Praying The Rosary.

[Spem in alium]

[quote name='Tab'le Du'Bah-Rye' timestamp='1336534172' post='2428987']
i may be totally wrong but my take on the hail mary is the first part (hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee) is recognising the holy mother is above the angels and that they even hail her and so should we,this part is also the proper greeting to the holy mother. And the second part (blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus.), this part is recognising her place as co-redeemer and giving her that credit as well as her title as being blessed above all people,as well it is part of the proper greeting. The third part is intercessory where we ask for her intercession,(holy mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.) Pretty much what i mean when i do a hail mary i'm not praying to the holy mother i am saluting her authority as being above all creation,angels inclusive and than asking for her intercession. And when participating in the holy rosary i meditate on the mysteries,and offer to her my intentions and/or others and ask for her intercession at the beggining of the rosary after the sign of the cross. And i hear some people offer intentions at the beggining of every mystery which is good too. When i am meditating on the mysteries i am entering into the life of christ with the holy mother that i may have access to the holy spirit that he may counsel me in all things. Oh also somone gave me a form also that has the fruits of each mystery that can be meditated on as well, i didn't do so well at remembering all those on top of the gospels,but it did get me as to thinking what fruits are available to me in the holy rosary and i kind of make up my own stuff sometimes now and just have a quick thought about it before each mystery. Anyhow thats all just my experience of the holy rosary.

'O god whose only beggotten son by his life death and resurection has purchased us the rewards of eternal life, grant we beseech thee that by [u]meditating on the mysteries of the holy rosary[/u] we may both imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise through the same christ our lord. Amen'

Onward christian souls
JESUS is LORD
GOd is good , God is love, God saves.

JC "seek and you shall find." "knock and the door will be opened."
[/quote]

Thanks, Tab. I quite like your interpretations. Sometimes I offer my intentions at the beginning of the Rosary, and sometimes I offer a different intention at the beginning of each decade. But I always spend time in quiet prayer after I complete the Rosary.

[quote name='AveMariaPurissima' timestamp='1336596151' post='2429214']
I was going to use those examples!
[/quote]

They're quite good examples, I believe.

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1336606911' post='2429263']
there are some great reflections in an old prayer book of my mom's. i could post a few if you'd like?
[/quote]

If you don't mind doing so, that would be truly lovely. Thank you!

[AnneLine]

A very profound question, Spem in Alium...

One translation of the Magnificat is 'My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord..."

My soul leaps when I hear those words because I love the idea that Mary's entire essence -- her 'be-ing' -- proclaims' God's love. I see her her entire way of living her life for God is a way of believing, hoping and loving that is so radical that I cannot put it into words.

Mary freely and totally poured her being--body, mind, heart soul-- into the mission of the Trinity, willingly allowing the Trinity to achieve the Incarnation of Jesus in her body. In my mind, that is the ultimate act of faith, hope and charity....

If you have never used a 'scriptural rosary' you might want to try that -- it gives you a brief scripture passage to pray before each of the 'hail Mary' prayers -- and can make the scriptural connections with the mysteries come alive. Here is a link to one set (for the Joyful mysteries) -- there are lots of them out there..... including a number of sets printed as small books if you like to carry those with you ....

[url="http://www.ainglkiss.com/ros/jo.htm"]http://www.ainglkiss.com/ros/jo.htm[/url]

[Lil Red]

[u][b]The Joyful Mysteries[/b][/u]

[u]1. The Annunciation[/u]
Another day had begun in the little home of Nazareth - a quiet, co[i]o[/i]l March day. Mary would spend it as she had spent countless others, quietly working about the house. An ordinary girl, Mary, as the world judges; ordinary like the rest of the villagers, like Joseph ... Suddenly an angel was by her side: "Hail, full of grace!" An ordinary person would be rather disturbed by such a visitor, and by such a greeting. And Mary was! "She was troubled at his word." The angel had implied that Mary loved God with all her heart, soul, mind, strength; that she loved God enough to become His Mother.

Loving God wholeheartedly - like Mary, I was created to do just that - and being "ordinary" puts no barriers in my way!

[u]2. The Visitation[/u]
The Savior must have a mother worthy of Him; that is why God created Mary immaculate. His precursor, John the Baptist, should have credentials proportioned to his office; God would make his birth immaculate. That was one reason for the Mystery of the Visitation, though Mary did not know it. She greeted her aged cousin with warm affection, and at her words sanctifying grace poured into the soul of Elizabeth's unborn child.

Providence is not an atmospheric generality; it walks the earth. Mary's words were John's Providence. My family, my friends, my faith, my talents, my duties, my circumstances - these spell Providence, God's Will, for me.

[u]3. The Nativity[/u]
This is a Joyful Mystery, but not a comfortable one. The hilly, hundred-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was always tiring and often dangerous; and Mary was but a few days from childbirth when she made it. Bethlehem, King David's town, was host, seemingly, to all of David's descendants. The courtyard inn was prosperously overcrowded, with room for more; but no room for Mary. The best that Joseph could do for her was a dark, damp, ill-smelling cave. Drama there was none; they were just cold and tired, and at peace. And in this "God-forsaken place," God was born.

Some people call pleasant things "providential." Mary and Joseph thought everything was. Nothing is "God-forsaken"; everything God-foreseen. A truth for me to live by!

[u]4. The Presentation in the Temple[/u]
Mary and Joseph went unnoticed past the Doctors of the Law, seated in well-attended groups along the Temple colonnade. Professedly champions of the Law and Prophets, many of them peddled only the jots and tittles of a petty legalism. They preached the Chosen Race and ignored the Gentiles for whose sake the Race was chosen. Provincializing the Prophets, they had conjured up a Savior whose mission was revenge on Rome. That is why Mary and Joseph did not stop along the colonnade, but gave the Child Jesus into the arms of Simeon, a quiet old man with a world-vision.

A Catholic without "world vision" is a contradiction. "Catholic" means "world-wide." Prayer is a world-wide apostolate; can't I find the time for a daily Rosary for non-Catholics?

[u]5. The Finding of Jesus in the Temple[/u]
Mary and Joseph took their sorrow into the Temple. There they found Jesus. And that is why this is a joyful Mystery. They had come to their kinsfolk and acquaintances, sorrowing; and sorrowing they went away. They returned to the city, dumb with grief. A hundred inquiries and a hundred crushing disappointments; false leads and heavier hearts; kind suggestions and cruel failures, until they took their sorrow into the Temple, where they found Jesus and "rejoiced over the Lamb that was lost."

Worry, petty annoyances, discouragement, fear of the future - I'm no stranger to any of them. Jesus Christ wants to hear about them, to ease my mind. I'll find Him in the chapel, the tabernacle, in Communion.

[Lil Red]

[b][u]The Sorrowful Mysteries [/u][/b]

[u]1. The Agony in the Garden[/u]
Suffering did not come upon Christ unawares. In a very real sense, it had been on God's Mind from all eternity. The Virgin Mary had conceived a Victim. John hailed Him as the meek Lamb of God, destined for slaughter. Jesus Himself spoke often of His death; invited others to do what He was about to do-- "take up the Cross"; then deliberately went up to Jerusalem to His earthly doom. But when that long-awaited suffering was only a sunrise away, Jesus Christ fell upon His Face and bled at the thought of pain, and asked that the chalice be withheld.

To tremble at pain is Christlike. Suffering is not a good thing that merely appears evil. It is an evil, which human nature shrinks from - and grace can sanctify.

[u]2. The Scourging[/u]
Christ shrank from pain, but He did not refuse it. Late morning saw Him flung against a praetorium pillar, while the hired men of Rome, giant barbarians with the muscle and moral sense of wild beasts, wore themselves out whipping and lashing Jesus near to death. Every thump of the iron-weighted cords tore fresh red rents in His Flesh. Jesus, who the night before had turned wine to Blood, now shed that Blood like wine poured out. His Body is the chalice of His spilt-out Blood, the cup He no longer asks His Father to remove.

When we ask God to relieve our suffering, He sometimes answers our prayers with more wisdom by letting them continue. To accept pain as Jesus did, is to sanctify it - and myself.

[u]3. The Crowning with Thorns[/u]
While Jesus was being outraged in the praetorium, while the soldiers scoffed and Pharisees exulted, while the people called Christ's blood upon their heads, one man wept and wept. In a lonely corner of the city, or perhaps in the seclusion of Olivet, brokenhearted Peter cried his heart's blood out at the thought of what he had done to Jesus. How proud he had been that day a year ago when he said to Jesus, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter had been the first to confess Christ; now he was the first to deny Him. Like Judas, he might have gone out and hanged himself; instead, he went out and wept.

Judas was desperately sorry; Peter was humbly contrite. The heart of penance is repentance.

[u]4. The Carrying of the Cross[/u]
By God's command, the Mosaic Law summoned every Jewish man to the Holy City for the Passover. Simon, from faraway Cyrene, was only one poor, tired rustic among the two or three millions of pilgrims dutifully thronging to Jerusalem. By chance, he crossed the path of the soldiers leading Jesus to Calvary; by chance, Jesus fell to His knees just then; by chance, the guards caught sight of Simon and bullied him into service. Simon was taking part in the solemn ritual for which he had come - the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb.

It is characteristic of the cross that it comes to us "by chance," that is, not visibly from God. But it [i]is[/i] from God. When we suffer, we carry the Cross of Jesus Christ.

[u]5. The Crucifixion[/u]
For three hours, Satan contemplated his masterpiece, the dying Jesus. How easy it had been, after all! Years before, Satan had borne Jesus to the temple roof, and challenged Him: "Cast Thyself hence!" Jesus had overcome him with a refusal to presume upon His Father's power. Now, borne high on Calvary, Jesus is again challenged: "Cast Thyself hence! Come down from the cross!" He refuses, and Satan claims the victory. But then Jesus dies, and the centurion cries aloud: "This is God's Son"; the temple curtain is ripped in two, the dead rise from their graves, heaven's gates open wide, and Jesus triumphantly leads a repentant thief into Paradise.

Jesus' refusal to come down from the cross was His greatest victory over Satan. By accepting my life's crosses patiently, prayerfully, I overcome hell.

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='Spem in alium' timestamp='1336512248' post='2428842']
I just read it again. It's such a beautiful story! The part that really got me is when Elizabeth's child leaps in her womb, and she is filled with the Holy Spirit So profound.
[/quote]That is one of my faves since my first pregnancy, as my children have often "leapt" at the Consecration and/or Elevation.

[Lil Red]

[u][b]The Glorious Mysteries[/b][/u]

[u]1. The Resurrection[/u]
Jesus had a serene disregard for worldly renown. His birth had been obscure, His parents common folk. For many years He worked as a carpenter to support His widowed Mother. Though His miracles made Him a public figure, His "hard sayings" won Him the wrath of the hypocrites, who "in the hour of darkness" had their way with Him. On Calvary, He was surrounded by a jeering rabble, gloating that the self-styled King of the Jews was in His proper place - "with two other malefactors." But on Easter, there was no one with Him to rejoice at His Resurrection.

Jesus had many witnesses of His failures, but none at His crowning success. His loneliest moment was His triumphal resurrection. He was a success first of all before God - the only worthwhile success.

[u]2. The Ascension[/u]
Space and time are no obstacles to Christ's loving care for souls. When He ascended into heaven, He disappeared from the Apostles' sight; but they did not vanish from [i]His[/i] sight. Ages before the Son of God appeared among men as the divine Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd, the Light of the World, and the Way to Life, He had been in the bosom of the Father mercifully watching over the world He was to enter. "The fullness of time" that heralded His birth had been arranged by Him. His tender watchfulness for the world's welfare before His birth was but a shadow of the love He has borne us since His departure.

It is a doctrine of Faith that God cannot fail us; a doctrine, too, that we [i]can[/i] fail Him.

[u]3. The Descent of the Holy Ghost Upon the Apostles[/u]
Think of God's patience! Nothing disturbs Him, nothing provokes Him, nothing excites Him. He has been sinned against a million million times, yet only once, as a reminder that sin [i]does[/i] offend Him, did He flood the earth with the torrent of His wrath. Why is He so long-suffering? Because He sees us, not only as we are, [i]but as we shall be[/i]. God was patient with the ancient Jews because He saw them, as it were, already redeemed by Christ. He was patient with the dull-witted, blustery Apostles because, on Good Friday, Pentecost was before His eyes. And He is patient with me, and will be until I die, because He sees me already perfect in heaven.

In heaven, I will be perfect, and perfectly happy, forever. If that fact makes God patient with me, it should make [i]me[/i] patient with myself and with others.

[u]4. The Assumption[/u]
When you were assumed to heaven, Mary, two of your noblest virtues dissolved in the light of glory. Your faith melted into sight, hope blossomed into possession. But not until you reached heaven. While on earth, you lived the most perfect life of faith the world has ever known. You didn't [i]know[/i] Jesus was God. You [i]believed[/i] it, because an angel said it; and Jesus Himself said it; you took their [i]word[/i] for it. When you saw your Son dying on the cross, you did [i]not[/i] see the world being reconciled to God. You believed it, because Jesus had declared that, by His death, He would draw all things to Himself.

Mary, help me to live a "life of faith" - to believe, and to act accordingly.

[u]5. The Coronation[/u]
Mary had been given many wonderful privileges without any merit of her own; her Immaculate Conception, for example, and her initial fullness of grace. But her Coronation was not such a gift. She bought her heavenly glory with her earthly sufferings; the Cross had won her the crown. She is Queen of the Angels, because she is closer to God than they; but she is also Queen of Martyrs because she suffered more for God than all the martyrs together. The seven stars about her head are her Seven Sorrows, their splendor outshone only by her Son's glorious wounds.

Heaven suffers violence. I must suffer patiently now, and merit greater happiness in heaven; or I will suffer in Purgatory, with greater pain and no merit.

[Spem in alium]

[quote name='AnneLine' timestamp='1336661506' post='2429432']
A very profound question, Spem in Alium...

One translation of the Magnificat is 'My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord..."

My soul leaps when I hear those words because I love the idea that Mary's entire essence -- her 'be-ing' -- proclaims' God's love. I see her her entire way of living her life for God is a way of believing, hoping and loving that is so radical that I cannot put it into words.

Mary freely and totally poured her being--body, mind, heart soul-- into the mission of the Trinity, willingly allowing the Trinity to achieve the Incarnation of Jesus in her body. In my mind, that is the ultimate act of faith, hope and charity....

If you have never used a 'scriptural rosary' you might want to try that -- it gives you a brief scripture passage to pray before each of the 'hail Mary' prayers -- and can make the scriptural connections with the mysteries come alive. Here is a link to one set (for the Joyful mysteries) -- there are lots of them out there..... including a number of sets printed as small books if you like to carry those with you ....

[url="http://www.ainglkiss.com/ros/jo.htm"]http://www.ainglkiss.com/ros/jo.htm[/url]
[/quote]

Thanks, AnneLine The words of the Magnificat definitely are amazing. I hadn't really looked at the passage properly before I made this post. It really is such a beautiful piece of Scripture. And I honestly love what you said about Mary's entire essence proclaiming the Lord
Wow, yes. The connection with the Trinity is so beautiful! (Again, somehing I never noticed till now. So razzle dazzle!).
I have used a kind of Scripture Rosary booklet in the past, though it didn't give a verse for each bead but rather a Scripture reference for the decade. I used it more when I was just beginning to say the Rosary regularly, but now I've committed the Mysteries to memory and so don't need it as much. Though one like you mentioned might be useful in giving me more ideas for prayer.

[Spem in alium]

[quote name='Archaeology cat' timestamp='1336667110' post='2429454']
That is one of my faves since my first pregnancy, as my children have often "leapt" at the Consecration and/or Elevation.
[/quote]

That would be an absolutely amazing experience! Can definitely see why that verse is a favourite of yours

[Spem in alium]

To Lil Red: Thank you so much! Those explanations and prayers are so beautiful I particularly liked the Glorious Mysteries. Of all the Mysteries of the Rosary, I have the most have trouble with the Mysteries of the Assumption and Coronation of Mary. I struggle a bit with how to direct my prayer or thought in those parts, so I don't really like to pray the Glorious Mysteries too often. But the words you posted really opened my eyes and heart to the beauty of those events and Mysteries. I'll try and pray the Glorious Mysteries this weekend using your prayers and see if I can find it easier Thanks again!

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Spem in alium' timestamp='1336678633' post='2429516']
To Lil Red: Thank you so much! Those explanations and prayers are so beautiful I particularly liked the Glorious Mysteries. Of all the Mysteries of the Rosary, I have the most have trouble with the Mysteries of the Assumption and Coronation of Mary. I struggle a bit with how to direct my prayer or thought in those parts, so I don't really like to pray the Glorious Mysteries too often. But the words you posted really opened my eyes and heart to the beauty of those events and Mysteries. I'll try and pray the Glorious Mysteries this weekend using your prayers and see if I can find it easier Thanks again!
[/quote]

you're welcome. I also like to place myself in Mary's position for the Glorious, Sorrowful, and Luminous Mysteries especially - what was she thinking/feeling/doing - how was she reacting to what was happening?

[Spem in alium]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1336679755' post='2429525']
you're welcome. I also like to place myself in Mary's position for the Glorious, Sorrowful, and Luminous Mysteries especially - what was she thinking/feeling/doing - how was she reacting to what was happening?
[/quote]

That's a very good thing to do, I think Mary really is inspiring. I think it's sad that many people (including myself, once upon a time) don't realise that she is probably the greatest role model we have. To believe in God so utterly and accept His will so completely when the circumstances and explanations are so unclear and so lowly! Just astounds me
Elizabeth is a wonderful model too in the way she recognises the presence of the Lord. I think we can take a lot from her story and words.

I have a Theology paper coming up, and I'm planning to do it on the Visitation. Reading it several times has encouraged it to become one of my favourite Scripture passages. I like to pour passion and love for the text into my writing, so it seemed like a good fit

[Lil Red]

Today's reflection is something you might be interested in: http://oxyparadoxy.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-12-visitation.html

[Spem in alium]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1336854818' post='2430089']
Today's reflection is something you might be interested in: [url="http://oxyparadoxy.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-12-visitation.html"]http://oxyparadoxy.b...visitation.html[/url]
[/quote]

Oh, I love it! Thanks for the link