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11 years ago
General
The 5th Joyful Mystery of the Rosary is "The Finding of Jesus in the Temple". It is found in Scripture at Luke 2:41. Every year, Jesus and his (earthly) parents would go to Jerusalem for the Passover. When Jesus was 12, on the way home, they realized he was missing, so they went back toward Jerusalem looking for him. They found him in the temple with the leading theologians of the time and these guys were amazed at his wisdom.
I was talking with a friend of mine about this recently. Though he likely headed toward the temple intentionally, he was separated from this parents and not where he was expected to be. His parents assumed, I'm sure, that he had gotten himself lost. Maybe he was hanging with some cousins (remember John the Baptist was his cousin and the families were close enough that Mary visited Elizabeth while they were both pregnant and stayed with her six months) who assumed he was with Mary and Joseph when they left town, while maybe Mary and Joseph assumed he was with other relatives.
In any case, Jesus was left behind in Jerusalem and I'm sure was considered "lost" by his parents and that he was aware he was left in Jerusalem without them. So he wandered around and ended up in the temple. There he sought out the elders of the temple and spoke with them, asking questions, I'm sure, and in asking, teaching them through the wisdom he had by virtue of his divine aspect.
But what occurred to us while discussing this mystery was that wherever he went, he always went prayerfully: that is, mindful of the Father and the desires and will of the Father, thus no matter what circumstances of his getting there, wherever he ended up blessed all around him.
If we get lost, geographically, or error in the work or other actions and behaviors we take, we most often think that it is all misfortune and waste. But God doesn't work that way: as he did at the Creation, he always brings order from chaos. As long as we pursue every moment prayerfully, even when we get lost or err, God will take what we are offering Him, bless it, and return it to us perfected and effective for service to His Kingdom.
So if we keep Him always in mind, we may wander and get lost or make mistakes and yet we will always discover that we are exactly where we most need to be and have done what we most should have done. We truly will be "like water", flowing around the obstacles we inadvertently place before ourselves or that the world sets in our path, and where we flow God will work blessings.
Thus it makes no sense to get upset when we get lost or make a mistake. That would be, in one sense, sacrilegious and sinful. Instead of cursing, we should admit the error, make a note to do better in the future, but in the moment seek how God has orchestrated the universe such that our error is a blessing.
This is, I think, the foundation of what it means to "pray always."
I was talking with a friend of mine about this recently. Though he likely headed toward the temple intentionally, he was separated from this parents and not where he was expected to be. His parents assumed, I'm sure, that he had gotten himself lost. Maybe he was hanging with some cousins (remember John the Baptist was his cousin and the families were close enough that Mary visited Elizabeth while they were both pregnant and stayed with her six months) who assumed he was with Mary and Joseph when they left town, while maybe Mary and Joseph assumed he was with other relatives.
In any case, Jesus was left behind in Jerusalem and I'm sure was considered "lost" by his parents and that he was aware he was left in Jerusalem without them. So he wandered around and ended up in the temple. There he sought out the elders of the temple and spoke with them, asking questions, I'm sure, and in asking, teaching them through the wisdom he had by virtue of his divine aspect.
But what occurred to us while discussing this mystery was that wherever he went, he always went prayerfully: that is, mindful of the Father and the desires and will of the Father, thus no matter what circumstances of his getting there, wherever he ended up blessed all around him.
If we get lost, geographically, or error in the work or other actions and behaviors we take, we most often think that it is all misfortune and waste. But God doesn't work that way: as he did at the Creation, he always brings order from chaos. As long as we pursue every moment prayerfully, even when we get lost or err, God will take what we are offering Him, bless it, and return it to us perfected and effective for service to His Kingdom.
So if we keep Him always in mind, we may wander and get lost or make mistakes and yet we will always discover that we are exactly where we most need to be and have done what we most should have done. We truly will be "like water", flowing around the obstacles we inadvertently place before ourselves or that the world sets in our path, and where we flow God will work blessings.
Thus it makes no sense to get upset when we get lost or make a mistake. That would be, in one sense, sacrilegious and sinful. Instead of cursing, we should admit the error, make a note to do better in the future, but in the moment seek how God has orchestrated the universe such that our error is a blessing.
This is, I think, the foundation of what it means to "pray always."
