"As for Mary, she treasured all these messages and continually pondered over them." - Luke 2:19
The apostles were lucky, we think to ourselves, because they actually met Jesus. They spent time with Him, spoke to Him, and were there for all of the miracles. But there's another person who was there from the very being, whose "yes" to God brought about the beginning of our salvation.
As a Catholic, I grew up praying the Rosary and I always thought of it as a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary for her intercession, but it wasn't until I met my good friend, Gary Jansen that I discovered a deeper, more beautiful reason for picking up my Rosary beads. In his new book, The Rosary: The Journey to the Beloved, Gary describes the encounter with Mary as what happens the first time you meet the mother of the person you love. You're so excited to meet her and through her you want to learn all you can about the person you're in love with. With care, this mother asks you to sit by her side as she shows you photo albums of your beloved throughout many phases of their life. She shows you when they were born, she shows you pictures from a wedding they went to, and pictures from great feasts. She, the woman who knows your beloved better than anyone in the world, gives you a deeper glimpse into who they are. This is what the Rosary really is - a meditation on the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ through the eyes of His mother, and Gary does an amazing job of guiding us through it and giving us a greater appreciation for what's been called the prayer of the gospels. Jesus is the Beloved and Mary is the loving mother telling us all about her son, so that we can know Him like she does.
The book has just been re-released and would make a great gift for anyone who wants to know Jesus better. Even Protestants would enjoy Gary's personal story about the Rosary and how it brought him closer to Christ. If you're interested, please check the book out here:
Today's Prayer:
Father, thank You for giving us the Blessed Mother as an example of faith. All she learned from her son she guarded in her heart and meditated upon it. Help us to follow her example and persevere on our journey to the Beloved. In Jesus' Name we pray, amen.
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