The Rosary

This meditation was actually written in June. The Rosary and the Marian doctrines continue to be somewhat difficult for me to understand. I'm currently reading John Paul II's apostolic letter on the Rosary and finding it quite enlightening. Once when I was praying the Rosary I had this idea that I wasn't praying to Mary but with her as together we contemplated the life of Christ - in the apostolic letter Pope John Paul II seems to be saying much the same thing.

I just took a walk and prayed the Rosary – the Luminous Mysteries. I used the little booklet, “Scriptural Rosary”, which includes a meditation at the beginning of each mystery and a verse of Scripture between each Hail Mary.

Today it seemed a truer meditation than when I’ve prayed it before. As I meditated on the first mystery, The Baptism of Jesus, I thought about how the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. The Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Spirit marks us at our baptism. This is new to me. As a Baptist, my baptism was a symbol of what had already happened – an outward sign of the inward reality. I think so much of the time I’ve thought of Jesus more as God than as man. Teaching about Mary at Inquiry yesterday connected me more with his humanity. As a human, he was baptized. Even though he was God, something happened at his baptism. I was always taught that we are baptized out of obedience to Christ and that He was baptized to identify with us. Now I see there is more to baptism than meets the eye. The Catholic Church seems equally connected to both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus.

As I meditated on the second mystery, The Wedding at Cana, I thought about that miracle both as the first miracle and about Mary’s involvement. This is a secret miracle. The guests at the wedding were unaware of what had happened. I thought of the actual miracle – turning water into wine. I thought about the Eucharist, and the wine of the Passover Seder becoming the blood of Christ, and how none of that would have been possible without Mary’s obedience. I also thought about Mary’s words that we talked about at Inquiry last night, “Do whatever he tells you”.

The third mystery, The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, made me realize again the effect of Mary’s obedience – Jesus’ life. As he taught to crowds about love and loved the crowds, I realized anew that his very existence as a human being was dependent on Mary’s “yes”. I also saw Mary in that regard as the model disciple – her obedience released the Son of God into the world; our obedience should do the same thing. When we are obedient to Him he is alive again in the world through us, we ARE the Body of Christ.

I need to spend more time with the fourth mystery, The Transfiguration. This event has always been difficult for me to understand, which probably means it is packed full of meaning.

The last mystery is The Institution of the Eucharist. Here I was thinking of Passover Seders I’ve been to I the past – of the matzah and the wine and how there are traditionally four cups of wine at a seder. I thought of Jesus’ identification of his body with the matzah – pierced and marked with stripes as it is baked, unleavened. Jesus’ body was soon to be pierced and marked with stripes, and his life was without leaven (sin). He gives His presence to us in the bread and in the wine – this cup being the cup of redemption because He is our redemption.