Spiritual Gift of the Week
We pray for the grace to live our baptismal promises with courage and faith.
We learn Jesus’ courage and baptismal faith when we pray the Rosary.
Spiritual Instruction of the Week
To contemplate Jesus’ life while praying the Rosary of Blessed Virgin Mary takes courage.
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Dear Beautiful Daughters of Mary,
“The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary’s side
as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth.
This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care,
until Christ is ‘fully formed’ in us” (RVM 16)
There is an old coming of age and heartwarming movie in which an adolescent boy confesses his sins to the priest. and the old fashioned, albeit authentic confessor, tells the young sinner to say a Rosary as his penance. The boy leaves the confessional not so bravely, saying to himself, “OH NO, not the ENTIRE Rosary.” It is truly one of the most touching and funny scenes in movie history—if only I could remember the title!
It takes courage to say the Rosary. To contemplate Jesus’ life, as the mysteries of the Rosary require, is most surely a holy—even heroic way of prayer. When we pray the Rosary, we see the life of Christ through the eyes of his mother. “The Rosary is a way to contemplate Christ with Mary,” John Paul II wrote, for “Mary is a model of contemplation.” It is a “compendium of the Gospel,” he tells us, and the mysteries we reflect upon are “Mary’s memories.” The Rosary is “a way not just to learn what Jesus taught—it is to learn Jesus…We pray to Christ with Mary…We proclaim Christ with Mary… We conform to Christ’s way—the way of mercy.” (RVM)
The Rosary is an old prayer—and yet—with one graced and innovative act— our contemporary need was met. By adding the “Luminous” to the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious meditations on the mystery of Christ’s life, John Paul the II, whose courage we witnessed repeatedly throughout his papacy, gives us a fresh look at the Rosary, in his apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae. The ENTIRE Rosary, up until 2002, did not tell the ENTIRE story of Christ. In RVM however we are introduced to the “mysteries of light,” the moments in Jesus’ public life when he manifests himself as ‘the light of the world’ (Jn9:5). The meditations on Christ who ‘lights’ the way, fill the ‘gap’ between the joyful childhood of Christ and his sorrowful passion. (RVM)
Luminous—lumen—means light. The luminous mysteries shed light on Christ who inaugurates the kingdom of his Father. The Baptism in the Jordan, which is our Gospel for this Sunday, is the first Luminous mystery. This meditation enlightens us, and guides us, as we follow Christ along the way. Our lives are filled with great joy, but also, with ups and downs, sins and sorrows. Reality is sometimes dark and cold. Our stories are not likely to become ‘heartwarming and funny’ movies. In his baptism however, Jesus made himself “light” to warm our hearts and light our paths—and through the grace of our Baptism, we become “his light” for others. We are called to be as “light on the lamp stand, so that those who enter may see the light,” (Luke 11:33) This for certain takes the prayer and courage the Rosary requires.
We begin a New Year by turning to this old prayer—our old prayer—the Rosary Be assured, we will find comfort in the repetitiveness of its prayers. We will also find the grace of ‘knowing’ Christ. The Rosary invites us into Christ’s life—entirely, illuminating, and consoling—for its mysteries are the memories of his courageous mother. It is my hope that we will renew our commitment. in her honor, to her memories—for we know that remembering movie titles is not what’s important.
Let us make this our New Year’s resolution—with courage, as her daughters—let us pray the Rosary…
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Pope Francis’ Prayer
from “ the Jubilee Year of Mercy”
You are the visible face of the invisible Father, of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy: let the Church be your visible face in the world, its Lord risen and glorified. You willed that your ministers would also be clothed in weakness in order that they may feel compassion for those in ignorance and error: let everyone who approaches them feel sought after, loved, and forgiven by God. Send your Spirit and consecrate every one of us with its anointing, so that the Jubilee of Mercy may be a year of grace from the Lord, and your Church, with renewed enthusiasm, may bring good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives and the oppressed and restore sight to the blind.
We ask this through the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy, you who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
Vieni, Spirito Santo, la misericordia di Dio ci salva—
Come Holy Spirit, it is by God’s mercy that we are saved,
Deb
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