In a special way the mercy of God was on my mind this weekend. True, it being Divine Mercy Sunday influenced the direction of my thoughts. It seems that we never run out of ways to experience the mercy of God in our lives.
Recently a reader has asked me to reflect on the Rosary. It seems to me that Mercy Sunday is a good place to get that started. The Rosary is one of the ways that I have especially experienced God’s mercy in my life. While I anticipate a busy week at work, I thought it would be interesting to give you several short reflections on my experience of the power of the prayers of the rosary. Now that I'm committed to blogging this week, I'm putting the burden on you to keep me in your prayers.
The Rosary has held a special place in my experience as a Catholic. It was the Rosary in many ways that led me to the faith. Perhaps this is difficult to understand, especially perhaps for a non-Catholic observer. For me, before I came to the faith, it had to do with simply holding the beads in my hand or even wearing them over my heart.
I have to admit that in the very beginning I understood very little about the Rosary. The prayers were a mystery, and I had a hard time finding anyone who could explain it to me.
The start of it all was back in my undergraduate days at the University of North Texas, in Denton. It was North Texas State University back then. I was away from home for the first time and although I was naïve about many things, religion wasn’t one of them. I had schooled myself over the years on the various faith expressions of the world. Catholicism wasn’t where I saw myself heading at the time, but I had an open mind and was willing to learn more. At the time I had met a young woman—a girlfriend for a short while—who told me she was Catholic. Though I learned later that she neither practiced the faith nor was she able to answer my questions about it. However, she did have a nice-looking black rosary that she allowed me to borrow. She told me that each bead had its own particular prayer, but she knew none of them.
In my ignorance I decided to wear it like a necklace, which I still sometimes see young people doing. In the early 1980s it was something of a fashion statement to wear a rosary beads. I recall at that time stopping at a sandwich shop where many professors would gather for lunch. I was wearing my girlfriend’s rosary. One of the professors having lunch sitting near where I was told me, “I have one of those too, but I carry mine in my pocket." This was my first meeting of someone who over the next several years would be a mentor and friend to me, someone who would help make my journey to the Catholic faith an easier one for me—not necessarily in doctrinal terms but in associating the faith with someone who was willing to show me kindness and friendship, two important aspects of mercy in my personal estimation.
It was just holding the beads in my hand at first—having them close to me bodily, feeling the crucifix resting over my heart. It all seemed so natural; something that I could not explain was beginning to happen on a deep level. I never gave my girlfriend’s rosary back. I remember losing it at my late evening restaurant job where I worked washing dishes and was paid in cash daily. I offered to replace it but it wasn’t important to her. However, for me the loss of that rosary was something that I thought about for a long time. Because of my having that rosary for the time that I did—I am convinced—a series of events began to unfold in my life that led me to have a deeper longing for God. For one thing, this late-evening job was an act of mercy on someone's part. The boss was a man of faith, and though his prayers were private they were there...I just somehow know. Also, my coworkers in the kitchen, although they spoke no English, showed great kindness. Who knows what prayer has wrought?
It isn’t that I believe there is some magic about the beads themselves; however, as a sacramental they likely had been blessed. It has been my experience that prayers have a reach much farther than we are often able to comprehend. There is “just something about the beads” that is beyond the normal limits of reason. When individual personal faith, true faith in the power of God to communicate to us in any means that the human mind can imagine, is coupled with an object that over time has come to have universal significance as an object of faith, the mystical qualities of God have a doorway to enter into lives. What comes from allowing such qualities to grow is a beautiful reality that unfolds as our lives move through the many mansions that God has prepared for us.
The Rosary is something that over the years has added a significance that I can only describe as a “sweet presence.” It may be that at this time in my life God to make the Rosary a bigger part of my spirituality—I can’t say for sure. However, it’s something that has been on my mind, and something that a reader pointed out an interest in getting my take on.
God has shown us mercy unimaginable, perhaps ineffable, but I feel compelled somehow to find the words and images to express it. Join with me over the next few days as I explore my experiences, memories, and spiritual imaginings of the Rosary.
This is an amazing story, dd, and I look forward to hearing more. The rosary has only come back into my life in recent years, but I am so grateful that it has. I will keep you in my prayers during your busy week.
Posted by: Gabrielle | April 16, 2007 at 10:30 AM
These Rosary articles are heartening to read, DDW. Thank you for sharing with such love and reasonableness, for I know that Mary is quite a stumbling block to Protestants, yet She is their Mother, too, and these writings will help explain.
Friend Maria mentioned once how praying the five decades is like handing Him, via Mary, five loaves to bless with. That astounded me because with the first loaves, He blessed thousands.
Posted by: Carol | April 17, 2007 at 10:41 PM