Living the Joyful Mysteries

As a self-described melancholic temperament, I am not a naturally joyful person.  In fact, I’ve struggled with discovering joy my entire life, mostly because I battle negative thinking and impossibly high expectations (which are never met, of course).  Life always has a way of disappointing, or at least that was how I was inclined to believe for so long.

This Advent, I am learning about expectant faith – the spiritual pregnancy, or pause, that happens to coincide with a very special gift I’ve been given, a third baby.

Ben and I have been longing and praying for another child for a very long time, and recently I had come to the conclusion that we likely wouldn’t have another biological child.  Yet as we prayed together, we didn’t feel a strong call to adoption.  So we waited.

Waiting can be very painful for a number of reasons, but mainly because we cannot see what God is doing in our lives.  Advent reminds us of the beauty and the opportunity that may be hidden in periods of latency or even rest, seasons of life that offer us more than the busyness of our modern culture.

Now that I am joyfully carrying another baby – an unexpected, but very welcome, gift – I have pondered more on how the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary provide great spiritual insight for all of us as we journey through Advent with that expectant faith, that joyful hope, that pregnant pause.

Read more at Catholic Exchange.