Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary

"The recitation of the Holy Rosary, with the consideration of the mysteries, the repetition of the Our Father and the Hail Mary, the praises of the Blessed Trinity and the constant invocation of the Mother of God,
is a continuous act of faith, of hope and love, of adoration and reparation."
Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer.

In the first of the Joyful Mysteries we remember The Incarnation

In the first of the Joyful Mysteries we recall the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary and the Incarnation of the Word.

• Luke 1:26-27: "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the seed of David; the virgin's name was Mary."
  The Angel greets her, "Rejoice, full of grace: the Lord is with you."

Mary icon of obedient faith

Benedict XVI says: "In the angel's greeting to the Virgin Mary, he finds in her an attitude of trust, even in difficult moments. A capacity to consider events in the light of faith; a humility that knows how to listen and respond to God with dedication.

With this, the Pope points out, the reason for Mary's rejoicing is reaffirmed: "Joy comes from grace, that is, from communion with God, from having such a vital connection with Him, from being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, totally shaped by God's action."

Mary gives herself with complete trust to the word announced to her by God's messenger and becomes the model and mother of all believers. Faith is, therefore, trust, but it also implies a certain degree of obscurity. Mary opens herself totally to God, she succeeds in accepting the divine will, even if it is mysterious, even if it often does not correspond to her own will and is a sword that pierces the soul."

Benedict XVI points out, "Mary He does not consider it superficially, but pauses and allows it to penetrate his mind and heart in order to understand what the Lord wants of it, the meaning of the proclamation."

In the second of the Joyful Mysteries we recall the Visitation of Our Lady to her cousin St. Elizabeth.

• Luke 1:39-42 In those days Mary set out and went in haste into the hill country to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit; and she cried out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!"

Mary is an example of love and humility

The humility of the Virgin Mary, says St. Bernard, is the foundation and guardian of all the virtues. And rightly so, for without humility no virtue is possible in the soul.

All virtues vanish if humility disappears. On the contrary, said St. Francis de Sales, God is such a friend of humility that he immediately goes wherever he sees it.

In the third of the Joyful Mysteries we remember the Birth of the Son of God in Bethlehem.

• Luke 2:1-7: It happened that in those days an edict went out from Caesar Augustus ordering that the whole world should be registered. This first census took place when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
  And they went every one to register, every man to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to register with Mary his wife, who was with child.
  And it came to pass, while they were there, that the days of her childbearing were fulfilled, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because they had no room in the inn. Jesus was born in the humility of a stable to a poor family.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 525: Those simple shepherds are the first witnesses of the event. In this poverty the glory of heaven is manifested.

Mary at the service of others

The same attitude is seen in Virgin Virgin Mary after the worship of the shepherds: "he kept all these things, pondering them in his heart."

"It is the profound humility of Mary's obedient faith, who accepts in herself even what she does not understand of God's work, leaving it to God to open her mind and heart". Hence Elizabeth can say: "Blessed is she who has believed in the fulfillment of the word of the Lord." (Lk 1:45)and that is why it will be called that way for all generations.

Faith tells us, then, that the helpless power of that Child in the end overcomes the rumor of the powers of the world."

In the fourth of the Joyful Mysteries we remember the Presentation of Jesus and the Purification of Mary.

In the fourth of the Joyful Mysteries we recall The Presentation in the Temple

• Luke 2:21-24: When the eight days were completed for circumcising him, he was given the name Jesus, as the angel had called him before he was conceived in the womb.
  When the days of their purification according to the Law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the Law of the Lord: Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord and to offer in sacrifice orn pair of turtledoves or two young pigeonsAccording to what is said in the law of the Lord."
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 527: The circumcision of Jesus, on the eighth day of his birth, is a sign of his insertion in the descendants of Abraham, in the people of the Covenant, of his submission to the Law.

Purifying Mary

Mary no longer appears as impure. She does not go up to the temple to purify herself, but to share in the redemptive journey of Jesus. Mary appears as a collaborator of Jesus, sharing his journey in the service of God's people. She is not an impure woman but a purifier.

In the fifth of the Joyful Mysteries we remember the Child lost and found in the Temple.

• Luke 2:41-47: "His parents went to Jerusalem every year to the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up as usual to the feast, and when they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem, his parents did not know it.
  And it came to pass at the end of three days, that they found him in the Temple sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard him were amazed at his intelligence and his answers.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 534: "The finding of Jesus in the Temple is the only event that breaks the silence of the Gospels on the hidden years of Jesus. Jesus lets us glimpse in it the mystery of his total consecration to a mission derived from his divine filiation: "Did you not know that I owe myself to my Father's business?".

Mary listens, also in the dark

Mary's faith, Benedict XVI points out, lives from the joy of the Annunciation, but passes through the mist of her Son's crucifixion, in order to reach the light of the Resurrection.

Therefore, the path of our faith is not substantially different from that of Mary: "We find moments of light, but we also find passages in which God seems absent".

The solution is clear: "The more we open ourselves to God, accept the gift of faith, place our trust totally in Him, as Mary did, the more He enables us, by His presence, to live all situations of life in peace and in the certainty of His fidelity and of His

However, this means going out of ourselves and our own projects, so that the Word of God may be the lamp that guides our thoughts and our actions.When they find the Child in the temple, after three days of searching, he mysteriously answers them: "Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be in the things of my Father".

So, observes the Pope, "Mary must renew the deep faith with which she said 'yes' at the annunciation; she must accept that precedence belongs to the true and proper Father; she must know how to set free the Son she has begotten to follow his.