The Seven Joys of Our Lady

Feast August 27

“You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” John 16:21

Many Catholics are well-acquainted with the Seven Sorrows of Mary. It is a beautiful devotion recalling the Seven Swords that the prophet Simeon spoke of at the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple:

“Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:3-5)

For more about this devotion, click here.

However, the Order of Saint Francis began a much lesser-known devotion as early as 1420. This devotion to the Mother of Our Redeemer offers one an opportunity to meditate on her Seven Joys. Uniquely combining four of the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary, the Epiphany, and two of the Glorious Mysteries, The Franciscan Crown has brought many graces from Heaven to those who practice this devotion faithfully.

Humble Beginning

Its humble beginning is best related in this story taken from The Manual of the Franciscan Tertiaries (1869):

About the year 1420, a young man deeply devoted to Our Lady took the habit of St. Francis. Before joining the Order, he had, among other practices, been accustomed daily to making a chaplet of flowers and crowning a statue of the Blessed Virgin with it.

Having no longer an opportunity in his novitiate to make this crown for his Most Beloved Queen, he, in his simplicity, thought that she would withdraw her affection from him; this temptation of the devil disturbed his vocation, and he decided to abandon the cloister.

The merciful mother appeared to him and gently rebuking him, strengthened him in his vocation by telling him to offer her instead of the chaplet of flowers, a crown much more pleasing to her, composed of seventy-two Ave Marias and a Pater after each decade of Ave Marias, and to meditate at each decade upon the seven joys she had experienced during the seventy-two years of her exile upon the earth.

The novice immediately commenced reciting the new crown or rosary and derived many spiritual and temporal graces from it. This pious practice spread quickly through the whole Order and even throughout the world… Saint Bernardin of Siena used to say that he had obtained all the graces that Heaven had heaped upon him by the Crown of the Seven Joys.

The Seven Joys of Our Lady are as follows:

The First Joy:

The first of the seven joys of Mary was the Annunciation, which the Franciscans express in these words: “The Immaculate Virgin Mary joyfully conceived Jesus by the Holy Ghost.” In the first chapter of Saint Luke, read the account, clear, brief and uplifting, how the Angel Gabriel came from God and told the Virgin Mary that she was to be the Mother of God. Imagine the joy in the heart of Mary to learn from the messenger of the Almighty that she, who was willing to be but a handmaid or servant in the household of the Lord, that she was to really be the Mother of God. What joy and happiness at the greeting of the angel. What joy to know that now, within her womb, she carried the Son of God.

The Second Joy:

The second great joy of Mary was the Visitation. “The Immaculate Virgin Mary joyfully carried Our Lord visiting Saint Elizabeth.” Charity and love inspired this visit. How happily our Blessed Mother must have made her way over the hills to the distant home of her cousin Saint Elizabeth, who also was with child, the future John the Baptist. Mary wanted to tell her cousin and share in the joys of an expectant mother. What an inspiration and joyful example to all the mothers in the world.

The Third Joy:

The third of the seven joys of Mary's life was the nativity. “The Immaculate Virgin Mary joyfully brought Jesus into the world.” Everyone who has ever experienced the bliss of Christmas has had just a faint echo of Mary’s joy when she gave birth to Christ. Every mother shares that joy. Mary experienced it in all her innocence and sweetness. She experienced the holy happiness of bringing into the world the Son of God, who was to be the Redeemer and Savior of all men.

The Fourth Joy:

The fourth joy of Mary was that of the Epiphany, which we might express in these words: “The Immaculate Virgin Mary joyfully exhibited Jesus to the adoration of the Magi.” Every mother is happy when she can show her child to others. Every mother is joyful when friends or acquaintances, or even chance visitors comment about her child, praise him, and even bring him gifts. That was Our Lady's happy experience when the three Wise Men came from thousands of miles away to adore and honor her child and bring Him gifts.

The Fifth Joy:

The fifth of the seven joys of Mary, our Blessed Mother, is what she experienced when she finally found Jesus after His three-day loss in the temple. “The Immaculate Virgin Mary joyfully found Jesus in the temple.” To have her child with her is a mother’s joy. But to find a child that is lost is a greater joy because of the contrast to the sorrow of separation. Our Lady experienced such bliss when she found Our Lord in the temple teaching and listening to the doctors, the learned professors of the law.

The Sixth Joy:

The sixth great joy of the Blessed Mother was the one she experienced upon seeing Jesus after His resurrection. “The Immaculate Virgin Mary joyfully beheld Jesus after His resurrection.” Words are absolutely inadequate to express the happiness of the Mother of God when she saw her Son risen from the grave, saw Him in the full beauty of manhood, saw the Boy whom she had brought into the world, had reared and trained and taken care of for thirty sublime years. Her joy, by way of contrast with the grief of the first Good Friday, was supreme.

The Seventh Joy:

The seventh of the seven joys of Mary, and the crowing joy, was that Mary had when she was taken up into heaven and crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth. “The Immaculate Virgin Mary was joyfully received by Our God and Lord Jesus Christ into heaven, and there was crowned Queen of heaven and earth.” No pen can express, no paintbrush could capture the joy in Mary’s heart when she was finally reunited with her Son in the bliss of the beatific vision. Neither can we express in words the happiness in her heart when she was crowned, rewarded by her Divine Son who made her the Queen of this world and of the heavenly court.

*from Feasts of Our Lady, by Msgr. Arthur Tonne

More joy!

The pious contemplation of spiritual joys is so important that Our Lady appeared to Saint Thomas Becket, a martyr for the Faith, encouraging him to add seven MORE joys to those he was already meditating upon on a daily basis. She told the saint to do this “in honor of the seven signal joys she possesses in Heaven and to instill the same devotion into the minds of others.”

Thankful to Our Lady for being such a generous Mother, let us add her joys in Heaven to our thoughts and prayers:

1. She is exalted above all the choirs of heaven,
2. Her presence adds a luster to Heaven,
3. She is singularly honored by all the blessed,
4. Her intercession in favor of her servants is all-powerful,
5. Her throne is next to that of her Divine Son,
6. God regards and loves those who love and reverence the Blessed Mother,
7. Her joy and glory are eternal.

In Conclusion

Though this life on earth is truly a vale of tears, it is good for the soul to reflect on the Seven Joys of Our Lady to avoid becoming overwhelmed by our difficulties. Pure joy is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit and, as such, should be considered necessary to a balanced spiritual life, as suffering is.

As there is so little true joy to be found in our present day, let us take every opportunity to spend time reflecting on the unique joys God placed like so many flowers at the feet of His Beloved Daughter, Mother and Spouse. In inhaling their sweet perfume, may we be strengthened to persevere and attain the everlasting joys that Christ alone can give.

THE SEVEN JOYS OF OUR LADY

The Franciscan Crown Rosary & Meditations

[To be prayed on a special rosary containing seven decades]

(Rosary can be purchased on Amazon)

1. The Annunciation

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be since I know not man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to Thy word.” Then, the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:26–38)

2. The Visitation

During those days, Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to the town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Saint Elizabeth. When Saint Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” . . . Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home. (Luke 1:39–45, 56)

3. The Nativity

Caesar Augustus issued a decree in those days that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the royal house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:1–7)

4. The Adoration by the Magi

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to pay Him homage.”

. . . And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering, they saw the child with Mary, his mother.

They prostrated themselves and paid Him homage. Then, they opened their treasures and offered Him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (Matthew 2:1–2, 9b–11)

5. The Finding of Our Lord in the Temple

Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed their days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know. Thinking that He was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for Him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding Him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for Him.

After three days, they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. All who heard Him were astounded at his understanding and answers.

When his parents saw Him, they were astonished, and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And He said to them, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what He said to them. He went down with them, came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them, and his mother kept all these things in her heart. (Luke 2:41–51)

6. The Resurrection

But at daybreak on the first day of the week, they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.

They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but He has been raised. Remember what He said to you while He was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” And they remembered His words. (Luke 24:1–8)

7. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven and Her Coronation as Queen of Heaven

Hence the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages.

And so, we may hope that those who meditate upon the glorious example Mary offers us may be more and more convinced of the value of a human life entirely devoted to carrying out the heavenly Father’s will and bringing good to others. Thus, while the illusory teachings of materialism and the corruption of morals that follow from these teachings threaten to extinguish the light of virtue and to ruin the lives of men by exciting discord among them, in this magnificent way, all may see clearly what a lofty goal our bodies and souls are destined.

Conclude the Rosary of the Seven Joys of Our Lady with:

V. In thy Conception, o Virgin, thou wast immaculate.

R. Pray for us to the Father, whose Son thou didst bear.

Let us pray.

O God, Who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, prepared a worthy dwelling place for Thy Son; we beseech Thee, that, as by the foreseen death of Thy Son, Thou preserved her from every stain, so Thou may grant us also, through Her intercession, to come to Thee with pure hearts. Through the same Christ our Lord. R. Amen.

How to Pray The Franciscan Crown

1. Using beads for the Franciscan Crown (seven decades), announce the First Mystery and pray the Our Father on the single bead just before the medallion.
2. Pray one Hail Mary for each of the ten beads. (It seems most fitting to proceed around the beads in a clockwise direction.)
3. On the single bead between the decades, announce the next Mystery and then pray the Our Father. Continue as in Step 2 for the remaining Mysteries.
4. After the last Mystery, pray one Hail Mary each on the fourth and third beads from the Cross to complete 72 years of Mary’s Joy.
5. Pray the Our Father and the Glory to the Father (Gloria Patri) for the intention of the Holy Father on the 2nd bead from the Cross.
6. Pray a Hail Mary on the single bead closest to the Cross.

Header image: The Seven Joys of Mary by Hans Memling (circa 1433–1494)