Mike's Noise

Lent - blogging the Rosary

It's been a while since I've written about Christianity.  Instead, I have been blogging about politics and current events on pretty much a daily basis at WizBang.  I enjoy it, but lately it has become very draining emotionally.  There is so much bad news out there, and so much to be critical of, and writing about it every day can -- and will -- affect your attitude and your spiritual health.

So I have decided to spend some time focusing on the Gospel and on the life of Jesus Christ.  Since Lent is a season of prayer and reflection, and since millions upon millions of Roman Catholics will be praying the Rosary during Lent, I have decided to write about the Rosary prayers from a Protestant point of view.  Hopefully my audience will find my ruminations edifying.  I am also hoping that Roman Catholic readers will not find them to be overly simplistic or misguided.

I was raised in the Church of the Nazarene in southeast Texas.  I grew up in a community that was, culturally, very Roman Catholic.  There were lots of Cajuns, Hispanics, and later on thousands of Vietnamese in our community.  This probably made the Protestant fundamentalists feel somewhat isolated and defensive.  I was raised in a very strict Protestant fundamentalist home and we attended a church that was very much traditionally fundamentalist with an emphasis on "holiness."  Without getting off-topic and into a lengthy discussion of "Nazarenedom," I'll just say that our tradition very heavily emphasized temperance of all kinds (alcohol, tobacco, dancing, movies and worldly entertainment, profanity and all aspects of the "sexual revolution) and taught that salvation was a two-step process:  step one was "getting saved" by confessing and repenting of one's sins, and step two involved "entire sanctification," whereby the Holy Spirit would completely purge sinful desires, thus enabling a disciplined Christian to lead a sinless life.  Of course if you sinned again, you were obligated to confess it immediately and ask God for forgiveness; if you did not do so and you unexpectedly died with "unconfessed sin on your heart," you would go to Hell.  Of course, anyone who had not formally confessed their sin to God and received forgiveness for it was automatically destined to spend eternity in Hell.

My immediate family (and most fundamentalist Christians that I knew) took a very dim view of Catholics -- they drank alcohol, they smoked, they worshiped little plastic statues of Jesus and Mary, and they could sin all they wanted and then their priest would tell them that everything was okay.  They said funny prayers over and over again, and they observed all of these strange rituals that were supposed to guarantee them entrance into Heaven.  Lent, of course, was one of those rituals.  It was meaningless, of course, because we all knew that Catholics wallowed in sex and alcohol during Mardi Gras, only to feign repentance and sorrow during Lent.  And after Easter, they would all go right back to boozing it up again.

Needless to say, my appreciation for the Roman Catholic faith has grown considerably over the years.  With the help of Roman Catholic friends (many of whom possessed a spirituality and an understanding of the Gospel that would put most Protestant fundamentalists to shame), and the writings of G. K. Chesterton, Richard John Neuhaus, Henri Nouwen, Carlo Caretto, Oscar Romero, and others, I have been profoundly impacted by the traditions and teachings of the Roman Catholic church -- which after all, was "The Church" until the sixteenth century's Protestant Reformation.

This Lenten season (a religious observance that I have now come to cherish) I will be focusing my personal devotions on the Rosary, which is a series of prayers used for meditation and reflection on the mysteries of Jesus Christ and the Gospel, and as homage to The Virgin Mary.  As I am not Catholic, I will ask your forgiveness for using Wikipedia and the Web for most of my source material on the Rosary.

According to Wikipedia, the Rosary is usually recited with the help of a string of beads that is attached to a small crucifix.  As each prayer is uttered, the individual slides their fingers along the beads, and uses them as a placeholder of sorts during the recitation of the prayers. 

A rosary provides a physical method of keeping track of the number of Hail Marys said. The fingers are moved along the beads as the prayers are recited. By not having to keep track of the count mentally, the mind is more able to meditate on the mysteries. A five decade rosary contains five groups of ten beads (a decade), with additional large beads before each decade. The Hail Mary is said on the ten beads within a decade, while the Our Father is said on the large bead before each decade. A new mystery is meditated upon at each of the large beads. Some rosaries, particularly those used by religious orders, contain 15 decades, corresponding to the traditional 15 mysteries of the rosary. Both five and 15 decade rosaries are attached to a shorter strand, which starts with a crucifix followed by one large, three small, and one large beads before connecting to the rest of the rosary. The praying of the rosary is started on the short strand, reciting the Apostle's Creed at the crucifix, an Our Father at the first large bead, three Hail Marys on the next three beads, then a Glory be to the Father on the next large bead. The praying of the decades then follows. Although counting the prayers on a string of beads is customary, the prayers of the rosary do not actually require a set of beads, but can be said using any type of counting device, by counting on one's fingers, or by counting by oneself without any device at all.

The most common series of Rosary prayers is:

• A sign of the cross on the Crucifix and then the "Apostles' Creed";
• An "Our Father" on the first large bead;
• A "Hail Mary" on each of the three small beads with the following intentions (the theological virtues):
  1. For the increase of faith
  2. For the increase of hope
  3. For the increase of charity
• A "Glory Be to the Father";
• Announce the mystery
• An "Our Father" on the large bead
• A "Hail Mary" on each of the adjacent ten small beads;
• A "Glory Be to the Father";
• Again an Our Father on the next large bead, followed by ten Hail Marys on the small beads, the Glory Be to the Father, (and Fatima Prayer); all for each of the following decades
• In conclusion, "Hail Holy Queen" and a sign of the cross.

There are four sets of Mysteries, each with five themes:

Joyful Mysteries

1. The Annunciation. Fruit of the Mystery: Humility
2. The Visitation. Fruit of the Mystery: Love of Neighbor
3. The Nativity. Fruit of the Mystery: Poverty (poor in spirit), Detachment from the things of the world, Contempt of Riches, Love of the Poor
4. The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Fruit of the Mystery: Purity
5. The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. Fruit of the Mystery: True Wisdom and True Conversion.

Sorrowful Mysteries

1. The Agony in the Garden. Fruit of the Mystery: Sorrow for Sin, Uniformity with the will of God
2. The Scourging at the Pillar. Fruit of the Mystery: Mortification
3. The Crowning with Thorns. Fruit of the Mystery: Contempt of the world
4. The Carrying of the Cross. Fruit of the Mystery: Patience
5. The Crucifixion. Fruit of the Mystery: Salvation

Glorious Mysteries

1. The Resurrection. Fruit of the Mystery: Faith
2. The Ascension. Fruit of the Mystery: Hope and desire for Heaven
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit. Fruit of the Mystery: Holy Wisdom to know the truth and share with everyone
4. The Assumption of Mary. Fruit of the Mystery: Grace of a Happy Death and True Devotion towards Mary
5. The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fruit of the Mystery: Perseverance and Crown of Glory

Luminous Mysteries

1. The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. Fruit of the Mystery: Openness to the Holy Spirit
2. The Wedding at Cana. Fruit of the Mystery: To Jesus through Mary
3. Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Fruit of the Mystery: Repentance and Trust in God
4. The Transfiguration. Fruit of the Mystery: Desire for Holiness
5. The Institution of the Eucharist. Fruit of the Mystery: Adoration

That's a lot of praying.  A lot of praying.

What I plan to do in these posts is to explore the major prayers and creeds that make up the Rosary sequence (The Apostle's Creed, Hail Mary, The Lord's Prayer, Glory Be To The Father, Hail Holy Queen, and the Prayer of Fatima).  That means, of course, that I will be writing quite a bit about the Virgin Mary, which admittedly is a bit awkward for a Protestant.  I will then write about the Holy Mysteries and, consequently, the Gospel as I understand it. 

I've never before committed myself to such a deep study of the Gospel over a limited season such as Lent.  My life won't slow down around it either, yet I am confident that I can see it through.  And I will be prayerfully petitioning God for an increase of understanding and devotion as I contemplate these prayers and mysteries.

I'll begin in my next post -- thoughts on repetitive or meditative prayer.

Democrats owe America and President Bush one heck of a big apology

From Instapundit, who writes: " A screenshot from Memeorandum last night (Feb. 21)":

We're officially one month into the United States of Obama, and as a Republican who voted for John McCain/Sarah Palin, I can say that my expectations for the Obama Administration have been met -- but not in a good way.

I expected that Obama would to find governing much more difficult than campaigning, but I had no idea that it would only take weeks for the Obama White House to come across as a bunch of clueless dolts.  And their attempts to marginalize the press and conservative media figures have been nothing but immature.  Really -- can you imagine President Bush telling Democrats to stop listening to Keith Olbermann and stop reading MoveOn.org and start cooperating more with Republicans?

I expected that Democrats would be revealed to be no more virtuous than Republicans, but the sheer number and scope of Democrat scandals -- lobbying, pay-for-play, influence peddling, and especially unpaid taxes -- (Caroline Kennedy, Timothy Geithner, Hilda Solis, Bill Richardson, Tom Daschle, Charlie Rangel, Jack Murtha, Roland Burris ... did I forget anyone?) has been staggering.

I expected the Democrats to be somewhat drunk with power now that they control both Congress and the White House, but I never thought that they would have the audacity to stuff fourteen years worth of pork barrel spending into a single bill!

I expected that Barack Obama would have difficulty implementing all of his ethics and accountability reforms, but I never expected that he would break every single transparency and accountability promise with the passage of his first major bill.

And finally, I expected that Barack Obama would eventually vindicate most of the Bush Administration's War on Terror policies simply by continuing them, but I was stunned that it happened so quickly.  It seems that the Obama administration is much more frightened of the political consequences of a domestic terror attack than they are of a deep and lengthy economic recession.

It is becoming clearer and clearer to me that most of the "antiwar" hysteria during the past six years was simply anti-Republicanism.  It was about smearing the Bush Administration, ensuring the failure of their policies, and destroying Bush's legacy.  It was all about hatred and partisan politics, and it had more to do with Bush's narrow win in 2000 than with anything related to Bush's foreign policy or use of military force.

I'm convinced that history will be kind to President Bush, particularly in light of the Obama Administration's quiet continuation of his War on Terror policies.  And perhaps forty or fifty years in the future, our grandchildren will shake their heads at the unhinged Bush hatred that so dominated newspapers, television, movies, music, and other entertainment media during the first decade of the twenty first century.

But here and now, I think President Bush is owed a major, feature-length, show-stopping, banner headline apology.  Go ahead, liberals and progressives, yellow dog Democrats, Hollywood, and the Ivy League.  You're all so much smarter and wiser than George W. Bush.  Admit you were wrong.  Go ahead, just admit it.  You all said Bush was a cretin and an evil-doer for not admitting his "mistakes."  You wouldn't want that judgment hanging over your heads, now would you?

Speaking of which, here's one more thought.  How many times will the American people be duped by a bunch of elitist twits into believing that the only path to leadership is through the political and cultural environment of the Ivy League, and any Ivy League golden boy (or girl) is therefore smarter, wiser, and more qualified to lead?  How many times will we fall for this?  And how much will we be willing to suffer politically and financially because of our folly?  

I've become a huge fan of the blog Car Lust.  This month, they featured automotive "epic fails," and they just ended the series with the biggest automotive epic fail of them all, the 1958 Edsel.

In spite of a lot of good ideas and a metric boatload of money spent on market research, design, and an exhaustive advertising campaign, the American people walked away from the Edsel.  The moral of the story?

The tale of the Edsel is fascinating because it's an instance of a large organization full of talented, competent, well-intentioned people setting a goal that seemed perfectly reasonable, marching confidently toward that goal--and going straight off a cliff. There was no one big colossal mistake ... so much as there was a long series of minor to moderate miscalculations that all added up to an idea that not only didn't fly, but crashed and burned on takeoff and left a great smoking hole in Ford's corporate treasury.

Remember that the next time someone tries to convince you that they are so smart, and their ideas are so good, that they always know what is best for you and cannot possibly ever be wrong about it.