THE ROSARY AND I

                         THE ROSARY AND I

     I had just turned twenty and was starting my third year in college.  I had been searching for a new residence, when I was offered room and board in a private home at a very reasonable price, though I would have to share the bedroom with another girl.  Outside of eating and sleeping, I had expected to lead a private, self-centered, independent life.  The house mother had other ideas.

     When I moved my personal belongings into the home, my roommate, a girl I knew only slightly, was not present.  On her dresser I noticed a chain with bright red beads.  I thought it was some jewelry she wore around her neck, and I wondered what sort of girl would wear such a garish, unpopular string.  Would she be a compatible girl for me to live with?  This was my first encounter with a rosary, an object I knew absolutely nothing about.

     My new house mother's idea was that we renters were to be accepted into her family with wide open arms, and treated as an integral part of the family.  I soon understood that meals were served with all members gathered at the same time, with prayers said together at the beginning and end of each meal.  No meat was served on Fridays or on some other days.  Crucifixes were hanging in almost every room.  Church services were frequently attended and discussed.  The rosary and the litany of the saints were recited every evening before bedtime.

     The house mother would have liked me to join in praying the rosary and she apologized for not asking me to do so, but she and her husband knew the prayers only in Polish.  The other two girls living with us could speak Polish and joined them in the rosary and litany prayers, but I had absolutely no knowledge of that language.

     The house mother introduced me to her priest and they encouraged me to receive Catholic instructions.  No adult classes were running at that time, so the priest gave me instructions on a one to one basis.  My house mother gave me a rosary and the priest taught me how to use it.

     I had already known the "Our Father," Protestant version.  When my Catholic boyfriend had left for induction into the army, he had given me his prayer book.  Two things in that book left a lasting impression on me.  I had memorized the "Hail Mary."  The other thing that intrigued me was the statement, "Grace is a gift of God."  I prayed for that "grace" though I did not understand the Catholic meaning of "grace."  When I had learned the Apostles Creed, I knew the three basic prayers of the rosary.  Our house mother became my God mother when the priest baptized me.

     Toward the end of February my Catholic boy friend was discharged from the army.  We married in May.  On our wedding night I knelt down beside the bed and started a rosary.  He knelt down beside me and answered me, our first, but not certainly not our last, rosary prayed together.

    
As time and obligations changed, so did our prayers.  Praying the rosary moved out of the bedroom into the living room.  Children not yet in bed knelt with us.  The oldest ones were encouraged to lead a decade.  As the family grew, my husband, in the evening, would call "Prayer time."  There would be a scramble as all the children looked for their rosaries.  Often one or another would have no idea where their rosary had been left.  For a more orderly reaction, I took a narrow board and screwed into it a dozen gold-colored cup hooks, and hung the board up in the living room.  Each child was assigned a particular hook on which to hang his rosary.  They picked up their own beads from it when father called for prayer, and they were expected to hang their rosaries back up on the board after the last "Amen."  The boys had black or brown beads; the girls had more colorful ones.

     One day I acquired and started to read a Catholic paper.  It had a lengthy article about Fatima.  In her second apparition to the little shepherds at Fatima, June 13, 1917, Our Lady repeated her recommendations that we recite the rosary daily to bring the war to an end.  She asked that the following ejaculation to be said after each decade of the beads, "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins.  Save us from the fires of hell.  Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need of Your help."  We then added this prayer to our evening family rosaries.

     I started attending Altar Society meetings then held in the homes of the members of Our Lady of the Lake Parish.  When the women gathered there they recited the rosary and at the end added the "Salve Regina," "Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.  Turn, then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us; after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus.  O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.  Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ."  This prayer was offered up for our parish, which had been dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

     At one meeting of the Altar Society, a member talked about her personal problems--a "fallen-away" Catholic husband, her brother who was a priest, and their drawing her into their interminable disagreements.  She asked us to pray for them using the "Memorare", "Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided.  Inspired by this confidence, I fly to you O Virgin of virgins, my mother.  To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful.  O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy, hear and answer me.  Amen".  The Altar Society added this prayer after the "Salve Regina," offering it up for troubled families that they might be brought to peaceful spiritual resolutions.

     For awhile women of the Altar Society gathered in the church on the first Sundays of the month for communal reception of the Blessed Sacrament.  The rosary was recited before mass, followed by the Salve Regina and the Memorare.

     As time passed, pastors and membership changed, a new church was built, but regular formal recitation of the rosary in our faith faded away. Then one morning a church member proposed saying a rosary before mass.  Those who were present answered her as she led it.  After that she would start saying a rosary whenever she came to church.  Sometimes she didn't come in time to complete the rosary before mass time.  I would quit answering her when it was time for mass, but she would continue.  At times the pastor was irked when he had to delay mass because the rosary was being said publicly.

     I tried telling the leader that the rosary should not interfere with mass but she replied how wonderful it was to go from the rosary directly into the mass.  I sympathized with those who wanted to compose their thoughts before mass, in order to more fully prepare for their reception of Communion.  I believed the rosary should not be started if it could not be finished before meeting Jesus in the mass; that if recited, it should be started a half hour before mass.  If one had not been started by then, I presumed to start one.  Slowly there seemed to be a consensus that I begin our morning recitation by 7:30 which would give us enough time to complete five decades and still have enough time left to prepare for a meeting with Jesus in the Eucharist.

     Habits have a way of growing into our very fiber.  Older church members, former Altar Society members, who had prayed the rosary in the old church building adding the Salve Regina and the Memorare continued to add them to the rosary they prayed in the new church.

     Then Pope John Paul II asked Catholics to offer the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel composed by St. Leo XIII to combat abortion.  We then added this prayer and intention to our daily morning recitation.

     Now our saintly Pope John Paul II has asked us to add the Mysteries of Light to our rosary prayers to round out more fully the life of Jesus.  The new mysteries are centered on Jesus' public ministry and closes the gap between the Joyful Mysteries and Sorrowful Mysteries and gives us a more complete knowledge of Jesus' public life.

     The rosary is a powerful appeal for the motherly help of Mary.  She is able to give us that help because she receives that power from her Son.  In the Eucharist Jesus comes to us Himself, but Mary draws us to Him.

     Prayers offered to Mary through her rosary are very versatile.  They may be offered up for any intention that is not evil.  The form and objective of the rosary may be adopted to the current needs and conditions of the people, those doing the praying and those for whom the prayers are offered.

     The rhythmic cadence of the repeated prayers centers our mind on our intentions.  Because Mary was conceived without sin she is able to carry our pleadings directly to her Son Who listens to her.