St. Augustine said, “God is infinite so that we will continue to seek for him even after we have found him.” That’s why the Gospel gives you more every time you read it — and why the Rosary, a review of the Gospel, does the same.
I’ve written many articles (and a book!) about the Rosary, but I keep finding new hidden lessons (hidden to me anyway). Here are five of the latest.
The First Joyful Mystery is Mary’s “Call to adventure.” We receive ours, too.
Joseph Campbell popularized the idea that great stories fit a similar shape -- “The Hero’s Journey,” beginning with “The call to adventure.” Examples are Cinderella hearing that every eligible maiden is invited to the prince’s ball; a stranger knocking on a hobbit’s door; Luke Skywalker seeing a princess’s distress call — and Joan of Arc hearing a voice.
For Mary, that moment is the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel proposes a new trajectory to her life and she says Yes, changing history.
She could follow that enormous call because she was used to following the small, daily calls of the Lord — and her humble boldness is a model for each of us when we hear our calls to adventure both large and small.
The Second Joyful Mystery reveals the magnificent greatness of everyday charity.
When I pray the Visitation, I tend to focus on either charity or theology; either the Blessed Mother’s service to her pregnant cousin or her Magnificat prayer.
But, duh, the two are connected: Mary’s magnificence comes from her willingness to serve her cousin. This is what she means when she says, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord … and all generations will call me blessed”
She is not the only great one; we are too, she says: “His mercy is on those who fear him in every generation.” Like Mary, our acts of service make us great in our generation. St. Peter said the same thing.
The Third Joyful Mystery reminds us that God gives just enough.
In the Nativity story, God does something surprising: He denies the Holy Family any ease or comfort as they bring his son into the world. But our Father is generous; he sends rain on the good and bad, and lavishes on people way more than they need. So why skimp with them?
I found my answer in the story a Benedictine College student told about his great-grandmother in Mexico, who was an impoverished single mother.
“One evening as she walked home from work with no money to feed herself or her five children, she prayed, ‘God, please send me just 50 pesos so that I can buy a meal and pay rent for my family,’” he recounted. Then, “A sudden gust of wind blew past her. She looked down and there caught beneath her shoe was a 50 peso bill.”
When she got home and explained what happened, her daughter said, “Mom, why in the world didn’t you ask God for a million pesos?"
She answered, “My daughter, my daughter, only ask the Lord for your daily bread!"
She’s right. Our bountiful God is also the God of “just enough,” who gave his people daily manna to teach us to trust him as birds do. Mary and Joseph show us what it looks like to trust the God of “just enough.”
The Fourth Joyful Mystery tells us to expect God everywhere.
A St. John Henry Newman sermon alerted to me something I never considered, exactly: The Presentation is absolutely unremarkable. Luke doesn’t describe the actual ceremony in which Jesus is dedicated to God, but a chance encounter with an old man and old woman on the way to the ceremony — an encounter that probably attracted zero attention from passersby.
Yet, in this brief encounter, prophecy is fulfilled; the presence of the Lord returns to the Temple; Jesus is proclaimed the Messiah; and his Passion is predicted.
Newman’s advice: We should never forget “how mysteriously little things in this world are connected with great; how single moments, improved or wasted, are … salvation or ruin.”
Or, to put it another way: Treat every encounter with a human being as a meeting with Jesus Christ.
Finally, the Fifth Joyful Mystery shows me a new place I can always find Jesus.
My personal favorite lesson for the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple is to “always look for Jesus in the Church when you have lost him in your life.” But recently I’ve been focusing on how the Kingdom of God is meant to be a return to the Garden of Eden, where the Father’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven.”
So now, when Jesus tells Mary and Joseph (in older translations) “Did you not know I must be about my Father’s business?” I realize that we can also find Jesus by doing God’s will.
Christ identifies himself with the Father’s will — so we can always find him there.
