Gerard

The Joyful Mysteries
of parenthood

A guided journey for couples, through fertility, pregnancy, birth, postpartum and the first years of a child’s life, walked in the company of Mary and Joseph, one mystery at a time.

“Because no word shall be impossible with God.”

Luke 1 : 37

Begin with the Annunciation
The five chapters

One mystery for each season

I The Annunciation Fertility & conception St. Gerard Majella II The Visitation Pregnancy St. Elizabeth III The Nativity Birth St. Gianna Beretta Molla IV The Presentation Postpartum Pope St. John Paul II V The Finding in the Temple Early childhood Ss. Louis and Zélie Martin
Walked side by side

Every page has two paths

Walk each season With Mary or With Joseph. Read your own path, then trade places and read your spouse’s.

With Mary

For the mother

Reflections written for the woman carrying the season in her body, through her preparation, her prayer, her hour, and her rest. Mary’s motherly mediation helps keep each mystery with a pondering heart.

With Joseph

For the father

A parallel path for the husband, the quiet work of supporting, providing, and keeping vigil. Joseph speaks no recorded word in Scripture. His actions, written and unwritten, speak to the presence and protection he models.

If you arrive here carrying grief

You may arrive here within the longing for a child. You may hold the suffering of the passing of your child, drawn up to God for reasons not fully knowable this side of eternity. This journey belongs to you, too. The Joyful Mysteries were lived and prayed first by a mother whose heart swords would pierce, who would hold her son taken down from the cross.

No part of the journey presumes an easy road. Joy and sorrow are mingled in the cup of life that God gives each to hold, lift, and drink. The hope expressed in these pages is not founded in special knowledge or personal efforts, but in God’s Providence, so that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit to God’s holy Will which is Love and Mercy itself. Your child, born or unborn, seen or unseen, is known to God by name.