Category: rosary

  • Sorrowful Mysteries of Virtue (repost)

    Sorrowful Mysteries of Virtue (repost)

    DURING THE SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE (ascesis, podvig, jihad) to acquire the virtues there are three opponents that must be defeated: the world, the flesh, and the devil. In the course of this battle, the self is also conquered, but it cannot be so until the other three are defeated. Of course none of these can be…

  • Kingdom Walking

    IT’S A NEW GAME TO PLAY with the whole holy family: Kingdom Walking. Get outside, walk your neighborhood, and pray. Use a rosary or read a litany, say the Jesus Psalter or the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Get a prayer rope and say the Jesus Prayer. Take on the Rule of 150 Beads if you want…

  • Victory or Rosary?

    TODAY IS THE FEAST OF Our Lady of Victory or, no, it’s the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Or the commemoration of the miracle at the Victory of Lepanto, or something. It is the evolution of this Feast that has me thinking this morning. How we talk of military victories and spiritual victories…

  • The Rosary: Closing Prayers & Suggestions

    When praying the Rosary, it is traditional to do one set of five mysteries (eg, The Joyous Mysteries) – also known as five decades – at a time, although another pious practice is to do three Mysteries a day as a minimum.  My personal practice is five decades a day, although I do not get…

  • The Rosary: The Coronation of the Blessed Virigin

    Our Lady’s coronation by her divine Son as Queen of Heaven is, in fact, the second coronation in the Rosary: the first being that of her Son, himself, by the Romans; but where the Virgin receives a crown of twelve stars from Jesus, he, at the hand of his fellow men, received a crown of…

  • The Rosary: Our Lady’s Death and Assumption

    Here, at last, is one place where the Romans and the Orthodox might differ in the Rosary – although as recently as the middle of the last century this was not so. When I was a freshman in High School I found at a used bookstore, a book on the Apparitions of Our Lady. It…

  • The Rosary: Pentecost

    The Mystery of Pentecost, the Out-Pouring of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles and all of Creation, is the beginning of the fruits of Christ’s actions among us. The Holy Ghost makes all of us divine if we will but let Him into our lives and reform, reshape, heal, cleanse, make whole what is shattered,…

  • The Rosary: The Ascension

    Our Lord’s Ascension is the first evidence that the “key has changed” as I noted in the last mystery: the Eastern liturgical texts speak of how amazed the Angels are at seeing one of our race of men entering into the Heavens.  The Psalm text, “Who is this king of glory?” is read as the angels…

  • The Rosary: The Resurrection

    As the Funeral Mass says, “For thy faithful people, O Lord, life is not ended, but changed.” This Mystery changes the key signature of the entire work. What went before – both joy and sorrow – now has meaning. What comes after now is possible – for it wasn’t at all possible before. I ascend…

  • The Rosary: Introduction to the Glorious Mysteries

    The Glorious Mysteries are the key to the entire Rosary. The rest of the Rosary is meaningless without these Mysteries.  Our Lord’s life and death are in vain without his Resurrection. St Paul, in fact, says the entirety of the Christian teaching is meaningless without this. Calling out again, the Catechism: 516 Christ’s whole earthly life –…

  • The Rosary: The Crucifixion

    The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery is perhaps one of the most visual images of our faith. Everyone seems to know what a cross is, and most people have seen an artistic rendering of Crucifixion.  The image below is form Giotto’s Life of Christ, as are many of the works used to illustrate this series. When we…

  • The Rosary: The Carrying of the Cross

    Christ carries the Cross.  It is at this point that his path has grown into full parallel with ours for we are each called “to take up your cross and follow” Christ. What is your cross?  You want to, I’m sure, look for some great thing to be your cross. Forgive me if I am projecting.…

  • The Rosary: The Crowning with Thorns

    The Crown of Thorns was of great interest to the Faithful of the Late Middle Ages.  This instrument of torture and mocking was as important as the scourging (perhaps in that it added to the number of drops of blood) and also as important as the cross: it was to house the Crown of Thorns…

  • The Rosary: The Scourging

    The Scourging of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Romans – at the command of Pilate – is a favourite visual image: it has more action than the Crucifixion and also more blood.  Movie makers love it: it’s gory and allows them to play others off Jesus as bad guys.  See how cruel the Romans…

  • The Rosary: The Garden of Gathsemene

    The Passion in the Garden is Jesus’ last “alone time” before the climax of his ministry.  He often went aside to pray, but, as it were, those might be considered “training prayers” for this one.  He experienced stress, certainly (as seen by the bloody sweat) and probably fear.  He asked his Father if there was…