Latest / Into the Mysteries of the Rosary / A Prophetic Visitation | Into the Mysteries of the Rosary Ep 3 | Fr. James Brent, O.P.

Transcript

A Prophetic Visitation | Into the Mysteries of the Rosary Ep 3 | Fr. James Brent, O.P. · Into the Mysteries of the Rosary

• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, welcome to Into the Mysteries of the Rosary, a mini-series of the podcast contemplata.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are meditating on the mysteries of the rosary one by one.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Each mystery of the rosary is part of a larger mystery.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: The mystery with a capital M.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: The mystery is God's plan of adoption for the whole human race.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Trinity created you in order to adopt you by grace, so that you and I might come to live with God in the Father's house in the heavenly places.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: The mysteries of the Rosary are like chapters in the story of how God goes about his work of adopting us.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And now we turn to the second joyful mystery, the visitation.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: The second joyful mystery is really a sequel to the first.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: In the first joyful mystery, Mary learned she was to conceive in her womb and bear a son.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: He will be called the Son of God, and she is to name him Jesus.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: What is more astonishing, Mary learned she will conceive this child not in the ordinary way, but in an extraordinary way, in a virginal way, without the cooperation of a man.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: The angel promised Mary that the conception will come to pass by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most amazing characteristics of our Lady is that she believed the message and the promise of the angel without hesitation.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: She simply said, Fiat, let it be done to me according to your word.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Would that you and I had a heart so ready to believe the word of God, so receptive to his promises and so responsive with trust.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: No matter what might be going on in our lives, God is working through it.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: All things are in the hands of God.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the vision at the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel also told Mary about another woman and another pregnancy.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: The angel told Mary that her elderly cousin Elizabeth was now pregnant in her sixth month, almost as if to say, Hey, go check this out.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Why would Gabriel include the detail about Elizabeth?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if Mary's vision at the Anunciation was all an illusion, then Elizabeth would most likely not be pregnant.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: After all, Elizabeth was advanced in years.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: If Mary's vision at the Annunciation was true, however, then Mary would in fact find her elderly cousin Elizabeth to be pregnant.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: In this way, God gave a specific sign to confirm the vision.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Mary therefore set out to visit Elizabeth.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Faith always seeks understanding of what God has revealed.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, God revealed something about Elizabeth too.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, full of confidence and faith, and surely full of eager anticipation, Mary made haste to the hill country of Judea to visit Elizabeth.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: When Mary arrived, Elizabeth greeted her, saying, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now how would Elizabeth even know Mary was pregnant at that point?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: More importantly, how would Elizabeth know that Mary was the mother of the Lord himself?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Saint Luke tells us that Elizabeth was filled with the Spirit.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: When she spoke, Elizabeth was operating in the spirit of prophecy.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: When the spirit of prophecy falls on someone, it causes the person to know hidden things.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the hidden thing is still in the future, but sometimes it is in the present, and sometimes even in the past.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: For example, in the Old Testament, Nathan the prophet learned in the Spirit that David had committed adultery in the past.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And once Nathan learned it, he then called David on his secret sin.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Something similar takes place in the visitation, but it was not about a sin.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was about the grace Mary had received in secret at the Annunciation.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit of prophecy fell upon Elizabeth, and as a result, she not only knew Mary was pregnant, but knew Mary was to be the mother of God.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: What is more, Elizabeth also knew that God had revealed a promise to Mary, and knew that Mary already believed in the promise of God.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: For in her greeting, Elizabeth went on to say, Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: From Elizabeth's greeting, Mary must have realized something in a flash.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Elizabeth already knew.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Elizabeth already knew something great had taken place in Mary's life, that Mary had received a revelation and a promise from God and believed in it.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: That would almost be enough to confirm that Mary's vision of the angel was no illusion.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: But then Elizabeth really confirmed the vision.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Elizabeth said to Mary, At the sound of your greeting, the babe in my womb leaped for joy.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thus Mary learned Elizabeth was pregnant, just as the angel had said.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: The vision at the Annunciation was confirmed, and joy of joys, God was now at work among his people in mighty ways.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: But what was God up to?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now it was Mary's turn to speak in the spirit of prophecy.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: The two pregnant women are signs with a hidden meaning, and a mysterious truth they contain.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the signs require interpretation.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Once upon a time King Balshazar saw cryptic writing appear on the wall, and the prophet Daniel was called to interpret the hidden meaning of the words.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now you and I consider the cryptic signs of these two pregnant women greeting each other, and Mary is called by God to interpret the meaning for us.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Her interpretation is called the magnificat.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: The soul of Mary, full of grace, resounding with joy, signifies the beginning of a new era of salvation.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: From this day all generations will call me blessed.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Her words are a prophecy of the future, and they are fulfilled every time someone recites the Hail Mary.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: She sings of the Almighty, of what He has done and what He is now doing.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: The Magnificat is full of references to the Old Testament, and it shows that Mary was a woman who knew Scripture deeply.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: She lived in Scripture, breathed its atmosphere, and soaked in its light.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: When she broke out in song, she spontaneously sang in words of Scripture.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Would that Catholics knew Scripture as well as Mary did?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: What Mary tells us is this in the Old Testament it says that the Lord has a day against everything high and mighty, when he will strike down the pretensions of the world rulers and powers of the age.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: God will lift up the poor and the lowly and fill those who are hungry with his word and his truth and his love.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: God has a plan, a plan of mercy for the whole human race.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: What is actually going on here, Mary tells us, what these two pregnancies mean is that the plan of God is coming to fulfillment.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: The world does not know it, but his little ones know it.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Mary and Elizabeth, two women in the spirit, have learned the secret of God, and now they rejoice.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can too, if you pick up your rosary and pray.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to this episode of Contemplata.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends wherever you listen to podcasts.