The Rosary Paradox

Status
Not open for further replies.
Since I’m a believer in Fatima, and a rosary pray-er, I find the spectacular, peaceful fall of the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall coming down, orchestrated by Reagan, JPII, and Gorbachev, a clear miracle, certainly the result of the rosary.
The whole point of having faith is to believe in what we cannot see but know to be certain. All I know is that Our Lady asked us to pray the Rosary daily, and well, for the conversion of sinners. It is not for me to know when, or how.
That said, I get impatient too at times. Come, Lord Jesus!
 
How about people share their aha moments in their meditation.

In the joyful mysteries - The finding of Jesus in the Temple - he was lost for 3 Days!!! Our holy mother must of been inconsolable on the first day can’t imagine how she felt on the 3rd day - quit obviously Luke included this story in the Gospel as a foretelling of the passion of Christ - lost for 3 day and then found. What about Jesus where was he at night was he alone in the temple and his loneliness for his mother and poor Joseph he would not of been able to console our Holy Mother and would of felt helpless.

Also in the Joyful mysteries after the angel visited her and Simon in the Temple Mary would of read Isaiah and would know her son was to be the suffering servant and she walked right up to the altar and offered her son to God. Now that is faith and obedience.

Anyone else?
 
Last edited:
I think looking at the First Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary reveals a lot about how God responds to our prayers. Jesus pleaded with God multiple times to find some other way of bringing about the salvation of humankind. The skeptic will point out that God did not answer Jesus’ prayer because He was still crucified. However, Jesus also showed humility saying that it’s not his will, but God’s will that should be done. You can look at this as Jesus having such a relationship with God (and why shouldn’t he since Jesus was God’s Son) that he understood that God’s plans lead to the ultimate good. When I meditate on the first sorrowful mystery, I often think that God did answer Jesus’ prayers by giving him the strength to endure the crucifixion. It teaches me that God answers our prayers in ways we may not always expect.
 
As a catechist, I learned about adding clauses, a single word or phrase after the name of Jesus in the Hail Mary while praying the Rosary. Word or phrase helps keep focus, and aids with meditations. St. John Paul II reminds us the Rosary is a Christocentric prayer.
The phrase I use for the First Sorrowful Mystery is “in the Garden.” Our Lord is in the Garden. He is praying. “The Spirit is willing, but the Flesh is weak.” God is in the Garden of my soul, tilling the soil, making whatever changes are necessary for me to bear more and better fruit. The Apostles were weak, unable to stay awake. There are many different ways that meditating “in the Garden” might take me while I am focused on my Saviour.
I have physically felt the weight lifted from my shoulders during the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery as I ask Mary to show me the “fruit of your womb, Jesus taking my Cross.”
As Scripture tells us, we are crucified with Christ, our meditation during the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery as our sins are forgiven. “Show me the fruit of your womb, Jesus crucified.”
 
In the Joyful Mysteries when Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. I was brought back to the time when I was pregnant with my first child and how it felt to first feel him move and I was overwhelmed with what it must have felt like for Elizabeth to have the child inside her leap for joy because of our Saviors presence.
 
OP is a little “over-analytical” about praying the Rosary

OBVM requested that we pray the Rosary

i pray the Rosary; it gives me peace & comfort
 
Last edited:
Limoncello4021 said:
Since I’m a believer in Fatima, and a rosary pray-er, I find the spectacular, peaceful fall of the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall coming down, orchestrated by Reagan, JPII, and Gorbachev, a clear miracle, certainly the result of the rosary.
Click to expand...
Communism hasn’t gone away . Our Lady said that Russia would spread their errors, and that is what has happened. While Russia itself seems to be espousing more Christian values, its not converted yet. And as Mary warned us - Russia has spread her errors of atheism, abortion and general Godlessness.
We are in great danger of the Third World War which would be of short duration and devastating . We need to pray the Rosary !
 
God can do anything.

That being said.

Prayer primarily changes us.

Don’t get trampled.
 
Somebody on the forum recently said about the Finding of Jesus in the Temple, “If you can’t find Jesus, look in the Temple - he’s there!” I hadn’t thought about that before. If you can’t find God in your life then try going to Church where Jesus always is, in the Blessed Sacrament. When I thought about it more I wondered why Mary and Joseph didn’t just immediately look in the Temple for their Son instead of hunting all over the place for 3 days, but then again they hadn’t fully realized his mission on behalf of God the Father yet. And often in our own lives we are “looking for God” everyplace but at church…trying to find God or enlightenment through material things or just through our own thought processes instead of going straight to Mass or Adoration.

Also, The Wedding at Cana really shows how Mary works as intercessor. Mary tells Jesus that the couple has no wine. Jesus at first sounds like He isn’t going to do anything about it saying “How is this my concern?” and “My hour has not yet come”. But Mary doesn’t even have to persuade him. He goes ahead and transforms water into awesome wine, because Mary asked him to. This definitely shows that Mary can have a powerful influence on Jesus, and it’s right there in the Bible, not anything that “we Catholics made up” about Mary.
 
Last edited:
DebCWil said:
As a catechist, I learned about adding clauses, a single word or phrase after the name of Jesus in the Hail Mary while praying the Rosary. Word or phrase helps keep focus, and aids with meditations.
Click to expand...
This is a great idea. I pray lots of Rosaries every week and am always looking for new and different ways to keep the prayer fresh and stay focused. I will watch videos, do meditations before each decade, do different Scriptural rosaries, etc. but all of those ways require me to be able to look at/ read something, so they don’t work in cases where I am saying a Rosary “on the go” (such as while driving). This way would work in the car. I will try this today on my daily Rosary.
 
For those interested, these are the words/phrases that I use while praying the rosary. When I first started, I wrote them on a 3x5 card.

Joyful mystery:
!st=Incarnate
2nd=Sanctifying
3rd=Incarnate
4th=Redeemer
5th=In the Temple

Luminous:
1st=Baptized
2nd=Providing
3rd=Messiah
4th=Transformed
5th=In the Eucharist

Sorrowful:
1st=In the Garden
2nd=Scourged
3rd=King of kings
4th=Taking my cross
5th=Crucified

Glorious:
1st= Resurrected
2nd=Lord of lords
3rd=Indwelling
4th=Raising us up
5th=Prince of Peace
 
From Divine Intimacy, a wonderful spiritual masterpiece in the fashion of Saints John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, the author Fr. Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen counsels us to go daily in search of the God Who conceals Himself within us.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top