The Rosary: 31 Days, 31 Ways

by Tom Kreitzberg

Introduction

October is the month of the Holy Rosary (because, as you know, it contains the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, October 7, the anniversary of the Christian victory against Muslim forces at Lepanto in 1571).

Rosary beads are iconic of Catholicism. Indeed, in the United States they can symbolize Christianity, or even the religious spirit in general. If you want instant characterization in a TV show, just show the character holding a rosary.

But actually praying the Rosary is less common among Catholics than it once was. The Rosary has a little-old-lady image, and Catholics praying today have a wide variety of more dynamic prayers to chose from. When people do try the Rosary -- following directions in a pamphlet, perhaps, or under the watchful eye of their parochial school teacher -- they often find themselves twenty minutes older and not a whit wiser, holier, or closer to God.

One of the secrets of the Rosary, though, is that it isn't the sequence of Pater Nosters and Aves shown with an arrow on a drawing on the back of a "How to Pray the Rosary" pamphlet. It's not a twenty-minute vocal prayer. It's a meditation on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and you don't finish meditating on that in twenty minutes ... or ever!

Vocal recitation is, as they say, the body of the Rosary, but the meditations are its soul. In the hope of breathing a little life into the soul of your Rosary, I am going to attempt to describe thirty-one ways of praying it, one for each day of October.

This is a bit foolish, since as I sit here I can't think of thirty-one ways to pray the Rosary. But I trust that whatever my own experience and imagination can't supply, God can (perhaps through others). (Plus there's a book called Fifty Ways to Pray the Rosary, so if I get really stuck I know there's a way out.)

I'll post the ways on average once a day, though I might get a few ways ahead or behind at times. The differences between some of the ways will probably be, shall we say, subtle; I can't guarantee that Way 17 won't be "Do Way 8 while facing east," nor that Way 25 won't be "Um... go clockwise around the rosary beads."

There, now I'm committed to it. I've made the promises, let's see me keep them.

Number 1

I'll start out easy, with the standard version of the Marian Rosary:

  1. Make the Sign of the Cross.
  2. Say the Apostles' Creed.
  3. Say an Our Father.
  4. Say three Hail Marys.
  5. Say a Glory Be.
  6. Announce the first mystery.
  7. Say an Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and a Glory Be, while meditating on the mystery.
  8. Say the Fatima Prayer.
  9. Repeat steps 6 through 8 for the second, third, fourth, and fifth mysteries.
  10. Say the Hail Holy Queen.
  11. Finish with the prayer, "Let us pray. O GOD, whose only begotten Son, by His life, death, and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating upon these mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen."
  12. Make the Sign of the Cross.
The five Joyful Mysteries, traditionally recited on Mondays and Thursdays, and the Sundays of Advent:
  1. The Annunciation
  2. The Visitation
  3. The Nativity
  4. The Presentation
  5. The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
The five Sorrowful Mysteries, traditionally recited on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the Sundays of Lent:
  1. The Agony in the Garden
  2. The Scourging at the Pillar
  3. The Crowning with Thorns
  4. The Carrying of the Cross
  5. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
The five Glorious Mysteries, traditionally recited on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and all Sundays outside Advent and Lent:
  1. The Resurrection
  2. The Ascension
  3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost
  4. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
  5. The Coronation of Our Lady
Okay, nothing new here; this is just your basic Dominican Rosary -- so called because it's the version of the Rosary preached by the Dominican Order, to which promotion of this devotion has been assigned by the Holy See. (The Dominicans, meanwhile, use a slightly different beginning than the above, which of course means that the Dominican Order doesn't quite pray the Dominican Rosary. Go figure.)

This all seems ordinary enough, but let me just remind you that the following actions are all enriched by partial indulgences:

Furthermore, a plenary indulgence may be obtained by reciting the Rosary "in a church or public oratory or in a family group, a religious Community or pious Association." (There's also a plenary indulgence attached to using a rosary blessed by a bishop on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.)

Now it may be that you have no need of indulgences. If so, please consider applying them to the souls in purgatory, which you may do if you are baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace, and if you have at least a general intention to gain the indulgences for the deceased. Who says there's no such thing as cheap grace?

Number 2

In The Teaching of the Catholic Church -- a slim book of 264 questions and answers, suitable for meditative study or for giving to those with questions about Catholicism -- Herbert McCabe OP wrote:

Is there other prayer besides the prayer of petition? Besides the prayer of petition, there is also prayer of thanksgiving and of praise. Meditation, or reflection on the mysteries of faith, is closely related to prayer and will naturally lead to it. A popular form of this is the Rosary.
What's this? The Rosary isn't a prayer?

Well, yes and no. It is mental meditation embedded in vocal prayer (although the first half of the Hail Mary -- which wasn't attached to to the second half until the Sixteenth Century -- isn't really a prayer, but a greeting; hence the term "Angelic Salutation"). There are generally prayers recited before and after the decades, but their purpose is to provide the setting for the Rosary meditations proper.

But look again at Fr. McCabe's words. The Rosary is a form of meditation that will naturally lead to prayer. Meditation leading naturally to prayer is also a key component of lectio divina, a method of reading Scripture and other Spirit-filled texts consisting of these four steps:

  1. Reading. A selection, usually from Scripture, is chosen, and the reader begins to read. Carefully, slowly, possibly out loud, not so much to understand or study the text as to listen to the Word of God speaking to him here and now.
  2. Meditation. As the reader reads, the Holy Spirit will suggest certain key words, phrases, or sentences. The reader pauses, repeating these key words, allowing them to fill his mind and his heart. When it seems appropriate, the reader continues reading.
  3. Prayer. Meditiation leads naturally to prayer; the meditation stage of lectio divina is no exception. At times, the reader will feel moved to offer spontaneous prayer to God -- of petition, of thanksgiving, of praise. Following the prayer, the reader continues meditating or reading.
  4. Contemplation. The contemplation of lectio divina is called "infused contemplation," a gift of God which the reader may or may not experience. This is a simple, wordless, receptive resting in God's presence.
The Benedictines seem to be the primary agents for lectio divina in the Church, although its popularity among the laity has grown explosively in the past couple of decades.

If these steps are suited to reading the Word of God, why not to meditating on the Word's life, death, and resurrection? Let the announcement of the mystery be the reading of the word. Repeat the mystery until some aspect of it speaks to you as something to meditate on. As you recite the Hail Marys, allow yourself to feel moved to interrupt and offer a spontaneous prayer -- as strange as it may sound to interrupt one prayer for another. This will bring your meditation into direct contact with your concerns and joys of today. Perhaps God will bless you with a moment of contemplation; if so, when it is over, pick up where you left off on your meditation.

Obviously, this way of praying the Rosary is only suited to individual recitation in a quiet environment. But imagine what a half an hour of peaceful solitude, alone with God, even just once a week could bring to the madness of the other one hundred sixty-seven and a half hours.

Number 3

The Rosary is like Latin was. You may have to read that sentence a couple of times, but my meaning is that, just as Latin was once the common and universally known liturgical language, so the Rosary is the common and universally known private devotion. There are whole volumes of collections of chaplets, litanies, and devotions, but the Rosary is the one I'd expect most of the people in any group of active Catholics to know.

This may be one of the reasons it's so often the devotion used when active Catholics gather in groups. (The primary reason, I'd say, is the Rosary's spiritual fruitfulness, which has led to its tireless promotion, which is why it's known by most active Catholics.)

When the Rosary is prayed in a group, as you probably know, it's common for there to be one or more leaders whose job is to announce the mysteries and pray the first halves of the Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glory Bes. The rest of the group prays the second halves, and everyone joins in (at least in my neck of the woods) for the other prayers.

Praying the Rosary in a group is a much different experience than praying it by yourself. Some differences I notice are that, in a group, I am much more concerned with how fast the prayers are being said (does everyone pray slower by themselves?), and with whether I've missed a bead; sometimes my mind goes blank, and all I can think as the Hail Marys roll past is, "What mystery are we on again?"

In short, it's the ordeal of community. I sacrifice my own habits, inclinations, strengths, and weaknesses to become a participant in this group. I go through similar ordeals in my family, at work, during Mass, even to some extent while driving. That's just part of what it means to belong to a group.

So what do I get out of this sacrifice? Community, of course! I am physically (visually and aurally) joined to others in a common prayer to God. This union is central to the meaning of Christianity, the group of people called out to worship God and His only Son in His Holy Spirit. There is Jesus in the midst of us, in a different way than He is present to me when I close the door and pray alone.

But wait, there's more! When I'm praying the Rosary by myself and my mind wanders, the only thing that's there is the sound of my voice. When my mind wanders in a group, isn't it likely that at least one of the others is meditating well, and so supporting me in my moments of wandering? Just as when I am meditating well, I might be supporting others who have lost track of their thoughts.

Then there are the stray prayers I might benefit from, as others pray for me as a fellow member, and whatever opportunities might arise for me to ask the group to pray for specific intentions.

Finally, never underestimate the grace of being asked to pray for someone else's intention, for this is angels' work.

Number 4

What way for October 4 but the Franciscan Crown? To quote from the old Catholic Encyclopedia:

The Franciscan Crown dates back to the year 1422. [A] young novice who had that year been received into the Franciscan Order had, previous to his reception, been accustomed to adorn a statue of the Blessed Virgin with a wreath of fresh and beautiful flowers as a mark of his piety and devotion. Not being able to continue this practice in the novitiate, he decided to return to the world. The Blessed Virgin appeared to him and prevented him from carrying out his purpose. She then instructed him how, by reciting daily a rosary of seven decades in honour of her seven joys, he might weave a crown that would be more pleasing to her than the material wreath of flowers he had been wont to place on her statue. From that time the practice of reciting the crown of the seven joys became general in the order.
What are the seven joys of Mary meditated on while praying the Franciscan Crown? Traditionally, they are
  1. The Annunciation
  2. The Visitation
  3. The Nativity of our Lord
  4. The Adoration of the Magi
  5. The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple
  6. The Resurrection of Our Lord
  7. Thee Assumption and Coronation of the Blessed Virgin
Each decade comprises an Our Father and ten Hail Marys. The mysteries may be announced before the Our Father, as with the Dominican Rosary, or after the name of Jesus in the first Hail Mary of each decade; for example, "...and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, whom you gave birth to in Bethlehem. Holy Mary, ...."

Add two Hail Marys at the end for a total of seventy-two -- in honor of the seventy-two years Mary is said to have lived -- and you've got the Franciscan Crown (a.k.a., the Seraphic Rosary). You can find seven decade rosaries for sale; the instructions that came with one I bought seemed quite proud that this was "the simplest way to pray the Rosary."

Since the simplifications of the 1968 Enchiridion of Indulgences, the custom has grown of combining the Nativity with the Adoration of the Magi into the third mystery and adding the Presentation in the Temple and the Purification of Mary as the fourth mystery. (This earns you the indulgence for praying the joyful mysteries.)

It has also become common in certain circles to begin the Franciscan Crown with the Apostles' Creed, an Our Father, and three Hail Marys; to finish each decade with a Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer; and to end it with an Our Father and a Hail Mary offered for the Pope. But simplicity, in my opinion, is a good old Franciscan virtue, and there's something to be said for keeping it to just seven Our Fathers and seventy-two Hail Marys.

Holy Father Francis, image of the Poor Messiah, pray for us!

Number 5

Of the three traditional sets of mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries are the most dramatic. They tell the story of Jesus during the last hours of His life, moving from the solitude of the garden to the solitude of the cross.

The Sorrowful Mysteries are progressive and cumulative in a way the other two sets are not. The Joyful Mysteries are not a build-up to the Finding in the Temple. The Resurrection is not the first act of a movement that culminates in the Coronation.

We might, then, tailor meditations on the Sorrowful Mysteries to take advantage of this, to make them build upon each other, rather than merely follow each other in sequence.

Here is one way to do this:

  1. In the garden, the Son of God is abandoned by His disciples.
  2. Pilate has Jesus scourged as a gesture of appeasement after the Son of God is rejected by the religious leaders.
  3. For all the Roman soldiers knew or cared, Jesus really was the king of the Jews. Their mockery shows the Son of God ridiculed by the mighty.
  4. Jesus bore the cross through the city He had triumphantly entered the week before. The Son of God is ignored by His Chosen People.
  5. At the Place of the Skull, the Son of God is forgotten by the world.
At each mystery, another potential source of human comfort is torn away from Jesus, starting with those closest to Him, until the end, when He dies wretched and alone in the world. The scope of His abandonment widens as His isolation deepens, until the Son of God is moved to pray that unfathomnable psalm, "My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?"

This is His sorrowful passion; this, in the salvific economy decreed by the will of the Father, is the guarantee of divine mercy upon all who invoke it out of the depths.

Number 6

The word "joyful" is wholly inadequate to describe the unutterable depths to which the Blessed Virgin, all mankind, and the whole of creation visible and invisible are or should be moved by the events composing the Joyful Mysteries.

On the other hand, I can't help but think they left St. Joseph a nervous wreck.

As a non-immaculate husband and father, I find it easy to imagine the Anxious Mysteries:

  1. The Annunciation. Joseph's betrothed, against whom no one can say a word, is found with child! As if that weren't bad enough, it's the LORD's child! Talk about assuming responsibility for raising a family.
  2. The Visitation. Mary leaves, and she stays left. This betrothal is not going according to custom.
  3. The Nativity. "A census, just when the baby is due. What's next, there won't be any room at the inn?" "Jumpin' Jehosaphat, my wife's going to have the LORD's baby in a stable! This can't be the way I'm supposed to be husbanding."
  4. The Presentation. Redeeming the Son of God with a couple of doves. You just know it's going to be a harder bargain than it sounds. And then the old man very kindly tells the young mother that her heart will be pierced.
  5. The Finding of Jesus in the Temple. "I lost Jesus. I lost Jesus. I lost Jesus. Not only did I lose my own son, I lost the LORD's Son!"
The Litany of St. Joseph speaks of him as "chaste and just...prudent and brave...obedient and loyal." But something else he simply must have been, by the time the twelve-year-old Jesus was safely back in Nazareth, is one of the humblest men to have ever walked the Earth. Time and again, events had proven to him the limits of his own abilities. Time and again, God had proven to him the limitlessness of His providential care. Time and again, Joseph got up and did what the LORD commanded.

Number 7

The Rosary is a combination of vocal prayer, mental meditation, and physical movement (if you use a set of rosary beads). There are times, though, when meditation is impossible, times of great stress or sorrow, times when the concentration just can't be mustered long enough to do more than name the mysteries.

At such times, prayer is as necessary as it is difficult. A possible path is to move backward through the history of the Marian Rosary to the primitive* Psalter of Our Lady, which is simply the recitation of 150 Aves:

Make the Sign of the Cross, offer any spontaneous prayer you might have, and begin reciting Hail Marys. Don't worry about Our Fathers, don't worry about mysteries, don't worry about decades. This is a time when your body prays on behalf of your soul, your voice takes you into God's presence although your heart is too weighed down to move. It is conversational prayer, where the conversation is an outpouring of your worries to One who can act in you simply by listening.

At the same time, of course, you are also speaking to Mary, through whose immaculate heart you may confidently hope your anguish will be placed before God and healed. Such confidence is, unfortunately, a matter of faith rather than feeling; it is hopeful, not yet seen. As with Peter on the sea, it can waver and fail, but, as with Peter, Christ will be there to take your hand and bring you to safety. And His mother, who standing at the foot of the Cross was able to embrace the Father's will that Jesus should die, who is no less united to His will now, will be with you, too.


PEDANTIC NOTE:As prayed in the Thirteenth Century, the Ave was called the Angelic Salutation and ended with the words "and blessed is the fruit of your womb." St. Thomas preached that had three parts:
The Angel gave one part, namely: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women."[1] The other part was given by Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, namely: "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb."[2] The Church adds the third part, that is, "Mary"....
I don't know if you need to go that primitive.

Number 8

There is a technique for focusing your Rosary meditations through the lens of the three virtues that endure: faith, hope, and love.

Simply meditate on the mystery as you normally would for the first four Hail Marys, then for two Hail Marys each, consider the mystery in the light of the virtue - or the virtue in the light of the mystery.

I find it helpful to spend one Hail Mary thinking about the mystery-virtue combination as it happened, then one thinking about what it means today. So, for example, on the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, I might ask myself something like the following questions on the following beads:

5. How did Mary's faith support the others in the upper room?
6. How can Mary's faith support me?
7. What hope was in Mary's heart after the Ascension?
8. Do I share her hope?
9. How was Mary's maternal love for Jesus affected by the power of the Holy Spirit enlightening her knowledge of His divinity?
10. How do I love Jesus in His humanity?
There are a couple of things to note about these questions. First, they are substantive theological and spiritual questions. This reflects the fact that I am typing them up for public consumption. I'd be finished the decade before I finished asking myself question number 9. In practice, what goes through my mind is often more along the lines of, "Um, now what about hope?" Questions as meaty as the above might take several passes through the mystery to form.

Second, the questions require substantive theological and spiritual answers. I wouldn't be able to answer question 9 before I was done chanting the Salve Regina and kissing the crucifix.

This brings me back to a point I've made before, that the Rosary isn't a twenty-minute prayer but a lifelong meditation. The few moments every few days that I might spend asking whether I share Mary's hope in her crucified and risen Son now at the right hand of the Father, these are not so much devoted to composing a discursive answer as to giving the Holy Spirit a chance to form my heart in imitation of Mary (and therefore of Jesus). This method of praying the Rosary is akin to a gentle stretching in all directions, to keep my heart supple and ready to receive the answers God wants to give me when He wants to give them to me.

Number 9

I've found a website that states that the following is a customary way of praying the Rosary in Mexico:

Open with the following prayers:

V. Hail purest Mary.
R. Conceived without sin.
V. By the Sign of the Holy Cross.
R. From our enemies free us, O Lord, My God.
(+) In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
V. Lord, open my lips.
R. And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
V. God, come to my assistance.
R. Lord make haste to help me.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
The five decades follow as usual, although suitably hymns may be sung between the decades. The site also suggests several alternative invocations to the Fatima Prayer, including this Homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe:
V. My heart is occupied eternally in loving you. R. And my tongue in praising you, O Virgin of Guadalupe, my Mother.
At the end of the five decades comes the following Marian sequence: an Our Father; the Marian Salutations; the Hail Holy Queen, the Litany of Loreto; and the Sub Tuum Praesidium.

Next comes an offertory prayer, perhaps "O God, Whose Only Begotten Son," or this:

Grant to us, your children, we beseech you O Lord God, to enjoy continual health of mind and body, and by the glorious intercession of Blessed Mary ever virgin, to be delivered from the sorrows of this life, and enjoy the happiness of life everlasting. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
And finally, the concluding prayers:
Sweet Mother, do not depart from me. Do not lose me from your sight. Accompany me everywhere and never leave me all alone. Because you protect me like a true Mother, obtain for me the blessing of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. V. By the Sign of the Holy Cross.
R. From our enemies free us, O Lord, My God.
(+) In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
V. Hail purest Mary.
R. Conceived without sin.
Now that's what I call a paraliturgy!

While you're at it, throw in a brief sermon before the Marian sequence if there's a priest or deacon available. I can't imagine many of the American parishes I've attended praying so elaborate a Rosary except on special occasions (like, perhaps, when one of the Marian feasts is not obligatory or goes unobserved liturgically), so why not talk the pastor into a full-fledged and full-throated parish event, complete with choir and refreshments afterward?

Number 10

Continuing in the paraliturgical vein, when the Rosary is prayed in large groups, particularly in a church, it is often prayed in a choral manner. This doesn't mean it's sung, but that the group is divided into two parts which recite the prayers alternately to each other, much the way religious houses recite the Liturgy of the Hours in choir.

What does the alternation do for you? One line of thought is that it makes the Rosary a conversation across the aisle, with each side speaking, then listening, proclaiming the word, then receiving it. It becomes a joint work of prayer, not between myself and the group as a whole, as with group prayer with a single leader; but between my side of the aisle and your side.

The idea of reciting the Rosary as the psalms are recited during the Liturgy of the Hours brings to mind the custom, in some religious orders, of standing and bowing at the words "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." This adds to the physical dimension of the Rosary: the speaking, the listening, the use of beads. Adding a physical dimension to prayer is something I have found very helpful, and I'll point out that you can stand and bow even when praying the Rosary by yourself.

Number 11

Here's a very simple idea: Pray the Rosary while listening to the evening news.

The news provides a steady stream of prayer intentions. There are likely to be several sorrowful reports, of war, famine, pestilence, and death. But there may well be one or more joyful reports, of anticipations or births or happy endings. Once in a while, something both glorious and newsworthy happens, too.

Even the sports and weather reports can be prayed over. As ephemeral as sports is, the outcome of an event can have a pronounced effect on the moods of many for days, and sometimes years. We give thanks for good weather, we pray for perseverance in bad weather -- and almost any weather can be good or bad, depending on whether we're prepared for it.

What I've found praying the Rosary during the news does is to make both the Rosary and the news more real to me. The news, because I am no longer passively listening, with an occasional fleeting, "Oh, no!"; I am praying to God over the stories that I hear. And the Rosary is no longer simply a discipline I use to think of the things of God for a few minutes a day; the beads become a weapon in my hands as I invoke the mercy or the justice of the Lord in the faith and hope of being heard.

Number 12

As is true of any fully human prayer, the Rosary is fundamentally incarnational. Its soul comprises the unspoken meditations, thoughts, and prayers. Its body are the spoken words, the fingers moving the beads, perhaps the reading of a Scriptural Rosary (coming soon to this series) or the listening of a choral Rosary.

Another way of adding body to the Rosary, so to speak, is through the use of sacred art. Praying the Rosary with representations of the mysteries before you adds a visual dimension that can also feed the spiritual dimension.

I find studying Fra Angelico's "The Mocking of Christ", for example, both focusses my mind on the Crowning with Thorns and brings out aspects of the mystery (in this case, the Marian dimension in particular) I would not have thought of myself.

I am, predictably, partial to the paintings of Fra Angelico, my namesake in the Dominican Order -- and handily printed in the little book Through the Rosary with Fra Angelico -- but there is no shortage of artistic depictions of the mysteries of the Rosary.

Similarly, one could listen to sacred music while praying -- perhaps a Mass of the Annunciation, or Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ -- although the connection to the particular mystery is likely to be looser.

Number 13

The mysteries of the Rosary take us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and on into the establishment of His eternal kingdom. These, Christianity teaches, are the central events of creation, prefigured in the lives of God's chosen people and preordained to be reflected in the lives of all of Christ's disciples.

In a sense, these mysteries are to grand to be limited to a few minutes or hours al falling within several decades of each other several centuries ago. They reverberate through time, forward and backward. As Pope John Paul II teaches in Dies Domini, the Resurrection is the antitype of the First Day of creation and the prefigurement of the Last Day, the day with no evening.

It makes sense, then, to meditate on these mysteries through time, to break them open and listen to their echoes across the ages.

One technique for doing this is to identify four time frames for each mystery: the time before the event; the time of the event; the time after the event; and today. Meditations on all mysteries for a given week are relative to the same time frame (i.e., before, during, after, or today), and the time frames cycle through every four weeks.

An easy way to keep track of these time frames is to key them to the 4-week Psalter: the before meditations are done on Week I; the during on Week II; the after on Week III; and the today on Week IV.

That is, it's an easy way if you've already figured out the 4-week Psalter. If not, you can key them to the Sundays of the month (the week of the first Sunday being before, and so on). When there's a fifth Sunday in a month, use the time frame of eternity.

The during and today time frames are straightforward (well, the during for the Coronation is a bit tricky), but what about the before and after? There are two distinct approaches.

First, you can choose something well away from the mystery in time, an Old Testament story for the before and something from Acts or the early Church for the after. For example, Hannah's story prefigures and Ananias's vision echoes the Annunciation.

Second, you can think of the times immediately before and after the mystery, and meditate on how God's actions changed the status quo and began to propagate their effects through time. For example, prior to the Annunciation Mary was, to all outward appearances, an ordinary maiden, yet she had been prepared from eternity for her role as Mother of God; after the Annunciation, she went in haste to serve the Lord on a path she did not yet fully comprehend.

Number 14

St. Thomas the Apostle is one of my patron saints. His experiences, both canonical and apocryphal, are exemplary, although his timing is terrible.

Allow me, then, to offer the Belatedly Glorious Mysteries According to St. Thomas:

  1. The Resurrection. For Thomas, either Jesus was dead or Jesus was God. That's a Christology that rules out a lot of the heresies to come (some of which are still among us). We may be too used to thinking of Jesus as our heavenly friend to full appreciate what it would have meant to a Galilean Jew to discover himself standing before the LORD.
  2. The Ascension. After the Ascension, St. Thomas was thrown back into the company of the rest of the whiners, quitter, brown-nosers, and blockheads who were together the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among them. St. Thomas's own stock couldn't have been very high. And yet somehow, the shared experience of the company of the Risen Lord brought these people together, with Mary the mother of Jesus, to pray in an upper room in Jerusalem, waiting for the promise of the Father. They managed to be the Church.
  3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit. According to legend, after Pentecost St. Thomas was chosen to preach the Gospel in India. He was not eager to go, and it wasn't until Jesus appeared and tricked him into being sold as a slave that he started on his eastward journey. I have received the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation. How eager have I been to go where the Spirit is calling me?
  4. The Assumption. According to an apocryphal work, St. Thomas was late again at the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, arriving in Jerusalem just in time to see her rising to heaven. In answer to his prayer, she dropped her belt to him (some would say on him) from heaven, and he bore news of her Assumption to the other Apostles. We, too, are not in time to assist in Mary's burial; we too, may call upon her anyway, confident that she will give us her blessing.
  5. The Coronation. If Jesus is Thomas's Lord, then Mary is his Lady. When, having evangelized Persia and India, St. Thomas was martyred, he would have come before his King and Queen to receive his own glorious crown. A similar, if less exalted, destiny awaits those of us who remain faithful to God's call.
You'll note that in these reflections I am not particularly interested in questions of historicity. I think there is a time and a place for such questions, but they do not include devotional prayer.

St. Thomas the Apostle, companion of the Lord, pray for us!

Number 15

Of course, you could always meditate on the luminous mysteries, each of which is a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus:

  1. The Baptism of Jesus
  2. The Miracle at Cana
  3. The Proclamation of the Kingdom
  4. The Transfiguration
  5. The Institution of the Eucharist
The Baptism in the Jordan is first of all a mystery of light. Here, as Christ descends into the waters, the innocent one who became "sin" for our sake, the heavens open wide and the voice of the Father declares him the beloved Son, while the Spirit descends on him to invest him with the mission which he is to carry out.

Another mystery of light is the first of the signs, given at Cana, when Christ changes water into wine and opens the hearts of the disciples to faith, thanks to the intervention of Mary, the first among believers.

Another is the preaching by which Jesus proclaims the coming of the Kingdom of God, calls to conversion and forgives the sins of all who draw near to him in humble trust: the inauguration of that ministry of mercy which he continues to exercise until the end of the world, particularly through the Sacrament of Reconciliation which he has entrusted to his Church.

The mystery of light par excellence is the Transfiguration, traditionally believed to have taken place on Mount Tabor. The glory of the Godhead shines forth from the face of Christ as the Father commands the astonished Apostles to "listen to him" and to prepare to experience with him the agony of the Passion, so as to come with him to the joy of the Resurrection and a life transfigured by the Holy Spirit.

Finally there is the institution of the Eucharist, in which Christ offers his body and blood as food under the signs of bread and wine, and testifies "to the end" his love for humanity, for whose salvation he will offer himself in sacrifice.

In these mysteries, apart from the miracle at Cana, the presence of Mary remains in the background. The Gospels make only the briefest reference to her occasional presence at one moment or other during the preaching of Jesus, and they give no indication that she was present at the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. Yet the role she assumed at Cana in some way accompanies Christ throughout his ministry. The revelation made directly by the Father at the Baptism in the Jordan and echoed by John the Baptist is placed upon Mary's lips at Cana, and it becomes the great maternal counsel which Mary addresses to the Church of every age: "Do whatever he tells you". This counsel is a fitting introduction to the words and signs of Christ's public ministry and it forms the Marian foundation of all the "mysteries of light".

[Many thanks to the men who suggested this way and provided the above commentary.]

Number 16

The Rosary is a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness, but what should people do if they don't have time to pray it?

First, they should probably examine their theory of time management. What I don't have time for is what I don't make time for; odds are the same is true of people who say they don't have time for the Rosary.

Beyond that, though, notice what the Enchiridion of Indulgences has to say about obtaining an indulgence for praying the Rosary: "The recitation of a third part only of the Rosary suffices; but the five decades must be recited continuously." This suggests that, if the indulgence is not required, the five decades need not be recited continuously.

And of course, as a private devotion, there is no "right way" of praying the Rosary (although there are approved ways, customary ways, and ways that have proven fruitful).

At any time, day or night, you may call to mind a mystery and recite a decade's worth of prayers. If your schedule is regular enough, you may find that there are five times each day when you can meditate for four minutes, taking you through a complete set of mysteries and, after a fashion, sanctifying your day much as the Liturgy of the Hours sanctifies the day for the whole Church. If you've got a ten minute drive to work, pray two decades on the way to work, one sometime during the day, and two on the drive home.

I have a friend who plays chess in a club; he keeps a rosary in his pocket, and will pray it during his opponent's turn. He doesn't obtain the Rosary indulgence (though I suppose he gets one for using an object of devotion), but he does manage to spend a few minutes in contemplation of the life, death, or resurrection of Christ, which is a pretty good deal.

Number 17

When learning to pray the Rosary, it's common to be uneasy about the disconnect between the words spoken and the thoughts pondered. There's nothing in the Hail Mary obviously related to the Crowning with Thorns, and Jesus Himself warned, "In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words."

The theological answer is that the prayer is not the words, but the entire human act of praying the Rosary -- movement, vocalization, meditation -- and that the spoken words act as a sort of "sacred music" accompanying the contemplation of the face of Christ. But theological answers are not always entirely satisfying.

A simple compromise for those who catch themselves worrying that they're saying words that have no meaning to them is to allow some of the words to have meaning. After pronouncing the mystery, pray the Our Father and one Hail Mary as prayers to the Father and to Mary, paying attention to the words. Then pause a moment to focus on the mystery, and recite the remaining nine Hail Marys while meditating. Finally, pray the Glory Be as a genuine prayer of praise, in thanksgiving for answering the prayers that began the decade with the graces you received during the rest of the decade.

Number 18

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.
If in the Luminous Mysteries the truth that Christ is the light of the world "emerges in a special way," as Pope John Paul II writes in Rosarium Virginis Mariae, then surely John the Baptist bears witness to the Luminous Mysteries:
  1. The Baptism of the Lord. It was John's ministry, a response to a call from God received in the womb, that provided the setting for the first public revelation of Jesus' divinity. As the Baptist says in John 1:31, "for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel."
  2. The Miracle at Cana. Jesus' first miracle was to provide an astonishing abundance of the finest wine, but John in the desert came neither eating nor drinking. The fasting of the groomsman precedes the feasting of the Bridegroom. This is a lesson as important to those awaiting the return of the Groom as to those who looked for His first coming.
  3. The Preaching of the Kingdom. John, too, preached the coming of the Kingdom, though since he was not the light his preaching was preparation, not revelation. Indeed all preaching is preparation, until the Son of God should reveal Himself and His Father to those whom He chooses.
  4. The Transfiguration. The Transfiguration is the second great theophany of Jesus' public life, prefigured by John's vision at Jesus' baptism: "I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him." Though no Apostle, John was the greatest of the prophets, and was not reduced to babbling as was Peter on Mt. Thabor; instead, he knew and bore witness that this Jesus was the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
  5. The Institution of the Eucharist. Once more, John's witness is the fast before the feast of the Eucharist. In this, the least member of the Kingdom Jesus revealed is greater than he -- how could he not be, with God Himself as his food -- but it is a greatness wholly and freely given by God.

Number 19

What to do with your old 15-decade rosary once the new 20-decade set arrives from Italy?

Why not use it to pray the Stations of the Cross?

There is nothing that prevents you from praying the Stations outside of Lent and by yourself. In fact, the Church encourages it by offering a plenary indulgence, subject to certain conditions. And while there are numerous excellent collections of readings and prayers to be used for the Viae Crucis exercitium, the ones used at the Lenten parish Stations I've attended have not been particularly meditative. A decade of the Rosary in place of, or in addition to, the prayers in a "Way of the Cross" book adds nearly an hour of interior meditation on the passion and death of Christ to this devotion. At the same time, it directs the mind to the Marian dimensions of the Passion.

Now, no doubt, all Protestant and a few Catholic readers are rolling their eyes. "It's the passion and death of Jesus! Can't we lay off this mariolatry even for that?"

But the Marian dimension of the Passion is not a matter of watching Mary while she watches her Son suffer and die. Rather, it's a matter of watching her Son suffer and die through her eyes. It's not a focus on Mary, it's using Mary to focus on Jesus. We say to her, "Teach me how a Christian understands the Crucifixion," and we find that it is not so much about God dying on the Cross or the atonement for our sins as it is about the Person loved most in life dying out of love for the Person He loved most.

There are, as you know, fourteen stations in the Way of the Cross, but a multiple of five decades on most rosary beads. With the relatively new custom of the "fifteenth station," the Resurrection prayed at the tabernacle, you can finish with a traditional number of decades. If the indulgence is not important, or not possible (as when you do it in a place without the required fourteen crosses), or if you otherwise prefer, you can of course also use Pope John Paul II's Scriptural Stations.

Number 20

Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando
These, as St. Thomas notes, are the seven circumstances of human acts as recorded by Tully.

They suggest what might be called the Circumstantial Rosary, wherein each mystery is considered according to a given circumstance:

Choose one of these circumstances and stick with it for all the decades recited during a week. The following week, choose another circumstance.

One effect of this method is an increase in awareness of the profundity of God's plan in sending His only Son into the world to suffer and be raised to glory. I have found the "where" and the "when" circumstances to be particularly fruitful for this.

Number 21

A good way of emphasizing the Christological basis of the Rosary is to pray a Scriptural Rosary. Before each Hail Mary, a brief Scriptural verse (related to the mystery, of course, and sometimes in the form of versicle and response) is recited. By their nature, Scriptural Rosaries require following along in a book or other written guide, which makes them more suitable for small, regular groups, such as the family.

There are many on-line Scriptural Rosaries, including a straightforward version from RosaryCreations.com, a paraphrased version for children, and a whole series of printable downloads from the Apostolate of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.

The effect of a Scriptural Rosary is distinctive. It is less meditative than the traditional Dominican Rosary, more of a litany of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. It impresses upon the mind the holy words of Scripture by which each mystery is related, which in turn provides food to chew on during the day (a habit also fostered by lectio divina), and especially when you pray the Rosary in a more traditional manner. If, for example, while doing the dishes I am meditating on the Visitation, asking myself why Mary visited Elizabeth, a habit of praying a Scriptural Rosary will bring to mind Elizabeth's words, "Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled."

(And note how the various ways of praying the Rosary interact. I can pray the Scriptural Rosary (#21) with my family (#25), and later pray a part (#16) of the Circumstantial Rosary (#20) at a time when a Scriptural Rosary is impossible.)

Number 22

There's a standard way of generating a story plot: Think of a protagonist, and give him a goal. Then think of an antagonist, and give him a goal that conflicts with the protagonist's. The resolution of the conflict constitutes the plot.

This suggests the idea of a Dramatic Rosary, if you will, in which each mystery is considered from the aspect of a protagonist and an antagonist with conflicting goals.

It's up to you to choose the roles and the goals, but here's an example for the Sorrowful Mysteries:

By the way, something interesting can happen with the Glorious Mysteries. We think of the Rosary as a meditation on Christ, but see how He can be cast as the antagonist:
Considered as drama, the Good News can be told as the story of humans who want less going against a God who insists on more than they could possibly imagine.

Number 23

There are certain qualities or characteristics that all forms of being -- rocks, humans, redness, poems -- possess. Since these characteristics transcend all boundaries, they are called transcendentals. The three most widely spoken of nowadays are goodness, truth, and beauty.

By now, you can probably guess how to pray the Transcendental Rosary. The first four Hail Marys of each decade are devoted to whatever meditation you have chosen, then two each are recited while meditating on how goodness, truth, and beauty are manifested in the mystery.

Certain mysteries seem to have a preferred transcendental. I have a hard time seeing much that is good or beautiful in the Scourging at the Pillar; the truth that by His stripes we are healed is about all I find. The more Marian mysteries, the Assumption most of all, are to me far more delightful than desirable, and therefore come across as more beautiful than good.

And yet, they are all present in each mystery. As I've written before, even the Crucifixion was pleasing -- in other words, beautiful -- to the Father. But while the Crucifixion is generally thought to be too horrible to be beautiful, the subsequent Resurrection and Ascension would seem to have been too beautiful for this life. Notice that Mary Magdalene seeks to cling to the Risen Lord, to keep Him before her, yet He insists that she let Him go. Later, the Apostles remain staring up into the sky after Jesus ascends to Heaven; angels must be sent to force them to look away. Not yet, they seem to say, that beautiful of a vision must wait. (Soon enough, St. Stephen will be granted that vision just prior to his martyrdom.)

The Miracle at Cana, perhaps showing Jesus at His most prodigal, was a sign of God's great, graceful goodness to those who have no claim on it; it was also a sign of God's presence, that what Jesus (and His mother) said was true; and of course it was simply beautiful, scores of gallons of the finest wine, just for the sake of celebration.

At the Transfiguration, when Peter was out of his mind with the beauty of the Lord manifested as the true fulfillment of the Law and the prophets, he could only babble, "How good it is for us to be here."

Goodness is that which we desire; beauty is that which pleases us; truth is a conformity between what is and what is in our minds. This is why we need never tire of praying the Rosary, because each mystery brings us into contact with these three things that enter into us and reform us into what we are to become.

Number 24

In the Fifteenth Century, the Carthusian monk Dominic of Prussia preached a form of the Rosary in which each Ave (which again, at the time, ended with the word "Jesus") had a short statement appended to it, to call to mind some aspect of the lives of Jesus and Mary.

This custom survives to this day and can be observed in a couple of different ways.

The more complicated way is to have a separate clause for each Hail Mary. Obviously, this requires either a phenomenal memory or a book. The book I recommend (for at least the third time on this site alone) is Through the Rosary with Fra Angelico, in which the 150 clauses are taken from the works of that great apostle of the Rosary, St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort.

A brief commercial: If it's all the same to you, you can order the book from the Dominican Laity of the Province of St. Joseph (Eastern U.S.). Wherever you get it, though, order two copies so you can give one away.
Only the first half of each Hail Mary is said, followed by the appropriate clause. At the end of the decade, the "Holy Mary, Mother of God,...." is said once, followed by the Glory Be.

The simpler way is to use a single clause, inserted into the middle of each Hail Mary, for the entire decade. Fred Kaffenberger has kindly drawn my attention to a web site he maintains whose prayer resources include the following suggested clauses:

Joyful Mysteries
Jesus, whom you, O Virgin, conceived of the Holy Spirit
Jesus, whom you, O Virgin, took to Elizabeth
Jesus, to whom you, O Virgin, gave birth
Jesus, whom you, O Virgin, offered up in the temple
Jesus, whom you, O Virgin, found again in the temple

Luminous Mysteries
Jesus, who was baptised in the Jordan by John
Jesus, who changed water into wine at Cana
Jesus, who preached the Kingdom of Heaven
Jesus, who was Transfigured on the mountain
Jesus, who offered Himself as sacrifice at the last supper

Sorrowful Mysteries
Jesus, who sweated blood for us
Jesus, who was scourged for us
Jesus, who was crowned with thorns for us
Jesus, who bore the heavy cross for us
Jesus, who was crucified for us

Glorious Mysteries
Jesus, who rose from the dead
Jesus, who ascended into heaven
Jesus, who sent us the Holy Spirit
Jesus, who took you, O Virgin, up into heaven
Jesus, who crowned you, O Virgin, in heaven

Use of these clausulae helps to focus your attention on the particular mystery, and to lead you through the Rosary as an explicit progression of events. At the same time, the recitation is made a richer litany of praise to Jesus and Mary.

(My thanks also to Ray Marshall, for pointing out that the October 2002 issue of Magnificat has an article by Fr. Kevin J. Scallon, C.M., which discusses this method as practiced by German-speaking Catholics.)

Number 25

By special guest contributor Eugenio Pacelli

In vain is a remedy sought for the wavering fate of civil life, if the family, the principle and foundation of the human community, is not fashioned after the pattern of the Gospel.

The custom of the family recitation of the Holy Rosary is a most efficacious means to undertake such a difficult duty. What a sweet sight-most pleasing to God-when, at eventide, the Christian home resounds with the frequent repetition of praises in honor of the august Queen of Heaven! Then the Rosary, recited in common, assembles before the image of the Virgin, in an admirable union of hearts, the parents and their children, who come back from their daily work. It unites them piously with those absent and those dead. It links all more tightly in a sweet bond of love, with the most Holy Virgin, who, like a loving mother, in the circle of her children, will be there bestowing upon them an abundance of the gifts of concord and family peace.

Then the home of the Christian family, like that of Nazareth, will become an earthly abode of sanctity, and, so to speak, a sacred temple, where the Holy Rosary will not only be the particular prayer which every day rises to heaven in an odor of sweetness, but will also form the most efficacious school of Christian discipline and Christian virtue. This meditation on the Divine Mysteries of the Redemption will teach the adults to live, admiring daily the shining examples of Jesus and Mary, and to draw from these examples comfort in adversity, striving towards those heavenly treasures "where neither thief draws near, nor moth destroys" (Luke 12, 33). This meditation will bring to the knowledge of the little ones the main truths of the Christian Faith, making love for the Redeemer blossom almost spontaneously in their innocent hearts, while, seeing, their parents kneeling before the majesty of God, they will learn from their very early years how great before the throne of God is the value of prayers said in common.

[Editor's note: Five decades may well be too much for a family to take in one sitting, particularly if there is not already a habit of common prayer. Perhaps one decade a night, following the Seven Joys of Mary (see Way #4) beginning with the Annunciation on Monday, would be a more practical way to ease into gaining the advantages that Pope Pius XII mentions above.]

Number 26

A traditional framework for meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary is to consider each mystery as an exemplar of a different virtue or gift, and pray for an increase in that virtue while reciting the decade. The following matches between mystery and virtue are from Robert Feeney's book The Rosary: The Little Summa, which is structured around reflections drawn from Scripture, St. Thomas, Vatican II, and Pope John Paul II.

Joyful Mysteries
The Annunciation: faith
The Visitation: charity
The Nativity: humility
The Presentation: justice
The Finding of Jesus in the Temple: prudence

Sorrowful Mysteries
The Agony in the Garden: religion
The Scourging at the Pillar: temperance
The Crowning with Thorns: love of our enemies
The Carrying of the Cross: fortitude
The Crucifixion: mercy

Glorious Mysteries
The Resurrection: the peace of Christ
The Ascension: hope
The Descent of the Holy Spirit: the gifts of the Holy Spirit
The Assumption: trust in Mary's intercession
The Coronation: grace of the present moment

(The Luminous Mysteries are not mentioned in the edition I have. Offhand, let me suggest chastity, joy, knowledge, holy fear, and reverence.)

Most of these are straightforward, I think. "Religion," for St. Thomas, is principally the offering of devotion and prayer to God. Temperance is the exercise of control over the appetite for pleasure. The "grace of the present moment ... opens our minds to the greatness of all those small things that bear a relationship to eternity," in the words of Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP.

Number 27

Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

The oneness of God finds expression in the integrity of the man Jesus. "Integrity" here doesn't mean honesty, but undivided unity. Jesus did not assume one persona in public and another in private. All aspects of His life were directed toward the end for which He had been born.

(I think the idea of integrity is tremendously important. Being multi-faceted is generally considered a good thing, for people as for gemstones, but a person who is fully integrated would appear the same from any view, like a perfectly round pearl. And a perfectly round pearl, with appropriate color and luster, would be of great price....)

All that said, we would expect the mysteries of Jesus' life to be integrated. And in fact, we can pray the Rosary by meditating on the relations the various mysteries have with each other. For example:

There are some interesting relations that run through the above pairings. We can, for example move from the Annunciation to the Proclamation to the Carrying of the Cross to the Ascension to the Assumption, which suggests that the Annunciation and the Assumption really are two ends of a single thread containing Jesus' ministry in word and deed.

Some mysteries are more strongly related (e.g., the Assumption and the Ascension) than others (e.g., the Agony in the Garden and the Annunciation), but they all speak of the same good news of salvation. As different mysteries tend to speak more or less strongly to us at different times, being able to meditate on one mystery in the light of another (however flickery that light might be) can help support us on those arid decades. (Personally, I don't think I've ever had more than a surface thought on the Scourging at the Pillar, but the Transfiguration is a mystery I can get something out of.)

Number 28

If I were to sign a three-book contract with a Catholic publisher, one of the books I would deliver would be called The Prophet of the Rosary, a 50,000 word look at how the book of Isaiah prophesizes the mysteries of the Rosary. It's a catchy title, I think, but since the book of Isaiah prophesizes the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the book would practically write itself. (Although I've been known to miss a deadline or two.)

The easiest chapters would be those on the Sorrowful Mysteries, because the Fourth Song of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 52:13-53:12) is practically a recitation of the mysteries in poetic form. In fact, if you aren't overly concerned with matching up the lines of the poem with the most suitable mystery, the Fourth Servant Song is a ready-made poem for a Scriptural Rosary:

The Agony in the Garden

  1. Behold, my servant shall prosper,
  2. he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
  3. As many were astonished at him -
  4. his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
  5. and his form beyond that of the sons of men -
  6. so shall he startle many nations;
  7. kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
  8. for that which has not been told them they shall see,
  9. and that which they have not heard they shall understand.
  10. Who has believed what we have heard?
The Scourging at the Pillar
  1. And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
  2. For he grew up before him like a young plant,
  3. and like a root out of dry ground;
  4. he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him,
  5. and no beauty that we should desire him.
  6. He was despised and rejected by men;
  7. a man of sorrows,
  8. and acquainted with grief;
  9. and as one from whom men hide their faces
  10. he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
The Crowning with Thorns
  1. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
  2. yet we esteemed him stricken,
  3. smitten by God, and afflicted.
  4. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
  5. he was bruised for our iniquities;
  6. upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
  7. and with his stripes we are healed.
  8. All we like sheep have gone astray;
  9. we have turned every one to his own way;
  10. and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
The Carrying of the Cross
  1. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth;
  2. like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
  3. and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb,
  4. so he opened not his mouth.
  5. By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
  6. and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
  7. stricken for the transgression of my people?
  8. And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,
  9. although he had done no violence,
  10. and there was no deceit in his mouth.
The Crucifixion
  1. Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief;
  2. when he makes himself an offering for sin,
  3. he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days;
  4. the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand;
  5. he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied;
  6. by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous;
  7. and he shall bear their iniquities.
  8. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
  9. because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors;
  10. yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
As it happens, two other Servant Songs can be matched with two other set of mysteries -- Isaiah 42:1-4 with the Luminous Mysteries; Isaiah 49:1-6 with the Joyful Mysteries (as for the Glorious Mysteries, you could do worse than go with Isaiah 52:7-10) -- but these songs by themselves are too short to provide a full fifty lines for a Scriptural Rosary. Instead, an entire song can be recited (dare I propose chanted?) at the beginning of the Rosary, thereby invoking the past looking forward to the mysteries (just as our meditations today are the future looking back on the mysteries, making Jesus' life, death, and resurrection the central act of history).

Number 29

Some people are fortunate enough to live near a church or shrine that features a "Stations of the Rosary," with a depiction of a mystery at each station. It might be outside or inside, but the act of praying the Rosary in such a setting is a miniature pilgrimage, a symbolic journey to the Holy Land, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

If you don't leave near a Stations of the Rosary site, you're in luck! You can urge your local parish or shrine to build one, and it will (unlike all the rest) include the Luminous Mysteries.

Failing that, any quiet garden or peaceful trail may provide a brief Rosary pilgrimage. Traditionally, pilgrims prayed as they walked from shrine to shrine, then prayed all the more at the shrines themselves. Praying the Rosary while walking symbolizes the journey we are taking in this life, which in turn is modeled on the journey of Jesus. (It also gives the body more to do, which can cut down on distraction.) Praying the Rosary while standing or sitting during a walk symbolizes the time we must set aside in our journey to focus on God.

And, too, many people find it easier to sense God's presence when surrounded by plants than when surrounded by walls.

One idea, given a suitable path with spots to pause, is to pray the decades of the Rosary while standing or sitting, then while walking from pausing spot to pausing spot to pray the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God [and Son of Mary], have mercy on me, a sinner." I usually add the words in brackets anyway, but they seem particulary suitable for praying between decades.) But as should be obvious by now, everyone should use what works for them.

Number 30

The U.S. bishops, in their 1973 letter "Behold Your Mother," acknowledged the value of meditating on non-traditional mysteries while praying the Rosary. Perhaps the most popular of these were variations on the public life of Jesus, a subject that the laity of our times might have more interest in than did the laity of the Sixteenth Century.

Now that Pope John Paul II has recommended the Luminous Mysteries to the Church, what will happen to all the ad hoc mysteries out there? My guess is, to the extent they continue to be fruitful, they will continue to be used.

Had Rosarium Virginis Mariae not been released while I was composing this series, I would have recommended a Public Life of Jesus Rosary, meditating on the mysteries of the Baptism, the Temptation in the Desert, the Feeding of the Multitude, the Transfiguration, and the Entry into Jerusalem. No doubt if pressed I could have written a few words about what these mysteries have in common, but I selected them as more as highlights of Jesus' life than as a set of fundamentally related events.

To this extent, the Luminous Mysteries are more coherent. They consider "the person of Christ as the definitive revelation of God," as the Pope put it in his letter. I heard a homily recently in which the priest pointed out that they are all stories of transformation (water is transformed into something with sacramental power; water is transformed into wine; stony hearts are transformed into hearts of flesh; the appearance of Jesus is transformed into the appearance of the Son of God; bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ).

But there are still whole aspects of the Gospels that are not directly touched on by the Luminous Mysteries. The two that come to mind immediately are Jesus' parables and His miracles.

A Rosary of Miracles

  1. The Miracle at Cana (John 2:1-11)
  2. The Healing of the Paralyzed Man (Luke 5:17-26)
  3. Feeding the Five Thousand (John 6:1-15)
  4. The Healing of the Syrophoenician Woman's Daughter (Matthew 15:21-28)
  5. The Raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-44)

A Rosary of Parables

  1. The Parable of the Sower (Luke 8:4-15)
  2. The Parable of the Wicked Servant (Luke 12:42-48)
  3. The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Luke 14:16-24)
  4. The Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:3-7)
  5. The Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Luke 20:9-19)
These are not necessarily the optimal choices of miracles and parables for meditation, but any combination like the above -- supplemented by prayerful reading of the Gospel accounts -- will help to form a person into a more faithful disciple of Christ.

I think, by the way, that it would be better to select a particular set and stick with them, rather than mix and match as, so to speak, the spirit moves you. Although the entire premise of this series has been that there are countless legitimate and fruitful variations on the Rosary as a form of prayer and meditation, I find that repeated meditation on a limited number of themes over a period of time produces better fruit than meditation on constantly varying themes.

Number 31

St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort, one of history's greatest preachers of the Rosary, offers this advice:

Before beginning a decade, pause for a moment or two [and ask] for one of the virtues that shines forth most in this mystery or one of which you are in particular need.

Take great care to avoid the two pitfalls that most people fall into during the Rosary. The first is the danger of not asking for any graces at all, so that if some good people were asked their Rosary intention they would not know what to say. So, whenever you say your Rosary, be sure to ask for some special grace or virtue, or strength to overcome some sin.

The second fault commonly committed in saying the Rosary is to have no intention other than that of getting it over with as quickly as possible. [The Secret of the Rosary, 45th Rose]

Custom has not found people content, however, with asking for graces for themselves. Praying a Rosary for someone else is as Catholic as lighting a candle for them, and done under the same circumstances of ill health or ill fortune.

Whole generations of Catholics grew up with the idea of praying the Rosary for peace -- an idea that had been endorsed as recently as Rosarium Virginis Mariae last month, in which Pope John Paul II teaches:

The Rosary is by its nature a prayer for peace, since it consists in the contemplation of Christ, the Prince of Peace, the one who is "our peace" (Eph 2:14). Anyone who assimilates the mystery of Christ - and this is clearly the goal of the Rosary - learns the secret of peace and makes it his life's project.
When your Rosary intention is world peace, then, you become peaceful and a source of peace yourself.

But an intercessory Rosary need not be for something as grand as world peace, or even someone's health. Following St. Louis's suggestion to ask for a different grace at each decade, a different person (or a different need of the same person) can be prayed for at each decade. In this way, the Rosary becomes a prayer of charity toward others, and if the same general intentions are prayed for -- for example, your spouse or parents, children or siblings, parish, diocese, and whole Church -- as part of a daily Rosary, it becomes a habitual vehicle for holding those you are bound to pray for up to God for several minutes a day.