Definitely worth sharing with everybody else... Here's the link.

Thanks for sending it! 

- Father Shane

That's a point that both Matthew (1:18) and Luke (1:27) agree completely on: at the time of the Annunciation, Mary was already betrothed to Joseph but not yet married to him.

In New Testament times, a girl would be "betrothed" in a formal ceremony to a man, but the marriage (and its consummation) wouldn't take place until around a year later in another ceremony. Any sexual activity on her part would be considered adultery, since she was already in a relationship of sexual exclusivity, though a chaste one until marriage itself. Which of course put the Blessed Mother in a very delicate situation...! And made her the patroness of all women in complicated and unexpected pregnancy situations, of course...

We're not told anything about their wedding other than Joseph's decision to go through with it (Matthew 1:24) and that the marriage wasn't consummated (Matthew 1:25; "until" in Greek can also mean "up until and even after")... I'm sure plenty of Christians will have questions for Mary about how it all went forward when we get to Heaven, God willing. :-)

God bless you!

- Father Shane

An interesting question! Marriage between baptized persons is a sacrament, but neither Mary nor Joseph were baptized. (There's a theological quibble there regarding whether Mary's Immaculate Conception accomplished the same ends as baptism, but she certainly wasn't baptized in the conventional sense before marrying Joseph. Some of the Church Fathers speak of marriage in the Old Testament as being a sort of proto-sacrament or quasi-sacrament, but in doing so they're setting off the difference between Christian sacramentality and that which prepared the way for it.)

Actually, the indispensable element that "makes the marriage" is the exchange of consent between the spouses (see Catechism 1626). Consummation of the marriage is, in Canon Law (canon 1141), a requirement for indissolubility -- "A marriage that is ratum et consummatum can be dissolved by no human power and by no cause, except death" -- but not a requirement for marriage itself.

Hope that helps! Don't worry, Mary and Joseph are still the greatest example for married couples, even though their marriage was awfully special...

God bless you!

- Father Shane

We're all equal in dignity, a dignity that comes from being "called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life" (Catechism 356).

But we're not all called to be identical. Each of us has a different path to walk in this life. For me, it's as a priest; for you, it's as an anon; for the Blessed Mother, it was as the only woman to receive the special mission of being God's mother. So her mission was different, but her dignity of being called to share in God's own life is the same as yours.

Of course, she's enjoying it much more fully than either of us right now, since she's in Heaven in surpassing holiness, so I guess we're only right to fulfill Elizabeth's prophecy and tell her "Most blessed are you among women" (Luke 1:42)!

God bless you!

- Father Shane

My personal favorite for rosary meditations is the NCRegister's Rosary Guide, though I'm sure that Magnificat's similar booklet is also very good. You can find good things online, too, like this and Fr Tommy Lane's excellent resources, but of course a booklet is easier to pray with.

Sometimes those "imaginings" of the truths of faith are actually fairly important for our prayer. We think in terms of things we can see and touch, so even though that's a very limited way to deal with divinity, it's our best and only entryway. As prayer life deepens over the years, the soul is gradually prepared for purer and more perfect ways to get to know God, but true vision is still only reserved for the next life.

So by faith we know that Jesus and our Blessed Mother really are there. Just not in a spatial way. Imagining God's smile on you and the Virgin Mary's smile on you is true. Just not in a spatial way. So you know that, if you start imagining that Mary decided to wear white instead of blue today, it's all in your head.

Of course, it's necessary to be humble enough to recognize that your imaginings are just that, but that the deeper truth of God's loving presence is so incredible that your imaginings could never ever do it justice.

God bless you and say a little prayer for me, would you?

- Father Shane