My Rosary

I call this piece “My Rosary” because I wanted to share what the rosary means to me. I’d like to encourage anyone who may not know how to pray on it,to try it for a week. If you are Catholic, chances are someone may have gifted you one that may have been tucked away in a drawer.

My first encounter with the rosary was lukewarm. I don’t mean it disrespectfully, rather I mean to illustrate what it might be to some people upon receiving one, as it was for me. I first received a rosary from my friend, Father Edward Sullivan. He was a priest on my college campus, and I am grateful today for the friendship I was able to grow in with him. As a young adult, I completed my first communion in the simple chapel of one of the halls in my college, thanks to his guidance and concern for my spiritual wellness. He gifted me a rosary that was blessed in the Vatican, and I took it home, and placed it near my childhood bible (a King James version). I was not moved to hold it, or pray on it, or even learn how to pray with it. It just gave me comfort knowing it was there. I had seen my mother many times, rocking in her chair, going through all her prayer cards, but not once had I seen her pray a rosary- not her, not my dad, nor my grandparents.

Today I can tell you it is a necessary tool for my well being. In spending time with the rosary in my hands, passing one bead to the next, reciting the very familiar prayers of childhood, I draw closer to My Blessed Mother, and in turn to the love of Christ. Each time, I begin clearing my mind of the clutter, and take a walk with Mary. How beautiful it is for me, to have a refuge like this. Whether I have been rejected, wounded or even a good place, I have the love of a mother, The Mother who teaches me how to look inside myself, acknowledge a feeling, and no matter what the feeling was that I brought into our refuge, my feelings turn to the love of Mary. I know I am in the company of My Blessed Mother who leads me to the love of the Trinity. That’s what the rosary does for me today.

If you practice yoga or any kind of meditation, I encourage you to swap a day or two with this meditating instrument. Sometimes I will even put a soft Gregorian chant in the background, or light a candle. Equally as peaceful is partaking in a group, and creating a soft hum of prayers in unity.

It is believed that the rosary evolved from what it is today from the use of prayer beads, little rocks or pebbles, used by the Jews to track the praying of Psalms. After the time of Jesus, early Christians carried on with the practice into the middle ages. Most people outside monasteries were not able to read Latin, however they were able to memorize prayers. Gradually, the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, was substituted for the Psalms as small groups came together to pray. They grouped the prayers into sets of 50. In my research I ran across a story of a priest who filled his pockets with small stones and would drop one by one as he prayed, establishing the metaphor of lightness through prayer. I can relate to that feeling of being lighter, feeling comforted. Eventually the pebbles, were replaced by knotted ropes, and then to the beaded ropes, and finally to the rosaries we use today.

Touching on History

By the middle ages there are accounts of the Blessed Virgin visiting the very devoted who we know now to be Saints. The prays were refined through time to the Our Father, The Hail Mary, the Glory Be, and the Fatima Prayer The Apostle’s Creed, The Salve Regina along with the mysteries that continued to evolve in 2002 with the addition of the Luminous Mysteries by Saint John Paul II.

The rosary is a tool rich in history and I know that people who are lukewarm as I was, may look at it as repetitious and monotonous. The Venerable Fulton Sheen had a great answer to that view. He asked, “Do you ever tire of hearing someone you love say, I love you.”?” Saint Paul emphasized the power of the rosary in a list as he invited Christians to pray. In his list he said, “The rosary unites us to the bond between Jesus and Mary.”

I stumbled on the power of the rosary when I was faced with challenging circumstances and felt the need to sit in God’s presence in my neighborhood church. The prayers of the rosary hummed as I made my way to the pew next to a stained glass of what I took to be a mother by the bedside of her sick child. I related to that image as I felt myself being a sick child in need of healing. At that moment my Mother sat with me. I wasn’t so much alert to the prayers of the rosary. They just floated above me. A mass followed, and then I sat with a statue of Mother Teresa in the church courtyard and was invited to pray the rosary with a small group. When I went home, I found I had 3 rosaries that had been gifted to me over the years. I took one and zipped it in a little pouch, so that it could always be on hand. I had not known how to pray the rosary till I was 55!

Since that day, I have drawn close to the healing and love of prayer, taking comfort in Mary’s strength as her Son was crucified. If she navigated her pain through the love of her Son, my pain can be healed through their love as well.

In sharing my experience with how I view the rosary, it is my hope that you will adopt the practice, and find the miracle of the love of Mary and Jesus in it as I do.

(source: A Brief History of the Rosary by Father Willy Raymond- In this article there are references to sources of deep study of the rosary that may be of interest to the reader.)

To dive deeper into the practice :

The Rosary in a Year Prayer Guide with Father Mark Mary Ames.