POPE JOHN PAUL II's GUIDE
FOR PRAYING THE
ROSARY
AND
CONTEMPLATING THE GOSPEL MYSTERIES
OF JESUS
The
Mysteries of the Rosary - back to the
beginning
Hot
links to topics in Pope John Paul II's instructions on How to Pray the Rosary
To The Bishops, Clergy And Faithful On The Most Holy Rosary – The SORROWFUL
MYSTERIES
To The Bishops, Clergy And Faithful On The Most Holy Rosary – The GLORIOUS
MYSTERIES
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The
Mysteries of the Rosary - back to the
beginning
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How to pray the Rosary? From the
Vatican website.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit.
O God come to my aid;
O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As
it was in the beginning, is now, and
ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
At the beginning of each decade, announce the "mystery"
to be contemplated, for example, the first joyful mystery is "The Annunciation".
After a short pause for reflection, recite
the "Our Father", ten "Hail Marys" and the "Glory be to the Father".
An invocation may be added after each decade.
At the end of the Rosary, the Loreto Litany or some
other Marian prayer is recited.
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, and lead us not
into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary,
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall
be, world without end. Amen..
The Loreto Litanies
Hail, holy Queen, mother of mercy;
hail, 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
valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards
us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Amen.
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How can
I deliberately answer Jesus' call to follow Him? Basics
- Progress - Perfection
BASICS - living fully
Jesus said "9I
am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and
find pasture. 10The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life
and have it abundantly.
11I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
John 10:9-11 (English Standard Version) Jesus is
our Master Teacher, Saviour, and Lord. We have much to learn from following Him.
To live is to connect with life - with
God - with my own life - with
others - with living things -
with the world of men (humans) - with
Creation, the Universe
Connecting with...
life -
Simply put, God created us, me, as an immortal spirit being, soul, enfleshed
in a mortal human body. So my body with all of its
faculties is my interface with life -
life happening within me and life happening outside and all around me. My
fundamental connection with life is in me,
in my body, and every day and at
every moment, there is before me the freedom to choose to enter into that life,
to welcome it, to nurture and cultivate
it, to care for it, to watch it grow
and develop, and to share it through my other connections.
In Jesus we have from God an example of a human being fully alive,
gratefully welcoming his own life, freely entering into it, carefully
cultivating it, with openness willing to receive from others and everything
around Him and to learn, energetically participating in his own life,
and generously sharing his life with others through his other connections.
Much of Jesus' teaching and many of his parables were about doing this, living
fully and participating fully in all of life, in all its aspects and all of its
seasons, in all conditions and situations, never turning our back on life, but
accepting to go through whatever life brings and to be changed by whatever
happens to us.
Jesus taught all those willing to listen. This is what he said according to
Matthew 5:1-12:
5 When Jesus saw the
crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to
him.
2
Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5
"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be
filled.
7
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 "Blessed are those who
are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 "Blessed are you when
people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the
prophets who were before you."
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God
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my own life
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others
COLF -
Catholic Organization for Family and Life
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living things
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the world of men
(humans)
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Creation, the Universe
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PROGRESS - setting out with Jesus
Begin and end the day well
On opening my eyes
first thing in the morning, I learn to immediately become aware of
God's presence in me and all around me. What
follows is lively and dynamic and is ever different and new, but has as a
basic direction gratitude at being alive and having slept and rested. As
gratitude moves in me and lifts up my spirit towards God, my focus shifts away
from me to God, to the 3 divine Persons, now to the Father, or to
Jesus his Son, or to the Holy Spirit.... I may become aware of Mary's
presence near them, of Joseph and other saints, and quietly, simply greet
them....
This spiritual discipline, practice,
or skill is about not just waking up in body, but also in mind, heart, and soul
to the most real reality there is in the universe: God the Blessed Trinity of
Persons, before whom nothing existed and for whom all has been created. To begin
each day this way is to anchor myself in the depths of reality and open
myself to the guidance of God into the rest of my day and all day long, and
eventually, into eternity itself. In this way I let God make me strong in Him
and set me as a strong pillar in the face of all that life, my own living
organism, my family, the world, others, work, my responsibilities, society, and
the devil and his cohorts can throw at me.
Getting out of bed and responding to
essential body functions, I pick up again on God's
presence and go to my prayer chair or corner and enter
into my first formal prayer of the day, using the
Liturgy of the Hours, or the
Book of Psalms in the Bible, the Book of God's inspired Word also called
the Sacred Scriptures, or
the Mysteries of the Rosary, or the
readings of the Mass of
the day, or any other version of the
Word of God. It is essential
that before I feed my body I go to God our Father so He can nourish my mind,
heart, and soul with his Word, his Beloved Son, who alone brings us the Father's
mind, heart, and will in the form of God's Word.
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Begin and end the
week well
God gave his Chosen People, the
Jewish People, the people of Israel and Judah, the gift of his own Day of Rest,
the seventh day known as the Sabbath. Jesus gave his disciples a new day for the
new life He won for us by his passion, death, and resurrection - what was for
the Jews the first working day of the week - Sunday, the day of the
Resurrection, no longer remained the first day of the week but was transformed
into the eighth day, Sunday,
the Lord's Day, the Day of Pentecost and the birth of the Church, the
day Christians gather together for
Liturgy to worship the
Lord.
This is the origin of what we have
come to call the weekend, a combination of those two days of rest, which for a
time in the West gave families a long period of two days to worship the Lord and
be together as a family, leaving aside the worries of work and of the world and
focusing on the experience of wonder and awe before God and gratitude for his
bountiful gifts of life.
The world ignores the value and
importance of rest on the Lord's Day, and does all it can to steal our peace and
joy from us in exchange for the illusion of endless acquisition and consumption
of material things. It is an essential skill and strength of each Christian to
resist the trends of society, culture, governments, organizations, and
individuals and observe the Lord's Day. There is an inner logic and dynamism in
God's prescription that we rest that brings together the members of a family in
cooperation to accomplish together a
Christian Sabbath Rest
and allows them to reveal themselves to each other and support one another,
growing and deepening the intimacy of their mutual relations and love.
The
Sunday Liturgy is the visible
gathering of the members of the Body of Christ, and the time and place when the
Lord continues to walk among them, speak to them, feed them with his Body and
Blood, and send them out into the world to continue his mission to bring the
Good News from his Father to the ends of the Earth and continue making disciples
of Jesus. The
Holy Eucharist is the source and summit of the life of every Christian
and of the whole Church united to Christ as the Head of his Body and his Bride.
Care for the self on my own
turf & time
The most satisfying way for men and
women to care for themselves is to do it in a way that doesn't impose on others.
There is a formation center in
Montreal that specializes in forming people to greater autonomy and learning how
to help others to develop their own greater autonomy. It is normal for children
to be an imposition on their parents because they are still dependent on them.
Once they begin to grow up and become youth, the go from depending on their
parents to relying on themselves to care for their own life and health. One
thing that distinguishes adults from youth is their awareness, ability, and
willingness to do what they need to care for themselves on their own time and in
their own space as much as possible.
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Make room, time, &
energy for others
Love - family, co-workers, friends, neighbours.... Pope John Paul II
wrote a remarkable letter on the
Christian Family in the Modern World, in which he reflected on the
wonder of God's plan for humanity rooted firmly in his blessing on human
marriage and the human family, and the added depth and blessing He offers to
Christians as they respond to his call to found their marriage and family life
on the example of Jesus and look to the gift of himself for their personal,
couple, and family sustenance.
Duties - God created man in order to participate in his own divine work
of creation - see
On Human Labor by John Paul II. Good Pope John XXIII updated Pope Leo
XIII's reflection on the situation of human life, labor, and social conditions
at the end of the 19th century with a reflection of his own past the halfway
point of the 20th century in an encyclical offering the contemporary world the
Roman Catholic Church as
Mother and Teacher of the nations. Two years later, he further
studied various issues affecting people in the workplace and family life issuing
from developments in science and technology and changes in thought and beliefs
leading to new trends in the workplace and new challenges to
Peace on Earth and in families. Pope John Paul II wrote his own update
on these
social issues for our time twenty years after Pope Paul VI's encyclical
on the
Development of Peoples.
Suffering - If Adam and Eve3 had remained in harmony with God, obedient
to his will, and docile to his Spirit, there would still have been death in the
world, but it would have been a much awaited joyful deliverance from this mortal
life and entry into eternity. There would also have been the efforts of labor,
the satisfaction of rest, and the suffering inherent in mortal existence, but
the pain of it would have been incredibly attenuated by the close relationship
with God. As it is, humanity was subjected to such hopelessness and despair in
the face of illness, pain, all manner of suffering, sin, and death exacerbated
by separation from God; that in his great mercy the Father sent his Son to Earth
as Jesus to lead us out of the morass of despair through the thickets of
confusion due to the effects of original sin and the dangers lurking in
temptation by the devil. Jesus has by his acceptance to share in our suffering
given
new meaning to human suffering and new impetus to our willingness to
endure it in order to press on to our eternal destiny.
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Embracing my solitude
There is inscribed in our human
nature itself an essential solitude by virtue of the fact that no matter how
close we get to others emotionally, personally, intellectually, or physically,
we remain isolated individuals. No one except God - not even angels or demons -
can enter into me and know exactly what it is like for me to be me the way I
know it deep within; nor can I enter into another to see what it is like to be
them on the inside, the way they alone and God can know that it is like to be
them.
We are called, as we enter into
midlife, to embrace our essential solitude - not as a curse or burden but as a
blessing - and discover that our own life has been given such value by God that
we can actually come to enjoy our own company. Only after I have thus embraced
my solitude can I enter more deeply into my soul, that spiritual place within
where God has chosen to dwell in us, and there learn to distinguish God's voice
speaking to me, whispering to me, in the gentle, quiet breeze of the Holy
Spirit. The skills and disciplines that serve the Christian well in this work
are such practices as: solitude, stillness, silence, and prayerfully visiting
with God - the Blessed Trinity - the three divine Persons who are ever present
everywhere and in everyone.
For this reason, Jesus urged his
disciples to enter into their secret room where no one but God our Father can
see us and keep Him company there.
"5 'And
when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their
prayers
standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them.
In truth
I tell you, they have had their reward. 6 But
when you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in, and so pray to your
Father who is in that
secret
place, and your Father who sees all that is done in
secret
will
reward you. 7 'In your
prayers do
not babble as the
gentiles
do, for they think that by using many words they
will
make themselves heard. 8 Do not be like them;
your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 So you should
pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy, 10
your kingdom come, your
will
be done, on earth as in heaven. 11 Give us
today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we have
forgiven those who are in
debt
to us. 13 And do not put us to the test, but
save us from the
Evil
One.'"
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Facing & accepting the
truth - about God, others, the world, and myself....
One of the reasons it is so important
for us to observe life within us and around us and learn all we can from the
world around us, from all that God has created in the universe and on Earth, is
because of the struggle between good and evil in which we find ourselves
embroiled from the moment of our conception; though we only become aware of it
with our coming to the age of reason. Moral questions and the
search for the truth are among the most important we face because of the
dramatic and far reaching consequences usually involved. One of the chief values
at stake is the very value, meaning, and purpose of our
human life itself. Another key is the relationship between
faith and reason and God's call to humanity to allow the light of faith
shining from this revelation of the truth to shine and enlighten our observation
of reality and our quest for meaning in the questions we raise or that life puts
to us.
The hardest truths to discover and
accept are those about oneself, and in particular that I am a sinner. It's easy
enough to notice the faults of others and to be convinced of their sinfulness,
but it's quite another matter and a challenge of a deeper sort to notice and
admit my own sinfulness. It is not for nothing that the first words Jesus ever
spoke in public were about turning away from sin in order to become open to the
good news of a new life He brought from his Father. Forgiving sins was so
central to Jesus' message and ministry - far more important than all the
miracles and healings He worked - that He really gave his authority to forgive
sins to his Apostles and their successors. We Roman Catholic and Orthodox
Christians still practice this mysterious graced encounter with Jesus as the One
sent by God to forgive sins, and call this mysterious encounter with God the
sacrament of
Penance and Reconciliation.
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Discipleship
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Stewardship
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Vocation
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PERFECTION -
striving for holiness
Jesus said "43
'You have heard how it was said, You
will
love your neighbour and hate your enemy. 44 But
I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you;
45 so that you may be
children
of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on
the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the
wicked alike. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward
will
you get? Do not even the tax collectors do as much?
47 And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing
anything exceptional? 48 Do not even the
gentiles
do as much? You must therefore be perfect, just as your
heavenly Father is perfect.'"
Matthew 5:43-48
Attachment to God
At the service of all
As Jesus did Himself
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FAQ's: Top
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1. I want to grow closer to God or stronger in faith or deeper in love -
where do I begin or go from here?
1. This kind of desire
is already.... Check it out...
2. I can't take
courses right now or maybe ever - does that mean I can't know God, understand
the Bible, or become a saint?
2. You've gotten
this far... here's a mini course you that can
bring you further...
3. I've tried Sunday Mass, the Bible, the Rosary, and all kinds of prayers
- but how can I really connect with God and know He is real?
3. There are many
windows, doors, or paths you have already experienced
that...
4. I used to
get a lot out of going to Mass, or reading the Bible, or praying the Rosary, or
saying other prayers, but now I get bored or distracted - what do I do now?
4.1. Would you believe
that the antidote to boredom is actually...
4.2. Distractions are not really a failure to
pray...
4.3. What's happening to you is no dead end but
in fact...
5. Why isn't it enough for me as a Christian to be free as the wind - is
discipline really necessary? Why does it always seem to crush enthusiasm?
5. Jesus came to
inspire, not perspire; besides, the only discipline
effective long term is rooted in an intention, motivation that lifts me out of
myself toward God, the One who has given me the gifts I have and who moment by
moment gives me the breath of life so that I may live
fully and become willing and able to generously
give back to Him.
6. So I'm
beginning to think about the tools I need to have lots of vitality in my
Christian life - can I carry everything I need without my tool kit becoming too
heavy?
6. The Catholic
Christian, in order to effectively follow Jesus as his disciple and live the new
life given by Jesus, needs and will want to carry a few essential tools,
most of them are part of a
heritage given by God first to his Chosen People of the Jewish faith and
increased by all that Jesus gave us and the ways in which holy men and women
have learned to use these tools to enter ever more deeply into an experience of
oneness with God in the mystery of the Blessed Trinity.
ADD YOUR OWN QUESTION
- CLICK HERE, WRITE AND SEND IT
TO US AND WE'LL POST IT.
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Other Resources.
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ABC's of the Disciple
Abstinence - Adoration - Angels -
Anointing of the Sick - Baptism - Beatitudes - Beginning the day well - Belonging
- Bible - Blessed Trinity - Catholic Christian
Tool Kit - Celibacy - Chastity
- Childhood - Commandments - Communion - Community - Confession - Confirmation - Contemplation
- Conscience - Conversion - Correspondence - Couple Prayer - Crucifix - Daily Mass
- Dark Night - Deaconate - Desire - Discipleship - Discipline - Duty of the moment
- Ending the day well - Entertainment - Episcopacy - Evangelization - Exercise - Faith
- Family Life - Family Prayer - Fasting - Father - Fatherhood - Femininity - Fertility
- Food for the
Christian - Food for the Journey - Forgiveness - Freedom - Friendship
- Fruits of the Spirit - Fun - Generosity - Gifts of the Spirit - Good News - Healing
- Holy Spirit - Home Schooling - Hope - Home Blessing - Icons - Jesus - Journaling
- Leisure - Liturgy of the Hours - Loneliness - Lord's Day - Love - Charity -
Manhood - Manliness - Mary - Matrimony - Meaning - Meditation - Motherhood - Mysteries of the Rosary
- Novenas - Occupational prayer - Parenting - Play - Penance - Pilgrimage -
Practicing the Presence of God - Praise - Prayer - Presence - Priesthood - Proverbs
- Psalms - Purpose - Reading - Reconciliation - Repentance - Retreats - Rule of Life
- Sabbath rhythm - Serenity - Service - Sexuality - Solitude - Spirituality - Stewardship
- Study - Sunday Liturgy - Temptation - Vocation - Way of the Cross - Wellness - Will
- Witness - Word of God - Womanhood - Work
A CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN'S TOOL KIT - WHAT
IS IT? - WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
What exactly is a took kit for a Catholic Christian?
What is Christian
discipleship anyway?
Praying with God's inspired Psalm prayers in the Bible: e.g.
Psalm 112 – “The
happiness of the just man”
The disciples followed Jesus and learned from watching Him. We too learn from
others, freely adopt and make our own a
Christian rule of life.
personal traditions, Rosary, solitude & communion,
ending and beginning the day well, stewardship of time, Liturgy of the Hours,
Scripture, stewardship of treasure, stewardship of talent, the current stage of
my life
DESIRE
1. This kind
of desire is already God's gift and a sign of the Holy Spirit working in you.
See what
St. Augustine wrote to Proba.
DISCIPLINE
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5. Check
out these books by Fr. Thomas Ryan, C.S.P., a Paulist Father who was 22 years in
Montreal and has returned to the USA to do ecumenical work with Christians from
other traditions – Wellness,
Spirituality, & Sports: wellness, spirituality, leisure, learning to recognize
soul food, fighting the demons of the night, a survival guide
Ryan – Disciplines
for Christian Living: discipline, friendship & family life, living with a
Sabbath rhythm, exercise & play, prayerful presence, fasting, service, vision of
Christian faith.
DUTY OF THE MOMENT
4.3. The "duty of the moment" - the great commandment of charity - love of God, of
neighbour, and of self
FOOD FOR THE CHRISTIAN
2.
Our life as a Christian needs food too....
The Christian's
four spiritual food groups
Adventus
- New Site of Catholic Internet Resources to empower people to live their
baptismal call
OCCUPATIONAL PRAYER
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4.2.
PRACTISING THE PRESENCE OF GOD - ANTIDOTE TO BOREDOM
4.1. The truth about God, the 3
divine Persons revealed for all time to humanity by Jesus of Nazareth called the
Christ, the Lord, is that these 3 divine Persons who together are the one and
only divine being we call God are ever present. The only place in the universe,
in all of creation, where they can be absent is in the human soul when this
individual soul turns away from God and delves into sin, any one of the myriad
forms of evil made up by a refusal of the divine will, a denial of love and its
demands, or any thought, word, act, or behaviour that is evil, an offence
against God or others or the goodness of creation or of life itself. The most
common forms of serious sin are various forms of selfishness that use other
people as objects in such a way as to deny and denigrate the other person's
essential goodness and dignity created by God, which simultaneously debased the
sinner and estranges the sinner from the peace and blissful communion of God's
love.
It is therefore possible and most desirable for every human being to make
deliberate efforts often to enter consciously into this ever presence of God so
as to be enlightened by God in all the shadows of darkness that creep into the
human mind, heart, soul, and flesh, and so dispel temptations to turn away from
God and misuse any of his wonderful and bountiful gifts or exploit them in such
a way as to deprive access to them by others, and especially those with less
means by virtue of their situation in the world, personal and family conditions,
temperament, or dispositions.
ANTIDOTE TO BOREDOM - Taking interest as
opposed to being bored – recognizing it’s up to me rather than waiting for
someone else to make it happen, drawing on my inner freedom rather that staying
trapped in the impulse to escape the present and run after anything else, freely
and deliberately spending/wasting time to take interest in someone, something,
in God, receiving the words, gestures, visuals, sounds, smells and rituals of
the Eucharist and every other Liturgy as so many containers or prisms into which
I can pour out all my thoughts, feelings, desires, fears, and experiences – my
whole self – and let the Holy Spirit draw me to Jesus and the Father
SPIRITUALITY
3. Do you remember the
"Karate Kid" movie? The master has the boy doing manual labor in order to learn
certain moves and strengthen those muscles even though the boy is fed up and
wants to get into the real karate stuff. He couldn't yet understand the
importance of developing the skills needed in order to enter into the discipline
of karate. So too with the Catholic Christian faith. Now that you have been
initiated to the Mass, the Bible, the Rosary, and other forms of prayer, you are
ready to become more familiar with them and develop those muscles. The next step
will be to go deeper, higher, faster, more directly into the mystery of God.
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Understanding the stage upon which my life unfolds or shrinks - where and to
whom do I belong?
Who are we? What is our journey? What is our quest? Who and
where am I in it all?
The divine internet - getting and remaining really connected to everyone and
everything
Christian stewardship of God's gifts of - time - life - created things
A decision daily and constantly renewed - giving oneself a Christian Rule of
Life
The perennial place to start - ending and beginning the day well
Even when in solitude, I am not alone... even when assembled with others in
Jesus, I am not lost....
Drawing daily from the Word of God in the Sacred Jewish and Christian
Scriptures, the Bible
Daily Prayer - the Liturgy of the Hours
Daily Meditation - the Mysteries of the Rosary
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Construction
