The Rosary: Prayer for Thinking Christians

By Ray Wilson

The very title, "The ROSARY: Prayer for Thinking Christians" (Nihil Obstat: Diocese of Springfield, MA) directly challenges skeptics by contending that the Rosary with its repetitive prayer is for "thinking Christians." It begins with an eyebrow-raising report of a message spoken to a lone highway driver and then miraculously confirmed. The startling report does pass the "credibility test" of the Nihil Obstat censor and well-educated cover endorsers (Bud Macfarlane, Jr., MI, founder of the Mary Foundation and best-selling Catholic novelist; John Cahalane, Ph.D., Catholic educator, writer, and lecturer) as well as the Foreword writer (Fr. Gerald Mendoza, O.P.). The story moves on and the car is replaced by the distinctly separate vehicles of meditation and contemplation (clearly defined), not merely for the journey in reading the book, but for making every Rosary spoken henceforth an exciting intellectual and spiritual journey into the "Sacred Mysteries," twenty events in the life of Jesus Christ.
Reason and Faith combine in "reasoning faith" for a journey of mind and soul which death does not separate. It is a journey taken long ago by faith-filled people along paths traveled by the God of the Living, not of the dead. The events were real, and the people still are, granted life eternal, in the eternal kingdom, present not just "now and forever," but forever and now! As the apostles were granted a glimpse into the Kingdom in the sacred mystery of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, the Rosary offers such a glimpse today, not only once, but repetitively.
This book is not long, and reveals the Rosary to be a flexible itinerary which encourages side trips by the traveler, broadening and enriching the visit in each mystery event according to the traveler's own individual need. The Rosary beads keep the count, the repetition maintains the focus, and the Spirit escorts a freed will and exploring intellect.
Chapter One –“Why”– captivates interest with a true adventure and miracle experienced by the author. This chapter also frames the nagging and often vexing question of how repetitive prayer structured around a physical memory device can support “thinking” prayer and rational faith. The secret revealed here is that it does, and the “how” will be revealed by a writer who himself lived with such reservations for many decades, i.e., as a devoted Catholic not appreciating the Rosary’s full devotional value.
Chapter One-and-a-Half –“What”– is a mere primer for those unfamiliar with the mechanics of the Rosary. It is optional reading, included for readers to read or bypass according to need.
Chapter Two –“Prayer”– explains how meditative and contemplative prayer following the paths of the Rosary through the events of Christ’s earthly life bring the reader to full intellectual and spiritual communion with God. Organization around repetitive formal prayer provides structure which facilitates freedom of thought to travel to the limits of possibilities and return to the central thread that is Christ’s walk among us. It is meaningful repetition rather than the “vain repetition” chastised by Christ.
Chapter Three –“Praying the Rosary”– is the heart of the book, the guide to understanding the circumstances and essence of each of the twenty mysteries
Chapter Four –“Formal Rosary Prayer"– provides express language for group prayer, with actual scripts for leaders to read aloud, introducing each section and mystery of the Rosary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ray Wilson
• Release date: Jan 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9780966013511

Book preview

Copyright 2011 by Ray Wilson

Published by CognaBooks, Austin Texas

ISBN 978-0-9660135-1-1

Nihil Obstat: Diocese of Springfirld, Massachusetts

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE of CONTENTS

Book Cover

Foreword by Fr. Gerald Mendoza, O.P.

Chapter One: WHY

1. Why the BOOK

2. Why YOU

3. Why ME

Chapter One-And-A-Half: WHAT

(A fundamental primer on the Rosary)

1. Basic Structure of the Rosary

2. Sequence of the Rosary

(a) Opening

(b) Mystery Meditation

(c) Closing

3. Contemplative Interjections

Chapter Two: PRAYER

The Sign of the Cross in Catholic Prayer

Perspective on Amen

Heaping up empty phrases

Meditation & Contemplation

Chapter Three: PRAYING THE ROSARY

I. Opening Prayers

Sign of the Cross, Creed, Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary Triplet,

Glory be Doxology, Fatima Prayer

II. The Sacred Mysteries

Joyful Mysteries

Incarnation of Jesus Christ, Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth

Nativity in Bethlehem, Presentation in the Temple,

Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple

Sorrowful Mysteries

Agony in the Garden, Scourging at the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns,

Jesus Bearing the Cross, Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

Glorious Mysteries

Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus' Ascension into Heaven,

Descent of the Holy Spirit, Assumption of Mary Into Heaven,

Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven

Luminous Mysteries

Baptism of Jesus, Miracle at the Wedding in Cana,

Jesus' Proclamations of the Kingdom of God, Transfiguration of Jesus Christ,

Institution of the Eucharist

III. Closing Prayers

Hail, Holy Queen, Sign of the Cross

Chapter Four: GROUP PRAYING THE ROSARY

I. Group Recitation - Opening

II. Group Recitation - Mysteries

Joyful Mysteries

Sorrowful Mysteries

Glorious Mysteries

Luminous Mysteries

III. Group Recitation - Closing

Appendix: ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GO TO TOP OF THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Fr. Gerald J. Mendoza, O.P

Contents

Through the centuries, a special bond was established between the Rosary and the Order of St. Dominic. It is a Dominican, Jacques Sprenger (1436 1496), to whom is attributed the division of the mysteries into joyful, sorrowful and glorious events, which has rhythmically supported the piety of five-plus centuries.

This fundamental practice of faith among the Dominicans was no less fundamental to the rigorous intellectual life of the Dominican Order. Since St. Dominic himself insisted that spiritual formation is essential to intellectual formation, academic study was situated within a religious community shaped by a common life, liturgical prayer, modified monastic observance, a democratic form of government, and fraternal charity. The Dominican, St. Thomas Aquinas completed this vision, reconciling faith and reason in Summa Theologica, sharpening the speculative quest for truth within a broad Aristotelian framework and marked by a respect for scientific method, freedom of inquiry, broadness of scope, precision of concepts, and largeness of spirit.

This is to say that the Dominicans—among whom I am gladly counted—have always understood and promoted the idea that faith and reason are not mutually exclusive; in fact they are, of necessity, mutually inclusive for thinking Christians. Accordingly, it was with this Domincan mind set, that I appreciated the implications of the title of this book when I first took it in my hands: THE ROSARY: Prayer for Thinking Christians.

And not prayer available only to thinking Catholics – though such a prominently recognized Catholic tradition – but prayer for thinking Christians... Centuries of Christians of all stripes have had a particular and unique reverence for the Rosary. While traditionally a Catholic devotion, the praying of the Rosary has been happily gaining acceptance among Protestant Christians who recognize it for the Christological prayer that it is. Jesus is the center, focus and fulcrum of the Rosary and it is primarily biblical and creedal in nature as evidenced by the various prayers of the devotion: the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father (or Lord’s Prayer), the Hail Mary, the Glory be…, and Fatima Prayer.

For the skeptic, The Rosary: Prayer for Thinking Christians, offers a Pascalian challenge: pray it and measure the spiritual results. It is not a prayer of blind faith but an invitation to a spiritual practice that helps us to spiritually, meditatively and intellectually enter into historical truths that have shaped and formed Western civilization. As Ray Wilson, the author, notes:

Meditation is the deliberate application of our intelligence, beginning with focus on the meaning of our words as we speak them (so they are not the empty phrases Jesus scorned). It also means awareness of the context (the events) in which they arose, and thoughtfulness about their logical extensions and implications for us in our own lives.

Both Catholics and non-Catholics, as they learn more about the Rosary and make more frequent use of it, come to see how its meditations bring to mind the sweet fragrance not only of the Mother of God, but of Christ himself. Catholics pray the Rosary as do Lutherans, Anglicans and many in the emerging church movement are finding the solace and faith building aspects of this devotion. Recent news of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan requesting rosaries, despite being non-Catholics, has peaked interest in the devotion in the U.S. and elsewhere. Here is what some non-Catholics have to say:

Pray as you can, John Chapman used to say, not as you can’t. We can rest on the Rosary as a climber rests on his fixed rope--it’s safe to dangle as long as the rope is anchored in the rock. (Carol Zaleski, Foolish Prayer," Christian Century, Feb. 22, 2003.)

…the Rosary, more than a prayer of words, is a contemplation of the mystery. Certainly today's sensibility and quest is primarily to rediscover a place where the heart rests, where the soul contemplates the mysteries of God and also the ways in which this is possible. We, in our traditions, must rediscover the equivalent ways.—(Stephan Tobler, Reformed Evangelical theologian, University of Tübingen Germany)

And the eminently Catholic, St. Louis:

If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins 'you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory.'…sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if—and mark well what I say—if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins. (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, 16th Century)

Thus it is with great, devotion to the recitation of the Rosary and with great humility and thankfulness for the invitation to write the foreword to this small but wonderful little book, that I commend to you, the thinking Christian, THE ROSARY: Prayer for Thinking Christians.

Fr. Gerald J. Mendoza, O.P

November 21, 2010,

Solemnity of Christ the King

Chapter One

WHY

Contents

1. WHY I've Written This Book:

As I drove west on the Mohawk Trail out of Greenfield, Massachusetts, I was privately rehashing a mild debate with my Pastor and friends about the Rosary. Alone in the car (or at least thinking I was alone) as I took the ramp onto U.S. 91 toward Springfield, I could hardly expect that someone else would soon join in the discussion…

Neither my wife nor I grew up with what might be called a Catholic view of the Rosary. Although both baptized as infants into the Roman Catholic faith, neither of us fit the popular term Cradle Catholic because both our cradles were fashioned and rocked by Protestant hands. Coincidently, we were each raised by Protestant mothers and non-practicing Catholic fathers fulfilling promises they were obliged to make in exchange for a church wedding. These were definitely not parents to teach their children unquestioning compliance to Catholic traditions, customs or instruction. Events and decisions in our individual lives did lead us each to fully embrace the faith before we even met but, even after three decades together, the Rosary remained an exception to our otherwise enthusiastic Catholic practice.

We saw it only as a way to affirm to ourselves and to God our willingness to make uncomfortable effort, either as penance or to give leverage to our petition for something we wanted. We prayed the Rosary on occasion despite very serious intellectual doubts, not in blind faith, but because we saw the Church as the best guide we could ever find to things that were beyond our present sight. The Church said the Rosary was good; so we did the Rosary. Still, that never erased our doubts, nor kept me from expressing them openly—an attribute instilled in me by my loving and very Protestant mother.

It was such expression of doubt the night before this fateful car trip which was setting me up for enlightenment as I settled into the travel lane. I was uncomfortably reflecting on some of the things I had said in the debate, probably because I was simply wrong, most especially in using scripture out of context. For one thing, the Rosary involves repetitive prayer, so I had quoted the Bible proscription against vain repetition—conveniently overlooking the fact that the very presence of the adjective suggests that all repetition is not necessarily vain. I had also complained about group recitations in a perfect cadence, betraying the absence of any understanding of even the simple meaning of the words. That can be a real issue, but it certainly was not true of the thoughtful people in that room who regularly met in devout Rosary prayer. Thinking about that as I drove, in belated consideration of their personal feelings, I regretted saying that.

Then and there in the car, likely in ego-based self defense, I came up with one of those I-shoulda-saids, this one about losing track of where we are in the sequence of repeat prayers. In a Rosary, we repeat decades of Hail Marys as we meditate on certain sacred mysteries (specific events) in the life of Christ, our fingers moving over the beads to keep count. Thus, we do keep track of where we are in terms of the quantity of prayer behind and before us, but many of us easily forget which mystery we're commemorating in each decade—often by the second or third bead. Now, in this on-the-road re-run, I had come up with a genuine issue, but there was no one to hear it—or so I thought…

Very abruptly, words spoke clearly to my mind as if in rebuttal. Maybe it wasn't such an odd thing, since I was recreating a conversation—but these words were very clear:

"In the 'Hail Marys' of the first decade, end the first verse with '... blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus, incarnate.'

"In the second decade, end the first verse with '... Jesus, who sanctifies.'

"In the third decade, end with '... Jesus, born in poverty.'

And simply continue in this manner, adding after the name of Jesus in each 'Hail Mary', words which reflect the current mystery.

Realizing the potential effectiveness for keeping track of the focal mystery of each decade, I was very, very impressed with myself. Of course, I was giving myself full credit for thinking of these things.

That night, I picked up a book I had never read, one written 250 years before by Saint Louis De Montfort, and I saw these words:

"... add a word or two to each Hail Mary (depending upon the decade) and this will help remind us of which mystery we are commemorating. This word or words should be added after the word 'Jesus' ...:

"At the 1st Decade .... 'Jesus incarnate';

"At the 2nd Decade .... 'Jesus sanctifying';

At the 3rd Decade .... 'Jesus born in poverty....'

(De Montfort, Saint Louis. [16th Century] The Secret of the Rosary. Translator:

Mary Barbour. Montfort Publications. Bay Shore, NY:1965. Page 117)

Coincidence?