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The October Rosary
In the Catholic Church, October is always dedicated to the prayer of the holy Rosary of Our Blessed Lady. This beautiful and ancient prayer is living and vibrant, changing over time – some of the prayers, for example, were dded long after the Rosary itself came into being; the Gloria was added three hundred years ago by St Louis de Montfort, while the ‘O My Jesus’ prayer was added at the request of Our Lady in Fatima just over one hundred years ago. And in our own time, we have been given an entirely new group of meditations upon which to pray, in the form of the Luminous Mysteries, added…
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Quiet Sanctity
Every morning before Mass, a small group of people in the parish gather and pray the Rosary together. In the stillness of the Church, their united voices call out with confidence to the Queen of Heaven as they think about the Mysteries which are being prayed, each Mystery a reflection from some episode from Scripture, usually from the Gospels. This morning Rosary is separate from the Mass which will shortly follow it, but it provides a beautiful lead-in to that Mass. It means that for those praying, they enter the Mass in a spirit of prayer, their souls and their minds quietened in order to listen a little better to…
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The Turn Of The Clock
Meteorologically, it is now autumn, even if officially we are still in the dying embers of summer. And it is at those turning points of any year that I tend to take a look back and review what has been happening since the last time I undertook such an endeavour. I find that as a general rule, my conclusions tend to be mixed. Spiritually, my devotions haven’t changed and nor do I foresee any major future change to these – aside from the Mass, the Rosary is the primary spiritual devotion and I am still using a variety of little meditation books as a way of gleaming as much spiritual…
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Stops Along The Way
It had been a wonderful day. Long, but wonderful. We’d gone from Manhattan to Coney Island by train – it was out of season but that didn’t matter. I just wanted to see the place (and especially the funfair) and to have one of the famous “Nathan’s” hotdogs on the Board Walk. Having done so, I spent ages walking about and taking photographs all over the place – but once I reached the bench you see pictured above, I had to sit down. Even on the very best of days, there comes a point where some ‘down time’ is required. Those moments of ‘down time’ are our stops along the…
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Rosary Meditations III
Here are some further brief meditations on the Mysteries of the holy Rosary. Each Mystery focuses on one brief line from Scripture as the starting point for meditation – the meditation is the soul of the Rosary, even as the words of the prayers are it’s body. It can only truly come to life when both parts are present. I hope you might find these simple meditations beneficial. The Sorrowful Mysteries The Agony in the Garden “Jesus..came forward and said to them – whom do you seek? They answered Him – Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them – I am He.” (Jn.18:4-5) Merciful Lord, how often we seek…
