This website is dedicated to rosary meditation, the Catholic faith, and living a spiritually healthy lifestyle. Whether you pray regularly or are looking to “jump start” your faith, you’ve come to the right place. Look around, read my meditations on the mysteries of the rosary and my commentary of Catholic news and events. Hopefully you will find something (even if it is just one small phrase) that inspires you to look at prayer a little differently.
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I discuss how the Gospel of Luke relates to the Fourth Joyful Mystery of the rosary and how persistance makes us spiritually stronger.
Today’s Gospel contained many homilies-worth of themes. You have Jesus teaching His apostles how to pray in which He gives them the “Our Father.” Jesus also discusses the idea of persistance when trying to obtain graces from God through a parable of a man trying to get bread from his neighbor. I find one passage particularly interesting:
I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it to him for friendship’s sake, persistence will make him get up and give his friend all he wants (Luke 11:8).
I tried to think about what rosary mystery applies to this week’s Gospel. What mystery deals with the idea of persistance and also asking God for direction, strength, and grace?
I can’t think of a better example of persistance than Simeon waiting for the Son of God and finally seeing Jesus at The Presentation in the Temple. Simeon came to the temple every day hoping to see the Messiah. And every day he came back unfulfilled until the day he died after seeing the baby Jesus. Simeon never gave up or lost faith. Chances are people ridiculed him and labeled him as the crazy man who is waiting to see the Son of God. But despite never seeing the Lord until his dying day, Simeon lived according to God’s plan for him which ultimately led him to Heaven.
How easy is it for us to lose faith when we think God does not answer our prayers, sacrifices, and good works? Would anyone have blamed Simeon if he gave up after a few years of disappointment at the temple? Our human nature wants God to immediately reward us for good actions and punish those who are bad. We often ask ourselves, “why me?” when confronted with hardship. However, while we may not know it, God is doing us a favor by not immediately answering our prayers or answering them in unexpected ways. It is that perceived silence which builds a longing for grace. That longing leads to persistance and that persistance builds spiritual strength.
If God immediately gave us everything we wanted we would never build up spiritual muscle for life’s obstacles. We would become so weak spiritually that the slightest difficulty would knock us down and keep us down. But our perseverance builds strength. Constantly working to live in a state of grace builds our resistance to evil and sin. To use a gardening analogy, getting everything we want is like over watering a plant. The plant does not develop a strong root structure and cannot survive under stressful conditions. A little stress and some challenges really help us develop strong spiritual roots.
When we pray the Fourth Joyful Mystery may we remember to show the same level of persistance as Simeon. Remember, God does hear our prayers and answers them accordingly. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says that when we ask, God will answer. It may not be in the way we would like or it may lead us down a difficult road, but God answers our prayers in the way that will ultimately lead us to Heaven. And at the end of the day, that is all that really matters.
I read this story on Catholic Exchange and then heard an interview on ETWN radio by the author, Gary Zimak. Gary was a “Mass once a week only” Catholic before he had some medical difficulties. That was a turning point in his life where he decided to learn more about the Catholic faith and educate others. He’s not a priest and does not hold a theology degree. He is just someone who got really excited about learning and teaching the faith. Wanting to explore my faith and share it with others was one of the main reasons why I started rosaryMeds. So Gary’s story really hit home. Maybe one of these days EWTN will interview me about rosaryMeds!
Read his article, “Ten Facts Most Catholics Don’t Know (But Should!).” Also, there is some pretty interesting (although heated at times) debate in the article’s comments. This article reminds me of something I said in a previous article on Lent that to succeed in our endeavours (sports, business, personal faith, etc.) you need to understand the rules of the game. Enjoy!
I use the parable of the Good Samaritan to discuss how often God calls us to prayer.
This past Sunday’s Gospel was the parable of the Good Samaritan. It’s a story that I’m sure many of us have heard dozens of times about a man who was beaten and robbed. A priest and a Levite avoided the man while a Samaritan helped him and took care of him (Jews and Samaritans did not get along). And we probably all know the teachings behind that parable. We have heard about how God calls us to help one another. We know that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ from our best friend to our worst enemies. We reflect on how we often make excuses for not helping one another such as we’re too busy or it’s too much of an inconvenience. But sitting in my pew last Sunday listening to the homily made me think about another angle of this parable. I asked myself, “how often does God want us to pray?”
At first glance the parable of the Good Samaritan does not seem to be about prayer. But I started to reflect on what exactly is the purpose of prayer. The basic definition of prayer is the act of communicating with God. So how often should we communicate with God through prayer? The Third Commandment says to keep holy the Sabbath which occurs once a week. As Christians, we reserve Sunday as our holy day of prayer. But instead of a day, many of us only give an hour by going to Mass and “getting it out of the way.” I defer to Homer Simpson as an example of how many of us think of Sunday Mass:
So what is a realistic amount of time to pray? A day, an hour, what? I arrived at the answer listening to the story of the Good Samaritan. We are called to prayer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. In other words, God calls us to perpetually be in a state of prayer. Think about that basic definition of prayer which is communication with God. By living a life of prayer we live in constant communication with God. He guides us through life’s obstacles, gives us strength for the rough times, and offers us many blessings. Another way to put this is that living in prayer leads to living in God’s grace. But to receive these gifts of guidance, strength, and faith we have to always present our joys, worries, and concerns to God and listen to what He says to us. Through this communication we prepare ourselves for whatever challenges come our way.
The Good Samaritan was living in prayer when he helped the robbed and beaten man. Like Mary in the Annunciation or Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Samaritan said through his actions, “thy will be done Lord.” That is much more than what the priest or the Levite did in that parable when they were too busy to help the poor man. They represent our tendency to think of prayer as something we separate from our normal lives. For the priest and the Levite, the man on the side of the road needed help outside of the time they reserved for prayer. Basically, the poor man needed help when the priest and Levite weren’t in a prayerful mood. But could you imagine trying to explain to God a good reason not to be in a prayerful mood? When we are like the Samaritan who integrated prayer into his life, not separated it, we are always ready and willing to do God’s will. We don’t see helping others as an inconvenience, but as an opportunity to further our relationship with God and live in a deeper form of grace.
So let us not be like the priest or Levite in the parable or Homer Simpson in the video clip. We are not called to partition our lives into two categories — one where we live in prayer and acknowledge God’s will and one where we do not. There isn’t a time limit to prayer or an expiration date for acting holy. Of course there are different forms of prayer. Prayer means silent meditation, reading the Bible, reciting the rosary, or acting with good will. For some it might mean religious life as a priest or nun while others it means marriage. Regardless of who you are and what you do, God calls us to a life of prayer because He greatly desires a dialog with each one of us. Now ask yourself, do your actions reflect a desire to live in God’s graces?
I discuss Mary’s two messages at Medjugorje for June, 2010.
Mary’s message at Medjugorje on June 2, 2010:
Dear Children, Today I call you with prayer and fasting to clear the path in which my Son will enter into your hearts. Accept me as a mother and a messenger of God’s love and His desire for your salvation. Free yourself of everything from the past which burdens you, that gives you a sense of guilt, that which previously led you astray in error and darkness. Accept the light. Be born anew in the righteousness of my Son. Thank you.
Mary explains Her role as Queen of Heaven when she asks us to accept Her as a “mother and a messenger of God’s love.” We must remember that Mary and all the saints want to guide us into God’s kingdom. The saints are eternally in God’s love and their greatest desire is for all of us to one day feel that indescribable closeness with Him. We can ask Mary and the saints to help us through our struggles in this life and stay in a state of grace.
Why not just pray directly to God? If He hears our prayers then why pray to a saint who was a human just like you or me? Why pray to people who had sins, struggles, and all those human imperfections when you can just pray directly to the one who can grant you eternal grace and happiness? The fact is, we still do pray to God when we pray through the saints. Think of the saints as our interface to God. Because God’s nature is so indescribable, the saints offer us a model of the different aspects of God in a way we can comprehend. They are simpler examples of God’s love, charity, mercy, knowledge, power, strength. They show us the path to Heaven in a way we understand. This is why God was made man through Jesus Christ. And this is why Jesus established the Church which provides us with the collective wisdom of Mary and the saints. All of this was done so that we may come to know God.
Mary’s message on June 25, 2010:
Dear children! With joy, I call you all to live my messages with joy; only in this way, little children, will you be able to be closer to my Son. I desire to lead you all only to Him, and in Him you will find true peace and the joy of your heart. I bless you all and love you with immeasurable love. Thank you for having responded to my call.
Again, Mary asks us to accept Her guidance to Jesus so that we may find true peace and joy. Mary, the saints, your guardian angel, the souls in purgatory, and the Holy Spirit constantly try to guide us into Heaven. Each one of us has an entire divine team that wants to put us on the right track to eternal happiness. But are we listening? Have we silenced our hearts of earthly desires to hear these messages? I’m going to assume that no one who made it into Heaven was ever disappointed in what they found. So why are we so often reluctant to follow the guidance of those who just want us to feel what they feel for all eternity? We should pray that we make room in our hearts and minds for those offering us their help.
In this article I take a look at the movie, “Flash of Genius,” and how it relates to many mysteries of the rosary. Even non-religious movies can offer great insight into the Catholic faith and provide some ideas for deeper rosary meditation. Beware, this article has movie spoilers.
The other night my wife and I rented the movie “Flash of Genius.” It tells the true story of Robert Kearns, the man who invented the intermittent windshield wiper for automobiles only to have his idea stolen by the Ford motor company. Kearns, over a twelve-year court battle, successfully sued Ford and earned recognition for his invention.
Please watch the trailer to the movie as it relates to the rest of the article:
According to the trailer, this looks like a classic “David vs. Goliath” tale. You would think the movie portrays a family coming together to invent something very practical and ingenious. They then need to work together and fight a huge corporation that stole their idea. Through a lot of hard work and sacrifice they eventually win the lawsuit. Sounds pretty rosy right? However, the trailer leaves out a lot of the dark undertones that run throughout the film. Actually, the movie presents a man who obsesses over the fact that someone took credit for his invention and pursues justice at all costs. In pursuing this quest to get recognition for his work, Kearns alienates his friends and family. His wife cannot handle the stress of the lawsuit and his refusal to settle with Ford. She ends up leaving him and takes their six children (the movie does not say whether they got divorced). At the end of the movie, after winning the lawsuit, a now gray-haired and frail Kearns reflects on how winning the case will never give him back the last twelve years of his life. Unlike other movies where the audience feels happy when the main character wins in the end, this movie ends with a sense of hollowness since Kearns wins his case at a huge personal cost.
What does “Flash of Genius” have to do with the rosary and faith? I think the movie is a great example on how sometimes we let our earthly pursuits distract us from living in God’s grace by following His will. Even when our pursuits are noble they can still lead us to act in ways that run counter to our faith. In the movie, Kearns asks what type of example he would be if he just let someone get away with theft. I ask, what type of example is someone who destroys his marriage and family to pursue recognition for an invention? I’m not saying that Kearns should not have fought for what was right but he should have kept his lawsuit in perspective. He basically made defending his invention more important than honoring his marriage and family. This is an extreme example of what we do all the time which is put our earthly desires in front of our Heavenly ones. Because Heaven, our souls, and the after life are such hard concepts to grasp we often settle for lesser goals such as wealth, fame, comfort, or earthly power. But living solely for those fleeting prizes will not earn us more grace in God’s eyes and in the end won’t amount to any true happiness either in this life or the next.
Kearns’ situation in the movie reminds me of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary. I’m reminded about how unfairly the Pharisees, Jews, and Romans treated Jesus. However, Jesus bore all that pain and suffering because it was God’s will. In the Agony in the Garden, Jesus asked God to spare Him the suffering and crucifixion if possible. However, He also said that it wasn’t His will, but God’s will that would be done. And sometimes, pursuing God’s will can lead to unpleasant situations in our lives. Living our faith does not mean we will always be treated fairly. But our faith does give us a road map on how to live when others treat us badly. It is not to pursue retribution or justice at all costs. Jesus, even though his suffering and death showed us to love and forgive those who mistreat us. How we act when the world treats us unfairly is the true test of our faith. Faith is having the ability to say “yes” to God even if it will make life more difficult or means that you will give up some worldly benefit. Living our faith may not always be easy but it is the only way to achieve lasting happiness.
I enjoyed “Flash of Genius” as a movie. It was well made and the actors put on a good performance. And while it was a much darker movie than what the trailers would have you believe, it was a good rental. But it served more as a reminder of how shallow life’s little victories can be when they are solely centered on earthly pursuits. The next time you pray the rosary ask yourself, for whose kingdom are you living? God’s kingdom of Heaven or your kingdom on earth?
Sorry for the long absence, but May was a crazy month for me. I didn’t have a lot of time to sit down and write posts and my computer was not readily available. I’m bundling both of Mary’s messages for May into one posting.
Mary’s message at Medjugorje on May 2, 2010:
“Dear children; Today, through me, the good Father calls you to, with your soul filled with love, set out on a spiritual visitation. Dear children, be filled with grace, sincerely repent for your sins and yearn for the good. Yearn also in the name of those who have not come to know the perfection of the good. You will be more pleasing to God. Thank you.
The phrase, “spiritual visition,” recalls the Second Joyful Mystery of Mary visiting Her cousin, Elizabeth, and sharing the good news. Like the message in the Visitation, Mary asks us to not only live a good and holy life, but to share that holiness with others. She asks us to bring Jesus’ love to those who need it most — “those who have not come to know the perfection of the good.” As I said before, we must remember the “lost souls” in our lives and pray hard that they will come to know the goodness of Jesus Christ and His Church.
Mary’s message at Medjugorje on May 25, 2010:
Dear children! God gave you the grace to live and to defend all the good that is in you and around you, and to inspire others to be better and holier; but Satan, too, does not sleep and through modernism diverts you and leads you to his way. Therefore, little children, in the love for my Immaculate Heart, love God above everything and live His commandments. In this way, your life will have meaning and peace will rule on earth. Thank you for having responded to my call.
This seems very similar to Her May 2nd message. Again, this message not only focuses on each one of us personally living a holy life, but inspiring others to also become better people by embracing Jesus’ message. Why must we do this? Mary says that Satan is also on the prowl trying to bring people down with him into misery and despair. We live in a time where people, even many in the Chuch, don’t like to think about Satan and the idea of absolute evil. But Mary reminds us that we must act and bring people into God’s grace because, if we do not, Satan is always there to fill the void. I will leave you with this thought from Edmund Burke who I think summarizes this idea nicely:
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
I find it very interesting that Mary points to “modernism” as one of Satan’s tool. What exactly does She mean? When I think of modernism, I think of it mainly in terms of rejecting thoughts, teachings, and institutions that are viewed as old and outdated. You will easily find plenty of examples of modernist ideas in the media trying to show that the Catholic Church is an old, outdated institution with rules and practices that have no use in today’s world. But the Church and Her teachings are one of the primary ways Satan is kept in check. God’s grace, though the Church, strengthens people against the powers of the devil. So it makes sense that Satan would embrace any idea that diminishes the power of the Church so that his power and influence will increase. Mary asks us not to forget about the Church and Her teachings, but to love God and keep His commandments. Despite what current modernists would have you believe, we are in more need of the Church today more than ever to combat the increasing influence of Satan and his minions.
One of the main themes in my postings is that spiritual fitness is an important part of one’s overall health. I discuss the idea of spiritual exercise and being spiritually fit. In this article I’m going to discuss one of the most basic, but also one of the most important elements of spiritual fitness — praying the Hail Mary.
Physical exercise, no matter how complex, breaks down into very basic movements such as push ups, sit ups, squats, pull ups, etc. Exercise is a matter of simple mechanics where someone is lifts, lowers, pushes, or pulls some object. However, an entire industry has emerged selling videos, books, and equipment pushing the idea that being fit is a complex process. But when you remove all the advertising and spokespeople, what differentiates a physically fit person from others is that the fit person has discipline to conduct very basic movements aggressively, routinely, and properly.
One of the most basic exercises is the push up. However, it is also one of the best exercises as it strengthens core muscles, increases metabolism, and requires little space and no equipment. And yet, so many people avoid doing push ups because they are hard or many believe that such a simple movement cannot be as effective as using a very complex machine at the gym. But any athlete or soldier will tell you that mastering the push up is an important tool in improving one’s overall health and strength.
Like the push up in physical exercise, the Hail Mary and the rosary are fundamental prayers in staying spiritually fit. The Hail Mary is 42 words long and takes about 10 seconds to say at a normal pace. But it should be the cornerstone of everyone’s prayer routine. After all, why do you think Mary wants you to pray it 53 times in the rosary? It may be a simple prayer, but Mary and the saints know that it has a proven track record of keeping people in God’s grace. And yet so many people tend to avoid praying it. Like the push up, the Hail Mary and the rosary are often avoided because they are seen as too difficult or not complex enough to have any meaningful result. But people who are in shape spiritually will probably tell you that the Hail Mary is an important part of their prayer routine and must not be avoided.
Like the push up, you should start praying the Hail Mary slowly, methodically, and routinely. Even the greatest athletes start with a single push up and then build on it. Similarly, anyone can start building spiritual muscle with a single Hail Mary and build on that. Remember, it is a ten second prayer and no one is so busy that you can’t fit in at least one some time during the day. Like the push up, practice good form which means really concentrating on the words and not rushing through it. A push up consists of two movements — a downward move followed by an upward one. Likewise, the Hail Mary consists of two parts. The first section you acknowledge and praise Mary as the Mother of God. In the second you ask Her to pray for you, a poor sinner. Both parts are important and require your attention and concentration.
So don’t be afraid of getting in spiritual shape through simple prayers. Remember, sometimes the simplest prayers can yield the greatest benefits when they are said with your whole mind and soul. Does anyone have any Hail Mary or rosary stories that they want to share? Please leave your story as a comment.
Today’s rosary meditation is the Fifth Glorious Mystery — The Coronation of Mary. In this decade we see Mary awarded the honor of Queen of Heaven for having wholeheartedly accepted God’s call. This is Her rightful place for having faith in God’s plan in The Annunciation, spreading God’s joy in The Visitation, giving birth to Jesus, King of the World, and ultimately accepting the sorrow of His crucifixion and death. Mary is now in Heaven and amplifies and purifies our prayers and presents our needs to Her son, Jesus Christ. Mary’s coronation gives Her many titles such as the Queen of Peace, Queen of Angels, Queen of Saints, and Queen of the Rosary.
Mary is the Queen of Peace. Like many people, when I think of peace I think of a world without war and conflict. And while that is a lofty goal and something worth praying for, Mary and the saints want us to dig deeper. We cannot have peace in this world with each other unless we have an inner peace with God. She wants us to work towards this internal peace by reconciling our ways with God’s ways. She calls us to align ourselves with the teachings of Jesus Christ as handed to us through the Church. This means putting aside worldly desires of money, power, fame, popularity, and anything else that might distract us from doing God’s will. Mary knows that we cannot have real peace as long as there is conflict in our hearts between our love for Jesus and our love for earthly desires.
Mary is the Queen of Angels. We must remember the angels in our prayers, particularly our guardian angels who protect us. While we may not be aware of it, angels fight against the forces of evil every day to protect our souls from Satan and his minions. Mary understands the precious gift of being in God’s grace and desires all of us to be in communion with Jesus Christ. She directs the angels to fight for us because She does not want anyone to lose the gift of grace, especially for the momentary and trivial pleasures of this world.
Mary is certainly the Queen of the Rosary. The rosary is our way of communicating with God. We pray it remembering all the sorrows, joys, and glories of Jesus Christ. When we pray the Joyful Mysteries we pray for the strength to accept God’s plans for us as Mary did. When we pray the Sorrowful Mysteries we pray for the strength to remain faithful in the face of great suffering. In the Luminous Mysteries we pray for the strength to live according to Jesus’ teachings. And in the Glorious Mysteries we pray for the strength to live for our eventual resurrection and judgment. Mary gives us a great gift in the rosary because we can use it to reflect on all dimensions of our faith. It reminds us to thank God for all He gives us, ask for forgiveness of our sins and shortcomings, and ask Him for strength to live according to His Truth.
Let us pray that we take full advantage of the rosary to reflect and meditate on our faith. May we look to Mary to guide us and help bring us closer to Her son, Jesus Christ.
I’m changing things up a little and providing a very brief review of an audiobook I just finished called “The Templars: Knights of Christ.” The goal of the author, Regine Pernoud, was to separate the fact from fiction regarding these monk warriors. They are often depicted as mysterious, magical, and secretive in movies like “The Divinci Code”, “National Treasure“, or “Kingdom of Heaven” and always having an ulterior motive behind everything they do. Several movies and books depict them as being involved in cover ups, plots to overthrow kings, and other wild conspiracies. However, the facts of this ancient order are more mundane. They mainly protected Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land and guarded treasures for royalty and banks. Unfortunately for the book, going through these facts was equally mundane and left me longing for a little Hollywood-style embellishment.
In order to dispel the myths of the Templars, the book goes into great detail about their charter, rules, daily life, war campaigns, and forts and dwellings. It cites many original documents to ensure accuracy. Unfortunately, the book covers everything in so much detail that I started to “zone out” during sections of the first few chapters. It is very difficult to stay engaged and interested as the book goes on for several minutes listing the Templar’s military campaigns in the Middle East or describing their clothing regulations in a checklist-like style fashion. Instead of these details providing a complete overall picture of the Templars, they become distracting as the book dives deep into the minutia of their lives. The book gets mildly more interesting towards the end as it covers the Templar’s accusations, trials and eventual breakup. But even that section comes across very dry and drawn out as it cites court documents and statements from the period.
Unfortunately, “The Templars: Knights of Christ” comes up short on addressing the myths and falsehoods of the order. I really wish the book actually addressed how certain movies and books depict Templars and then explain the historical inaccuracies of those premises. Instead it just assumes that the reader (or listener in my case) will already know about how the Templars are depicted in popular culture and immediately jumps into citing historical documents. Possibly the book makes a better reading experience than listening experience. In short, I found this audiobook only mildly interesting so I can only mildly recommend it. Hopefully my next book (G.K. Chesterson’s “Orthodoxy”) will prove more interesting.
