Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - Wednesday in the 27th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jonah 4:1-11 and Luke 11:1-4]"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." [Luke]
OCTOBER 7 OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY
Jesus' response to the disciples' request is to teach them what we know as the "Our Father." (Our Protestant friends will call it, "The Lord's Prayer.") It is certainly one of the most familiar prayers in Christian devotion. For Catholics, this prayer is one of three that we learn as part of learning how to say the rosary. Indeed, the rosary is not only a way of praying, it is almost an "iconic" symbol of Catholicism. A rosary hanging from the rear view mirror of an automobile is a sure message that a Catholic drives that car!
The history of the rosary is long and complicated. Pious legend has the Virgin Mary presenting it to St. Dominic, but I'm afraid that has not withstood historical research. However, Dominicans became involved in promoting the rosary as a popular form of prayer in the 15th century. A Dominican named (Bl.) Alan de la Roche founded the first Rosary Confraternity in Cologne, Germany around 1455 and the devotion spread like wildfire. The fifteen traditional mysteries (Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious) that most of us learned as children were arranged from various sources by a Dominican named Jacob Spengler and found approval from Pope Pius V in 1561 as a result of a great victory over the Turkish forces at Lepanto, when he established the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Pope St. John Paul II stirred the waters when he added five more "mysteries." (the Luminous).
I challenge folks who are interested in the rosary to be creative by taking five parables, or five miracles or five "sayings" of Jesus to meditate on while saying the rosary. There is a tendency to simply announce the mystery and promptly forget about it while running through all the "Hail Mary's, Our Fathers, and Glory Be's." Often our intention is to say the rosary FOR someone's intentions. That is a good practice, but the purpose of the rosary is to bring us closer to Christ and to Mary. If we ignore the Word of God as we rocket through the prayers, we miss the true purpose of this devotion.
Dominicans around the world celebrate this feast day as an important moment. A fifteen decade rosary hangs from the belt on our habits (should we add another five because of Pope St. John Paul II?). It can be a powerful way to learn scripture as well as to pray for others. AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
78 ms
4
