Hey there my friends!
Welcome back to our series on the virtues of the Rosary. Today we are wrapping up our walk through the virtues of the Joyful Mysteries. We have already talked about the Annunciation (joy), the Visitation (service), the Nativity (detachment from the world) and the Presentation (consecration).
So, that leaves only the 5th Joyful Mystery, Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple.
The virtue for this mystery is Doing God's Work.This episode turned out sort of interesting. In many ways it is simply an explanation of the Catholic Church's teaching on justification, or salvation. As you might now, Protestants state that we are saved by "faith alone," while the Catholic Church teaches that we are saved by "faith and works".
This can be misleading mostly because Catholics and Protestants have different definitions or understandings of Justification.
While Protestants believe that justification or salvation is a singular EVENT (they might often ask each other, "Have you been saved?"), Catholics believe that salvation is a process or a journey, one we will likely still be working on in purgatory (When asked if we have been saved we should respond, "Yes! I was saved when Christ died for me, I am saved now as I pursue holiness and ask for forgiveness and I will be saved in the end!") We agree that we are saved through Jesus Christ and that we could never do anything to "earn" God's love and mercy.
Catholics simply point out that in order for faith to be REAL it must be alive and "work in love", as St. Paul writes. And, as our faith deepens we will work more and more in love!
Much of this debate is semantics, but I hope that this discussion is helpful if you have Protestants in your life that you would like to share the truth of the church with. The truth is that most Catholics, I think, are confused, or at least confusing, on this point. We need to know our faith and be able to talk about it clearly if we are ever going to share it!
I really hope that this allows you to deepen your contemplation of the 4th Joyful Mystery of the Rosary!
Links mentioned in this episode:
You can find all of these virtues as well as scripture, reflections and mediations in my little Rosary Book. Download and print these 20 FREE coloring pagesdepicting and helping you reflect on the virtues of the Rosary.Thank you, as always, for being here!
Your sister in the small things,
Nancy
