Franciscan Crown or Seraphic Rosary of the Seven Joys

Santuário San Rafael Ascension Catholic church

An independent ministry in the Catholic Tradition

The Franciscan Crown

The Seraphic Rosary of the Seven Joys of Mary

The Seven Joys of Mary

1. The Annunciation (Luke 1:26–38)

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, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

2. The Visitation (Luke 1:39–45, 56)

During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

3. The Nativity (Luke 2:1–7)

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.

4. The Adoration by the Magi (Mt 2:1–2, 9b–11)

. . . 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 the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

5. The Finding of Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2:41-51)

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.

6. The Resurrection (Luke 24:1–8)

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.

7. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven and Her Coronation as Queen of Heaven (Rev. 12:1)

“A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.”

Hence the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ. The Angels attended her dormition, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own child, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor in the company of the Angels and Saints, and together with them praises God and prays for us.

Our Lady of Ocotlán,

Have mercy on the poor

and oppressed!

The Healing Promises of

Our Lady of Ocotlán

"I will give you another water with which contagion will be extinguished, and not only your relatives will be healed, but whoever drinks of it; because my heart, always favorably disposed to the destitute, can no longer endure seeing such misery without helping them."

—message to Juan Diego Bernardino, 1541

Juan Diego Bernardino, a native of Xiloxoxtla, near Tlaxcala, was reduced to servitude in a monastery by the conquerors. One day in the spring of 1541, he entered a grove of oak trees while carrying water to his family, sickened by the plagues brought by the Spanish. He saw a vision of a woman clothed in light who guided him to a sacred well, where he found water which cured the sickness of his family and of other natives. The doubts of the colonizers were overcome when they saw flames and light shooting out of one of the oak trees, and upon closer inspection discovered the Image of Our Lady of Ocotlan, which was moved to the church and is now in at Tlaxcala, and has been the sight of many miracles over the years. Perhaps as many as 20 million indigenous people died as a consequence of the European invasion of the Americas.

HOW TO PRAY

THE FRANCISCAN

CROWN

1. Using beads for the Franciscan Crown (a rosary of 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.

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. Conclude with the Salve Regina.

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