JOYFUL MYSTERIES
(Monday & Thursday)

     A deeper understanding of our privilege of loving God.

THE ANNUNCIATION
"Hail, full of grace."

     Another day had begun in the little home of Nazareth – a quiet, cool March day. Mary would spend it as she had spent countless others, quietly working about the house. An ordinary girl, Mary, as the world judges; ordinary like the rest of the villagers, like Joseph … Suddenly an angel was by her side: "Hail, full of grace!" An ordinary person would be rather disturbed by such a visitor, and by such a greeting. And Mary was! "She was troubled at his word." The angel had implied that Mary loved God with all her heart, soul, mind and strength; that she loved God enough to become His Mother.

     Loving God wholeheartedly – like Mary, I was created to do just that-and being "ordinary" puts no barriers in my way!

THE VISITATION
"Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country .. and she entered the house of Zachary and saluted Elizabeth."

     Because Mary was ordinary – that is, a really human being, unselfish, heart full of affection- this Mystery tells me something remarkable about loving God. The God-Man was now divinely conceived in her womb. Keep to your quiet home, Mary, (we might have advised) and love Him, love Him alone. But Mary knew this secret about loving God: to love God alone is to love Him not at all. Of her Son’s commandment, "Love one another," Mary’s visitation was an unconscious prophecy.

     Loving God requires that I love everyone else- even those I cannot like! How do I do that? Practice seeing Christ in others, and act accordingly. "What you do for others, you do to me." Christ meant that.

THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
"She laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

     Mary and Joseph found accommodations in one of Bethlehem’s hillside caves. It offered some protection from the biting cold of a December night, nothing more. Air, heavy with moisture seeping through damp earthen wallas; stifling odors of cattle; darkness made all the more emphatic by a lanter’s frail light and the smallest patch of night horizon, too low for the stars- there would be room here. And here, Mary and Joseph loved God as He was never loved on earth.

     God can be loved – wholeheartedly- anywhere. Loving God does not depend on the kind of place I’m in- it depends on the kind of a person I am.

THE PRESENTATION OF THE CHILD JESUS
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices."

     We think of Mary as the very quietest of women. Her recorded words are few; when others speak, she "ponders their words in her heart."

     It is almost as if she spent her life somewhat drably, in the far corners of her soul. No. She was the perfect woamn, God’s masterpiece; so Mary sang. Lark in the light of the morning never sang so sweetly as she, "My soul magnifies the Lord! … rejoices in God! He who is mighty, Holy His Name!" No whisper from a dark corner, that! The silent Mary’s unpremeditated song- and it leapt out of her love for God.

     Loving God makes a heart that sings- a heart I should wear on my sleeve!

THE FINDING OF THE BOY JESUS AT THE TEMPLE
"They found him."

     In three syllables, this Mystery of the Rosary revelas the very root and fibre of love for God; it tells exactly what loving God means. "They found Him." A perfect expression of our meditation’s theme. To love God is nothing else than to have found Jesus. The explanation is no less simply told: all my love for God is from Christ; the prodigal downpour of grace which drops invisibly upon the world is His meriting. Every spark of divine charity, the briefest, the brightest, in every soul in every age, has been struck to life on one Cornerstone- Christ.

     Mary’s Son came into the world to look for me that I might find Him. I find Him in the sacraments, the Mass, in my neighbor. And I on the watch for Jesus, wholeheartedly, as Mary was?

SORROWFUL MYSTERIES
(Tuesday & Friday)

     A deeper understanding of Christ’s kindness in his passion.

THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN
"Jesus touched his ear and healed him."

     We might expect that Jesus would be so preoccupied with His sufferings on Good Friday that He would not have time for anything else. The night before He had given Himself in the Eucharist; now He was giving His life. Surely that is enough "compassion on the multitudes." But no; even in His Passion, Jesus "went about doing good." In Olivet, He invited His disciples to share His agony with Him; when they slept, He forgave; He called Jesus His friend; He ordered His captors to let the disciples go free; and with a touch He healed the slashed ear of Malchus, who had come to take Him captive.

     Jesus did not omit little acts of kindness, even in His terrible suffering. That is the test of a loving heart.

THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR
"The Lord looked on Peter."

     The mob had no difficulty with their divine Prisoner. They wished to kill Him, and He wished to die; save in their motives, there was no conflict. When the high priest’s servant slapped His face, Jesus shamed him with the gentlest possible reproach: "I spoke no evil. Why did you strike Me?" When Peter on his ordination night denied his Master three times, Jesus "Looked on him." There was infinite love and the grace of repentance radiating from that look, and Peter wept. Judas would have been forgiven, too, but he judged his crime too great for Jesus to overlook. How little he understood the kindness of Christ!

     To forgive is divine; Jesus proved that. I am most like Him when I act kindly towards those who have hurt me.

THE CROWNING WITH THORNS
"That day Herod and Pilate became friends."

     God is so merciful that He does not begrudge earthly blessings even to wicked men. In our Lord’s parable, Abraham called to Dives across the chasm between heaven and hell: "In your life-time you had many good things." That was the reward Dives had set his whole heart on, and God allowed him to have it. Often, in exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, Jesus remarked, "Amen, they have had their reward." And in His Passion, Jesus Himself was the instrument whereby two evil men, Herod and Pilate, became fast friends- "whereas before they had been enemies."

     God is kind even to those who will have no part with Him, here or hereafter. He wants me to imitate Hisd infinite benignity.

THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS
"They led Him away to be crucified."

     The journey from the Praetorium to Calvary, up and down narrow dusty streets, must have been a nightmare for the worn out Christ with a cross on His back. But Jesus was never too tired to console His friends. He filled the Cyrenean’s heart with a strange, delightful peace and joy. Gently He told the mourning women to hold back their tears for their children. He left the image of His Face on Veronica’s veil, repaying her sympathy with a miracle of thoughtfullness. And His Mother Mary found the strength to bear her sorrow in a glance from Her Son as He passed.

     The fruit of suffering well borne is sympathy for others who suffer. If I bear trials and pains patiently, as Christ did, I’ll be kind and consoling to others, as Christ was.

THE CRUCIFIXION AND DEATH ON THE CROSS
"Father, forgive them."

     At the summit of His sufferings- His agony on the cross- Jesus simply radiated His divine mercy. While His enemies were pounding nails through His hand and feet, He at once forgave them, and prayed for their repentance. His first word on the upraised cross was a promise of Paradise to His crucified companion who a short while before had reviled Him. Jesus gave Mary to John to be the whole world’s dearest Mother. And a moment before His death He cried out to His Father with a voice so mighty that the pagan centurion, as if echoing the cry, was forced to confess: "Indeed, this Man was the Son of God!"

     Jesus, be as kind to me as You were to others sinners until Your last breath on Calvary. And give me Your merciful Heart.

GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
(Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday)

     A deeper understanding in the glories of Mary

THE RESURRECTION
"Holy Mary, Mother of God."

     Mary, it’s much easier to talk to you than about you. At first, it might seem otherwise. Because you are not just anyone; you are God’s mother. Mother of God, Mother of God … I like to let those words run through my mind. The more I think about God, how good He is, how kind and loving – eternal, infinite – God, who made me and everything else (yes, and you, Mary) out of nothing- the better I understand your dignity. If it is wonderful "that we should be called and should be, the sons of God," how much more wonderful that you should be called, and should be, God’s Mother!

     Mary, I thank God for you everyday of my life. And I thank you for God, come to earth by your "Fiat."

THE ASCENSION
"He made my way Immaculate."

     During your life, Mary, you hated one thing- SIN. You knew much how much it offends God; you stood by while sin drove nails through Your Son’s hands and feet. You saw the malice of sin perfectly, although you never offended God in the slightest way. And I! I don’t really realize the horror of sin; I can’t grasp the idea that it is an infinite offense, deserving eternal punishment. When I look at a crucifix, I never think that my sins drove Your Son to Calvary. How different You and I! I thank God, Mary, that by your Immaculate Conception you were kept free from the slightest trace of sin.

     Mary, obtain for me a grace you had no need of- perfect compunction of heart.

THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
"Hail, full of grace!"

     Still another privilege of yours, Mary, makes me feel very little beside you. I reflect on how often I’ve refused to follow the invitations of God’s grace; how often, perhaps, I’ve fallen from the state of grace, living to repent only by God’s sheerest mercy. Then I remember how different you were – full of grace! Full of grace at your Immaculate Conception; filled with a new fullness of the Incarnation, at the Nativity, on Calvary, at Pentecost, at your death; and at every moment of your life, growing beyond belief in the loving friendship of God. As a forest fire is to a flickering taper, so is your sanctity compared to that of all saints and angels combined.

     Hail Mary, full of grace! Pray for us sinners.

THE ASSUMPTION
"Rise up, My beloved, and come."

     I WAS BORN IN SIN, Mary; you were conceived Immaculate. Like you, I am an adopted child of God, but you are His Mother as well. I helped to crucify your Son; you helped your crucified Son to redeem me. Still I haven’t humbled myself enough in your sight. By the very fact that I was born, I am sentenced to die; and when my soul departs to its place in eternity, my body will return to dust. But when you died, Mary, your soul very soon re-entered your incorrupt body. And in a little while, God took you up to heaven, body and soul together.

     May God be blessed forever, Mary, for your glories! And may I be with you forever to bless Him!

THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN MARY AS QUEEN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH
"Behold thy Mother."

     Mary, in these meditations I have been thinking of all the things that set you in a place apart among all the creatures of God’s hand. The Blessed Trinity, Jesus,- you bow your head before Them; but you rise high above all the rest of creation, "as a mountain set upon mountains." It makes me feel insignificant, very little, helpless- if not discouraged. Because the definition of a child- and I am your child, Mary. You are my Mother. The more God exalts you by His grace, and the more lofty your queenly throne in heaven, the more quickly do I run to you, as a child of God’s Mother should.

     "I will not leave you orphans," Behold Your Mother."