Page 15 - LOTN Summer Issue 47 2021

EDUCATION AND FORMATION

We all know women who have given up smoking or mothers, are undoubtedly better endowed in this? They
drinking as soon as they are pregnant. are a length ahead of us.
With the Risen Lord, it is exactly the same! This tells us a little about how to enter into the mystery of
Because he lives in us by faith, our life changes, not the Resurrection: not like a succession of diary pages, but
because anyone forces us to, not because of the laws of the by bearing the life of God within us, lovingly, like a baby
Church or whoever-have-you, but out of love, from grace, that is to be born.
for him, for the child which is growing in us…
Christian life is an initiation into that life for the other The Resurrection, a Feminine Reality was translated from
which is the very life of God. Chronique de Landévennec, avril 2021 – No. 86, pp. 62-65,
Ought we not to recognize that women, especially with kind permission.

The Seven Joys of Mary

praying with an angel next to him. The angel was weaving
BY EILEEN CLARE GRANT a crown of roses, with a golden lily between each of the 10

Rejoice, O Virgin, rejoice, I say: roses. When James finished praying, the angel placed the
I unfold your joys, crown upon his head. The Master asked his novice what this
daring to do so by your favour, meant and soon the practice spread throughout the friary
lauding you with a joyful heart. and beyond. This Rosary became known as the Franciscan
Crown Rosary and in 1906, Franciscans were granted the

ost of us have long been familiar with the right to hold a special Feast of the Crown Rosary on August
Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary and will know 26 or 27.
also of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Perhaps The tradition considered here meditates on the Annunciation,
Mnot so familiar are the Seven Joys of Mary, the Nativity, The Adoration of the Magi, the Risen Christ’s
meditations upon which became popular during the Middle Appearance to his Mother, the Ascension, the Descent of the
Ages. In the mid-14th century, a hymn was composed by Holy Spirit, and the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin.
the Carthusian priest, Conrad of Haimbourg, Prior of the Always, the joy in Mary’s heart points us towards the Person
Charterhouse in Gaming, Austria. The prayer tradition of her beloved Son. In their writings on the Blessed Virgin
itself began with a young Franciscan friar named James, Mary, several Popes have emphasised that the most important
later to be known as James of the Rosary. All Catholics are aspect of Marian spirituality is that when we speak of Mary,
accustomed to praying with a Dominican Rosary; what we speak about Christ, for she always leads us to him. And
stemmed from James’s devotions became known as the Pope Benedict XVI in a 2011 Audience stressed the difference
Franciscan Rosary. Before entering the Order c.1420, James between “happiness” and “joy”: “True joy is not a mere passing
had a daily habit of weaving a crown of fresh flowers which state of soul, nor something that is achieved by our own power
he placed on a statue of Mary. Unable to continue this but is a gift; it is born from the encounter with the living person
practice, he was about to abandon his vocation, when the of Jesus.” Happiness is fleeting; joy is eternal. So it was for the
Blessed Virgin appeared to him and prompted him instead Blessed Mother of Our Lord, though sorrowing in his sufferings,
to weave a crown of prayers and to recite seven decades always pondering the joyful moments in her heart and trusting
meditating on her “Seven Joys”. This he did without telling in the eternal joy to come.
anyone, but one day, his Novice Master came upon him At a time when very few people could read, paintings often
Page 15