The Rosary…

Jump to Comments

718. I admit it. I am a bad Catholic. I do not love praying the Rosary. I am not saying I oppose it in any way. I’m really not. I know how important this devotion is… and yet I also know it is a devotion. Yes, it is above all others, just as the Blessed Virgin is above all of the Saints, but still… it’s a devotion. One I’ve always struggled with.

Last night as I was finally getting the kids settled down for bed (it was very late) I remembered something I used to do during deployment. As we all settled down at night, I would turn on the CD player, in the hallway, and play Mother of Mercy: A Rosary of Healing by Dana and Fr. Kevin Scallon. This beautiful, meditative CD has great prayers for our healing in just about any area you could imagine with each mystery. I’d set the player to “repeat all” and it would just cycle through 15 decades repeatedly until I turned it off sometime in the wee hours when woke up to use the bathroom (I was pregnant, so I woke up every night!) Every night my kids and I fell asleep praying the rosary from our own beds. Sometimes I’d pray more than one set of mysteries and other times I’d barely get through the Creed.

 

Last night I decided it was time to do it again. What is better than falling asleep contemplating the mysteries of the life of Our Lord? Each night, either while awake or asleep, we would be reminded of

Those Joyful events and mysteries~

• The Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary
• The Visitation of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth
• The birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ
• The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple
• The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple

Those sorrowful events

• The Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemani
• The Scourging of Our Lord at the Pillar
• The Crowning of Thorns of Our Lord
• The Carrying of the Cross on the Way to Golgotha
• The Crucifixion of Our Lord

Those most Joyful events and mysteries!

• The Resurrection of Our Lord
• The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven
• The Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost
• The Assumption of Mary
• The Coronation of Mary

Not to be forgotten (but they are not on my CD as it is “old”) are the “Mysteries of Light” proposed and promoted by Pope John Paul the Great:

The Luminous events and mysteries

• The Baptism of Our Lord in the River Jordan
• The Wedding at Cana, Christ Manifested
• Proclamation of the Kingdom of God
• The Transfiguration of Our Lord
• The Last Supper, the Holy Eucharist

As this CD was playing last night, a very beautiful thing happened to me. In an instant, it seemed, the desire to pray the Rosary grew very strong. Obviously I was praying it while it played last night. I don’t mean just that. I mean that I awoke this morning still desiring to pray the rosary. I am longing to dive deep into the mysteries again, through the rosary and before the rosary and after the rosary. I have been praying for a stronger devotion to Our Lady. I have wanted to deepen my devotion to her for quite some time. I had an inkling that I would be picking the rosary up soon, but honestly, I thought it would feel like more of a chore. Of course, it may begin to feel like that again at some point, but for now the desire and the joy are strong.

 

I think I will be purchasing another Rosary CD. The one I would like to have is called Praying the Rosary with St. Therese of Lisieux. This CD contains all 20 mysteries and has meditations from the writings of St. Therese related to the mysteries and the fruits of the mysteries for each bead. My devotion to St. Therese is very strong. She’s like a best friend to me. I know I can always count on her prayers for me and her life and writings are like a road map to heaven for me! Her simple, yet profound, spirituality reaches me deep down and it inspires me greatly.

 

I suspected that there would be spiritual fruits produced through this deployment. I know my husband and I both hoped for that ~ desired that ~ and are trying to open ourselves up for that. What I never suspected is that I would see the fruits begin to develop so quickly.

Isn’t God good?!

(addendum: if any are unfamiliar [or uncomfortable] with this devotion and would like to understand where I [we Catholics] are “coming from” please read THIS and THIS and THIS. There is a lot of other good stuff there, too.)

2 Comments

Filed under Catholic Family Life, Our Blessed Mother, The Blessed Virgin Mary, The Rosary, prayer