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May 11

Help for the Rosary-challenged (like me)

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time with the Rosary. I am Rosary-challenged. But I recently reviewed four books that look at the Rosary from different perspectives, and I have to admit that I feel a little space opening up for this ancient prayer. I’m saying it more often and more effectively. I think.

So check out my story in Our Sunday Visitor, and then check out some or all of these great books. I’ll get you started here:

Four recent books offer different perspectives on ancient prayer for experts and novices alike

By Mary DeTurris Poust – OSV Newsweekly, 5/15/2011

When it comes to the Rosary, some people are like marathon champs.

They have no problem saying the words to familiar prayers and reflecting on the mysteries as they drive two hours on a busy highway with 18-wheelers buzzing by, as they take their morning power walk through the neighborhood, even as they wait in line at the grocery store or bank.

These long-distance prayers are able to enter into the beauty and mystery of the Rosary in ways that can confound many of us.

I have to admit that I’m Rosary-challenged. This traditional prayer that was so much a part of my childhood has always been a struggle for me. I’d try to pray at night and fall asleep. I’d kneel in our parish chapel, but before I knew it my mind was wandering and I’d lost count even with the beads there to prevent that.

Not that long ago, I bought a Rosary CD and tried to pray as I walked to church, but even then my thoughts could not find a place to rest. The Rosary seems to test the limits of my otherwise impressive multitasking skills.

So, when four different books on the Rosary arrived on my desk in recent months, I took it as a sign that it was time to give the Rosary another shot. Each of the books approaches this prayer from a different perspective, giving readers the opportunity to find a method that suits their spiritual style. Continue reading HERE.

May 6

Bring flowers of the fairest

Last night was May Crowning at our parish and Olivia, who made her First Communion last week, was chosen to be in the Queen’s Court. That means she and three other children from second grade were “attendants” to the two eighth-grade students who did the actual crowning of Mary. She was so thrilled to be chosen for this, to sit on the altar in a special spot, and to lead a decade of the Rosary with the Queen’s Court.

The service was really beautiful and a reminder to me of the many traditional rituals in our Church that must be preserved for all time because they are just too wonderful to lose or even to lessen in importance. Praying the Glorious Mysteries together, followed by Benediction, was a throw-back to my own childhood, when these types of services didn’t seem so rare.

As I always say, whenever I attend something like this, it’s amazing to me to see — and hear — how much people love to sing the old hymns and say the old prayers. There’s no hemming and hawing and wondering how the melody goes. Everyone joins in with enthusiasm. That’s not to say that old is always better, but old is often good and we shouldn’t forget that.