Category: rosary

  • A Different Rosary

    Watching the Song of Bernadette or the Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima I was often moved by crowds reciting the Rosary. Their whispered earnestness and the passion was carried through the screen: the prayer of the church through the ages. Holy Mary, Mother of God… I know these mid-20th Century religious melodramas are poor by today’s standards. But…

  • Here is Deep Water

    ✙ JMJ The Readings for the Memorial of Joachim and Anna, Grandparents of GodThursday in the 16th Week of Ordinary Time (B2) Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13 Matthew 13:10-17 Obstupescite, caeli, super hoc : et portae ejus, desolamini vehementer, dicit Dominus. Duo enim mala fecit populus meus : me derelinquerunt fontem aquae vivae, et foderunt sibi cisternas,…

  • Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary

    In preparation for the Consecration of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, this act of personal piety seems a good thing, indeed, a very good thing. 12 Day Preparation | Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary Day 1 Sep 4 Day 2 Sep 5 Day 3 Sep 6 Day 4 Sep 7 Day 5 Sep…

  • The Luminous Mysteries: the Broken Road

    Antiphon: God, bless the broken road that led me straight to you. In your baptism, O Christ, our God, you opened the pathway of initiation for us, into your Mysteries. I thank you for all who have moved me along this path, awkward and jerking though I have been. I’ve been on my way in…

  • Joyous Mysteries: Addiction

    The Angel came to Mary. Most of us won’t ever get there. But our conscience calls out to us. That comes from Latin works meaning “with knowledge” and St Paul says we have the law of God written in our hearts… When that voice calls out we can listen like Mary. It never calls us…

  • Dolorous Mysteries: Addiction

    When Christ is praying in the garden he faces the darkness. He knows the reality of sin, the hardness of the world. The fear is real. He is at rock bottom. Everything he thought he had, all that he is, all that he has said and done is over. There is only one way out.…

  • The Jesus Psalter

    I first heard of the Jesus Psalter reading Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson’s wonderful Come Rack, Come Rope, a love story set in the time of the Elizabethan Pogroms. It was also my first introduction to how those Pogroms were conducted – hunters, star courts, betrayals, simony, etc. Reading such a story can drive one to despair,…

  • Custodia Oculorum

    The Latin Phrase which was employed as the title of this article is translated as “Custody of the Eyes”.  It’s a quaint, perhaps Victorian-sounding, phrase to which I was introduced by a Priest in NYC who had once been an Benedictine at the Great House of Nashdom in the UK. He noticed me, please forgive…