Joyful Mysteries
Also hear talk: Remain with me, Learning from the Joyful Mysteries🔗
I. ANUNCIATION
In the crucified Jesus the divinity is disfigured, stripped of all visible glory and yet is present and real. Faith alone can recognize it: the faith of Mary, who places in her heart too this last scene in the mosaic of her Son’s life. She does not yet see the whole, but continues to trust in God, repeating once again with the same abandonment: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord.” Pope Benedict XVI (Simple Path p.150)
II. VISITATION
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.’ My little one, these are the first words from the mouth of My Mother as she enters the home of Elizabeth. Ponder these words with Me. My Mother lived her life in praise of the Father. She lived in the constant awareness of who the Father is. Her soul was in a constant state of awe. At the moment of the Incarnation, My human and divine Heart was fused as ONE with My Mother's and consumed in the fire of love of the Holy Spirit. We proclaim the greatness of the Father.
In the knowledge of the greatness and majesty of God, Mary had also perfect knowledge of herself; therefore, she states that she is the handmaid of the Lord. I desire that you live more profoundly and perfectly in the knowledge of the grandeur, majesty and goodness of Abba, our Father. In this way, you will live more perfectly as My handmaid. The perfect and holy handmaid of the Lord, Mary Most Holy, is moved by the Holy Spirit to serve her cousin, Elizabeth.
...The Spirit of God moves the pure and humble of heart to serve as handmaids their brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, in the awareness of Who God is, in order to become the handmaids of God. The true knowledge of God in a soul will always move a soul to serve in the most pure humility. You are the handmaids of the Lord, serve one another in the awareness of the immensity of God's love (09/18/11). (Simple Path p. 66-67)
III. NATIVITY
“In this feast of the Nativity... Today begins the mystery of the Passion.” St Gregory of Nyssa (Simple Path p.136)
IV. PRESENTATION
The fusion of hearts takes place through the sword of suffering as ONE. It is through the union in suffering that you die more-and-more to self, until it is no longer you who lives but I Who lives in you... The fusion of hearts is the kiss of union; the embrace of the Holy Spirit; the embrace of Love (12/3/12). (Simple Path p.230)
V. FINDING OF JESUS IN TEMPLE
Pope Francis said of St. Joseph:
How does Joseph exercise his role as protector? Discreetly, humbly and silently, but with an unfailing presence and utter fidelity, even when he finds it hard to understand. From the time of his betrothal to Mary until the finding of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, he is there at every moment with loving care. As the spouse of Mary, he is at her side in good times and bad, on the journey to Bethlehem for the census and in the anxious and joyful hours when she gave birth; amid the drama of the flight into Egypt and during the frantic search for their child in the Temple; and later in the day-to-day life of the home of Nazareth, in the workshop where he taught his trade to Jesus.
Here I would add one more thing: caring, protecting, demands goodness, it calls for a certain tenderness. In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!
How does Joseph respond to his calling to be the protector of Mary, Jesus and the Church? By being constantly attentive to God, open to the signs of God’s presence and receptive to God’s plans, and not simply to his own...
Joseph is a “protector” because he is able to hear God’s voice and be guided by his will; and for this reason he is all the more sensitive to the persons entrusted to his safekeeping. (Simple Path p.298-299)