Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours; yours are the eyes through which to look at Christ's compassion to the world, yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good, and yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now." 

                                                                                                                               - St. Teresa of Avila

Introduction

The root of prayer is interior silence. We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words, but this is only one expression. Deep prayer is the laying aside of thoughts. It is the opening of mind and heart, body and feelings—our whole being—to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thought, and emotions. We do not resist them or suppress them. We accept them as they are and go beyond them, not by effort, but by letting them all go by. We open our awareness to the Ultimate Mystery whom we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than choosing -- closer then consciousness itself. The Ultimate Mystery is the ground in which our being is rooted, the Source from whom our life emerges at every moment.

Fr. Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart

The Rosary is both old and new. It is as old as the traditions of the Church, perhaps growing and evolving from prayers used shortly after the beginning of the Christian era. It is as new as each individual who begins using it either for the first time, or for the first time in many years.

As people grow and change, so does their appreciation for that which is inward and spiritual. Sacrament is often defined as an inward and spiritual grace drawn from an outward and physical act. The Rosary offers an experience of grace that derives from an outward act which then becomes an inward movement, which then becomes a silence. In this silence lies the power of the presence of God, who from that silence speaks to us inwardly—an act of Grace, a Sacrament of Love.

What makes the Rosary so appealing is that, once understood, it is not understood intellectually by analyzing its structure, or its effects. It is not grasped along sectarian lines and relegated only to Catholics. Many people are today discovering and rediscovering the power of the Rosary to lead them into a richly rewarding experience of their birthright—their relationship with God and with all that is Divine. Protestants, Catholics and non-sectarian people have found common ground in exploring the mysteries of life that are revealed to us through the Rosaries. The Rosary does not teach directly, it allows teaching to reach us. It helps create an open and receptive heart, which then in turn learns to see God in life, and our lives in God.

Those who are Catholic (Roman, Anglican, Old and others) and Orthodox (Eastern, Western, Greek, and others) have grown up with liturgy as the basic expression of faith. In these traditions, Mary is venerated in various ways, all beautiful in concept and respectful of her unique position. Mary is venerated and acknowledged in these liturgies in ways which reflect an ongoing and engaging relationship with who she is or what she represents. Each Catholic and Orthodox tradition sees Mary as having a special place and a special symbolism for our lives. Yet what makes the Rosary so universal in its nature is not confined to definition from a few traditions. Protestants as well as those of no particular faith take up the Rosary to discover that when it comes to the spiritual life of mankind, no label is adequate to encompass the richness and expansive nature of God, whose creative play is beyond all attempts to define.

What is most beautiful about the Rosary is that such appeal comes not from definition, but from experience. It comes from the heart as we surrender our hearts to the heart of God. Many theologies exist in the world today, and many explain Mary differently. Who is Mary? Why Mary? Ask two people; two answers will emerge. Who is our Mother? What does Mother mean to us? Mary is not only the Mother of Jesus Christ, and thus worthy of love, respect and admiration. She is also in a larger and more "universal" sense the symbol and touchstone for Motherhood itself, as if by exploring the surfaces of this touchstone we are transported into the idea of Mother, into the heart of birthing and nurturance. As we were born and cradled, as Jesus was born and cradled, so must Christ be born and cradled within us. Mother is compassion, Mother is Love. Mother is forgiveness, Mother is expectancy. Mother sees flowers where others see stones. Mother embraces. Mother unifies.

Today’s world is a world in need of Mother, and many people look and seek for birthing of a spiritual life, of Divinity within themselves. As Mary birthed Divinity within herself, she stands as Universal Mother—ready to assist all who come to her in birthing Christ within themselves. The Rosary is a powerful tool to aid this birthing process.

The need of our time is for people to gain an authentic experience of spirituality which is both transformative and authentic, yet consistent with the cultural traditions of the west with which most people are at least moderately familiar. The Rosary does not require the learning of a world-view or theological conception; it does not require a change of lifestyle simply to do it (although one’s life may well change after doing it for a while). It does not require an investment in the views of others. It does not even require that one knows anything about it. What is does require is simple enough—it requires a commitment to the practice, and a degree of faith that this practice may bring results beyond our expectations. It also requires what the theater calls "suspension of disbelief"—an attitude of neutrality that does not expect anything in particular nor discounts anything that happens.

These Rosaries are both traditional and non-traditional in content. Yet each one bears a flavor of the quality of life that is focused upon by its use. They are collectively called Rosaries of Divine Union precisely because of their nature, which acts as a mechanism or tool for allowing one to come to rest in restful prayer, in silent prayer, in communion with the deepest Mystery of our Source. As Father Keating so eloquently stated, the Source of our lives is a continuously refreshing fountain of life, pouring forth moment to moment and bathing us in it’s mystery and glory. As we wash ourselves clean in this fountain, we leave our worries, our doubts, our anxieties, our imperfections and frailties with God. We also leave our intentions. In so doing we lay aside the divisions of our life: work, play, family, friends, emotions and worries, obligations and duties, and gain both a greater spiritual vision of God and of ourselves. We drop our conflicted sense of who we are and begin to see and feel ourselves a part of the larger play of life as connected to and through the Divine with all of life. We move from our heads to our hearts; we become somebody, then nobody, then everybody.

These Rosaries are designed and intended to facilitate not only the mystery of intercessional prayer, but the mystery of transcendence as well. Our intentions lead us to silence, from which we are born anew each time we sit with the Rosaries. It is difficult to suggest what outcomes each may experience as there are as many outcomes as there are people. Yet one thing is clear: spending time with the deepest part of ourselves—the part of us that belongs to God alone, is transformative. We emerge different people to a world made different by our prayer.

The practice of these Rosaries includes several aspects that draw together our minds and hearts in devotion. The first is "Lectio Divina". The second is the practice of silence, and the third is the letting go of our thoughts and intentions in that silence.

Lectio Divina is, in the classic sense of "contemplative prayer", a method of hearing the Word of God and allowing it to sink into our awareness without trying to make anything out of it. There is no need for "thinking about" what we have heard or trying to use the information in any way. Instead, we allow it to work on us at deep levels of our being, and the results of such a practice often finds a percolation of insight, of knowledge or of understanding or experience. These Rosaries are based upon scriptural references and comments that together comprise the "Lectio" part of the practice. We hear them and let them go. Then, we recite the Rosary slowly, quietly and with intention. This is a key element in the practice of this Rosary: slow quiet rhythms of recitation allow the mind and emotions to still into the silence and quietness that seems to follow each decade. We rest in this silence after we finish each decade and before the next mystery is announced. By this practice, thoughts, insights or experiences may occur during the silences, yet we do not hold onto them, for we let them go as they have arrived: quietly and without notice. When the next mystery is announced, we hear the scripture and the commentary, let it go, and begin the next decade. As we sink into silence, we again let go of our thoughts, our prayerful intentions and our feelings.

The purpose of contemplative meditation, and of these Rosaries, is that the object of attention is transcended altogether, and the truest "hearing" of the pure gospel is to be found in our own awareness reflected in silence. Thus, the lectio divina of these Rosaries is not what is heard in sound, but what is heard in the silence of the heart

This is a practice that does two things: it allows us to experience the mystery of our being and our connection to God, and allows us to present to God in the silence our intentions. We do that by beginning the Rosary with intentions that our prayer will benefit people—ourselves, our friends, family and loved ones as well as people we may not even know. Our intentions can encompass the universe, for it is just as easy to pray for the entire world as for one person or situation. As we reach the silence that falls between the decades, our intentions are not brought up by any act of will on our part; we simply know that the Divine knows our needs more thoroughly than we do. We surrender everything in the silence: our sense of who we are, what we want and what will happen. We simply know that we are loved by the Divine that creates us, sustains us, and receives us. We have the mystery of faith that allows us to understand that we are heard.

The mystery of the Rosary, like that of the Eucharist, is both symbolic and literal, both transformative and deeply uniting. What Father Keating says of the Eucharist can be just as well applied to the Rosary:

In the Eucharist, we are not only joined to Jesus Christ present with his whole being under the symbols of bread and wine, but we believe we are joined with all other Christians, with every member of the human race, and indeed with the whole of creation. Jesus Christ in his divinity is in the hearts of all men and women and in the heart of all creation, sustaining everything in being. This mystery of oneness enables us to emerge from the Eucharist with a refined inward eye, and invites us to perceive the mystery of Christ everywhere and in every thing. He who is hidden from our senses and intellect in his divine nature becomes more and more transparent to the eyes of faith - to the consciousness that is being transformed. Christ's Spirit in us perceives the same Spirit in others. The Eucharist is the celebration of life, the dance of the divine in human form. We are part of that dance. Each of us is a continuation of Christ's incarnation insofar as we are living Christ's life in our own lives - or rather, instead of our own lives. The Eucharist is the summary of all creation coming together in a single hymn of praise and thanksgiving. In the Eucharist all creation is transformed into the body of Christ, united with his divine Person, and thrust into the depths of the Father for ever and ever. Even material creation has become divine in him. "For the creation," says Paul, "waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God" (Rom. 8:19).

It is here that the tranformative part of the Rosary, like the Eucharist, becomes part of us in a deep and abiding fashion: we become wedded to the life of Christ in the most fundamental act of life—the joining of God and man. This is both spiritual and religious. For the roots of the word "religion" mean to "bind oneself back to" something—the source of life itself. Spirituality is the seeing and sensing and breathing of life in the joyous understanding—one may even say experience—that all things are connected in a deeply authentic and satisfying way. Or it may simply be an amazement and awe at the complex dance of life itself.

Either way, we are spiritual beings having a physical experience, and our birthright is that we have the capacity to unite ourselves to the deepest aspects of our being in God. These Rosaries, and their practice, are one way to help bring this about.

About These Rosaries

One of the oldest prayers to Mary is the following prayer, found in several places and dating from a young church under Roman persecution around 235 CE:

O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.

While there is no evidence to suggest that the above prayer was a part of an early litany or Rosary, it does show that prayer to Mary was accepted and practiced very early in church history. Most people are familiar with the five-decade Rosary, commonly called the "Dominican" Rosary. The five decade Rosary was named in honor of St. Dominic, to whom Mary appeared in the early 1200’s. According to legend she gave the Rosary to him with instructions for its use and the words "this is the precious gift I leave you with". St. Dominic then devoted his life to the teaching of the Rosary and accomplished much in encouraging its use among his followers and among the faithful. This is the Rosary that is most commonly used in the West and understood to be the standard Rosary. Yet it was not the first.

The modern Rosary can be traced back to the Dark Ages of ninth century Ireland. During that time, the one hundred fifty Psalms of David were one of the most important forms of monastic prayer. Monks recited the Psalms day-after-day as a major source of inspiration. Monks also chanted or prayed the offices each day, and lay people who lived near the monasteries were so impressed with the beauty and inspiration of their prayers that they eventually developed their own form of repetitive prayers through the help of these Irish monks.

The oldest "Rosaries", used by Irish herdsmen, were rocks used to count prayers. A rock was tossed for each prayer recited. The inconvenience of this was obvious, and later Rosaries consisted of knotted leather strings upon which people either counted the "Our father" or later, the "Hail Mary", as well as psalms and prayers of litany. With the passage of time and the spread of the practice, many variations of the basic Rosary came into use. Many were made of seeds and stones, leather and lace, clay and wood, and even rose petals formed into a hard-baked paste. Many Eastern Orthodox variations used ten decades while some Western Latin variations used fifteen.

It may come as a surprise to many people to discover that the traditional five-decade Latin Rosaries—the Joyous, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries—are not the only ones. Historically, there are many variations of prayers used in Rosaries around the world, and new ones are added almost daily. The Franciscan Crown Rosary is the model upon which the contents of this book are loosely based and consist of seven decades, having the original five Joyous Mysteries plus two mysteries devoted specifically to Our Lady: the Coronation and the Assumption.

Why use the seven decade Rosary? Experience revealed that seven decades were long enough to provide forty-five minutes to an hour’s worth of prayer time—long enough for an enjoyable experience, yet short enough to be manageable for most people’s time budgets. Seven decade Rosaries tend to be difficult to find, however. If you want one, you can make one yourself or have one made for you by a person who makes them. What you make it from is completely a matter of personal taste. If you don’t have one, use any standard five decade Rosary. During the prayers, simply "back up" two decades and continue to the end.

General Instructions

Practice of the Rosary can be done anywhere, anytime, alone or with a group. If done in a group, several people gathered provide both incentive for doing the practice as well as people to share it with. The power of several people together praying these Rosaries is a wonderful thing to experience, and many people prefer to do the Rosary in a group.

Doing the Rosary alone is an opportunity available to us whenever we feel the need. It is a wonderful and amazing experience that allows one to go deeply into the silence for as long as one wishes. If done in a group, choose one leader who will read everything for that session. In that way, others may sink into the silence and cadence of the practice with a minimum of distractions. For private use it is preferred to say the prayers slowly and barely audibly or better yet, silently. Silence and mental repetition of prayer alternate to help the mind settle and the awareness sink into the silence that denotes the presence of God, the active and alert silence where Divine Union begins.

It cannot be overemphasized that a key element to this practice is that the prayers should be done slowly and with deliberate pace. Mary, appearing to the visionaries at Medjugorje, has often emphasized the need to pray the Rosary slowly and with feeling.

At the end of each decade and before the next mystery is announced, there should be a leisurely time of silence as the outward expression of prayer gives way to the inward awareness of stillness. There is no hurry; the effectiveness of this rosary as a meditative experience depends upon the ease with which all of the prayers are said. The effectiveness of this rosary as an intercessory experience is also enhanced when it is done with deliberate yet relaxed intention. The length of the silent period is left to the discretion of the leader and can vary from decade to decade. Certainly one to two minutes is adequate as a minimum and a longer period of silence may be observed if the group or individual feels it appropriate and desirable.

There are two essential ways to do these Rosaries: with and without commentary. Some groups or individuals may find that simply reading the scripture surrounding each mystery is enough before going on to the prayers, and this method provides an experience of Lectio Divina along with the experience of prayer. Others may find that reading the commentary in addition to the scripture is preferred. This is a function both of time and of temperament. Some find that the commentary takes time away from the experience of transcendence. Some find that it becomes a catalyst for insight. Experience is the best teacher in this regard: choose according to your mood and inclination. If the practice is done in a group, there is another way to approach the commentary. At the end of the prayer session a discussion may be started regarding the commentary—it could be read, thus forming a starting point for discussion which could bring in personal experiences that people may find enriching. One comment each week could provide a starting point for a discussion that could take as much time as people would like to allow. This is just one possibility—people may enjoy writing their own comments and sharing them with each other. After all, the Rosary is more than an experience of prayer: it brings people together on many levels.

Each Rosary is written as a complete and separate document, containing all the prayers, comments and instructions necessary for its use. This was done deliberately so that one may open the book to any of the Rosaries and have everything needed for that Rosary organized in one easy to read "chapter". In this manner, some text is repeated from Rosary to Rosary, and since it was anticipated that this book would be used with a small group, it becomes easy to change "readers" from time to time if the group feels the urge to do so.

These Rosaries are not the standard Rosaries familiar to all Catholics.  Some are quite familiar—the Joyous and Glorious mysteries which have been adapted for seven-decade usage—but they have been changed and amended with a particular purpose in mind, and these amendments should be clearly noted.

When possible, the earliest versions of the prayers have been used. The Rosary has evolved over a period of time stretching back over fifteen hundred or more years.  Many changes have taken place in the wording of the prayers, and a deliberate choice was made in the selection of a form of “Hail Mary”.  This version of the “Hail Mary”, used as early as the fourth century CE, is the oldest and is taken from the angel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary in Luke 1:28, as well as the several sentences surrounding Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary in Luke 1:42.  With the passage of time came changes, and by the sixteenth century, the current version of this prayer was more formally adopted.  Although the current popular version of the “Hail Mary” is beautiful and enduring, it was felt that the qualities of praise, beauty and faith contained in the oldest versions of the prayer (as well as the scripture) were both uplifting and joyful and were more fit vehicles for the expression of Love and the experience of the richness of transcendent Divinity in a practice that sought Contemplative transcendence as well as intercessory prayer.

A second and alternate wording is offered as a translation of the traditional “Our Father”.  This translation is admittedly not “cannonical” in the sense that it derives directly from the Synoptic Gospels, which were found in Greek and translated from Greek.  This version has been taken from the translations from the Gospel of Matthew contained in the Syriac Aramaic language, the language of  Jesus and his contemporaries. While there is debate as to whether the Aramaic version of the Peshitta was indeed the first version and was later translated into Greek, it is clear that such a gospel would have been written for the Aramaic speakers of the early Jerusalem Church.

The Jerusalem Church, under the leadership of James the Just (known as the Brother of the Lord) may well have been the audience for which this Gospel was written.  These were Aramaic and Hebrew speakers from different sects, including Essenes and Pharisees.  Greek, while widely used as the “intellectual” language (much as French was the “court” language during the 17^th and 18^th centuries), was not known to be used commonly as a temple language nor was it in use by the average Aramaic or Hebrew speaking citizen of the years 35-100 CE in Palestine.

The translations of the Aramaic text for the “Our Father” are rich in symbolism and varied in meanings.  More than one meaning can be given to each word or syllable in the text.  It is therefore a surprise to most people to come to understand that Aramaic refers to God as possessing both male and female qualities, as opposed to the more masculine qualities associated with the then-contemporary Hebrew conception of God as a just and stern tribal god.  Jesus referred to God the Father as “Abba”, a rather specific term of endearment that actually encompassed the “Father-Mother” image. 

In similar fashion the rest of the prayer was translated to give a feeling of the meaning the prayer could have beyond the direct translation, or perhaps the nuances of the prayer that can come as a result of looking at the root syllables.   What can result is startling in its beauty and import:

O Birther!  Father-Mother of the Cosmos,  focus your light within us—make it useful.  Create your reign of unity now; Your one desire acts with ours, as in all light, so in all forms.  Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.  Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strand we hold of others’ guilt.  Don’t let surface things delude us, but free us from what holds us back.  From you is born all ruling will, the power and the life to do, the song that beautifies all;  from age to age it renews.  Amen.

This is just one possible translation, and many others are possible.  This is offered to illustrate that meaning is often very much a product of culture and language, and that richness can be lost through translation.  Although not intended to replace the “Our Father” we all know and love, it helps us to think a little differently about the Author of the prayer as well as its meaning for us personally. 

Two Rosaries in this book use translations derived from interpretations of the Aramaic wording of Matthew:  The Rosary of the Divine Heart of God and the Rosary of the Holy Spirit.  Both of these Rosaries were inspired from Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus.  Published by HarperSanFancisco in 1990, this fascinating work by Aramaic Scholar Neil Douglas-Klotz provides a rather different look at many of the standard prayers that we know from Matthew,  including the “Our Father”, the Beatitudes and others.  Regardless of the accuracy of the translations on a direct word-for-word basis, the subtlety of meaning that emerges is thought provoking and worthy of attention.

Similarly, other prayers were used to celebrate our relationship with God as a people inheriting our rightful place in life—a place at the table of Divinity, where our deepest core of being is united with God.  In such a place, in such a view, there is no room for declarations of sinfulness, inadequacy and unworthiness.  God accepts us as we are.  Is it not time that we do as well?  These Rosaries are intended to encourage and stimulate the feeling that we are God’s children, and that our birthright is to discover God’s presence as our inmost being.  In this practice, we choose to emphasize not our inadequacies, failings, faults and frailties.  While we may all possess all of these in abundance, in this practice we choose to emphasize our birthright as children of God seeking rest in the arms of God.  God already knows of our sufferings, failings, problems and needs.  Most of us are hard enough on ourselves anyway, so for the time that it takes us to practice these Rosaries, we choose to emphasize Love, Compassion, Celebration, Giving, Joy and the freedom that  God offers us when we simply let go of our concepts of who we think we are.

This is the most essential point of this practice:  we let go of our concepts, we let go of our thoughts, we let go of our concerns, our worries, our needs and our pain.  We even let go of our joys and our happiness, offering only to sit and be filled as God chooses to fill us…or emptied as God chooses to empty us.  In giving up both our joy and our pain we begin to realize in a very tangible way that we are not our emotions, we are not our bodies, we are not our feelings…we are so much more.  We are images of Divinity awaiting birth.  These Rosaries help us birth that birthright into our lives and into our awareness, there to be shared with everyone we meet.  In birth there is both joy and pain, but after both come and go what grows is love.  As Mother Teresa has said:  “Prayer enlarges the heart that it may contain God’s Love”.

Centering Prayer

Also contained in this book are instructions and information about Centering Prayer, a form of Contemplative prayer that brings one to the place where we are deeply open to God, deeply open to the Divine life.  As Fr. Thomas Keating observes:

The ultimate purpose of every kind of prayer is to give ourselves to God, and to make it possible for God to do what he always wanted to do in the first place, which is to give us the divine life. Deep prayer is the condition that God is waiting for in order to communicate his divine life and holiness to us. Such is the purpose of our creation in the first place.

Centering Prayer allows us to open ourselves in silence to that deepest Mystery in which we give ourselves to God so completely that even thought itself is abandoned and all is offered to God.  Both practices—Centering Prayer and the Rosary—are complementary and mutually beneficial to one another.  More information on Centering Prayer can be found in Open Heart, Open Mind by Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO.

The Rosary is a treasure given to all people and this book is written for everyone regardless of spiritual experience or religious identity, in the hopes that the uplifting tone and the mystical perspective will prove a wonderful aid to the exploration of the inner life.

May this book, and the Rosaries contained herein, inspire you to practice the Rosary and experience for yourself the depth, the richness, and the joy of our inner life—a reflection of the Divine Life.  May you melt in Love and be cast strong in Devotion!  

I leave you with the words of  the anonymous author of  “The Cloud of Unknowing”  when he writes: 

“My dear friend, I bid you farewell now with  God’s blessing and mine.  May God give you and all who love him true peace, wise counsel, and his own interior joy in the fullness of grace.  Amen.”

 Fr. Michael Adams,

Trinity Sunday, 2001