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 

These words, "The Kingdom of God is like", are taken from Mark 4: 30, and are the key phrase which names the purpose for parables.  Parables challenge the listener or reader to think and experience outside the box, sometimes outside the realm of intellect entirely.  Parables challenge us to see behind the allegory, and although a parable and an allegory have different meanings to the biblical scholar, the comparison or allegorical situation presented gives us pause to consider other meanings, other shades of truth.  Jesus taught in allegories and parables for various reasons, and it is difficult to suggest that they were only for the purpose of keeping the less enlightened from being confused.  There is good evidence to suggest that this was a deliberate teaching tool designed to further the experience of the listener in much the same way as a koan does in Buddhist philosophy.

Parables told to listeners during the lifetime of Jesus were likely stories which produced both shock and surprise, for the kinds of characters and their behaviors were things that spoke readily to the social structures, religious and social habits and constrictions of the day in a way which is difficult for us to grasp today.  The net effect of these stories was to place in comparison or juxtaposition situations that conveyed a radical message about the nature of the kingdom of God.  The radical quality of many parables still speak to us today, hinting by their multi-level content and rich symbolic meaning of a view of life from God’s eyes, of radical inclusiveness and boundary-breaking behavior.  They continue to challenge us at a moral and ethical level as well as challenge us in a deeply disturbing spiritual level.  At the same time they challenge and stir us, they also sooth and assure us of the unrelenting, radical, continual presence of God in creation when we choose to look for it.

The parables tell us that the kingdom of God is beyond our expectations, beyond our concepts, yet can be found in ordinary activity in the lives of ordinary people.  The parables challenge us to go beyond the ability of the mind to think altogether and enter into the mystery of God in being, for being itself is the playground of the Divine in nature and in our lives.  The parables encourage us to think, then to be stretched, then to break—and in the breaking of our ideas and concepts we gain insight.  Beyond our insight is the kingdom itself made manifest by all people who choose to come to the table for the feast already prepared for us, for our job is to share that feast with others.

General Instructions

Begin by having an intention in mind for the rosary.  This intention may be stated as part of the following prayer.

Prayer of Intention

We who gather to pray this rosary do have in our minds and hearts the following intentions:  (Here a few moments of silence allow all to clarify their intentions).  We ask that these intentions may bring forth the results desired, according to Your will.  Amen.

1.   Holding the cross in the right hand (if right handed), with the rest of the rosary in the left hand, bless yourself with the Invocation:

D In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

2.   Holding the cross in the right hand (if right handed), and with the rest of the rosary draped across the left hand, begin with this prayer of St. Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.  Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.  O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.  For it is in giving that we receive, it is pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in complete surrender that we are born to eternal life.  Amen. D

3.   On the first bead after the cross say the “Our Father”:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  Amen.

Alternate “Our Father” translated from the Aramaic (see introduction)

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.

4.   On the next three beads say the “AVE MARIA”:

Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.  Amen.

5.   After the third AVE MARIA hold the chain and say the GLORIA PATRI:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:  as it was in the beginning, is how and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

6.   Name the mystery, and if desired read the thoughts.  Then read the prayer.  Begin with the OUR FATHER on the bead just before the medal and the AVE MARIA on the next ten beads following the medal.  On the chain following these ten beads, say the GLORIA PATRI.

7.   Then, name the next mystery and proceed exactly as above until all the mysteries have been said—that is say the OUR FATHER on the single bead, then the ten AVE MARIAs, then on the chain the GLORIA PATRI, then the next mystery.

First Blessing

The Good Samaritan

In reply Jesus said: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”  Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?  Luke 10:30-35

Thoughts…

This parable is one which is given in answer to the question “who is my neighbor?”, and would have spoken to the lives of the original listeners in a way not quite possible in today’s world.  Modern people need some historical background to understand the deeper dimensions of what is being said in this comparison.  Jewish society of the time was highly stratified with many levels of hierarchy.  On the top were the priests, then the Levites, then the common people.  There were sharp distinctions between the people of Israel and everyone else.  All things, people and places were assigned to their relative rank in society, and ritual laws of purity decreed that there be no intermixing or intermingling as sacred and profane things were rigorously separated.  Samaritans were peoples considered “lost”, despised and outcast from Israel as non-members of the people of Israel.  Why this was so stemmed from both the political and religious history of the separation of Israel into two kingdoms—Israel and Judah—in the ninth century BCE.  King Omri of the Northern Kingdom bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer (1 Kings 16:24). He built there the city of Samaria which became his capital.

The city was strongly defended, and it controlled the valley through which the main road ran between Jerusalem and Galilee. In 722 B.C. the city fell to the Assyrians and became the headquarters of the Assyrian province of Samarina. While many of the inhabitants of the city and the surrounding area of Samaria were led off into captivity, some farmers and others were left behind, and they intermarried with new settlers from Mesopotamia and Syria.

The Samaritans were condemned by the Jews for intermarrying and diluting the racial purity, but were also condemned by the Jews for having set up a rival temple on Mount Gerizim, which had become the Samaritan equivalent of Jerusalem.  Thus they were despised for both political as well as religious reasons, and were considered not just outsiders, but occupied a special place of hatred and bigotry in the social heart of Israel not unlike that of the warring factions in Northern Ireland or of Serbs and Muslims in modern Bosnia.

What this does is set up a scene in which the answer to the question of whom may be counted as our neighbor demonstrates that the kingdom of God has no distinctions, boundaries or exclusions.  In this parable a priest and a Levite—countrymen of the injured man—both ignored the half-dead traveler and continued upon their way.  Why was this so?  Was it because they were both hard-hearted, callous or cruel people?  Perhaps they were, but what is more likely is that they were simply following the rules set out for them by their religious and social ideas…rules that carefully separated the “clean” or ritually pure from the “unclean” or ritually polluted.  They were in other words constrained by their conceptions and thoughts about what a “righteous” person should be like and should behave.

How was the Samaritan thinking?  In this example it would appear that the Samaritan either was not bound by such ritual laws or choosing to ignore them, used compassion and treated the injured man with dignity and further treated him as if he were his own brother…offering whatever it took to help him in his need.  The kingdom of God is like this Samaritan in that when it breaks through our awareness, we are no longer compelled to observe life in the same way; indeed, we are freed to act and create as God wants us to act and create.  We are able to become open to what God wants in our lives without judging how, where, or why.  The Samaritan was a neighbor because through compassion the Samaritan saw himself in the injured person, and through seeing himself in that place began to touch that part of himself where the Divine life animates all of us, and in that act of compassion showed himself open to the action of God in his life.  This is what the parable asks of us—to be ready to be open to receive the blessings of the kingdom of God from any direction and to have the courage to let go of the things which bind us to our misery and ignorance.  This is the goal of service to others:  that we forget our own conception of who we are when we act for the benefit of others.

Prayer:

Heavenly Mother, help us open ourselves to compassion, and like the Good Samaritan, help us with the courage to go beyond our conceptions of ourselves, and allow God to show us who we are His eyes.  Amen.

Second Blessing

The Publican

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”  But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  Luke18:10-14

Thoughts…

In this parable, we are shown two men in the temple praying, one who believes that he is better than others, and another man who feels himself weighed down with his burdens and can only ask for Divine help in his life.  This speaks to us not so much about ego, but about receptivity.  The miserable man in the parable is a man who has given up, and feels lost and empty.  He doesn’t feel that he has anything to give, and is fully ready to say “not my will but yours” when he says “have mercy upon me”.  He is ready to receive.  In contrast, the Pharisee is making judgments about those around him.  Two things are interesting about this:  the first is that when we make judgments, the mind is busy saying “not this, not that” and is making choices about life.  The second is that because of this he was not open to receive, not open to hear the word of God in his life.  We need to be “as little children” to receive the kingdom of God because we need to be non-judgmental about how blessing comes in our lives.  If we are busy looking for blessing in only one direction, we are not attentive to blessing which comes from elsewhere.  In the kingdom of God all blessings come from everywhere and anywhere, and those who heard this parable must have been shocked, for it turns upside down their conceptions of how the kingdom of God should be.  No longer is God in the Temple, nor any longer is God the exclusive domain of the self-righteous.  There is no dividing line between the temple—the sacred—and the profane—the sinner.  God is found equally in all places.

When we make of ourselves as the sinner in this story, we are opened to the blessings of God in our lives wherever they may come from, and this action allows us to feel gratitude for what we have as well as be open to blessings from anywhere.  We empty ourselves of ourselves, and allow the Divine nature of God to well up from the wellsprings of our inner birthright—our nature as Children of God.

Prayer

O Mother, receptacle of Grace, bless us that we may open ourselves daily to God, saying “yes” to course that God has set for us, and “yes” to the Love of God every moment of every day .  Amen.

Third Blessing

The Prodigal Son

Jesus continued: There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate”' So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.”  So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son”

But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.”  Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. “Your brother has come,” he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.” The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” “My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

Thoughts…

This parable is quite similar to the parable of the Lost Sheep, and like that parable we see an individual wander away from their home, from their place of belonging to go out into a world of individuality in which we squander our birthright—Unity in God—for a set of experiences which seem to satisfy our needs for happiness and love but ultimately we starve—spiritually—and long to return to our father’s house where everybody is fed.  This part of the parable is a classic story of mankind, who is wandering about in the world thinking that he can sustain himself as a separated and lonely being, yet all the while starving for spiritual food.

In this parable we are shown the joy that is experienced by creation and by the Divine when we return. What is not so evident is why the other son would display such anger and jealousy.  On one level, the original listeners to this story must have been thinking of the story of Jacob and Esau, in which the elder son was cast aside and the younger son celebrated…a veiled allegory to the situation Israel faced as a people.  Yet the parable turns the tables, and the elder son is not only welcomed but assured of a place in the wealth of the father’s house.

The kingdom of God therefore cuts through our expectations of everything:  it encompasses those that stray, it comforts and keep those who strive, it accepts all things and nourishes all things, and most importantly:  it celebrates all things.

Prayer

Mother Divine, who embraces us and enfolds us in Love, be for us a beacon to guide us home to our Unity with God.  Help us give up our thoughts, emotions and concepts, that in our surrender we are receptive to being found, and in being found, guided again to our home.  Amen.

Fourth Blessing

The Lost Coin

Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?  And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.”  Luke 15:8-9

Thoughts…

This parable—found only in Luke—illustrates the juxtaposition of the ordinary and the extraordinary in our lives.  In the Greek version of Luke, the amount of the coin is one drachma, which would have been a small amount of money equivalent to less than a day’s wages.  It was not much money even then, yet the women looks all over for it and searches until she finds it, and once having found it, celebrates and rejoices.  We are told that the kingdom of  God is like this woman, engaged in the ordinary.  The kingdom of God is found in ordinary acts and ordinary people.  Yet what is extraordinary is that the woman was aware that she has lost something…and that awareness impels her to look until she finds it.  Without the absence of something, we are not often impelled to search to find something, and in this case it illustrates that God is found in lacking as much as in finding, for both lead to the same outcome:  celebration!  In this ordinariness, then, God speaks to us from three angles:  loss, gain, and celebration.  God is found in all three.

Prayer

Mother of Life, help us celebrate each day, help us to remember that God is found as much in loss as in gain, and so through our lives to celebrate each moment as the precious presence of God.  Amen.

Fifth Blessing

The Great Feast

Jesus replied: A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.” But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.”  Another said, “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.” 'Still another said, “I just got married, so I can't come.”  The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.” “ Sir,” the servant said, “what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.” Then the master told his servant, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.”

Thoughts…

This parable is a complex juxtaposition of concepts, and one that requires some explication.  To the listeners of this tale the honor of the host is being rejected by those who are in positions of honor themselves, and who should accept the invitation, yet they are giving excuses for their non-attendance.   In the end those who have no honor in society are invited to the table.  Why this was a shocking revelation of the kingdom of God for the original listeners was that the kingdom of God is shown to have an open invitation to everybody:  the lowly, the outcast, the destitute, homeless, the prostitute, the people considered by others to be “rejects” of society.  What is fascinating about this story is that the host did not reject the original people who were invited, they chose not to come, and continue to do so.  We choose not to come to the table when we decide that business or pleasure or obligations keep us from coming to the feast which is already prepared for us…the bounty of God is already ours to have!  Perhaps we choose not to come because we can’t really believe that there really is a feast after all.  Perhaps we choose not to come to the table when we set up differences between ourselves and other people, somehow believing that they too are isolated creations separate from God and from ourselves.  Sometimes we choose not to come because we ourselves don’t feel worthy.

Yet this parable emphasizes that the kingdom is inclusive of all, no matter who they are.  In today’s world it shows that the kingdom of God encompasses all people:  black, white, red, yellow; gay and straight, single and married, poor and rich.  It encompasses all opposites because it is far more than any duality can describe.   It also emphasizes that the Divine Host is always beckoning us to attend the feast, always gathering from the roadsides and country lanes.  It is always up to us to enter the House of the Lord and seat ourselves at the table, for we are told that we are always welcome.

Prayer

Mother of the Divine, help us see the Kingdom of God everywhere around us.  Help us to see the mystery of God at work in all people no matter who they are or what their circumstances in life.  Open our eyes to the Kingdom of God within and without so that we can be seated at the feast of life and welcome all creation as our own.  Amen.

Sixth Blessing

The Hidden Treasure

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Matthew 13:44

Thoughts…

The kingdom of heaven is compared to a treasure that is worth everything we have—and more—to enjoy.  Does this mean that we must sell all we have and become poor to enjoy this treasure?  No, it means that once having discovered our buried treasure—the spark of Divinity that we share with God, that represents the spirit of God in us—we are indeed rich in that we posses that which nothing else can buy.  And it is our greatest joy to give up everything—our mental concepts, our patterns of behavior, our sense of who we are as separate from God—and offer everything to God.  Only when God is satisfied that we have offered everything—so that we become poor of individuality, poor of ego, poor of separation—then God fills us so completely that our treasure is the treasure of Heaven, of Divinity itself.  And this is worth more than we can ever give to receive it.  In a real sense, we find the treasure that was already always ours, given to us by God from the beginning of the world and awaiting our discovery of it.

Prayer

Mother Mary, vessel of treasure, help us find our own treasure hidden within our own lives and hidden in the lives of others.  Help us become poor in what keeps us separate, that we may become rich in what makes us whole.  Amen.

Seventh Blessing

…the Kingdom of God is like…

He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?”  Mark 4:26-30

Thoughts…

The kingdom of God is lush in fertility, birthing new growth with wild abandon and without regard to what we do.  This mystery—that God is always so green, vibrant and fertile—is the mystery of continual creation, of making new each moment in each moment.  This presence of “the present” is what makes the Divine available to us in each moment, in all places and in all times.  The kingdom of God is so vibrant with growth and fruit that it is available everywhere in creation.  When we too learn to become green and moist and fertile; when we too learn to become supple and joyous in our growth;  when we too become ripe with fruit and in our turn become seed for new growth, then we too are gathered by God to be used as instruments of the Divine play in creation.  This is the ultimate goal for mankind—to know ourselves as one with God in creation and to act from that knowledge, planting seeds and nurturing growth and joy in others, for our unity in God is not for us alone, but for all of creation.

Prayer

Mother of Unity, pull us toward Christ, that we may attain to our birthright as Children of God.  We know that we live with God, through God and in God, and that we are called to serve God in creation.  Help us attain our unity with God not for ourselves alone, but for the sake of all of creation.  Amen.

After the last decade has been said, and the connecting medal has been reached, the following prayer is said:

I give myself this day to the strong power of Love

To the obedience of Angels, the faith of confessors, the preaching of Apostles, to the purity of simple souls.

I give myself this day to the virtues of the starlit heavens, the brightness of the sun, the whiteness of the moon, the flashing of lightening, the restlessness of wind, the stability of earth, and the deepness of the sea.

I give unto myself this day the power of God to lead me, His eye to watch over me, His hand to guide me, His Word to give me speech.

Christ with me, Christ beside me,

Christ behind me, Christ within me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me,

Christ in lying down, Christ in sitting, Christ in rising up,

Christ in the heart of every person who may think of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who may speak of me,

Christ in the eye of everyone who may look on me,

Christ in the ear of everyone who may hear me.

I give myself this day to the strong power of Love.  Amen.