overview of human nature, grace, and mystical theology will show how some of the greatest saints explained our common human journey of transforming and deepening conversion. We will then speculatively align the nine choirs of the Celestial Hierarchy with the traditional teachings on the spiritual journey as taught by Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Ávila, and Saint Bonaventure.
With an understanding of the Celestial Hierarchy and a brief overview of the human spiritual journey outlined in mystical theology, the mysteries of the Rosary will serve as the guide to the life of Christ, providing the reader with an exploration of the human spiritual journey towards the summit of holiness. By reflecting upon the mysteries of the Rosary in a deeper way, the practical spiritual lessons from our Lord’s human life and that of His mother will offer us a model to imitate and reveal the ever-ascending path to the highest heights of heavenly glory, which we will share with the angels.
The initial Scriptural reflections on the mysteries of the Rosary found in Part Two are not intended to be read while you pray the Rosary. Rather, they are meant to be a source of reflection and study that will help support your prayer by illuminating the necessary steps one must take on the journey. The final section of Part Two will provide a condensed version of the Scriptural reflections in the form of meditations that can be used while you pray the Rosary. Those meditations can be used year after year and will assist you in continuously calling to mind the insights you gained while prayerfully reading through the reflections in Part Two.
As you read those reflections, pay special attention to anything that resonates within you. If some point catches your attention and you find yourself immediately associating it with some aspect of your life, then ponder that insight for as long as it bears good fruit. Don’t be in a hurry to move on to other reflections until you feel you have exhausted the insights God wants to bestow at that moment. You can be certain that a careful study of the mysteries of the Rosary will make for more fruitful prayer, and the lessons that struck you the most will produce graced moments.
The Deposit of Faith, Speculative Theology, and Private Revelation
Some portions of this book are based on speculative theology. It’s important to note from the outset that there are different levels of teaching authority within the Church. All that has been divinely revealed to us is referred to as the “Deposit of Faith.” The Deposit of Faith comes to us through two main sources: Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Sacred Scripture consists of the books of the Bible which the Magisterium has determined to be the inspired Word of God in written form. The heart of the Bible is the Gospels, which reveal the human life of Christ. The Rosary is essentially a meditation on the human life of the Son of God found in the Gospels. The Bible—and by extension, the meditation in the Rosary—acts as the foundation of all revealed truth. Sacred Tradition refers to the teachings and practices passed down from the Apostles to their successors, the bishops. Though God’s public revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle, it is the role of the Magisterium—the pope by His unique teaching authority, and the pope and bishops together within ecumenical councils—to interpret and apply the Deposit of Faith in every age and circumstance as questions arise within the Church and society. The Vatican II document Dei Verbum, explains it this way:
Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church. Holding fast to this deposit the entire holy people united with their shepherds remain always steadfast in the teaching of the Apostles, in the common life, in the breaking of the bread and in prayers (see Acts 2, 42, Greek text), so that holding to, practicing and professing the heritage of the faith, it becomes on the part of the bishops and faithful a single common effort (#10).
Within the Deposit of Faith, the highest form of Magisterial teaching is referred to as “dogma,” a teaching that is proclaimed definitively by the pope or an ecumenical council and which is binding on the consciences of all Catholics. An example is the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, declared in 1854 by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus. That dogma teaches that the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved from all stain of sin from the moment of her conception and remained without sin throughout her life.
Under dogmas are doctrines, which do not change. Like all Church teaching, they remain firmly grounded on the Deposit of Faith. Our understanding of doctrine, however, can be deepened and clarified over time, but not changed. This deepening is guided by the Magisterium in ecumenical councils or in papal documents. For example, anything contained within the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the documents of Vatican II would be considered doctrine.
Additionally, there is the discipline of theology, by which theologians use the Deposit of Faith to further explain and clarify the teachings of the Magisterium. The Church holds the Doctors of the Church in the highest esteem, as the most reliable theologians. However, even the writings of the Doctors of the Church should not be considered as dogma or doctrine, unless the Magisterium teaches so, such as by quoting one of their teachings, elevating it to a doctrinal level.
Speculative theology cannot contradict any official doctrine or dogma of the Church. Theological speculation should only be considered orthodox if it is founded on and consistent with Church teaching. Father John Hardon, S.J., an outstanding theologian from the twentieth century, in his short work Catholic Catechism on the Angels (#44–50), explains six levels of Church teaching on the angels in this way:
Level one—dogma: “A doctrine becomes a dogma when it has been expressly revealed in Sacred Scripture or Sacred Tradition. Thus, the existence of angels and demons is a dogma of the Faith.”
Level two—dogmatic doctrine: “Doctrinal teaching is called dogmatic doctrine when it has been revealed by God, either in Scripture or in Tradition; but the teaching comes not from formal definitions by the Bishop of Rome or from councils of the Church approved by the pope…An example of this kind of dogma would be the existence of guardian angels for all Christians.”
Level three—infallible doctrine: “Technically, a doctrine is not a dogma when it has not been explicitly revealed in the Bible or the Tradition which closed with the death of the last apostle. An example would be invoking the angels for their guidance and protection.”
Level four—certain doctrine: “Certainty implies that something is not to be doubted, without claiming that it is infallible. An example of angelic certainty would be that every human being, from the moment of conception, has a guardian angel.”
Level five—probable doctrine: “Here it is assumed that the teaching may be legitimately accepted by the mind and put into devotional practice, without claiming that the doctrine is so certain it would be sinful to call it into question. A common example of probable doctrine is that all the angels, both the saved and the lost, were originally created in the state of sanctifying grace.”
Level six—permissibility: “There have been positions on the state and function of the angels that we may call speculative for the mind to believe, and permissible for the will to put into practice. This level of angelic theology is literally an ocean. It covers innumerable ideas that pious believers have held about the angelic world and put these ideas into practical devotion. To be stressed here is that they are permissible, which means that they may be held without contradicting established Catholic truth and without departing from the Church’s traditional spirituality. One of many examples of such permissible belief is that not only individuals have their own guardian angels, but societies, cities and states and whole nations have their own distinctive guardian spirits. So too it may be held that parishes and dioceses, religious institutes and the whole Catholic Church have a multitude of angels who are selectively appointed to direct and protect their collective charges.”
This book is a work of speculative theology—permissibility, level six—in the sense that it is not exclusively a presentation of official Church dogma or doctrine, but is also an attempt to prayerfully probe the mystery of the Celestial Hierarchy in a way that is based upon official Church teaching outlined in levels one–five above, as well as incorporating some of the speculative theological writings of some of the most highly regarded Doctors of the Church and mystics, which would fall under level six. Relying upon this speculative theology, this book attempts to ponder and probe mystical theology in a prayerful way, attempting to explore the Celestial Hierarchy in the light of the Church’s established theological traditions by presenting and intertwining various mystical theologies in a new united way. Therefore, this book not only presents various defined truths of our faith, it also seeks to meditatively explore those truths in a way that is both practical and permissible within the confines of orthodox theology.
For example, that angels exist is a dogma, since it is revealed in Scripture and affirmed by the Magisterium in numerous documents. However, the speculative theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the various mystics’ private revelations and visions must be understood as speculative, but reliable speculation, given the sources. A mystic’s private revelation or a theologian’s speculative teaching must be seen as private and hypothetical, albeit highly reliable. Therefore, whether or not there are nine choirs to the Celestial Hierarchy, or countless millions, will only be known for certain in Heaven or if it is one day defined as dogma of the Church. Prior to that, we must allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds using the insights already privately revealed to and taught by the saints.
May the angels guide you in probing the heights of Heaven and lead you up the golden staircase of sanctity, so that your life will give eternal glory to God in the greatest way possible.
Angels of God, come to my aid. Illuminate my mind with the treasures of Heaven so that I can more readily and completely fulfill God’s perfect will. Saints of God, please pray for me on this journey toward Heaven, and beg God to bestow His abundant Truth and grace upon me so that I can become the person He wants me to be and so share in the fullness of his Beatific Vision in Heaven with you for all eternity. Jesus, I trust in You.
Next: Chapter One: The Unshakable Desire for Happiness
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