I find it hard to believe that almost three months have passed since the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage on September 28th.  That day was such a joy-filled occasion of God’s grace.  I continue to thank the Lord, and the Dominican organizers, for the opportunity to be the principal preacher for the day but I realize too keenly that none of the day would have been possible if it were not for all the sacrifices of our many benefactors and all the organizing done behind the scenes.

It is this theme of “behind the scenes” preparation that can help us celebrate Christmas with joy this year in a new way—not because it is going to be a perfect Christmas with all the presents arriving and wrapped on time, or because the pork crown roast was the best we’d ever had—but rather because this Christmas we are going to meditate on all the “behind the scenes” work that God accomplished so that his Son could be born for our salvation.

In the Joyful Mysteries we meditate on the primacy of the Incarnation; from the Annunciation all the way to the Finding in the Temple, it is about the importance of our Christian belief that an individual human nature was taken up by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity and He made it his own.  Christ’s human nature is particularly revealed to us by his body and his human Soul.  He truly became one of us, and remains one with us today.

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas this year and even more as we pray the Joyful Mystery of the Lord’s Nativity throughout the year, especially on Mondays and Saturdays, we call to mind all that God did to bring about that Birth:

• The oracles of the prophets echoing through the centuries pointing to the Messiah.
• The kings of Israel and Judah who reveal the blessings bestowed upon the faithful and the harsh judgment meted out to those who abandon God.
• The great figures of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who longed to become a nation great in the sight of the Lord, more numerous that the sands of the shoreline.

And through these figures and every event of the Old Testament God prepared the world to receive his Son—not as a conquering hero—but as a little baby boy—who simply wants to be held in the arms of each believer.

Christmas is a joyful mystery not because of those presents or the pork crown roast but because of what God has already done!  He invites us into his joy by praying the Rosary with love for Him.

I heard a Christmas hymn this year that I never heard before—it’s called “Nativity Carol” by the famous British composer, John Rutter.  The last verse captures the joy of Christmas:

Love in that stable was born
Into our hearts to flow;
Innocent dreaming babe,
Make me thy love to know.

Christmas joy is found in that stable, not in anything that we do.  God opens our hearts to receive Him, and if it seems at times that He is using a crowbar or a jackhammer to crack us open, it’s only because we have become stubborn and closed to his will.  We need his love in order to survive.  The innocence of this Christ Child draws us into the one dream we share with Him, to be with God forever in heaven.

“Make me thy love to know” is not just a mystery for Christmas, but of each day of our lives ahead. 

Merry Christmas and a Joyful New Year!  See you at the next Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage on September 27, 2025!

Written by Fr. James Mary Sullivan, O.P.

Fr. James was the principal preacher at the 2024 Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage. He is a Dominican priest of the Province of Saint Joseph (eastern United States). Fr. James holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Dominican House of Studies and a Licentiate in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America, both in Washington, DC. Fr. James has served as Prior and Pastor at Saint Dominic’s Church in Youngstown, Ohio and at Saint Louis Bertrand Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He has taught systematic theology at Saint Joseph’s Seminary—Dunwoodie, in Yonkers, New York, and homiletics at Mount Saint Mary Seminary of the West in Cincinnati, Ohio. After being Novice Master for his Province for four years and for 65 novices, in 2014 he went to Rome to serve as the Director of the Institute for Continuing Theological Education at the Pontifical North American College. Since 2018, he has served as a Spiritual Director at Saint John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts, as Pastor of Saint Pius V Church in Providence, Rhode Island, and as Director of Spiritual Formation at Our Lady of Providence Seminary, also in Providence. At present, Fr. James is Prior of Saint Dominic’s Priory in Washington, DC.