The Joyful Mysteries - Meditations based on the Letter on the Rosary of St. John Paul II
The Annunciation
The joy radiating from the event of the Incarnation is evident from the very moment of the Annunciation, when Gabriel's greeting to the Virgin of Nazareth is joined to the call to messianic joy: Rejoice, Mary. In this announcement, the whole history of salvation, and even in a certain way the history of the world itself, reaches its goal.
For if the Father's plan is to gather all things in Christ, then in some way the entire universe is reached by the Divine favor with which the Father bends down over Mary to make Her the Mother of His Son. All of humanity is, as it were, enfolded in that fiat – ”let it be done” – with which She readily responds to the will of God.
The Visitation
Marked by joy is the scene of the meeting with Elizabeth, where the very voice of Mary and the presence of Christ in Her womb cause John to leap for joy.
The Nativity of Jesus
Abounding in joy is the scene of Bethlehem, where the birth of the Divine Child, the Savior of the world, is sung by the angels and announced to the shepherds precisely as a great joy.
The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
The final two mysteries, while retaining a flavor of joy, simultaneously foreshadow the signs of drama. For the Presentation in the temple, while expressing the joy of consecration and leading to the ecstasy of the aged Simeon, also includes the prophecy of the sign of contradiction that this Child will be for Israel, and of the sword that will pierce the Mother's soul.
The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
Joyful and at the same time dramatic is the account of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple. He appears here in His Divine wisdom and essentially as the One who ”teaches.” The revelation in Him of the mystery of the Son entirely devoted to the affairs of the Father is a foreshadowing of that gospel radicalism which, in the face of the absolute demands of the Kingdom, goes beyond even the closest human bonds. Even Joseph and Mary, anxious and concerned, did not understand what He said to them.