When I was young, my mother converted to Catholicism. I was taken along and ended up in CCD classes. My maternal grandmother had also converted to Catholicism when she remarried in her forties. She became Dorothy Hall, wife of Joe Hall who was very Catholic. So, while I was baptized as an infant at a Methodist church, I did my religious formation at Holy Rosary Catholic Church. My mom was on the Council of Catholic Women and they made rosaries for the missionaries. She would sit at night and string plastic beads and tie French knots. It seems that every Catholic receives a rosary when they make their Confirmation, the sacrament that deepens our baptismal grace and binds us to the mission of Jesus (Acts 8:5-6; 14-17). I have always felt my confirmation completed my commitment to my Christian faith, a decision I skipped as a teenager but completed in my late thirties. And while my participation in the Catholic church waxes and wanes, my Catholic faith is resilient and steadfast. I recite the Nicene Creed when I pray the rosary instead of the shorter Apostle’s Creed that is the customary opening prayer. I do it because it is the foundation of what I believe. It is my anchor.
I love the rosary. It is a profoundly misunderstood act of prayer. Non-Catholics assume we are praying to Mary when what we are doing is petitioning Mary, the mother of our Lord, to pray for us. Much as I might ask you to pray for me. I find resonance in the knowledge that millions of humans over the last 1500 years, all over the planet, have prayed the rosary, petitioning the Blessed Mother for her assistance. And I find the repetition of the prayers peaceful. Unlike mindfulness practices, that propose emptying the mind of the self (which I find impossible – my mind is never empty or quiet), the rosary fills my mind with meditation on the mysteries of Christ. And if I mentally drift, the repetition of the prayers act like guard rails, drawing me back to God. Filling my mind with reverence.
Building a practice of praying the rosary cultivates a prayer life and leads to a more robust dependence on prayer. Prayer as praise. Prayer as lamentation. Prayer at petition. Prayer as supplication. At its core, the rosary reminds us that we are loved, we reside firmly in the Grace of the Lord, that we are sealed by the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are not alone.
I love the tapestry of being Catholic. That other people all over the planet recite the prayers I recite and know the Trinity as I do. We share a spiritual alphabet from which we communicate. And at the center of that faith is the Trinity, the Word and Communion.
