JOYFUL MYSTERIES

Let us contemplate Gabriel the Archangel announcing to Mary that She will become the Mother of God. Mary submits to the divine Will: Fiat! Behold the Handmaid of the Lord; be it done to Me according to thy word. Fiat: this sums up the Blessed Virgin’s whole life; She submitted to God’s wishes. She is our model; She has opened the perfect path, the infallible way for us. If we are Her devoted children, if we want to make Her happy, let us walk in Her footsteps.

The Virgin Mary’s humility is the ladder by which God was able to come down to us; Her humility drew to Herself the grace of becoming the Mother of God: what a great privilege! Later, a woman impressed by the Saviour’s teaching cried out, Blessed is the womb that bore Thee! meaning, “How fortunate Your Mother is!” But Jesus rectifies this at once: Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it. Our divine Master wanted to show us that the prime element of the Blessed Virgin’s greatness is Her loving submission to the Will of God in the slightest details.

Let us ask for the grace to be entirely submitted in the hands of God like the Virgin Mary, to be attentive to the voice of God, who speaks to us through His inspirations, and to correspond faithfully to it by fulfilling His holy Will. Then Jesus will be able to incarnate in us as He did in His Mother.

Let us contemplate our Mother in this visit to Her cousin Elizabeth. Let us admire Mary’s recollection during this journey of charity. She did not set out for the purpose of satisfying Her curiosity or of amusing Herself, but out of pure charity for Her neighbor. Let us ask Her for Her charity, Her zeal for the salvation of souls, Her supernatural spirit and purity of intention. All our activities should be accomplished to please God alone, in a spirit of love for God and neighbor, without seeking our personal satisfaction.

Behold Saint Elizabeth, congratulating Mary for the privilege of bearing the Saviour of the world. At once, however, Mary gives all the glory to God. In no way does She attribute to Herself the great graces God has granted Her: MAGNIFICAT! My soul doth magnify the Lord… because He hath done great things to Me! Let us give thanks to God for all the good that is in us; otherwise we are thieves, we appropriate to ourselves glory that is due to God alone. Let us never try to derive vainglory and esteem from the gifts God has given us in His goodness; pride cuts us off from divine grace.

Let us ask Mary to obtain from God the grace to imitate Her in all our actions; may we work only to please God and out of charity for our neighbor. Let us ask for our Mother’s charity, that charity which is the sign of the disciples of Christ: By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you love one another. Let us ask for true love, sincere love, to love one another in the truth.

Let us contemplate Jesus at Bethlehem. Our Saviour, the Creator of heaven and earth, comes into the world in a stable; His Mother wraps Him in swaddling clothes and lays Him in a manger for animals. He is born in the harshest poverty to teach us scorn of earthly goods, love of humble things, love of the poor. From His birth until His death on the cross, He gives us the example of this in such an eloquent manner.

Let us ask for detachment from earthly things, for the love of poverty and deprivation. Man is proud; he loves all that glitters. Earthly goods attract him. Let us desire to live in great poverty, if it were possible, and even in need, to resemble our divine Master. The more we detach ourselves from earthly things, the more we will grow in the love of divine things; and the more we attach ourselves to earthly things, the more the love of God will decrease within us. That is the great secret; all the Saints practiced privation of the things of this world.

Throughout His life, Our Lord lived and preached poverty and detachment: The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. –Every one of you who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be My disciple. -Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. -If you will be perfect, go, sell all you have, and give to the poor, and come, follow Me.

Let us ask our good Master to give us the grace to cherish poverty, to live the poverty He went to such pains to teach us.

Let us contemplate Jesus taken to the Temple by His parents, offering Himself to His Father for the redemption of the world. Let us offer ourselves with Jesus to accomplish all that God may want of us. Let us say, in union with our Redeemer, Behold, I come to do Thy Will, O Father. Our personal offering is worth little by itself, but when united to Jesus’ it takes on an infinite value. Let us ask Him to help us make the total gift of ourselves, through the power of grace.

This mystery also concerns the Purification of Mary. That is an imprecise expression, for the most pure Mary had no need of purification. She submitted to this ceremony in a spirit of humility; no stain ever defiled the Blessed Virgin. Let us ask our Mother for this purity of soul, the absence of all that might displease God, so that we may live beneath the divine gaze! Let us always recall that God sees us: Walk in My presence and be perfect. This means: Remember that God sees you, knows your thoughts, your most secret intentions. Nothing escapes Him, He sees into all the nooks and crannies of your soul.

We can deceive men, and men can also be mistaken about us; but God weighs all the pros and cons. Let us ask the Blessed Virgin, who is Purity itself, for this grace to walk straight before God. May our only care be to please God, even if the whole world should unite against us. 

Let us contemplate Jesus amid the Doctors, He who is Infinite Wisdom. Let us ask Him to communicate a little of His Wisdom to us, to give us His Spirit, to have us know His divine Thought.

For three days, Mary and Joseph have been looking for their little Jesus; they are weeping. Such holy people, and they are at a loss! Sometimes we think that because we want to serve God, everything will go smoothly, we will not have anything to suffer. Oh no! The cross, suffering is the portion of the elect. God gives it to His dearest friends. Our Lord did not want to spare even His holy Mother all kinds of sorrows, troubles and difficulties. The cross is God’s precious treasure given to men. It is with the cross that God marks His Elect. All the Saints lived in continual suffering; even so, they savored inner joy because they suffered for the love of God.

Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the Temple after three days of bitter anxiety. Why have You done so to us? Behold, in sorrow Your father and I have been seeking You. Jesus answers His Mother in a rather surprising manner: Did You not know that I must be about My Father’s business? God comes before everything, even our parents. No mortal should prevent us from obeying God. This is the great lesson Jesus comes to teach us through this mystery.

Let us ask for the grace to never lose Jesus, who is the source of all good, all happiness. Let us cling to God’s friendship more than anything else. God alone should count for us; the rest is nothing. If we have God, we possess the source of goods that shall never pass; whoever has God, has everything.

SORROWFUL MYSTERIES

Let us ask for the grace to understand all the malice of sin; it is the cause of Our Lord’s mortal Agony and sorrowful Passion. Let us ask for the fear of offending God, contrition over our faults, regret for our sins, compunction of heart. Let us pray for the conversion of sinners and especially our own conversion. Let us implore God to grant us the grace of conversion. 

May He have us understand that the only great misfortune that can befall a human being is to lose God’s grace and divine friendship. The rest is nothing: losing your health, losing your fortune, or even life itself… We will all have to die someday. Sooner or later, death will take each one of our lives, and at that moment we will lose everything we possess here below. We will not take anything with us to the grave. 

The only thing that will not disappear is our soul, called to eternal beatitude. It will possess this endless happiness if it is united to God through grace. On the other hand, if the hour of death finds it separated from divine grace, it will lose the eternal happiness for which God had destined it. Let us ask for the grace to realize the primary importance of the salvation of our soul, that soul which has cost the Blood of God.

Let us pray for the dying, and for all those who will appear before God on this day.

Let us contemplate our Saviour torn from head to foot by the torturers’ whips. By this mystery, let us ask for the grace of mortification, the spirit of penance. Saint Paul says, They who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. That is the indispensable path if we want to be Christians, true disciples of Jesus Christ. 

Let us ask, for ourselves and all our brothers and sisters, for the grace of the spirit of prayer and penance, by which the world will be saved. Prayer and penance purify our souls and sanctify them. Let us ask for these graces through the merits of the holy Wounds of Our Lord, through the painful scourging He suffered to expiate our sins. 

According to revelations made to Saint Bridget and other Saints, the body of Jesus was one gaping wound. The images we reproduce greatly diminish the reality. If we were to depict Jesus as He was, He would not look like a man. As the Psalm says, I am a worm, and not a man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people… They have pierced My hands and My feet; they have counted all My bones. Jesus’ flesh was so torn, you could see His bones. Our Lord suffered such an atrocious scourging in atonement for our sins of the flesh. Let us ask, through the merits of this cruel scourging, for the necessary mortification that will make us true Christians; let us ask Jesus, through the merits of His holy Wounds, to heal the wounds of our soul and to help us maintain great purity of body and mind. 

Let us contemplate Jesus receiving the ignominious outrage of the crown of thorns: the soldiers turned Him into a theater king, they mocked and derided Him. Christ our Saviour was outraged and thwarted to the last degree. Onto His head the torturers pressed a cruel crown, whose thorns pierced His adorable head on every side. This was an unheard-of torture. Only the God Man could endure such atrocious pains; Jesus suffered beyond anything we can imagine. He bore this dreadful torment of the crown of thorns to expiate all the sins of the human mind, of man who thinks he is wiser than God, who revolts, wants to analyze and weigh everything, wants to reason over everything. 

Let us ask Our Lord for humility, mortification of the mind, the sacrifice of our judgment in a spirit of faith; let us ask Him for the humility of which He gives us the example in this mystery. Today, “hard heads” want to understand everything, explain everything. To have faith means to believe without reasoning, to walk without understanding. As soon as things become clear and obvious, we stop walking on the path of faith. 

Let us ask for this grace of mortification of the mind, the grace to be like little children through humility of mind and simplicity of heart, so as to be able to enter heaven: Unless you turn and become like little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Let us ask for the grace to be ready to suffer anything — insults, humiliations, scorn — for the love of God.

Let us follow our Saviour on the way to Calvary. Let us ask the Blessed Virgin to obtain for us the grace to carry our cross courageously, with love, as Jesus asks of every Christian: If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me, let him walk in My footsteps. To deny yourself means to leave “me” aside, to go against natural tendencies. We must step on our carnal desires, that is, all the natural desires within us, which are not in conformity with the holy Will of God. Man seeks everything that might give him pleasure and runs from everything that might give him trouble. To take up your cross daily and follow Jesus means to live continually in the spirit of sacrifice and mortification.

Let us examine ourselves sincerely: Am I really a disciple of Jesus Christ? Am I not often a disciple of the world and its maxims? Am I not a disciple of myself, by following my tendencies, my little whims, my self will, rather than conforming my life to the demands of evangelical teaching?

God does not expect us to be flawless; man is wretched, depraved because of original sin and inclined to every vice. But God wants man to humble himself and recognize his wretchedness, to lower himself and take up his cross daily. Our Lord fell several times on His way up to Calvary, precisely to show us that we can have the misfortune of falling but we must get up very quickly, take up our cross and courageously continue to follow Jesus. By this mystery, let us ask for patience and love of the cross.

Let us contemplate our Redeemer nailed to the Cross and shedding unto the last drop of His Precious Blood to open the door of heaven for us. Let us ask Our Lady of Infinite Sorrows to obtain for us the grace to always bear in mind the thought of the Passion of Our Lord. 

The memory of our Saviour’s sufferings is a great comfort in the sorrows of this life, a stimulant to encourage us to sacrifice ourselves in our turn for the love of God. When we behold Jesus treated this way, we no longer feel like complaining, we who are wretched creatures. The sight of Jesus’ humiliations makes us accept scorn and abasement as our due. 

Let us unite our little earthly sufferings to those of Jesus, in order to give them merit and infinite value. The cross makes either saints or reprobates. The good thief accepted his suffering, and he was saved. The bad thief was furious and blasphemed; his rejection of the cross led to his perdition. Suffering makes souls grow if they accept it with love and submission, but it is an occasion of perdition for those who revolt and murmur against God. 

Let us profit well from the contradictions, sufferings and humiliations God places on our path to have us make spiritual progress; sufferings are the pre-eminent graces of God. Let us ask our good heavenly Mother to obtain for us from Her divine crucified Son, the grace to be on fire with His Infinite Love and to persevere in His Love to the end; may we be generous souls, ready for everything, despite our miseries and weaknesses.

GLORIOUS MYSTERIES

Let us contemplate Jesus rising glorious from the grave. He has overcome death. The world can do nothing against God. God lets people act, but in the end His almighty power will overcome the powers of darkness.

The Apostles were totally discouraged over Our Lord’s death. They considered everything humanly; for them, Jesus Crucified placed in the tomb was a disaster, the ruin of all their hopes. They had not yet understood that everything had to happen this way. Jesus said to the disciples of Emmaus, also totally discouraged over His death, Did not the Christ have to suffer these things before entering into His glory?…  And He interpreted the Scriptures to them.

It is in the light of the Gospel that we will understand the thought of God. Jesus said to the Sadducees, You err because you know not the Scriptures. To conform our thought with God’s, we must set aside all our personal thoughts. Let us empty ourselves of ourselves so that Jesus may fill us with Himself. You have to empty a container before you can pour liquid into it. You cannot mix wine and gasoline: they do not go together. The supernatural and the natural do not mix: No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and despise the other.

Let us ask the risen Christ for the grace to empty ourselves of all that is human and natural in order to fill ourselves with His divine and supernatural spirit.

Let us go to the Mount of Olives, where the Disciples have gathered. Jesus has given them His last instructions before going up to heaven: Go and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

It is especially by our life that we will teach others to know God. The witness of our life will be more convincing than all our words. Our life should prove that God is more interesting than everything else. If we are interested in the things of the world, if we are worldly, sensual, curious, gloomy, souls will not be attracted to God. Our life must show that God is the source of happiness.

It is not fine words that convert people. One or two words spoken awkwardly, perhaps, by a Saint wholly sacrificed to God are far more effective for converting a soul than the unctuous addresses of eloquent preachers. Because he lived what he taught, Saint Francis of Assisi moved crowds with a few words, and rather clumsy ones at that. To be true apostles, it is of prime importance to be souls wholly given to God, wholly immolated. Otherwise we shall be tinkling cymbals, as Saint Paul says; our activity will remain fruitless in souls if our life does not correspond to our words.

Jesus went up to heaven to prepare a place for us, as He said to His Apostles. Let us ask for the grace to merit the place God is reserving for us, the eternal happiness He wants to grant us, by a life wholly consecrated to His service, in imitation of Jesus. Let us walk in the footsteps of Jesus so that we may follow Him into the glory of the Father’s house.

Let us admire the power of the operation of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles: they were timid and fearful, but Pentecost made them strong and courageous, ready to undergo martyrdom. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to work this change, this transformation in us, so that we may fully accomplish what God expects of us. Let us implore Him to make us faithful to His grace and docile to His divine inspirations. Fidelity to one grace disposes the soul to receive others. It is fidelity to grace that makes the Saints. God gives His grace to everyone; those who correspond to it become Saints, whereas the others remain mediocre or wicked.

God is eager to lavish His gifts abundantly upon the world, but He needs docile instruments. Let us ask for obedience to the lights of God and for the interior silence that will allow us to hear His voice. God speaks to souls, but to hear Him we need inner silence: we must work at silencing all interior noises, the noise of our passions, our inner revolts and complaints, our human judgments, in order to desire only the fulfillment of the divine Will.

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to grant us His gifts in abundance: the gift of Fortitude, which gives us the courage to undertake everything for God without fear of men; the gift of Intelligence, which makes us understand the things of God and discover the splendor of eternal truths; the gift of Wisdom, which makes us appreciate the things of God above all else, and makes us lose interest in the things of the earth.

Let us contemplate the Blessed Virgin, who rose up to heaven to receive the reward for Her life of total conformity to the holy Will of God. Let us ask to fulfill all the designs of God upon us, following the example of our good Mother. Let us prove our devotion to Her by imitating Her in all things.

Let us ask our heavenly Mother to live on earth doing good as She did. May our company be beneficial to all, may we be a subject of joy for our neighbor. The Blessed Virgin was modest and effaced; She made Herself the Handmaid of all. People who were with Her had no idea of all the privileges and prerogatives She had received from Heaven, for Mary was so simple and unaffected. She seemed to be a perfectly ordinary person, but She stood out by Her humility, Her effacement, Her amiability, Her dedication, Her charity and Her kindness.

Let us ask Her to warm our hearts with the fire of Her Immaculate Heart, all burning with love for Her children of earth; may She fill us with Her generous charity. Let us ask Her above all to imbue us with Her humility; without humility, there can be no true charity.

Let us give thanks to our Mother for everything She does for us: She is the Coredemptrix with Her divine Son to work out our salvation. Mary continues unceasingly to occupy Herself with our souls; She intervenes continually to protect Her children here below. Let us thank Her for Her visits to the earth.

Let us contemplate the Blessed Virgin Mary being crowned by Her divine Son. She received the reward for Her holy life. How happy She is to have sacrificed Herself on earth, to have suffered for the love of God! Let us ask to be strong souls ready to do everything and suffer everything to merit a beautiful crown in heaven like the Blessed Virgin did; She did not steal Her crown.

We are on earth only in passing. Everything will vanish for us in this world, but heaven remains. If we serve God faithfully in this short life, we will soon join the Saints in Paradise to enjoy an eternity of boundless happiness with our God who is so good, with Jesus our Saviour, with our good heavenly Mother. That is the goal of our pilgrimage in this world, let us not forget it for a moment. Our little life passes very quickly, and soon we will be in the other world. People are senseless; they want to enjoy life and have a good time. All that will remain of our life is having labored for God, having sacrificed everything for His love.

Let us lift our souls unceasingly to God. Let us not remain glued to the earth; it is too depressing to look at so many ugly, disgusting things. We must lift ourselves above the earth, look at everything in God, rise above the clouds like a plane. Let us rise above all the miseries of this world, let us rise up into God’s heaven.

Let us ask for the Blessed Virgin’s protection, Her assistance, Her guidance. Let us consecrate ourselves to this good Mother. Let us entrust Her with everything that concerns us. Let us put everything in Her hands: She will take care of us like a good Mother. Let us ask Her to teach us to know and love Her Jesus, to serve Him and please Him in all things. Amen.