Josephite

Rosary

The Five COURAGEOUS Mysteries of the Holy Rosary

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The First Mystery -The Espousal of Mary & Joseph

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 ‘..suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit.”’ (Mt. 1:20)

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Virtue - Purity 

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‘Analyzing the nature of marriage, both St. Augustine and St. Thomas always identify it with an "indivisible union of souls," a "union of hearts," with "consent." These elements are found in an exemplary manner in the marriage of Mary and Joseph. At the culmination of the history of salvation, when God reveals his love for humanity through the gift of the Word, it is precisely the marriage of Mary and Joseph that brings to realization in full "freedom" the "spousal gift of self" in receiving and expressing such a love.’ (St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos, 7)

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Prayer Intention - Please help me find a loving spouse and live a faithful & fruitful marriage

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The Second Mystery - Guardian of the Divine Mystery

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‘When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife; he did not have intercourse with her when she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus.’ (Mt. 1:24-25)

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Virtue - Obedience 

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‘Joseph was in his day the lawful and natural guardian, head and defender of the Holy Family.... It is thus fitting and most worthy of Joseph's dignity that, in the same way that he once kept unceasing holy watch over the family of Nazareth, so now does he protect and defend with his heavenly patronage the Church of Christ. This patronage must be invoked as ever necessary for the Church, not only as a defense against all dangers, but also, and indeed primarily, as an impetus for her renewed commitment to evangelization in the world and to re-evangelization in those lands and nations where "religion and the Christian life were formerly flourishing and...are now put to a hard test."’

 (St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos, 3, 28-29)

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Prayer Intention - Grant all our fathers the grace of obedience to the will of God

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The Third Mystery - The Flight into Egypt

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‘Suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him. So Joseph got up and taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt.’ (Mt. 2:13-14)

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Virtue - Courage

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‘And so Jesus' way back to Nazareth from Bethlehem passed through Egypt. Just as Israel had followed the path of the exodus "from the condition of slavery" in order to begin the Old Covenant, so Joseph, guardian and cooperator in the providential mystery of God, even in exile watched over the one who brings about the New Covenant.’ (St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos, 14)

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Prayer Intention - Grant our fathers the virtue of courage to protect family life from conception to natural death

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The Fourth Mystery - The Hidden Holy Family 

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‘When they had done everything the Law of the Lord required, they went back to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.  And as the child grew to maturity, he was filled with wisdom; and God’s favour was with him.’ (Lk. 2:39-40)

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‘He went down with them then and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority.’ (Lk. 2:51)

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Virtue - Faithfulness

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‘The hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life:

The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus - the school of the Gospel. First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us. . . A lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and inviolable character... A lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the "Carpenter's Son", in you I would choose to understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work. . . To conclude, I want to greet all the workers of the world, holding up to them their great pattern, their brother who is God.’ (CCC. 533)

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Prayer Intention - Grant us the restoration of a holy and loving patriarchy 

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The Fifth Mystery - The Death of Joseph 

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‘Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman this is your son’. Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother,’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.’ (Jn 19:26-27)

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Virtue - Hope 

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‘The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the litany of the saints, for instance, she has us pray: "From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord"; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us "at the hour of our death" in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death.’

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‘Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the day is out. Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience .... Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from death? If you aren't fit to face death today, it's very unlikely you will be tomorrow ....’

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Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister bodily Death,

from whom no living man can escape.

Woe on those who will die in mortal sin!

Blessed are they who will be found in your most holy will,

for the second death will not harm them.’ (CCC. 1014)

 

 

Prayer Intention

God our heavenly Father, I beseech you, grant me the grace of a holy death. That I may die peacefully in the arms of Jesus and the bosom of Mary. Amen.