A little history of the Rosary…

Image via WikipediaIn the early centuries, the Church monks would recite the Psalms as part of their rule of life. However, this means only those who could read can do it. How about the illiterate brothers? Clearly there is a need for a simpler prayer for them. The Lord’s Prayer was adopted for this purpose; the brothers would recite 150 Our Fathers to correspond to the number of Psalms.

Small stones were used originally to count the prayers. Later, beads were strung as prayer counters. With the rise of widespread devotion to the Blessed Mother in the early second millennium, the Hail Mary gained popularity and was inserted into the prayer tradition.

The word rosary comes from Latin and means a garland of roses. Incidentally, the rose is one the flowers used to symbolize the Virgin Mary. The rosary is a devotion in honour of the Virgin Mary and it is a truly biblical form of prayer — after all, the prayers that comprise it come mainly from the Bible.

The rosary consists of a set number of specific prayers but they are NOT boring, uselessly repetitious, meaningless recitation of prayers. It is a form of meditation on the grace of God! It is the meditation on the scriptural based mysteries that gives the rosary its staying power. There are 5 Mysteries in each namely the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries. All these are explicitly scriptural except for the last 2 in the Glorious Mysteries - the Assumption and Coronation of Mary which are not explicitly stated in the Bible, but they are not contrary to it.

Pope John Paul II has proposed five new mysteries to be used during the saying of the Rosary known as the "mysteries of light" or the "luminous mysteries."

These mysteries are as follows:

1. The Baptism in the Jordan
2. The Wedding at Cana
3. The Proclamation of the Kingdom
4. The Transfiguration
5. The Institution of the Eucharist

Although the repeated Hail Mary is addressed directly to Mary, it is to Jesus that the act of love is ultimately directed. Far from being unbiblical, it is actually a beautiful scriptural way of praying that leads us closer to him. By reciting the Hail Mary throughout the rosary, we participate over and over again in the wonder-filled response of Gabriel and Elizabeth to the mystery of Christ. Bead after bead, we ask Mary to pray for us that we may be drawn closer to her Son.

And most of all, prayer after prayer, we affectionately speak the name of our Beloved at the very center of each Hail Mary: "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." The holy name of Jesus, repeated with tender love, is the heartbeat of the entire rosary.

Once you understand the essence of the rosary and you know that meditating the rosary will help you have an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Praying to Mother Mary?

Image via WikipediaOne the common allegation my Protestants friends have is that Catholics pray to Mary and some are even told that Catholics worship Mary (as God) and not God!

Perhaps, one of the hyms at Novena will clearly explained as in “Mother dearest, Mother Fairest” chorus:

“Mary help us, help we pray, Mary help us, help we pray,
Help us in all care and sorrow, Mary help us, help we pray”

Whenever I am asked if we pray and worship to Mary, I will always ask them to qualify what they meant by praying and worshipping? If they think that we worship Mary as God, then we don’t and that’s a fact. Mary is no God.

When we say we pray to Mary, it is really talking to her and requesting for her help to pray with us and for us to the Lord our God. Our worship of Mary is a simple remembrance and honoring of our Blessed Mother.

The common questions that follows is why not pray directly to God? But who says we are not? We pray directly to God and we ask Mother Mary to pray with us and for us. We send her our petitions and ask her to help intercede for us with her Son.

Jesus is the only only mediator between man and God (1 Tim. 2:5), but this in no way means we cannot or should not ask our fellow Christians to pray with us and for us (1 Tim. 2:1–4). It is not very different from praying for a friend or asking a friend to pray for us when we needed help.

The difference is Mother Mary is a Saint while we are sinners and her prayers will be much more powerful than ours. Not just Mother Mary but all the other Saints and Christians who are in heaven, who have already had their sanctification completed, for "the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects" (Jas. 5:16). And this has been proven effective for centuries and continues to be effective. Just attend the Novenas and hear for yourself.

What one need to understand is that all petitions and prayers that are answered are not granted by Mother Mary – she has no power to do so. Everything is granted by God. Mother Mary has cared for Jesus disciples for centuries and continues to do so. She has also helped and lead many people to her Son. Whenever she appears, she will instruct the people she appeared to to pray and to pray to her Son – Jesus.

As a result of her intercession, many people have come to know her love and more importantly, the love of God and she alone has converted more people that you can ever imagine. Yet, there are so many people who misunderstood her and do not give her the due respect that she deserved.