Every third mystery of the Rosary — from the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious — reveals Jesus Christ’s identity as king and the establishment of his heavenly kingdom.
The Joyful mysteries focus on Christ’s incarnation, birth and childhood: but the third, ‘The Nativity,’ proclaims that the infinite, merciful Son of God entered into the world not as a fully-grown man — of which, he could have done — but as a vulnerable, impoverished baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes. His birth coincides with the rise of Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor who citizens called “Divi filius” — or “son of god.” His empire extended to the Middle East, and in the Gospel of Luke, the emperor issued a decree that “all the world should be enrolled,” which obligated the Holy Family to journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in the first place. His power was nearly omnipresent in the ancient world.
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