The First Sorrowful Mystery: The Agony of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane

 

The Sorrowful Mysteries describes how Jesus Christ; 

true God and true Man,

suffered for us, for our salvation, and also He thus

gave an absolute perfect example for us to follow, in 

our own life situations of agony and anguish; 

He surrendered everything to God The Father, 

even His life.

First He suffered persecution, and in the Garden of Gethsemane 

He went through psychological, moral and emotional anguish;

He sweated blood. 

He was fully aware of what lay ahead, He knew He was going 

to be betrayed and handed over to be killed, and being human,

He suffered.

But He suffered it voluntarily, He could have chosen to save 

Himself, but He trusted and obeyed His Father, 

as they were One.  

Jesus, the lamb of God, took upon Himself our sins,

to offer us redemption. 

 

 

Jesus was 100% innocent, but none of us are.

 

We are all in some way both victims of the sins of others, 

and our own sins which we inflict upon ourselves 

and others, this is how we perpetuate the fall from grace. 

By our own sins we commit crimes against God;

will kill Him again.

 

The first step to reconciliation with God is truly seeing our 

sins, admitting them to ourselves, confessing them to a priest. 

We must see how they damaged us and those nearest to us, 

we must understand that we did it ourselves, it was us that did 

it, that caused it, we had so many other possible courses of action, 

but we chose to do what we did, the way we did it, we must take 

responsibility; own up,

and resolve to change ourselves.

 

Also; it is easy to believe in God when things are good, but 

how many of us trust in Him fully when we are afraid or even 

terrified?

Our instinct says to save ourselves, we seek solutions in the 

world and put our trust in weak human beings, we often forget 

completely to first present our problems to God, who are 

already aware of them, but He still wants us to come to Him first.

 

We are of course entitled to, and supposed to, seek worldly help, 

but ultimately in the end, no-one is able to help us, as we are all 

facing a certain death. 

This process is a sorrowful one, we need to prepare for it now. 

 

Fruit of the Mystery: The regret of our faults and failings.

May the grace of this Mystery come into our souls.  

 

 

 

The Fifth Joyful Mystery: The Finding of The Child Jesus in The Temple

 

Returning from a Passover trip to Jerusalem,

the parents of Jesus were on their way back to Nazareth, they 

journeyed in large corteges of family and people known to them, 

when they became aware that they had not seen their Son for a 

long while, and that they had in fact lost track of Him.

 

Any parent can identify with the fear and panic that would seize 

them in this scenario.

 

Mary and Joseph retraced their steps back to Jerusalem, they 

searched everywhere, and after three days they found Him; in 

the Temple, in a conference with the elders. 

Jesus was 12 at this stage.

 

The relief at finding their Son brought out the reproach by 

His Mother:

" How could you do this to us, we were overcome with worry"

 

And Jesus's matter of fact answer, so straightforward and innocent: 

"Why so? Where else would I be other than in my Father's house?" 

  

Praying on this sometimes brings a smile to my face, because having 

had 2 sons myself, I can almost hear His young boy's voice; 

"What were you worrying about, I am in My Father's house, 

where else would I be?"

 

We are the Temple of God by His Holy Spirit. 

We are related to Jesus as sisters and brothers.

 

But we lose this connection when we live in fear, 

constant anxiety is an obstacle to God, as are our sins.

Breaking any of the 10 Commandments and all the mortal sins 

(Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Anger, Envy (Jealousy)  

are obstacles to God.

 

And those periods that we all encounter at some time or other 

in our lives, when we do not feel the presence of God, we feel 

lost and afraid, He is there nevertheless, He is always present, 

He cannot not be.

The Fourth Joyful Mystery: The Presentation of The Infant Jesus in the Temple

 

 

Mary and Jesus were law abiding Jews, and according to Jewish 

custom the Infant Jesus had to be presented in the Temple.  

There they met Simeon who recognized The Baby Jesus for who 

He was; the Christ of God.

This Mystery corresponds to our Sacrament  of Baptism,

when the infant is brought and presented by it's parents into 

the Church. 

Christianity grew out of the old Jewish Law, Jesus came 

not to do away with the old Law, but to make it progress 

into the fullness of Truth.

For us it is a reminder to be obedient to the Divine Law; 

The Word of God, and to rid ourselves of every sin that drags 

us down.

By prayer, by Confession, by The Eucharist; Conversion. 

 

Fruit of the Mystery: Obedience and Purity

May the grace of the Mystery come into our souls

The Third Joyful Mystery: The Birth of Jesus Christ: True God and True Man

 

 

Meditating on the Incarnation of God, and the circumstances around this 

event that changed the visible world for ever, the historical and geographical 

setting, the personal situation of His parents, who found themselves in 

Bethlehem due to their civic duty. The town was full of all the other people 

who was there for the same reason, people who did not normally live there, 

but who had to make the journey in order to fulfill their obligations. The 

hostels were full, but they found shelter in a manger or a cave outside the 

town, where Our Lord was born, as His Mother had reached full term.

 

Whatever we can say about the Conception, pregnancy and birth of Jesus, 

it cannot be that it was humanly planned, arranged and prepared.

 

However it was fully planned and prepared by God, who 

arranged it to be exactly this way.

 

Because of man's pride; his delusion that he is self sufficient and 

does not need God; his very Maker.

To rid ourselves of the spirits that holds us captive, to shred the 

layers of manifest or hidden pride,vainglory, arrogance, love of 

money and possessions; in other words to convert to the spirit of 

poverty, the spirit that is pure and fully awake to the fact that it 

depends on God for everything.

 

The Second Joyful Mystery: The Visitation

 

 

Mary went to visit her cousin Elisabeth, because The Archangel 

had told her, that despite the fact that Elisabeth, who had been deemed 

sterile and who was now an old women, she was also carrying a child 

in her womb.

 

It was John the Baptist she carried; the forerunner of Christ; the one 

who was to announce the Messiah; the One who came after him, but 

who was before him, and whose sandals straps he was not worthy 

to tie.

 

Mary was pregnant with a child despite still being virgin, 

Elisabeth was pregnant despite being past childbearing age.

Two works outside the natural order.

 

Meditating and praying this decade of the Rosary makes us 

realize that we carry in the center of our being; in our soul, 

the Divine.

If we give this part of us, this most important part, because it 

is Eternal, it will continue to live after our bodies dies,

enough attention, we can become pregnant with it, it can 

become visible to others through us and we can carry His 

Presence to others too.  

 

 

Fruit of the Mystery; Charity, render good for bad.

May the grace of the Mystery come into our soul.

The First Joyful Mystery; The Annunciation

 

 

When The Mother of God; The Blessed Virgin Mary, was visited by 

The Archangel Gabriel who announced to her that she was going to 

conceive and bear a son who was the Son of God, she was first afraid 

and confused.

She did not understand how she could become pregnant as she did 

not know a man.

But after the initial impact of this supernatural encounter, she gave her 

FIAT;

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be 

fulfilled.”

Luke 1:38

 

Mary had been set apart by God from her very conception for this 

purpose, she is the Immaculate Conception, she was a pure vessel.

 

But she also did say yes; she gave her consent.

When we pray this first decade of the Joyful Mysteries, that is 

what we do as well, we open ourselves up to God, we make 

ourselves available, for God to work through us. Because we 

need to confirm this, we need to say yes; let your will be done 

in me, Lord.  

It is a surrender of our own will, we hand the control over to 

Our Creator.

In doing so, we meet our own fear and resistance, because we 

are not pure like The Virgin Mary, but with patient perseverance, 

we do become more open and available to Gods movement and 

inspirations.

We let go of our conditioning and mental prejudices, and most of 

all we learn to trust. 

 

Fruit of the Mystery: Surrender to God, Humility.

May the grace of the Mystery come into our souls.