Category: catholic

One constant in life is that we all need to work to survive. For much of human history, that would have meant hunting and farming. Now, it means going to a job to earn money to support ourselves and maybe a family. Or maybe that means taking care of the family. Since work is such an integral part of our lives, it’s something that requires prayer to be meaningful and fruitful. What Rosary mystery fits the modern worker?

Running out of Wine

If you’ve seen the series The Chosen, you may remember the episode about the wedding feast at Cana (Second Luminous Mystery). The show decided to portray Saint Thomas as the one hired to supply the food and wine for the event. While Scripture only mentions that they ran out of wine, The Chosen portrays Thomas miscalculating the amount of wine needed. Mary asks Jesus to help which he does by turning water into the best wine of the celebration.

I like the Second Luminous Rosary mystery as one specifically for workers. It alludes to a logistical problem similar to the ones many of us face daily. Thomas had a job to do and he messed up. He worried that he would ruin the wedding, embarrass the hosts, and fail at doing his job. He probably felt huge levels of anxiety about how this blunder would affect future business and his livelihood. I’m sure many of us can relate.

Including Jesus in our Work Day

Our jobs are often more of a burden than something joyful or exciting. It can be a source of stress and anxiety as we face rude customers, demanding bosses, complex projects, or inflexible schedules. We can sympathize with the situation at the Cana wedding where nothing seemed to be going right.

We know how this story ends. Mary sees what is happening and asks for Jesus’ help. He turns disaster into a miracle. We, too, may run into disasters at our jobs. We may miss deadlines, produce a subpar product, not meet our quotas, or lose our temper with customers. But we can take a queue from the Cana wedding and ask for Jesus’ help through Mary and her Rosary. Asking for Jesus’ intervention can help us navigate those challenges and anxieties we have at work.

Doing What Jesus Asks

I know that many of us pray the Rosary regularly but we still face countless obstacles at work. You may ask, “Why isn’t Jesus producing miracles at my job like he did at the Cana wedding?” I heard a priest on EWTN talk about how filling those jars with water at the wedding feast was probably a laborious process. It’s not like they had facets in the house and they couldn’t lug those large stone jars to a well. The laborers had to make multiple trips to a well with smaller buckets to fill the large jars that Jesus turned into wine.

The idea is that our faith often requires effort, time, and trust. The workers had to trust Jesus that his seemingly ridiculous request had a purpose. They needed to put in the time and effort to make the miracle happen. The miracle didn’t happen instantly. The wedding feast was at the point of disaster before the miracle occurred. In The Chosen, Thomas kept questioning Jesus about how filling jars with water addressed the wine issue. We too often ask Jesus, “How does doing what you ask help me in this situation?”

I think we can act a little like Saint Thomas regarding prayer at times. We want Jesus to fix the problem ASAP. We tell ourselves that there is no time for prayer and that it’s just wasting our time instead of solving the problem. How many of us justify not spending a few minutes in prayer or walking into a church to sit in silence in front of the Blessed Sacrament because we’re too busy? I think Jesus’ solution to our work-related problem includes stepping back occasionally to focus on him, not the challenge at hand.

Don’t Lose Heart

At our work, we often have to grind away at our tasks. We are like the servants fetching water — entrusting our labor to Jesus. Our efforts at work may seem pointless and Jesus doesn’t seem to help us. We just toil away, day after day, without any relief. It’s in those moments God wants us to put our faith in him, not in our own abilities. We need to learn to let go. When everything is going smoothly, we tend to think too highly of ourselves and not of God. Perhaps, I hard day at work is God’s way of reminding us that we need to include him more into our lives. If we put our trust in God to see us through our work, and work is what we spend a good portion of our day doing, then we’ll remember that God is with us throughout our day.

I’ve been sitting on this article for almost two months now trying to think of what to say. However, maybe there isn’t anything for me to add to the wisdom of the saints regarding the power and beauty of the Mass. I’m going to link to the article in its entirety.

First, Easter is only a few days away. You’re going to see packed churches soon as the Twice-a-years come to Mass. Here’s some advice if you see someone at Easter you know who doesn’t attend Mass regularly. Show that you’re excited to see them at Mass. Tell them you hope to see them at Mass in the upcoming weeks. Plant the seed of joy and the idea of the importance of Mass in their hearts. God will take care of the rest.

Now over to Fr. Broom and his article on Catholic Exchange.

This is such a great letter that I felt like I needed to post it on RosaryMeds without much commentary. I think Bishop Naumann does a great job of explaining why the Catholic Church can’t sacrifice truth in the name of inclusiveness. We need to remember that our faith isn’t some TikTok video trying to grab “likes.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253629/archbishop-naumann-response-to-cardinal-mcelroy-sexual-morality

If we authentically live the Catholic faith, then we are living in an inclusive way. Bishop Naumann does a great job of explaining why we need hold firm to the truth and not bend to society’s ever-twisting norms.

One of my goals this year was to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Like a New Year’s resolution, this has been a goal of mine quite a few times. I would start reading the CCC, but then eventually move on to something else. However, after completing Bible in a Year in 2021, I had a fresh resolve to make it through the CCC. In terms of page count, the Catechism is much shorter than the Bible. But it is packed with theological nutrients for the soul.

What the CCC is and is Not

I always thought the Catechism was a rulebook of dry “do this, not that” stanzas. I believed this because whenever I heard someone quote the CCC, it was mostly with the intent of correcting someone’s views of the Catholic Church. And while it certainly lays out various rules, it does so in the context of Church history, teachings, and the Bible. It’s a “do this, not that BECAUSE…” And the “because” is the important part.

The CCC breaks down into a few main sections.

1. The Creed
2. The Sacraments
3. The 10 Commandments
4. Prayer

Densely-Packed Spiritual Nutrients

Each one of these sections is like a strand of DNA — they are densely packed with information about the nature of God and our relationship with him. One strand of human DNA contains 3 billion base pairs in a 6-micron space. If you were to uncoil all your DNA in all your cells, it would stretch across the diameter of the solar system twice (link)!

The same principle goes with the Catechism. It takes words we profess like “I believe”, “one, holy, catholic, apostolic”, “Our Father”, “Hail Mary”, and “Though shalt not…” and uncoils their meanings over hundreds, if not thousands, of words. And while someone like me cannot recall the details of any single section of the CCC, it does provide the soul satisfying theological nutrients when regularly consumed.

Fuel for the Soul

The Catechism provides a fuller context for other spiritual practices such as Rosary prayer or the Liturgy of the Hours. The goal of my RosaryMeds website and books are to provide context and inspiration for the Holy Rosary. The CCC provides a greater context for the entire Catholic faith. I’m disappointed I didn’t discover the beauty and value of the Catechism until recently. But better late than never!

Here’s a little historical fact on the Catechism. The book that we reference today is relatively young. Saint John Paul II introduced it in 1992. I always thought the Catechism was something that dated back to the early Church. And while the teachings do, the book itself does not. There have been catechisms throughout the Church’s history, but they’ve been regional; written for specific audiences, and with emphasis on different topics. I think my next goal will be to read some of these older catechisms like the Baltimore Catechism. I hope I can build on my momentum of reading the Bible and the CCC and continue reading Catholic literature regularly.

I came across these articles providing suggestions on how to make the Rosary experience better for families, particularly those with young children. There are some interesting ideas in these articles that I hope you find useful to bring your family closer to Jesus through his mother, Mary. But all the “tips” in the world won’t matter if we don’t show a burning desire for praying the Rosary and practicing our faith. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then our example is worth a thousand pictures.

10 Ways to not hate the Rosary

If you struggle with the Rosary you can walk with it, like Benedict XVI, or you can try these ideas from Tom Hoopes!

Leading Future Generations to the Rosary

My target audience for RosaryMeds is adults. So I take a more academic approach to draw people into Rosary prayer. There are still many adults who have not felt the joy through earnestly praying the Rosary. If we are to foster a love of the Rosary in children, adults need to love it first. I think of it like the oxygen mask protocol on airplanes — adults need to put on their masks first before assisting children. Likewise, adults need to embrace the Rosary first if they desire their children to embrace it.

Children learn so much from their parents’ example. Take Mass for example. Even if a child attends a Catholic school and learns about the importance of Mass in religion class, they probably won’t attend if their parents don’t go to Mass. First, there are logistical limitations such as transportation. But more importantly, kids follow their parents’ example, especially their father’s. If we don’t show a burning desire for our faith, we can’t expect the future generation to embrace it either.

I created RosaryMeds and wrote various books to show adults the beauty and power of the Rosary. I hope that these will inspire people to pray the Rosary and pass down that practice to the next generation. If you know anything about exponents in mathematics, a small change can produce dramatic results. If one person draws two people to the Rosary, and those two each draw in two more, and that pattern repeats itself, then in 20 “levels” (2^20) 1,048,576 people will be praying the Rosary. That’s a huge chain effect!

Changing How You Think About the Family Rosary

“She doesn’t want to pray the rosary with the rest of us. I’m not sure what to do,” a friend recently told me. She expressed a concern that I’ve heard from a lot of parents – how do I get my kids to pray the rosary? What do I do if it’s a fight? What […]

Mary’s Reasons for Rosary Prayer

I could try to come up with many reasons to pray the Rosary. But they will pale in comparison to our Mother Mary’s reasons. She provided us 15 promises to those who pray the Rosary. The Rosary provides benefits both in this life and helps us find eternal happiness in Heaven. Learning about these promises should motivate everyone to not only pray the Rosary but share its joys with others. Here is a taste of the benefits of Rosary prayer:

• To all those who shall pray my Rosary devoutly, I promise my special protection and great graces.
• The sinner will be converted; the just will persevere in grace and merit eternal life.
• I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
• All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.

Whether it’s through RosaryMeds articles, “Top Ten” lists, or Mary’s promises, we all need to pray the Rosary. The stakes are too high and the benefits too great not to pray it. I’m not saying that we’re entering some sort of “End Times” era and need to convert (although it feels like that sometimes). I don’t need to. Everyone, at every age, needs to treat all our time in this life praying, practicing, and converting. We all have a finite lifespan. So why not take up a practice that will serve you well in this life, and more importantly, in your eternal life?