M-W-F Revolution and Rosary

Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t post any blogs over the weekend. Truthfully, I noticed I didn’t post any blogs over the weekend. But, there is a pretty good excuse why not. If you follow my blogs or if you have at least noticed the past few, then you are well aware that I haven’t been writing about anything in particular. I have mostly just written stuff that makes sense to me or my friends, which is fun, but short changes the rest of you out there. I find trying to come up with something new every day is difficult without becoming somewhat self-absorbed. Considering the fact that I don’t want to come across as too narcissistic, I have come to the conclusion that I have to cut back. So, beginning today, I will only be posting blogs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I shouldn’t say only, because there will be times where I will through a special entry in over a weekend or whatever, but primarily it will be M-W-F. Like a college course, except you don’t get create for reading my blog (too bad, that would be nice wouldn’t it). With the end of the semester coming up, I will have several papers and projects and exams that will need more of my attention. Thus, the blog will have to take a second seat where my time expenditure is concerned.

That all being said, I haven’t really planned anything else for the blog today. I guess I could fall back on an old standby…religion. I missed church today because I overslept and then had family plans. I have something similar to insomnia, but not quite that bad. It’s more or less a difficulty falling asleep when I should. So I didn’t fall asleep till almost 5 in the morning and woke up abruptly at 1 in the afternoon, missing an important meeting and on the verge of being late to get over to my parents house. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to make it to church I said a rosary and took some time out for reflection and prayer. There is a lot of misconception about the rosary, as with a lot of things in the Catholic Church, due to what I can only describe as misinformation perpetuated throughout the ages. So let us try to clear some of that up and learn something at the same time. Some of you are probably asking yourselves if I am so vain in my faith that I think everyone wants to learn about it. Well, you are mostly wrong. Though I am vain in my faith, which can be good or bad, I do not suppose that everyone wants to be Catholic or should be Catholic. There are many pathways to God, so I have said before. I actually got started writing about my faith because I have had several people who are very important to me, and not Catholic, ask me about things pertaining to Catholicism. Like, for instance, the importance of the rosary.

The word rosary refers to two things: the actual beads and the prayer itself. We'll talk about the beads first. A traditional rosary as it was when the practice first began contains fifteen decades (groups of ten) of, with an additional large bead before each decade, and a stem that has three beads proceeded and followed by one large bead and a crucifix (cross with the corpus of Christ) on the bottom. Today, however, most rosaries only have five decades because the practice of saying the rosary has been altered slightly. The beads can be made from a wide variety of materials, including wood, bone, glass, crushed flowers, semi-precious stones such as agate, jet, amber, or jasper, or precious materials including coral, rock crystal, gilded silver and gold. In the 19th and early 20th century they were sometimes made from the seeds of the "rosary pea" or "bead tree". Modern beads are most often glass, resin (plastic) or wood. Early rosaries were strung on strong thread, often silk, but modern ones are more often made as a series of chain-linked beads. A set of blessed Rosary Beads is a sacramental, which means it is something set apart or blessed by the Catholic Church to manifest the respect due to the Sacraments.

The Rosary as a prayer combines vocal prayer and meditation centered around sequences of reciting the Lord's Prayer followed by ten recitations of the Hail Mary prayer; and one recitation of Glory Be to the Father; one such sequence is known as a decade. A complete Rosary involves the completion of fifteen or twenty decades, as well as other prefatory and final prayers. Traditionally the Rosary was prayed in its entirety in one sitting; hence traditional rosaries have all fifteen decades. Today, the Rosary is usually prayed in three or four parts, one part each day, with the "Mysteries" (which are meditated or contemplated on during the prayers) being rotated daily. What distinguishes the Rosary from other forms of repetitive prayer is that, along with the vocal prayers, it includes a series of meditations. Each decade of the Rosary is said while meditating on one of the "Mysteries" of redemption. The recitation of the Rosary is traditionally dedicated to one of three sets of "Mysteries" to be said in sequence, one per night: the Joyful (sometimes Joyous) Mysteries; the Sorrowful Mysteries; and the Glorious Mysteries. Each of these three sets of Mysteries has within it five different themes to be meditated on, one for each decade. Pope John Paul II recommended an additional set called the Luminous Mysteries (or the "Mysteries of Light"). However, it should be noted that the Luminous Mysteries, like all the mysteries, are optional. Catholic faithful who prefer the original fifteen mysteries point to the belief that the Rosary is Mary's Psalter, containing 150 Hail Marys in its body for the 150 Psalms. In addition to meditating upon the events of the mysteries, many people associate certain virtues, or fruits, with each mystery. (The following list of mysteries and the fruits associated with them corresponds to moments in the life, passion, and death of Jesus and Mary's participation in them chronologically.) The parts of the mysteries are as follows:

Joyful Mysteries
1. The Annunciation. Fruit of the Mystery: Humility
2. The Visitation. Fruit of the Mystery: Love of Neighbor
3. The Nativity. Fruit of the Mystery: Poverty
4. The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Fruit of the Mystery: Obedience
5. The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. Fruit of the Mystery: Joy in Finding Jesus

Luminous Mysteries
1. The Baptism of Jesus. Fruit of the Mystery: Openness to the Holy Spirit
2. The Wedding at Cana. Fruit of the Mystery: To Jesus through Mary
3. Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Fruit of the Mystery: Repentance and Trust in God
4. The Transfiguration. Fruit of the Mystery: Desire for Holiness
5. The Institution of the Eucharist. Fruit of the Mystery: Adoration

Sorrowful Mysteries
1. The Agony in the Garden. Fruit of the Mystery: Sorrow for Sin
2. The Scourging at the Pillar. Fruit of the Mystery: Purity
3. The Crowning with Thorns. Fruit of the Mystery: Courage
4. The Carrying of the Cross. Fruit of the Mystery: Patience
5. The Crucifixion. Fruit of the Mystery: Perseverance

The Glorious Mysteries
1. The Resurrection. Fruit of the Mystery: Faith
2. The Ascension. Fruit of the Mystery: Hope
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit. Fruit of the Mystery: Love of God
4. The Assumption of Mary. Fruit of the Mystery: Grace of a Happy Death
5. The Coronation of Blessed Virgin Mary. Fruit of the Mystery: Trust in Mary's Intercession

* The days of recitation when including the Luminous Mysteries: The Joyful Mysteries are recited on Mondays and Saturdays; The Luminous are recited on Thursdays; The Sorrowful Mysteries, on Tuesdays and Fridays; The Glorious Mysteries, on Wednesdays and Sundays. The days of recitation without the Luminous Mysteries: The Joyful Mysteries, on Mondays and Thursdays, and Sundays from Advent to Lent; The Sorrowful Mysteries, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Sundays in Lent until Palm Sunday; The Glorious, on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from Easter to Advent. For those who use the traditional Catholic calendar, the Sorrowful Mysteries are also said on the three pre-Lenten Sundays.

I am not going to get into the history of the rosary with this blog because it is long and tedious, like most traditions in the Catholic Church. I am also not going to get into the other forms of the rosary (chaplets, single decades, rings) because I don't know many who use them as much as they use the Rosary itself. I will say that the rosary is not used for worship of Mary or prayer to Mary, but rather pleading for the intercession of Mary on our behalf or the behalf of others. We never pray directly to Mary as we would to Jesus or God, but we ask that she pray for use. If you actually listen to the words of the Hail Mary you will hear it plainly…we praise her greatness and ask her to pray for us. I pray the Rosary for special occasions (my brother's wedding, when I got my job) and for sad occasions (funerals, illness). Every time I pray the rosary I pray for you. I pray for those whose lives I have touched and whose lives have touched mine.