Joyful Mysteries – not joyful at the time

Story and illustration by

Dara Wilkinson

In May we honour the Blessed Virgin Mary, and I was taught the rosary by a kind woman who came to my primary school when I was nine and in Standard Four. The small group of us that she gathered to her would refer to her as ‘Nurse’. After school, we would head across to the high school beside us, through an adjoining gate, to pray in an empty classroom.

Sometimes, I went dutifully to pray because it seemed like a pleasant way to pass the afternoon. Other times, I was the typical nine-year-old, hiding when Nurse gathered the handful of children, so I could stay in the primary school yard to run and play.

Learning to pray the rosary at age nine, and learning about apparitions to the children Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, had a profound and far-reaching effect on me.

When I meditate on each mystery, rolling my fingertips on the beads decade by decade, it feels like a kind of return home.

My favourite mysteries to meditate on are the Joyful Mysteries: The Annunciation; The Visitation; The Nativity; The Presentation; The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple.

It occurred to me quite recently that acknowledging these as joyful events requires a kind of second sight. They require perspective.

I imagine a fourteen or fifteen-year-old young lady, Mary, at an age when traditionally in that culture it was routine that she would be betrothed to be married. Then, suddenly, in her state of innocence, she was to become mysteriously pregnant before marriage and conceive the Son of God.

How does one in her shoes begin to fully understand how this could be so? How does one explain this to others without fearing rejection and ridicule?

The angel said “Rejoice, full of grace” and “Mary was troubled at these words” (Lk 1:29). Mary also wondered in bewilderment and fear as an initial reaction before agreeing in humility and devotion to God (Lk 1:26–38).

The second joyful mystery, The Visitation, refers to when Mary goes to see her cousin Elizabeth who is also about six months along in her own pregnancy. The cousins are happy to visit and the babe-in-womb, John, leaps for joy in reaction to the presence of Jesus and Mary. This may have astonished them (Lk 1:39–56).

For The Nativity, the third mystery, Mary travelled on a long journey in a very pregnant state. It could not have been comfortable. Then, instead of typical accommodations, they made their lodging with the animals in a manger. It may have been a bitter-sweet scene—the joy of a new baby coupled with the discomfort of the unfamiliar surroundings. The words used in the text are: “She wrapped him in torn rags and laid him in a feeding trough” (Lk 2:7).

In addition, regarding The Presentation, Joseph was of a worker class. He did honourable and much-needed work and was not rich. Joseph made the offering at temple that was appropriate for his station as was the tradition.

A feeling of “at last” must have overcome the devout man Simeon and the prophet Anna on seeing the promised Messiah. But would it have brought joy? The words of the text are: “His father and mother wondered at what was said about the child” (Lk 2:33).

When Jesus was found in the temple as a boy about age 12, asking insightful questions and giving instruction to persons much older than Him, it may have brought substantial relief to find him. The child Jesus would have been believed to be among the group of relatives travelling together.

When Joseph and Mary realised He was not, one can imagine the fright and grief they might have felt at that moment. How in the world does one begin to guide the One who guides us all? His parents may have been astounded at the way He taught His elders and understood His mission. They may have felt anew the profundity of the duty with which they had been entrusted. Right then, they expressed that they had been very worried (Lk 2:48).

One beauty of time is it enables us to look back on past events through the lens of experience. I look back upon passing childhood afternoons praying with a handful of girls and with Nurse. What to me then was merely pleasant or at worst a stumbling block to playing, I can now see this as foundational support to my prayer life as my grandmothers, my parents, my sister and my schools taught me. I recognise that I meditate on what are indeed Joyful Mysteries even understanding they may not have felt joyful when they occurred.

Our Mother Mary, we humbly ask, please show us even today how times of bewilderment, worry and uncertainty can become joyful mysteries. Amen.