Joyful Mysteries

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD AND THE WORD WAS GOD...

And the Word made himself flesh. "There!" wrote the poet Dante, " Is the Rose in whom the Divine Word made Himself flesh." And having made Himself flesh, He dwelt among us.

The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary invite us to contemplate Jesus' human origins and the particular way in which He came to live among us up to the point of boyhood maturity.

The momentous entry -self-insertion- of God the Word into humanity occurs through the humanity and the womanhood of the young Virgin, Mary of Nazareth. Through her humanity because her mind and will are engaged; through her womanhood because she conceives in her body. The great mystery of the Incarnation unfolds (to the extent that it does) in a sequence of orderly stages. The Virgin is already engaged to Joseph. The angel Gabriel ("The Lord is strong") engages the mind of Mary by greeting her in a communication that disturbs her. Gabriel clarifies, Mary as virgin is puzzled, Gabriel solves her difficulty and Mary consents. God the Son is with us, uniquely and most intimately, but veiled.

God's plan for the salvation of humankind unfolds in its early stages. The Good News "expands", a little but significantly, with the Viisitation to Elizabeth, Zachary and John the Baptist-to-be. God there is working so significantly with lives in the wombs, and their mothers. These beginnings will develop...

God acts through His human creatures. Elizabeth, Zachary and infant-in-the-womb John each play and integral part in the divine plan. Their God-given actions in the setting of the Visitation bear upon the past, the present and the future in God's plan of salvation. In the wake of Our Lady's visitation Zachary speaks of salvation coming through the house of David as prophesied by the prophets of old, in remembrance of the covenant sworn to Abraham. God's promise which was revealed so many generations before is now approaching fulfillment. Elizabeth in her sheer goodness declares the actual here and now presence of the infant Saving Lord and his Mother. And Zachary foretells the future role of his baby John as the one to go before the Lord to prepare his ways. The Visitatin s truly a mystery of God's providence.