Fra Angelico: The Annunciation

There are five Joyful mysteries of the rosary. They comprise a succinct representation of the sequence of delivery of the most important message rendered to mankind.

• The annunciation-an angel tells a human being, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Blessed Mother, that God has found favor with her and that the messiah, Jesus Christ will be born to her. She graciously accepts.
  
• The visitation-The Blessed Mother tells her friend Elizabeth. This represents the first transmission of the news at the human level,
• the nativity-the promise is fulfilled witnessed by common people, three kings, and the local potentate is advised.
  
• the presentation in the temple- the parents of Jesus present the messiah in the temple according to accepted protocol.

  From: Luke 2:33-35 Simeon's Prophecy (Continuation) [33] And His (Jesus') father and His mother marveled at what was said about Him; [34] and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, His mother, "Behold this child is set for the fall the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against [35] (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed."

  Commentary (Optional Reading): 33. The Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph marveled not because they did not know who Christ was; they were in awe at the way God was revealing Him. Once again they teach us to contemplate the mysteries involved in the birth of Christ. 34-35. After Simeon blesses them, the Holy Spirit moves him to further prophecy about the Child's future and His Mother's. His words become clearer in the light of our Lord's life and death. Jesus came to bring salvation to all men, yet He will be a sign of contradiction because some people will obstinately reject Him--and for this reason He will be their ruin. But for those who accept Him with faith Jesus will be their salvation, freeing them from sin in this life and raising them up to eternal life. The words Simeon addresses to Mary announce that she will be intimately linked with her Son's redemptive work. The sword indicates that Mary will have a share in her Son's sufferings; hers will be an unspeakable pain which pierces her soul. Our Lord suffered on the cross for our sins, and it is those sins which forge the sword of Mary's pain. Therefore, we have a duty to atone not only to God but also to His Mother, who is our Mother too. The last words of the prophecy, "that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed", link up with verse 34: uprightness or perversity will be demonstrated by whether one accepts or rejects Christ.

  the finding temple- Jesus is again found in the temple by Mary and Joseph. And this time he is on His own teaching. Some have remarked that Our Lord was unfair to His parents thus having them frightened them so by going off as He did on His own . In view of the previous mystery in which He was exposed to the Temple by his parents, and in view of a possible prescience of His own sufferings to come at the hands of the Authorities, this act on Jesus's part may be seen as a noble gesture. For by thus embarking on his mission on His own Our Lord was in effect freeing his parents of any guilt associated with the great suffering which was to result from his work in the Temple. Remember that at the Presentation (the Fourth Joyful Mystery) a reference was made to Mary's suffering. Jesus must have recognized that this must have frightened his Blessed Mother. Remember also that Jesus would be persecuted largely because he drove the moneychangers out of the Temple, criticized the Pharisees and other Temple leaders and openly predicted the fall of the Temple. Secondly in a more mystical sense, the "finding" of Jesus teaching independently in the Temple uniquely represents the Word as now operant in human affairs unencumbered

The five sorrowful mysteries of the rosary are