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.

The Holy Rosary

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 4 Sept 2010)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Next Wednesday will be the birthday of Mother Mary. Have you ever thought of what gift to give her this time? Don’t forget, our Blessed Mother is also a queen.

If flowers are for the feminine,
Carnations for mothers we’ve reserved.
If the queen deserves the flower queen,
What would the Queen Mother deserve?
A crown of roses, no less; the Rosary!

Every time we devoutly pray five decades of the Rosary, we weave a little crown of heavenly roses for Jesus and Mary, so St. Louis de Montfort wrote in The Secret of the Rosary. This means contemplating on the mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother as we pray, for the Rosary without contemplation is like a body without its soul. A complete Rosary of 15 or 20 mysteries makes a large crown of roses.

Yes, a crown of roses, the queen of flowers, is most fitting a gift to our Blessed Mother, the Queen Mother. How do we know?

The Rosary is Our Lady’s favourite prayer. At Fatima, she called herself the “Lady of the Rosary”. In her many apparitions, notably at Fatima, Lourdes and Akita, she implored mankind to pray the Rosary as penance to appease the wrath of God. In praying the Rosary, which is made up of two divine parts: the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation, we honour the most Blessed Trinity, Jesus Christ our Saviour and His most holy Mother. As St. Louis de Montfort pointed out, could there be any prayer more pleasing to God and also to Our Lady, since she would only desire what pleases God?

As a birthday gift aside, why pray the Rosary? Concisely, besides honouring God and Mother Mary, it is to live a holy life, die a happy death and gain happy eternity. Pope John XXIII said that “the Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nations and the entire world.” In these times when evil, sin and despair seem to reign, the Rosary is very relevant. Besides, praying the Rosary lessens the sufferings of souls in Purgatory.

Even before the grace-filled Year for Priests ended, the Church was confronted with scandals involving her priests. Clearly, the “enemy” is very displeased, as Pope Benedict XVI said in his homily at the close of the special Year. Hence, the end of the Year for Priests calls for even more prayers to combat the increased attack by the “enemy”. What better prayer than the Rosary, to implore the intercession of Our Lady, who has a special love for her Son’s priests? Thus, in the next few months we will expound on the Rosary which, St. Louis de Montfort wrote, is the rose of all devotions and the most important of all.

In answer to the scandals, each of us is called to holiness to show forth the true face of Christ to the world. And the surest way to holiness is through the Rosary prayer. In his Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II wrote that it is a genuine “training in holiness”, in the school of Mary. In praying the Rosary, we contemplate Christ through her who was closest to Him. Ultimately, it helps us answer our Christian call to be conformed to Christ.

Being a powerful weapon against Satan, you can be sure that he increases his attacks on those who pray the Rosary. No wonder one needs more devotion to persevere in praying the Rosary than any other prayer. We will share on ways to overcome difficulties in saying this powerful prayer.

Indeed, many popes and saints have attributed great merits to the Rosary. How can it be otherwise? We will rebut the claims of those who oppose the Rosary, as well as share on Our Lady’s messages in approved apparitions.

As our parish journey towards our Golden Jubilee, it is appropriate that we seek the help of our Blessed Mother to help us remain faithful to Christ as Church. After all, she was His most faithful Disciple. And the best way to follow our Mother is to kindle fervour in the Rosary devotion, by far the simplest and the surest way to Jesus Christ, our Saviour.

So don’t forget your gift of five decades of the Rosary next Wednesday, 8 September to our Blessed Mother. You are also invited to pray the Rosary with us at 5.20 p.m. here every Saturday. We hope to see you next week.

The JOY of Serving: A Medical Pilgrimage to Lourdes 2010

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 17 July 2010)

The joy of serving the sick in Lourdes is the joy announced in the New Testament, the joy of the presence of God in the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus.

The joy of the aged Zachary when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and announced that he would have a son, John, “You will have joy and gladness…” (Lk 1:14).

The feeling in Elizabeth whose “child in her womb leapt for joy” when she was visited by Mary. (Lk 1:44)

The great joy of the women in finding the empty tomb of Jesus “who was crucified and was risen as he said he would.” (Mt 28: 6,8)

For those who are crushed by sin, who experience the greatest joy of God’s eternal forgiveness.

John’s Gospel explains the link between the baptised and the Mystery of the Incarnation in the plan to attain eternal happiness: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower…Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit… Abide in me as I abide in you.” (Jn 15: 1-4)

Joy became a community experience in the first Christian Community: “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47)

We of the SFX parish, are priest, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and pilgrims in communion. We are in Lourdes, invited to the Grotto by Mary our Mother, to meet her son Jesus, the Saviour of all humanity, in the mystery of the Church.

We meet Jesus in the Eucharist. We adore Him in the Eucharist, we accompany Him during the procession and we are filled with the same great joy when we serve Him in the sick person.

We are invited to the Grotto because we are carers and volunteers in the service of the sick. Our Lady wished the sick to come to Lourdes.

The sick person is a kind of icon of every man and woman in search of healing. In the words of S. Camille de Lellis, “The sick are our lords and masters and we should serve them as if we were their servants and slaves.”

This is the spirit of the Grotto, the path which the Church indicates to each one of us. Lourdes is first and foremost the grace of healing for all. For some it is the healing of the body.

At their side there is always a nurse, doctor, priest, nun, volunteer, a miracle of organisation to welcome and assist the sick, handicapped and other pilgrims, with and in joy.

In Lourdes, we rediscover the joy of serving the sick, the joy of the Gospel, the joy of the Eucharist, the joy of fellowship, the joy of healing. In this way we give witness to the message of Lourdes.

Bernadette said, “The Grotto is my Heaven.” In joy, anything can happen in the Grotto, as has been witnessed since 1858.

It is Jesus who gives us signs – and what powerful signs..

Matthew described Jesus’ cures:

•          A leper

•          Centurion’s servant

•          Two possessed demoniacs

•          A paralytic

•          A woman with haemorrhage for 12 years

•          Two blind men

•          A dumb demoniac

•          The daughter of a synagogue leader

Everyday, in joy is repeated the great and true miracle of Lourdes: a Church which is servant, in wait for the healing of each one, every one. Renewed joy for us to be called to serve the Sick at the Grotto.

Joy which is in our hearts and inspires our actions may be obvious to all, in the pilgrimages, in the SFX parish, in the places we work, among friends, and in our every day offering of our thanksgiving to God for His infinite Mercy.

Priests as Spiritual Fathers

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 19 June 2010)

(Year for Priests June 2009 ~ June 2010)

This week, in our series of sharings in conjunction with the Year for Priests, and remembering Fathers’ Day, we will talk about priests as spiritual fathers.

I would like to share with you this beautiful article written by Thomas Connelly, a seminarian in Rome.

Father Mike, Father Jim, Father Mark... without much effort we can name a score of priests, but no matter what the name they all have something in common, the title “Father” always comes first. Why “Father” and not something like “Elder,” or just “Priest?” Does fatherhood have anything to do with priesthood?  Why do we call priests “Father?” The first reason is that they represent God the Father as his ministers, and the second is the spiritual fatherhood they assume in the care of the souls entrusted to them.

The parish priest is a spiritual father for his parishioners, since he guides and leads them on the path of spiritual growth. He cares about all of them just as a father cares for his children, though in the spiritual realm. The priest steps in at all the important moments of our lives with the sacraments. He is there at the beginning of our life in the Church when he baptizes; he is there to bless our marriages; he is there at life’s close to help us make the step from here to heaven. All throughout this time he is there to call God down from heaven and make him really present for us in the Eucharist, where Christ is our spiritual food, and strength for the journey.

St John Vianney, who the Pope has called us to recognize in a special way this year, was a father of souls. He was renowned for his curing of souls in confession. Hundreds of people would flock to the tiny village of Ars just to receive the sacrament of reconciliation. The devil hated him for all the conversions he was bringing about and tempted him strongly, many times not giving him a chance to sleep. The Curé of Ars never allowed himself to be disturbed by this, because he discovered that the more Satan bothered him at night the bigger the sinner who would come to him the next day for confession.

Another firm example of a father of souls was the Italian saint Don Bosco. He saw the many boys who lived on the streets who needed someone to guide them and watch over their spiritual growth. At least for starters they needed to know right from wrong. Perhaps he could have just preached fire and brimstone to them to try to put them in line, but none of us want to listen to someone who doesn’t care about us. So he went about it in a different way. He sought to be a spiritual father for them, not just teaching them how to obey the law, but also putting his entire person at their disposal. He put enormous trust in them and they responded with openness and loyalty. At a certain point he had the spiritual care of a group of boys who were in prison. The guards let them leave the prison for a day to go with Don Bosco. The condition was that if he didn’t bring them all back, he would be the one to go to prison. When it was time to return in the evening there were two missing from the line as they filed in. The guard gave Don Bosco a stern look but just before he could open his mouth the two came bolting around the corner and up to the prison door. They had been tempted to make a break for it, but their loyalty to their spiritual father was stronger than the urge to escape.

"Through his celibacy, the Priest becomes the ‘man for others’, in a different way from the man who, by marriage also becomes, as husband and father, a man ‘for others’ . . . The Priest, by renouncing this fatherhood proper to married men, seeks another fatherhood.  The pastoral vocation of priests is great . . . The heart of the priest, in order that it may be available for this service, must be free. Celibacy is a sign of a freedom that exists for the sake of service" (Ioannis Pauli PP. II, Epistula ad universos Ecclesiae Sacerdotes, adveniente Feria V in Cena Domini, 8, die 8 apr. 1979: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, II (1979) 854 s.).

The spiritual fatherhood of the priest is born form his desire to bring all souls to heaven. He is the intermediary between God and man, a footbridge that allows us to cross the abyss that separates us from God. It isn’t through his own merit, but by the grace of God, who chooses his priests as instruments. God is the artist of the masterpiece of a soul’s holiness; he is the one who deserves all the credit. The priest, through his ministry, strives to transmit to us this love of a father, the love of God, Our Father.

Thomas Connelly, LC studies for the priesthood with the Legionaries of Christ in Rome.

Taken from www.catholic.net.

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

(Homily at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 12 June 2010)

Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

Every year we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Saturday after the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Although these 2 feasts became prominent through apparitions, visions and miracles, they have significantly different histories and purposes.

On the cross, where Christ was hung, He suffered the direct blows of human cruelty and in His heart, He bore the sins of the world. In the Sacred Heart we see the wounds of sin inflicted upon Christ’s Heart; and in return for our sins, is the outpouring of His love for us. However, right below the cross of Christ was another Heart which according to Simeon was a heart pierced with a sword. Mary. Mary although was not struck physically, bore the same sufferings of Christ on the Cross, in her heart. Hence the Immaculate Heart also bears the pains and sorrows of mankind.

The Immaculate Heart became significant when in 1917 our Lady appeared to three children named Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco in a small village in Fatima, Portugal. Our Lady revealed to them the secrets in which the Fires of Hell was shown to them. To avoid hell, she asked for the Communion of Reparation on First Saturdays so that souls may be saved. She also asked for the consecration of Russia and of the entire world to be made to the Immaculate Heart of Mary so that “Russia will be converted, and there will be peace in the world”.

Let us listen to what Our Lady has to say concerning Communion of Reparation:

“all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making Reparation to Me.”

We go to Mary in times of need knowing that Our Lady of Perpetual Help will never fail us. By the help and graces we constantly receive, we are also encouraged in turn to give ourselves to God through Mary. This we could do by consecrating ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the salvation of our souls and that of the world. Through regular Confession, receiving Holy Communion, praying and meditating on the Rosary mysteries and making sacrifices, we draw ourselves closer to God and witness the fulfillment of the promise of peace in our world.

On this Feast Day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, let us pray to Mary.