The Rosary is extremely personal. It's neitherrobotic nor a matter of rattling beads. In fact,
you never have to use beads. This is because
there is a radar to use when praying the Rosary.
Yet, a set of Rosary beads can be an effective
sacramental. Concerning this, the only reason
why a priest blesses anything is to remove the
effects of original sin from the object blessed,
be it a set of Rosary beads or a school bus.
The Rosary is a very personable devotion. This is because Our Lady appropriates
her presence to the person praying the Rosary, provided that the person is engaged
in the heart of the Rosary prayer. The heart of the Rosary is that of meditating on
the life, death, and glory of Christ which happens to involve the Virgin Mary. Af-
ter all, she was there at his conception, at his birth, when he was found with the
doctors of temple, at his crucifixion, at his ascension into Heaven, and during the
Pentecost, as well as when he was being consecrated as an infant at the Temple.
These are simply events in the life of Jesus and/or Mary. They are the milestones
in the mystery of salvation, done in time and space, on this earth. In as much, the
Rosary consists in remembering, in pondering ... in realizing ... in believing ... in
contemplating on those events, Rosary devotion creates close distance friendship
between Mary and the devotee.
The Rosary is the act of doing two types of prayer simultaneously. One type is
Vocal Prayer. The other type is Meditative ... or Contemplative prayer. Contem-
plative Prayer is when you hitch a rid on God's wings and soar in your spiritual
faculties. This is why some people hate the Rosary. They are too lazy to try to
do both types of prayer simultaneously. Now, due to the effects of original sin,
dual prayer simultaneously takes some effort at the beginning.
The Rosary, at the beginning can be a workout. However, due to the fact that Our
Lady, and not some non-existent cosmic force, is actively involved, a beginning
will usually get graces of illumination when initially praying the Rosary. Howev-
er, eventually will come what is called the "Dry Period." That is simply the time
span when God lets you create space for added grace within your soul. This phrase
is equivalent to preparing a house for moving into it. It's during that time when you
are a space capsule trying to connect to the lunar module, in order to get back home.
Sometimes the dry period has been very long for certain people, such as St. Theresa
of Avila. The guaranteed trick to quickly ending the dry period is what is called
physical mortification. In today's world, such mortifications are called workouts.
Yes, if you want to quickly end the spiritual dry spell go do one of the following:
1} lift weights, 2} run faster than a snail's pace, 3} do callisthenics, including those
grass drills we did in pre-football-camp training, 4} engage in vigorous ice skating,
5} gymnastic training. Do the workouts where the phrase, "No Pain, No Gain" is
applicable. You would be surprised how sensitive with rapid cognisance you be-
come when combining physical exertion training with the Rosary or any Rosary-
like devotion. The blood circulates well, and the body's contour chisels-out to
a measure of attractability which sometimes can lead to trouble, if you're not in
control of your senses and someone else is not in control of hers/his.
The mysteries of the Rosary are differentiated into Joyous, Sorrowful, Illumina-
tive, and Glorious.
A person begins meditating on a mystery of salvation by praying an Our Father,
followed by Angelic Salutations, otherwise known as Hail Marys. At the end
of each mystery meditation, one prays the following:
My Jesus, forgive us our sins and save us from the Fires of Hell. Lead all souls
to Heaven, especially those most in need of your mercy.
If you are praying the vocal prayers of the Rosary at speed where your attention
are on the vocals, yet are not meditating on any mystery of the Rosary, you are
still praying, but you are not delving into the realm of Mary and the holy angels,
assimilating their characteristics, their cognition of things, and their attributes.
The Rosary shows that religion is the response to actual events which changed
lives. It is NOT a societal consensus that evolved through the years. The Re-
surrection of Christ is what made Catholicism, and not a ritualistic adaptation
to Roman culture. This is especially the case in light of the fact that Catholi-
cism began in the Middle East ... not in Rom\e. The papacy was in Antioch.
In fact, Saint Ignatius of Antioch first called the church of Christ the Catholic
Church in the Year 100. He would be martyred in Rome in 117 AD. Martyrs
were slowly conquering Rome. Rome was not conquering the church.
There are twenty designated mysteries of the Rosary in all. Before John Paul II,
there were fifteen. He added the Illuminative Mysteries and they make for valid
meditations. All in all, there are the Joyous Mysteries, the Illuminative ones, the
Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious ones.
John Paul referred to the Rosary as the Gospels in Miniature, being that the Rosary
meditations involve the events read in the Gospels. It commemorates the Gospels.
It helps you to perceive presences
