Rosary: The Annunciation

The First Joyful Mystery of the Rosary

The First Joyful Mystery of the Rosary: The Annunciation

Feast of the Annunciation: March 25th

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Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. 31 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call His name Jesus. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. 33 And of His kingdom there shall be no end. 34 And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? 35 And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36 And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: 37 Because no word shall be impossible with God. 38 And Mary said: Behold the Handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to Thy word. And the angel departed from her.

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The first thing that should be noted in this First Joyful Mystery is the greeting and title that the angel Gabriel uses when addressing the Blessed Virgin Mary. He uses the greeting of “Hail!”, which in the Greek is the word chairó, which means rejoice, be glad and also as an exclamatory greeting to royalty. This connection between rejoicing and greeting royalty is intentional and was showing them honor beyond a simple hello. It was a greeting to royalty that showed your respect, honor and submission to them.

This is also the greeting that is given to Christ twice during His Passion. The first when Judas betrays Him with a kiss: (Matthew 26:49 And forthwith coming to Jesus, he said: Hail, Rabbi. And he kissed Him.)

And secondly when the soldiers are mocking Christ by putting the Crown of Thorns upon His head, dressing Him in mock royal garments and greeting Him as the King of the Jews. (Matthew 27:29 And platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in His right hand. And bowing the knee before Him, they mocked Him, saying: Hail, King of the Jews.) While they give Him nothing but scorn and derision, the word they use as a greeting shows that it is the greeting given to royalty, which they are using in sarcasm.

This is monumental when an angel of God appears before a human and addresses them with a royal greeting. Angels are a higher being than mankind and have a greater glory than we do in our natural state. Yet here the angel gives to Mary a greeting befitting royalty. He sees himself as having a lower status compared to her, as she is royalty.

He then addresses the Blessed Virgin Mary with the title of Full of Grace. Many Bible translations get this translation wrong, or intentionally downplay the significance of this title by making it sound like a descriptor instead. They translate it as “highly favored one” or some similar sounding description, instead of making it clear the angel is greeting Mary with a title instead.

In the Greek, the title used is Kecharitomene, which means a person having been and continuing to be fully graced. This word is used only once in all of Scripture. There are other uses of the root word charitoo, but they do not use the perfect superlative tense for it. This title belongs only to Mary. She already, before the angel even appeared to her, was full of God’s salvific grace. There was no sin or stain of sin in her soul, she was overflowing with grace from God.

This is why Mary is troubled and wonders what sort of greeting this is from the angel. Remember, when Mary is troubled, the angel has only greeted her and said the Lord is with her and she is blessed. He hasn’t yet given the message to Mary that he was entrusted to give to her. Just these few words have shocked her and she is troubled by them. But why?

Well because Mary is a woman of low economic means and no standing in society at all. She is humble and lowly. But here is an angel from God who is greeting her with a royal exclamation and then addressing her by a title. She is being told that she is royalty, and a royalty far exceeding anything we see here on earth.

Gabriel then gives the message to Mary that she will conceive the Messiah that the Israelites have long waited for, and in addition to this, He will be the Son of God. He will sit on the throne of David, which makes Mary the Queen Mother (Gebirah). In the Davidic Kingdom, while the King might have many wives, the Queen was the King’s mother and not his wife, since he only has one mother. The Gebirah was a very special and honored position in the Davidic Kingdom and her authority was immense. The Blessed Virgin Mary is finding out that she will be the Queen to the King.

Now her response at finding out that she will conceive a Son here actually proves the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, for those who notice what she says. At this moment, Mary is a young, healthy woman who is married to Joseph and waiting for the time when she will enter his home (Jewish marriages in those days were in two parts, the ceremony where they are married, and after a period of time the wife would then enter her husband’s home and the marriage is consummated). If she were intending and going to have a normal & conjugal marriage with Joseph, her response would be quite different.

She would respond to the angel with thanks to God and happiness at what he had said. But that’s not Mary’s reaction is it? No, in fact, Mary responds with confusion about how she will conceive a child. This is NOT the response of a young, healthy woman who is about to enter her husband’s home and enter into conjugal relations with her husband. She would EXPECT to get pregnant in short time. Take note in the angel’s message that he is speaking in the future tense of this occurring. So there is absolutely no reason why Mary is confused as to how she will conceive a son if she is going to have a conjugal marriage. Except she is confused, because she was and is a perpetual virgin. She and Joseph were never planning and never did have marital relations. Joseph, a holy and virtuous man, was marrying Mary to protect her, care for her and provide for her because she was a consecrated virgin to God. But in a heavily agrarian society that required heavy manual labor to survive. A single woman by herself was destined for a life of poverty and in danger of death constantly. Women needed men to be able to live in those days. Joseph was caring for Mary already when he agreed to marry her in a celibate marriage. St. Joseph is a model for chastity and charity that we all can hope to emulate.

We then see the angel explain to Mary that the Holy Spirit, God Himself, will overshadow Mary to conceive the Child. The word overshadow is the same word used when the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Ark of the Covenant and the glory cloud of God covered the tent it was kept in. It’s the same word used when the cloud overshadowed Jesus and the three Apostles at the Transfiguration. God is lowering Himself, stepping down from Heaven, to touch mankind and become man. This is why we bow during the Creed when we say that Jesus “was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary”. We are acknowledging the monumental mystery that God would come down from Heaven to become one of us and so redeem mankind and reconcile mankind with God. The longer you ponder over this fact, the more immense this First Joyous Mystery becomes.

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John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the only Begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

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Links to the other Mysteries of the Rosary

JOYFUL MYSTERIES

• First Joyful Mystery - The Annunciation

• Second Joyful Mystery - The Visitation

• Third Joyful Mystery - The Nativity of Jesus (coming soon)

• Fourth Joyful Mystery - The Presentation in the Temple (coming soon)

• Fifth Joyful Mystery - The Finding of Jesus in the Temple (coming soon)

SORROWFUL MYSTERSIES

• First Sorrowful Mystery - The Agony in the Garden (coming soon)

• Second Sorrowful Mystery - The Scourging at the Pillar (coming soon)

• Third Sorrowful Mystery - The Crowning with Thorns (coming soon)

• Fourth Sorrowful Mystery - The Carrying of the Cross (coming soon)

• Fifth Sorrowful Mystery - The Crucifixion of Jesus (coming soon)

GLORIOUS MYSTERIES

• First Glorious Mystery - The Resurrection (coming soon)

• Second Glorious Mystery - The Ascension of Christ (coming soon)

• Third Glorious Mystery - The Descent of the Holy Ghost (coming soon)

• Fourth Glorious Mystery - The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

• Fifth Glorious Mystery - The Coronation of Mary (coming soon)

LUMINOUS MYSTERIES

• First Luminous Mystery - The Baptism of the Lord (coming soon)

• Second Luminous Mystery - The Wedding at Cana (coming soon)

• Third Luminous Mystery - The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God (coming soon)

• Fourth Luminous Mystery - The Transfiguration (coming soon)

• Fifth Luminous Mystery - The Institution of the Eucharist (coming soon)