Mysteries of the Rosary

The past year and a half I have become fairly diligent in my habit of daily praying the rosary. I started this in the fall of '07 when I was spending a lot of time in bed or in the bath trying to soothe morning sickness. As I was preparing to be a mother, I felt the Lord asking me to spend time with the rosary, and Mary truly has had a profound impact on my relationship with the Lord and how I understand the world.

It was while I was pregnant with Faustina that I taught myself how to pray the rosary; it had not been a part of my life before. I was quite happy with myself when I memorized prayers like the 'Hail Holy Queen', the St. Michael prayer, or other simple novena prayers to recite (not that they are very difficult!). My modus operandi during prayer times was reading scripture, offering my requests to God, and thanking him, much of this taking place in a conversational way. There, however, is a simplicity about reciting the rosary and traditional prayers that holds a wisdom and humility that is often beyond my understanding. I do not always need to be novel, creative, and independent in my prayer times. During sincere prayer times those qualities will often be present anyway. These traditional prayers, have been handed down through centuries; they are noble, pure, universal, straightfoward, and again what strikes me the most: simple.

Until recently, I have been happy with reciting the rosary and praying for an intention upon each decade. The past few weeks, though, I have added meditation on the mysteries. Tuesdays are the Sorrowful mysteries and I am astounded at how in such a simple prayer and reading of familiar Scripture, the Lord moves a person's heart and draws him to new understandings. Today as I read the Scriptures of Jesus being flogged, crowned with thorns, carrying the cross, a new wave of sorrow for my sinfulness washed over me. With this new awareness brings a humility, with this humility brings a more passionate desire to pray. And the cycle begins all over. But that is what life is all about: cycles. We are always changing as individuals. The only thing that is constant is change! Lord, let our cycles in life bring us closer to you in all that we do.