I started praying the rosary daily back about 30 years now. It all started when taking care of my elderly mom I was in St. Joseph hospital killing time waiting for them to get my mom ready to take home. I bumped into Fr. Cassidy the hospital Chaplin and said “Hi, Father, just killing time till I can take my mom home”. He said , “Go in the chapel and pray the beads”. Good idea, I thought, so been doing it on a daily basis ever since.
Over the years I have refined the procedure. First thing I found out is daily prayer is a lot like physical exorcise. When you first start it, its tough. You really don’t look foreword to it but as the weeks melt into months you realize you can not finish the day with out it. I began to tell distance by it. For a while I was constantly adding an Our Father, Hail, Mary, and glory be for special intentions after I finished the rosary along with some other prayers. St. Paragrine prayer for all the sick, then also for the sick St. Roche with, what I call the trinity of prayers, the Our Father, Hail Mary, and glory be. Next comes St. Dypthnia intercession for all those suffering emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Next the prayer trinity to St. Francis for my pets and the pets of friends to keep them safe, then the faithful departed and poor souls in purgatory. After that, 3 people I gave the green scapular to for conversion, here I say the conversion prayer 3 times once for each person then a trinity of prayer for their health thru the green scapular. That is followed by the trinity again to St. John Vianny for all good priests and religious especially the SSPX and their protection and for the conversion of Leo to the Catholic faith. Then St. Joseph for the protections of certain family’s I know, a trinity to a friend who worries about her daughters faith. Now the holy family for the conversion of my sisters and their families to the traditional faith. This is followed by more trinity of prayer first to St. Ann for the end of abortion and to soften the hearts of Catholic politicians supporting abortion and the forgiveness of their sins. Another trinity to Saints Monica, Augustine, and Thomas Aquanis for purity, then to St. Mary Magdeline to help women caught in the porn industry that they may realize how hazzardous it is for their health of body, soul, and mind, especially the younger ones who don’t know any better. Finally St. Vincent DePaul to help the poor, St. Padre Pio for protection and guidance, a memorie to our Lady asking forgiveness and strength and finally an Angelus for all cancer patients.
With the last sign of the cross I know I have walked 2 1/2 miles exactly. This comes in handy when its 10 degrees out and I have to get my exercise by laps in my basement. I think they said Mother Theresa used to measure distance by rosary decades.
The rosary has also touched lives for both good and bad. One instance I was walking by a nursing home. Again the corpus is 3″ x 2″ so you can see me coming a mile down the street. One of the neighbors had a grandfather dieting in one of the rooms. Anyone with elderly parents probably know the ritual. You can spend their last hours with them in the hospital room. When they saw me coming they decided to pray the rosary together as a family. Grandpa lasted all the way until the last sign of the cross when he passed on.
People when seeing me with the rosary will ask questions about the faith. When I tell them I am a TLM Catholic they looked shocked. “I didn’t know they still had that?” Cleaver Vatican II marketing I think. I told them yes and how readily available it is. Others told me they started to do a rosary walk as well. Of course then you have the opposite too. Some people when they see me coming cross over to the other side of the street. One born again women asked me, “but do you talk to God”. I tried to explain how the rosary works. Its mediation with God. Using the hail Mary’s as a white noise to block out the world while you reflect on the mysteries also telling her its the life of Christ. The rosary is not about talking its about listening. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights so I just pushed on.
Questions of the faith I have asked Our Lord about, days, weeks, or sometimes years ago the answer will hit in the middle of a rosary decade out of nowhere.
Some do not understand the history of the rosary. I guess it all started with St. Simon Stock when he received the brown scapular from our Lady. She told him it was the shield and would protect the wearer from the fires of hell. Then to St. Dominic she gave the rosary or as she called it the sword. She told Dominic that Our Lord desired the faithful to pray daily the psaltar, which is the book of psalms. Because of the limitations of the human mind the psaltar was condensed to Hail Marys. 3 sets of mysteries to the rosary. Each mystery is 5 decades, each decade is 10 hail Marys. Total number 150 hail Marys that equals 150 psalms.
I recall an interesting story by Fr. Hewko. He said there was a certain man who was very sinful. He did manage to pray a daily rosary. When he died he stood in judgement by our Lord. His scale of justice was way over in the condemned red area. It looked bad. But then our Lady came to the scale and put a rosary on the other side. The scale then immediately tipped towards salvation. This by no means cancels out confession. Maybe he did go to confession we don’t know. I think it does two things important. It shows that God is not only just but merciful. I know I dwell on the just and fear of hell too much. For me most times fear of hell is my motivation and that is not a good thing. It also shows how important it is to got close to our Lady who will mediate for us at our judgement. Despite Leo stripping her of the title of co mediatrix I will still honor her as such.
This is why I hate the Luminous mysteries of Pope John Paul 2. He took a gift from heaven and distorted it so it lost its meaning. He also managed to destroy the stations of the cross adding a 15th station, the resurrection. This is the story of Christ passion, his glorious station, the resurrection will not happen to Easter Sunday. After kissing the Curan I began to have serious doubts about that man.
When will I give up the rosary? When they pry it out of my cold dead hands I hope. And yes you can see below I have a license to carry these weapons.
