Life is a Vocation: Part II

Some months ago, I offered a prayer challenge. This was more a challenge for myself than for anybody else. Though I speak very plainly about saying the Rosary or the Liturgy of the Hours, prayer does not come easily to me. From the outside, the rosary seems like a bunch of rote prayers. The Liturgy of the Hours seems like a bunch of page flipping. In the final analysis, the only way to get to heaven is to pray. So what makes up the difference when prayer does not come so easy to us?

I have recently been reading a fascinating book by Fr. Thomas Dubay entitled, “Happy Are You Poor.” In this book Fr. Dubay unveils what truly living the Gospel is about. He emphasizes our detachment from things, which is the meaning of Lent. He gives many wonderful examples of the saints, both married and religious. I hope to share more when I go back through this book again. He also makes the point that true joy is not a matter of sensual pleasure in finite experiences (eating, drinking, etc., etc.) It is a result of our detachment from the world and abiding in Christ. It is a call to live simply and to share with others not just out of our own abundance, but also out of our need. This may sound easy and simplistic. Jesus after all did say that the way was hard and the gate was narrow that leads to life. Prayer is the same way. The distractions of the world and our own sin keep us from being able to pray.

Where is Your Treasure?

When I make the investment of time to say the Liturgy of the Hours and or the Rosary, the more I want to be right with God. The more I want to be right with God, the more I want to go to confession. The more I want to go to confession, the more I want to attend Mass and receive my Lord and Savior in the Holy Eucharist. (Faith) Mass doesn’t seem as long as it used to because I am on God’s time. The more I am on God’s time, the more I want to be with Him for all eternity. (Hope)

A vocation is more than a career or job. Our responsibility to God and our neighbor should out-way any career or job. Pope Francis is showing by his example what it is to live the Gospel. (Love) Living the Gospel takes us out of our comfort zone. We cannot serve God and mammon.

Spiritual Renewal and Deep Reflection.

Lord Jesus Christ, increase in me the virtues of faith, hope and love, that I may ascend to you. Make me holy in Your time. May Christ be seen in everyone that I meet throughout this day until You, Lord Jesus, call me home.

Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, JESUS. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Christ Has Risen!

Ave Maria!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Jesus and Mary, protect and save the unborn!

Pope Francis washes the feet of young prisoners.

Life is a Vocation: Part I

The above video is from The Vatican YouTube channel. This was the first order of business for Pope Francis.

On Sunday, March 17, 2013 this blog, “The Rosary Board” will have completed its first year. Though this is a small testimony of my own faith and walk with the Lord, it has been worth the time and effort.

Either The Times are a Change’n . . . or We Are.

This has been a Lent like none other. With Pope Benedict XVI stepping down and the election of Pope Francis it is an exciting time to be Catholic. Pope Francis has already shown that evangelization begins at the feet of Our Lady. She is the one who brought us Jesus. She gave Jesus His humanity. The Mary's Creator humbles himself to be born of her. Perhaps we forget this young woman from Galilee whom God the Father chose to be the mother of our Savior.

I would like to quote the Gospel Canticle from the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel (1:46-55) and which is part of our evening (Vespers) prayer.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down them mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever. (The Liturgy of the Hours, According to the Roman Rite, Vol. II, . Catholic Book Publishing Corp. New York, 1976, 1066)

In this canticle, Mary is saying that her soul proclaims or magnifies the Lord. She says that her spirit rejoices in God her Savior. Why? Because God has looked on his lowly handmaid with high favor. The mother of our Lord says that from that very day all generations will call her blessed.

• Mary’s soul proclaims or magnifies the Lord.
• Mary’s spirit rejoices in God her Savior
• She does not elevate herself, but declares that she is the lowly handmaid of the Lord.
• Mary then proclaims the great works God has done in the following verses. These are the great works of the Lord that we also proclaim along with the Psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Now let us look at the “Our Father” prayer.

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed (holy) be Thy Name. . . ” Compare this to Mary’s prayer of praise; “. . . the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is His name.”

And finally,

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

The first two sentences are from the same chapter as our Gospel Canticle. The Hail Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord and she rejoices in God her Savior. It tells very plainly why all generations would call Mary blessed. Mary cooperates with the Divine plan. It is not only the fruit of her womb that is blessed, but Mary is blessed.

Perhaps you have heard that the rosary is “one prayer to the God the Father and ten prayers for Mary?” But is that what the rosary is all about? Obviously not!

From this perspective the Hail Mary

• Proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
• Proclaims the Divinity and the humanity of Jesus.
• Proclaims the great works of God.
• Proclaims God’s mercy . . . His strength . . . feeding of the hungry . . . and the fulfillment of the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel).

Mary will always point to her Son. She will always lead you to her Son, Jesus. The rosary does proclaim the Gospel at its very core. Do not neglect this very simple devotion. No spontaneous prayer can possibly come near the words of Our Lady proclaiming the greatness of the Lord! This was her vocation.

Ave Maria!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Jesus and Mary, Protect and Save the unborn.

The Power of a Simple Prayer

When we are facing the storms of persecution from an unbelieving world we can find the insight of a simple prayer all that supports us in our faith. Remember there was a time when there was no Bible. The first three hundred years of Christian history did not have the luxury of the fancy cross-referenced Study Bibles with maps and concordance we have grown accustomed too. There was only the Creed and the preaching of the Apostles and other ordained ministers. There was the Eucharist, baptism and receiving of the Holy Spirit (confirmation). The very authority in which Jesus gave the Apostles to forgive sins, heal the sick, raise the dead and turn bread and wine into His Body and Blood was what sustained a fledgling Church. This Church eventually conquered the greatest empire of their time. That Church soon after collected the known writings of the apostles and compiled what we know today as the Holy Bible made up of 74 individual books.

Today, that Church awaits the selection of a new leader. Be sure to pray for the Cardinals this week as they enter the Conclave at the Vatican. This is a very important time in the history of the Church. The prayer of the Church is powerful. It changes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. It changes us from sinners into saints. When we say the Apostles Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be, let us realize the power these prayers contain. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the ultimate prayer. We not only get to hear the Word of God, we literally take that Word of God in the Eucharist into ourselves.

Now, take Rosary in your hand. Every one of those beads has a prayer connected to it. Make each one of those prayers count! Any thought of “mindless repetition” will go out the window. In the Creed, we profess the very core of our faith. That very core is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the Our Father prayer, we make seven petitions; three to God and four for ourselves. In the following three beads we ascend to God by asking for an increase of faith, hope and love. Then we walk through the very heart of the Gospel message. We meditate on the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now you may say at this point that the Hail Mary prayer is quite repetitive. Try reading through the Psalms of the Old Testament. It is amazing how may calls for deliverance the psalmist makes. All the while the psalms contain the history of the nation of Israel and the mighty works of God in their midst. Think about the Psalms of the Old Covenant. Compare that to the Psalter of the New Covenant. It all comes to fulfillment in Christ. The “seed of the woman” from Genesis 3 crushes the head of the serpent! Such a simple prayer, but WOW the power it contains!

Ave Maria!

Praised Be Jesus Christ!

Jesus and Mary, protect and save the unborn!

Unity and Diversity in the Rosary

The Rosary Board at Sacred Heart Parish

In a past blog post I summarized and described different versions of the rosary. Now I will go into more detail on each version of the Seven Sorrows, The Franciscan Crown and the Brigettine rosaries.

The Seven Sorrows of Mary (The Servite Chaplet)

Names of this Devotion:

1. The Seven Sorrows of Mary
2. Servite Chaplet
3. The Seven Dolors Rosary
4. The Seven Swords

Religious Order: Order of the Servants of Mary or “Servites”

Date of the Devotion: 13^th Century

Beginning prayer: Act of Contrition

Mysteries for Reflection:

1. The Prophecy of Simeon (1 Our Father, 7 Hail Mary’s)
2. The Flight Into Egypt (1 Our Father, 7 Hail Mary’s)
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple (1 Our Father, 7 Hail Mary’s)
4. The Meeting on the Way of the Cross (1 Our Father, 7 Hail Mary’s)
5. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (1 Our Father, 7 Hail Mary’s)
6. The Body of Jesus is taken down from the Cross (1 Our Father, 7 Hail Mary’s)
7. The Burial of Jesus’ Body (1 Our Father, 7 Hail Mary’s)

The Seven Joys of Mary

Names of the Devotion:

1. The Franciscan Crown
2. Seraphic Rosary
3. Seven Joys of Mary

Religious Order: Franciscans

Date of Devotion: 1422

Mysteries for Meditation

1. The Annunciation (1 Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s)
2. The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth (1 Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s)
3. The Nativity (1 Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s)
4. The Adoration of the Magi (1 Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s)
5. The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple (1 Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s)
6. The Resurrection (1 Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s)
7. The Assumption and Coronation of Mary (1 Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s)

Add two Hail Mary’s for a total of 72 in honor of the years of Mary’s sojourn on earth.

Conclude: 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory Be (for the intentions of the Holy Father, the Pope).

The Franciscan, Dominicans and Servites appear in Church history about the same time. As you might notice, the reflections of each of these rosaries co-mingle. They are practically the “other side of the coin” and counterbalance each other. *

*Amato, Lucas J., Spiritual Meditations, Acta Publications, 2009, p. 31.

The Brigettine Rosary

Religious Order: Carmelites

This Rosary begins similarly to the Dominican Rosary with 1 Our Father and three Hail Marys. The 7 total Our Father prayers commemorate the 7 sorrows of Mary. The 63 Hail Marys in commemoration of the 63 years of Mary’s sojourn on earth. (There are two different traditions on the age of Mary; that of the Franciscan Order and that of the Carmelites). At the end of each decade is 1 Apostles Creed, instead of the Glory Be.

The six-decade rosary is worn on the Carmelite habit whereas the 15 decade rosary is worn on the Dominican habit. *

The Joyful Mysteries

1. The Immaculate Conception (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
2. The Annunciation (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
3. The Visitation (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
4. The Nativity (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
5. The Presentation of our Lord in the Temple (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
6. The Finding of Jesus in the Temple (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)

The Sorrowful Mysteries

1. The Agony in the Garden (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
2. The Scourging (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
3. The Crowning with Thorns (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
4. The Carrying of the Cross (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
5. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
6. Jesus is taken down from the Cross and placed in the arms of His Sorrowful Mother. (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)

The Glorious Mysteries

1. The Resurrection (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
2. The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
4. The Assumption of Mary into Heaven (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
5. The Crowning of Mary (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)
6. In honor of Mary’s Patronage, the Mediatrix of All Grace, and for Mary, Queen and Beauty of Carmel. (1 Our Father, 10 Haily Marys, 1 Apostles Creed)

These different versions of the Rosary compliment one another. In some cases they are the looking at the same mystery from a different viewpoint. It also gives us a greater appreciation of the many religious orders who devote their lives to the service of God. The devotions they handed on to the Church through the centuries are priceless and keep us always in the Truth.

If you have any questions or comments please leave a message below. Also if there are other facts and details that I did not mention please let me know. Let us learn about Jesus and His Blessed Mother together.

* http://www.newmanchaplets.com/articles/the-six-decade-rosary/

   http://8kidsandabusiness.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/the-brigittine-rosary/

Ave Maria!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Jesus and Mary, Protect and Save the Unborn!