Imitating Mary The Contemplative, by Jonathan B. Coe

We find Mary throughout the Gospel of Luke contemplating the birth and childhood of Jesus. When the shepherds tell her about the angels’ Gloria in Excelsis Deo, she keeps this incident in her heart and meditates on it.

She does the same thing after finding the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple, who was discussing profound religious matters with the teachers there. The Church may have received the Rosary in its present form from St. Dominic in 1214, who, in turn, received it from Our Lady, but the Mother of God was pondering and participating in the Joyful Mysteries from the very beginning.  …