Glorifying the Trinity

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 23 October 2010)

Our sharing this week will be the first of two-parts on how praying the Rosary glorifies our worship of the Blessed Trinity  and our contemplation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Why is this necessary?

Pope John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte  at the turn of the millenium, said that “The most important reason for strongly encouraging the practice of the Rosary is that it represents a most effective means of fostering among the faithful that commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery as a genuine ‘training in holiness’.

What is needed is a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer”.

It is more urgent than ever that our Christian communities should become “genuine schools of prayer”.

In the Apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae of Pope John Paul II, the Rosary, under guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints.

Simple yet profound, it still remains, after two millenia of the spiritual journey of Christian life, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness.

It has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6).

To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ.

Today we shall read into three of the Rosary prayers, the Apostles Creed, Our Father and Glory Be.

The Secret of the Rosary by St Louis de Montfort contains a beautiful explanation of the significance of the Rosary Prayers and is strongly recommended to improve our understanding of the importance of praying the Rosary.

The Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles is a holy summary of all Christian truths.

It is a prayer that has great merit because faith is the root, foundation and beginning of all Christian virtues, of all eternal virtues and also of all prayers that are pleasing to Almighty God.

"He that cometh to God, must believe...."

The first few words "I believe in God" are marvelously effective as a means of sanctifying our souls and of putting devils to rout, because these three words contain the acts of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.

The holy Rosary contains the mysteries of Jesus.

Faith is the only key which opens up these mysteries for us.

We must begin the Rosary by saying the Creed very devoutly.

The stronger our faith the more merit our Rosary will have.

St Thomas Aquinas wrote in the Pange lingua in the 13th century that “Faith will tell us Christ is present when our human senses fail”, that is, “Faith alone suffices”.

To pray the rosary with strong and constant faith, good intention and charity, is to be in search of God’s grace.

After listening to the word and focusing on the mystery, it is natural for the mind to be lifted up towards the Father. In each of his mysteries, Jesus always leads us to the Father.

God the Father listens more willingly to the Prayer that we have learned from His Son rather than those of our own making which have all our human limitations.

The eternal father will hear it because it is the prayer of His Son whom He always hears and we are his members.

In John 1:18, Jesus rests in the Father's bosom and is continually turned towards him. Jesus wants us to share in his intimacy with the Father, so that we can say with him: “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). 

By virtue of His relationship to the Father, Jesus makes us brothers and sisters of Himself and of one another, communicating to us the Spirit of Love for God and our neighbour, and heaven our homeland and heritage, freeing us from attachment to the things of this world.

The Our Father makes meditation upon the mystery an ecclesial experience.

Christian contemplation points towards Trinitarian doxology.  Christ is the way that leads us to the Father in the Spirit. If we travel this way to the end, we encounter the mystery of the three Divine persons, to whom all praise, worship and thanksgiving are due. The Gloria, the high point of contemplation, should be given due prominence in the Rosary.

The glorification of the Trinity at the end of each decade, far from being a perfunctory conclusion, takes on its proper contemplative tone, raising the mind as it were to the heights of heaven and enabling us in some way to relive the experience of Tabor, a foretaste of the contemplation yet to come: “It is good for us to be here!” (Lk 9:33).

Next week our sharing at the Novena to our Mother of Perpetual Help will continue the theme of exploring the Rosary prayers through the contemplation of Mary.

Difficulties in Praying the Rosary

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 16 October 2010)

My dear friends,

Today’s sharing is on “The Difficulties in Praying the Rosary” and I would like to begin by sharing with you an experience. It is an experience that all of us go through each day in all seasons. It is called “DAWN”.

Many of us have seen the word ‘dawn’ in songs and movies but may not be aware that ‘dawn’, although often associated with ‘emergence of light after a period of darkness’ is not sunlight itself.

Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise.  It should not be confused with sunrise. It is the period of time in-between night and morning where it is the coldest and darkest. It is the time where we do not wish to wake up, especially those of us who have to work or go to school in the next few hours. It is the time where things seem lifeless as there is nothing much going around. It is the time where our surroundings look eerie. In short, dawn is the dragging moment before sunrise.

As dawn progresses, faint beams of sunlight began to emerge. Slowly, the sun rises from the horizon, illuminating our land and bringing light back to our world once more. As we wake up, activities began. Those of us who work, goes to work. Children who are schooling go to school. Those of us who are holy go to Church, singing praises to God for a new day! Indeed, the coldest, darkest part of the night has passed.

My dear friends,

Starting to pray the Rosary may be like “dawn” to some of us. We may feel distracted or discouraged as it may be perceived to be long and repetitive. After all, we are praying five decades of Hail Mary’s, which may seem ‘long’, not forgetting the Our Father, Glory Be and Apostles’ Creed.

Perhaps we may be lazy, just like during dawn when we are in slumberland, not wishing to wake up.

It may also be difficult in keeping focus on the Mysteries as very often our minds tend to wander and let distracting thoughts enter.

Or, perhaps we may be facing some of life’s challenges which may seem overwhelming.

In other words, the process of starting to pray the Rosary is like the coldest and darkest part before morning comes.

But, just like we endure the chill and lifelessness of dawn, we need to endure the ‘dawn’ in our minds which takes us away from meditating upon the Holy Mysteries of the Rosary. Some ways could be:

• Try not to let ourselves float and slide and be carried away by imagination.

• When tired and without much focus, "concentrate" on the peaceful repetition of the Hail Mary’s, entering its rhythm and imaging to be in the company of Mary.

• If we are in somewhat better disposition, let us try to focus on images of Jesus, Mary or scenes of their lives as in the Mysteries. Look at and contemplate what we see, while praying the different decades. It will lead us to a reflection on the deeper meaning of each one of the Mysteries.

• In a special manner, let us also try to develop a personal habit to pray the Rosary in company with Mother Mary.

A Redemptorist priest once shared that praying the Rosary is like making and putting a crown of roses on Mother Mary’s head; each bead representing one rose.

Just like the flow that comes after dawn, daybreak will emerge as sunlight appears slowly and surely. The Rosary brings hope just like daybreak, which heralds morning. Mother Mary has promised that whoever prays the Rosary shall receive special protection and the greatest graces. Indeed, Mother Mary is like morning after dawn and that is why she was bestowed with the title “Morning Star.”

Praying the Rosary and overcoming the ‘dawn’ that distracts us from praying are our best ways to reach Our Mother of Perpetual Help and seek her intercession to pray with us and for us.

The Rosary as a Prayer of Reparation

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 9 October 2010)

Dear brothers and sisters,

My sharing today on “The Rosary as a Prayer of Reparation” will focus on Our Lady’s messages given at her approved apparitions, with extracts and references from the Internet. Four of the apparitions featured the Rosary, amidst calls to unceasing prayer, penance and repentance.

(1) At Massabielle, near Lourdes in Southern France, Our Lady first appeared to St Bernadette Soubirous on 11^th Feb 1858 

(2) In Fatima, Portugal, to Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia in 1917

(3) In Akita, Japan, to Sr. Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in 1973 and

(4) At Kibeho, Rwanda, to three high-school girls from late 1981 to 1983.

At Lourdes, Our Lady urgently called for penance. The rosary was prominently featured in the apparitions where St. Bernadette saw Our Lady took the rosary that she held in her hands and made the sign of the cross.

Similarly, the message of Fatima was also a call to conversion and repentance, echoing what our Saviour addressed to the whole of humanity in Mark 1:15.  (Rosary Center website: http://www.rosary-center.org/maryfatm.htm, downloaded 18 August 2010)  At Fatima, Our Lady specifically identified herself as “the Lady of the Rosary.”  Her message invites to repentance, gives a warning and calls to prayer, sacrifice and penance. She recommends the Rosary. She asked the children who saw her to say at least five decades of the Rosary and meditate on the mysteries every day, and to pray especially for peace, for poor sinners and for the Holy Father. We are to use our talents generously and make greater sacrifices for God’s greater glory and honour, especially if we have been given much by God, for Luke 12:48 says –“ From every one who has been given much, much will be required.” Our Lady of Fatima calls for  the penance of each person ‘fulfilling his or her daily duty well, obeying God’s laws, avoiding the near occasions of sin and acting in accordance with His will in all things.’ (The Fatima Network website: http://fatima.org/essentials/message/msgtoindivis.asp, downloaded 5 Oct 2009). The love and care of the Saviour’s Mother reaches out and extends to every individual of our time and to all societies, nations and peoples; societies menaced by apostasy, threatened by moral degradation. Collapse of morality brings about the collapse of societies e.g. the rising rate of divorces, adultery, promiscuity, abortions, murders and other crimes and offences. (Rosary Center website: http://www.rosary-center.org/maryfatm.htm, downloaded 18 August 2010) 

“The present state of the world attests to the fact that most individuals have chosen to ignore the requests of Our Lady of Fatima: wars rage the world over, the Church is in a state of crisis, apostasy is almost everywhere, millions of the innocent unborn are murdered every year.” (The Fatima Network website: http://fatima.org/essentials/message/msgtoindivis.asp, downloaded 5 Oct 2009)

At Akita, Japan, Our Lady told Sr. Agnes to pray in reparation for the sins of men and to pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests. Our Lady wished, with her Son our Lord Jesus Christ, that souls who by their suffering and their poverty will repair the afflictions and outrages against the Lord by sinners and ingrates. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger.  Prayer is necessary even in a secular institute. Each day the prayers of the Rosary very much need to be recited, for oneself and for the Pope, the bishops and priests. Mother Mary has asked us to trust in her powerful intercession. (Eternal World Television Network website: http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/akita.htm, downloaded 5 October 2009)

In Kibeho, Rwanda, Our Lady lamented, “The world has become deaf and cannot hear the truth of the Word." She stressed on the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows as a means to obtain the grace for true repentance (Anderson, 29 Jan 2009). One of the seers, Marie Claire kept saying:  “One must meditate on the Passion of Jesus, and on the deep sorrows of His Mother. One must recite the Rosary every day, and also the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, to obtain the favour of repentance.” (Tardif, 2001 as cited in the Michael website: http://www.michaeljournal.org/kibeho.htm, downloaded 9 Oct 2010)

On a final note, sin has thus set itself firmly in the world; denial of God has become widespread in the ideologies, ideas and plans of human beings. For this very reason, the evangelical call to repentance and conversion, uttered in the Mother’s messages remains ever relevant.  It is still as relevant as it was in 1858, 1917, 1973, or early 1980s. IT IS EVEN MORE URGENT. Our Blessed Mother, through her apparitions, has invited us to a conversion of heart through praying the Rosary. She has never failed those who turn to her maternal intercession. We all know the world is really in need of conversion and healing. Let us pray the Rosary, offering with it, all our sufferings, in union with Christ her Son, asking Him to accept our humble offering and make it part of His redemptive mission in our world".

The Rosary as an Intercessory Prayer

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 2 October 2010)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Next Thursday, 7 October, the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. It is the anniversary of the Christian’s victory in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, two years after Pope St. Pius V officially approved the Rosary. The Church celebrates it not only to commemorate the victory, but also to thank God for His providence and remember the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Ottoman Turks were ravaging Eastern Europe then. If they succeeded in raiding the coast of Italy, they would gain control of the Mediterranean, and possibly invade Rome. As the Christian’s Holy League prepared for battle to stem this, Pope St. Pius V asked that the Rosary be recited publicly throughout Europe, for Our Lady’s intercession for victory. On the day of the battle, members of the Confraternity of the Rosary in Rome processed praying the Rosary (Feeney, downloaded 2 Oct 2009). Although outnumbered, the Christians won the battle miraculously in just a few hours.

While historians see it as a major battle of minor significance, the victory was a religious triumph to the Christians, and a psychological boost to the European world – the seemingly unbeatable Turks were beaten.

Closer to us, exactly 75 years after that, another celebration due to the intercession of Our Lady through the Rosary took place. It was the Feast of La Naval de Manila, first celebrated on 8 October 1646 in Manila. It marked the victory of the Spanish and Filipino Catholic forces against the invasion of the Dutch in 1646.

In the Battles of La Naval, the joint Filipino-Spanish forces had only two aged and ill-equipped Spanish warships to fight against the Dutch fleet that arrived in Manila. Remembering Lepanto, and as advised by the Dominican friars, the sailors prayed the Holy Rosary before each encounter with the Dutch between 15 March and 4 October. (Manila Bulletin, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009) They recited it in alternating choruses on the bridges of the two ships (Faroni and Crisostomo, 2006). Finally, the Dutch fleet gave up and left the country (Manila Bulletin, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009). In thanksgiving, the Spanish church leaders declared the first celebration of the feast in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary. Every year since then, on the second Sunday of October, there is a procession from Manila to Quezon City (Manila Bulletin, 2008). According to Fr. Marie-Dominic, as cited by Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo (2006), this victory was important because it saved Catholicism in Asia; had the Protestant Dutch won, Christendom might have been destroyed as in Sri Lanka when they conquered it in 1657.

Dear brothers and sisters, these are just two of many true and significant examples of how powerful the Rosary is. Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo wrote in “The Five Warnings” that even greater victories were won through the Rosary in the 20^th century, especially against the apostate forces of Freemasonry and Communism.

The intercessory nature of the Rosary is evident by the invocation to our Holy Mother to “pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death”. St. James wrote in the Bible, “…the fervent prayer of a righteous man is very powerful.” What more the prayer of our Blessed Mother, who was sinless and Jesus’ most perfect disciple, and now living with God in heaven?

In the Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II wrote that in the Rosary, we pray to Christ with Mary. He wrote, “If Jesus, the one Mediator, is the Way of our prayer, then Mary, his purest and most transparent reflection, shows us the Way.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#2679) says, “The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary”. As at the wedding of Cana, Mary makes our needs known to Jesus. Thus Mary, sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, fulfils her role as the Queen Mother of the Church, who prays with us and for us before the Father and the Son. (Pope JPII, 2002) And we know, that never was it known, that anyone who sought her intercession was left unaided.

Pope JPII further wrote, “To pray the Rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and his Mother”, for the psalmist says (Ps. 55:23), “Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you”.

Do we not hear of despair nowadays? Can our problems be too difficult for God? Accompanied by our Blessed Mother, we dare to go before Him and plead unceasingly. Praying the Rosary is the best way to do so.

References:

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Faroni & Crisostomo. 2006. The Five Warnings.

Feeney, R. n.d. St. Dominic & The Rosary. Downloaded on 2 October 2009 from the Catholic-pages.com website: http://www.catholic-pages.com/prayers/rosary_dominic.asp

John Paul II. 2002. Apostolic Letter: Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

Manila Bulletin (via Highbeam Research)

The Benefits of Praying the Rosary

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 25 September 2010)

My Dear Friends,

Today’s sharing is on “The Benefits of the Rosary Prayer”, and I would like to begin by sharing with you a short story…

Once, there was a boy who was living in a small hut with his mother. They were poor and had no electricity to light up their home. All they had were candles and oil lamps.

One night, it was raining heavily and the wind was strong. Their poorly lit home became dimmer as gushes wind pounded through the only few candles and oil lamps which illuminated their room.

One after another, the faint flickers of fire burning at the candles were blown off. But the oil lamps continued burning and emitting light without being affected by the gale-force wind, unlike the candles.

In an excitement, the boy asked his mother, "Mummy, mummy, why doesn’t the fire in oil lamps get blown off like the candles?”

The boy’s mother replied, "Son, that’s because the fires burning in the oil lamps are shielded by the glass. No strong wind can blow off the fire unless the oil runs out. ”

The boy smiled at his mother’s explanation. Smartly, he added, "…and, Mummy, the oil lamp is brighter because it has a piece of reflector at the bottom which helps magnify the brightness from the fire.”

My Dear Friends,

Praying is like fuel to the fire. The more we pray, the stronger the fire gets.

But, it is not enough to pray on our own. Like the candle whose fire gets blown-off when winds are strong, life’s challenges and temptations to our faith can sometimes derail us.

We need a “shield” to protect us from such agents which dent our prayer lives. We also need a reflector to magnify the “fire” of our prayers. In other words, we need a lamp, rather than a candle.

Praying the Rosary is like the lamp in the story of the boy above:

· Praying the Rosary shields us from temptations and hurts by the evil    one.

· Praying the Rosary also magnifies our prayers, for we are not alone. But rather, Mother Mary is there to pray with us and for us. The more we pray, the stronger the ‘fire’ will be and the brighter the lamp will shine as the ‘reflector’ works as strong as the burning fire.

God will always grant our request if it is beneficial for our soul, and Our Lady will only intercede for us when our request is good for our salvation. (Lumen Gentium chapter VIII - Our Lady)

As revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan de la Roche, Our Lady has given 15 Promises for Praying

the Rosary. They are, in short:

· Special Graces

· Special Protection

· Armour against hell

· Sanctification of souls

· Not perish

· Not be conquered by misfortune

· Sacraments

· Light of God

· Deliverance from purgatory

· Glory in Heaven

· Answer to Prayers

· Help in necessities

· Communion of Saints

· Promise of a Holy Family

· Salvation

In Philippians 4:6, the Bible tells us “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God…”

Praying the Rosary is a good start as Our Lady is there to constantly shield us and magnify our intentions, like the oil-lamp protecting the fire inside.

Editorial note: The 15 promises do not amount to a "Get out of gaol free" card. However, these promises make the connexion between what we believe and how we ought to live. This means that by faithfully and devoutly praying the Rosary, Our Lady will obtain for us the necessary graces contained in the said promises. It is still up to each individual soul to respond to those graces in order to obtain salvation. 

The Origin of the Rosary as a Meditative Prayer

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 18 September 2010)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in our approach to the month of the Rosary in October, a weekly sharing has been presented on aspects of the Rosary.

Last week’s sharing illuminated a beautiful Ignatian way of meditating on the great mysteries of our salvation when we pray the Rosary. This week we shall detail a little background to the history of the Rosary.

The rosary evolved over a long period and from a variety of sources. Even before Christ’s time, stone pebbles, beads of wood and knots of rope had been used to count prayers by followers of other religions.  The use of repetitive prayer in the Church seems to have evolved among the desert monks. In the 4th century the prayer rope was used by the Desert Fathers to count repetitions of the Jesus prayer.  By the 5th century, the order of public prayers called the Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office was established, to fulfil the Lord's command to pray without ceasing. The 150 psalms of the bible comprised the most important part of it and were chanted by the clergy and monks in monasteries.

Lay people took a liking to this beautiful and harmonious devotion but, as they could not read Latin and were unable to memorise the Psalms, they prayed the Pater Noster (Our Father) in place of the Psalms. Thus grew the practice of chanting 150 Our Fathers, using a string of beads to count them, dividing them into fifties. This chaplet or string of fifty beads came to be known as Paternoster cords or beads, to be repeated three times, as an alternative to the traditional longer strand of 150 beads.

When the Irish brought the devotion using Paternoster cords to Europe, the faithful had begun to recite the Angelic salutation (the first half of the Hail Mary), which took its place along the Creed and the Our Father as a standard prayer. In time, the 150 Hail Marys prayed became known as the Marian Psalter.

In the 12th and 13th Century, the Albigensian heresy ravaged Christendom in southern France.

St Dominic de Guzman was distressed at his lack of success in preaching to counter it and, in desperation, turned to the Mother of God for help.

By tradition, she appeared to him in 1214 and told him to use her Psalter in conjunction with his preaching of the mysteries of our salvation.

St Dominic eventually succeeded in winning over the people back to their Christian faith, attributed to the intercession of Our Lady.

Now we know the number of prayers and the method of counting them, let us see what the prayers contained. In the 12th century, there developed two main streams. One contained the Marian Psalter, or 150 Hail Marys with an Our Father preceding each decade. The other was the “Ave Psalm Psalter”.

The Ave Psalm Psalter consisted of 150 rhymed stanzas, each beginning with the word Ave, each paraphrasing a theme from its corresponding Psalm, with an example shown here from Psalm 6.

The insertion of a series of scenes from Christ’s life into a traditional litany of praise to the Virgin was first found in an early 14th century Marian Psalter. Although addressed to Mary, the stanzas promoted meditation on the life, passion, death and resurrection of Christ.

The widespread acceptance of the rosary as a prayer of devotion was developed two hundred and fifty years after Dominic by Alanus de Rupe a learned Dominican priest and theologian. Through his devotion to the Blessed Mother, Alan reinstated the rosary in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The form of the Rosary we pray today is believed to be from his time, and is sometimes called the Dominican Rosary.

In 1569 Pope Pius V officially established the devotion to the rosary in its present form with 15 mysteries divided into Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries.

The Glory be and The Apostles Creed were added to the rosary prayer during the 17th century.

In 1917, Our Lady of Fatima asked that the Fatima Prayer be added to the rosary.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II introduced the five luminous mysteries as an optional addition.

In summary, each time we pray 50 Hail Marys our meditation on each mystery is in continuity with a prayer tradition that traces its practice to a worship of God, in thanksgiving for the Salvation achieved through Jesus Christ, that originated at least 1,700 years ago.

Next week our sharing at Novena to our Mother of Perpetual Help will explore the Benefits of praying the Rosary.

Editorial note:

The Albigensian heresy was a late echo of Gnostic and Manichaean heresies. It questioned the goodness of creation, teaching that all matter, including the human body, is evil. It denied the Resurrection and ultimately, the Incarnation. It also rejected the sacraments of the Catholic Church, the Old Testament, material possessions and the whole concept of the cross in Christian life, and condemned marriage. Pope Innocent III eventually ordered internal crusades against the Albengensians resulting in much shedding of blood. However, St Dominic took a more spiritual approach to this heresy. The poverty of the Dominicans challenged the austerities of the Albigensians whilst the mysteries of the Rosary helped re-establish the truth of the profound goodness of creation, which was confirmed by the Incarnation.

Meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 11 Sept 2010)

Last week’s sharing was an introduction to our series of sharings about the Rosary. Today we begin with the beautiful way of praying the Rosary which perhaps some of you are not aware of, which is meditating on the mysteries as reminded to us by St Ignatius of Loyola. This is compiled from an article by Fr Albert Shamon and other sources.

One of the greatest objections to the Rosary is because it is all about thinking. Some will say, “I don’t like to think.” Or “I can’t concentrate on the mysteries.” “My mind will wander off whenever I pray the Rosary, that’s why I quit saying the Rosary.”
 

The trouble here may be that too often, we try to intellectualise the mysteries. We peer into them to extract lessons from them. Rather, St Ignatius said that we should just look at the mysteries of the Rosary imagining we are looking at the scenes of Our Lord’s life, like watching a movie.

 

For example, when you watch a movie, you just look and normally don’t think of how the story applies to you. Later, a friend may ask how you liked it. As you gave your answer, you were unconsciously analysing the picture, without even being aware of it. You were able to draw conclusions about the movie just by looking at it.

So too in the Rosary, just look at the scenes of Our Lord’s life with Our lady for the length of 10 Hail Marys. Like a movie, they will begin to say something to you without your having to do anything but look. While you are looking at the scenes, God is working in your heart.

Let us take an example. Let us meditate on the 5^th Joyful Mystery: the finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple…

Are you ready? Ok, we begin: Hail Mary full of grace…. (say as if the Hail Mary is being recited in the background)

The first thought that comes to my mind is the scene of the Child Jesus, 12 years old, walking with Mary and Joseph to the temple in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover.

Jesus, too, prayed. He said His life was all for His Heavenly Father.

After the Feast was over, everyone returned to their homes, but Jesus remained in Jerusalem. He was discussing with the doctors of the Law, who wondered at His wisdom.

Meanwhile, Mary and Joseph went on their journey home separately. To their horror, they realised that Jesus was not with either of them at the end of the first day.

They went looking for him among relatives and friends but to no avail. Finally, they went back to the temple and were so relieved to find Him there.

Mary approached Jesus and asked Him why He did this. When Jesus replied that He must be about His Father’s business, she didn’t understand, but kept it in her heart.

Wow! Before we can go on to finish the story, we have finished the 10 Hail Marys.

If you just look, almost leisurely, at the scenes of Our Lord’s life, you will reap fruit you never expected. For our sights, God will give us insight.

The 10 Hail Marys are like background music while you are watching Our Lord’s life. Background music helps us when reading or working. We don’t pay much attention to the music, but it helps us. So in praying the Hail Marys, you don’t pay much attention to them; they are the background music to help us contemplate the mysteries of Our Lord’s life.

Having understood or refreshed with this Ignatian method of praying the Rosary, I’m sure you will look forward to next week, when you will hear about how this prayer came about.