Book Review: "Champions of the Rosary" by Fr. Donald Calloway

This is a legitimate magnum opus. Fr. Calloway continues to outdo himself. His Champions of the Rosary: The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon has been advertised as the most comprehensive book written on the Rosary, and I find that point impossible to dispute.

I fell in love with the first chapter. Fr. Calloway titled it, "From the Angelic Salutation to the 12th Century: The Antecedents of the Rosary"; but I refer to it as a biblical theology - the first for the Rosary that I have read. He weaves his theology around the image of a sword, developing the truth to be confirmed throughout the rest of the work: The Rosary is a uniquely powerful weapon for vanquishing Satan. The Rosary has this power because it is "equipped with the only thing capable of defeating him - the saving mysteries of the God-Man" (p.27). The mold for the sword was the Word of God, and the elements poured into that mold, the Our Father and Hail Mary. He discusses the historical development of the Hail Mary, from the joining of the Angelic Salutation (Lk. 1:28) and the Evangelical Salutation (Lk. 1:42) in the sixth century to the addition of its intercessory culmination in the fourteenth. 

Fr. Calloway gives a sweeping history of the Rosary, championing the traditional view that its antecedents were not joined to meditation on the mysteries of Christ's life until St. Dominic Guzman, the founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), was granted a vision of the Blessed Mother, who extended the Rosary to him as a preaching tool to combat the Albigenesian heresy. You will read how the Rosary was employed by popes and saints to not only bring about conversion but win military battles against overwhelming odds (such as at Muret and Lepanto). I learned of miracles and Church-approved Marian apparitions that I had never heard of, such as Our Lady of Laus. Of special interest to me was the section dealing with the modern denial of St. Dominic's role as the original promulgator of the Rosary. Fr. Calloway traces this denial to the early twentieth century work of a Fr. Hebert Thurston, S.J., a priest with ties to the occult and an often-unwarranted criticism of the supernatural elements of the Catholic Faith.

The second section of Fr. Calloway's book is devoted to the great men and women who have championed the Rosary, from well known saints such as Pius V and Louis de Montfort to lesser known individuals, like Servant of God Joseph Kentenich.  Short biographies are provided for twenty-six individuals along with quotes witnessing to the power of the Rosary in their lives.

The third section of the book leads readers in the praying of the Rosary, from providing the texts for all of its vocal prayers to verses of Scripture to meditate upon in each mystery. It's is even capped off with a full-color appendix showing the Rosary in art down through the centuries, as well as paintings commissioned for inclusion in this book from artists Vivian Imbruglia and (what a great surprise, my friend) Nellie Edwards.

Fr. Calloway's Champions of the Rosary is the very definition of a masterpiece.

NEW RELEASE - Oct. 26th

The new booklet is almost here...and it had its humble beginning right here on this blog.

The good folks at En Route Books and Media allowed me to develop those initial reflections into the work pictured at left. What can you expect to find in Marrying the Rosary to Divine Mercy Chaplet ?

The booklet encourages you to intersperse your praying of the decades of the Rosary with a decade from the Divine Mercy Chaplet. I share twenty rosary meditations (and their corresponding chaplet intercessions) that arose during my own marrying of the devotions. In the Joyful and Luminous Mysteries I recognized how our Lord's Cross cast its shadow backward over his entire life. In the Sorrowful Mysteries my understanding of Jesus’ pain was deepened; and in the Glorious our Catholic conviction that the Cross is the precondition of glory was powerfully affirmed. 

When we move from a decade of the Rosary to a decade of the Chaplet we join Mary at the foot of her Son’s Cross, voicing the prayer that filled her Immaculate Heart on Good Friday, “Eternal Father, I offer you the body and blood, soul and divinity of thy dearly beloved Son…” With her we join ourselves to Jesus’ offering and intercede for the fruits of his sacrifice to be generously poured out upon the Church and world. 

Each mystery of the Rosary is introduced by a Scriptural reference that you are encouraged to read. My meditation flows from that verse, weaving in other passages of Scripture. We then allow our meditation to inspire the petitions we pray in the Chaplet. By following this pattern (Read - Meditate - Pray), we engage in the first three elements of lectio divina.

The booklet also contains a QR Code allowing you to download a free audio version to help you meditate and pray as you walk and drive.

Oh, and I am incredibly honored to report that the booklet has a foreword from Fr. Donald Calloway (which can be read here) as well as endorsements from Kathleen Beckman, Dr. Kevin Vost, and Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle (here)!

The booklet will be available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com on Oct. 26th (and your local Catholic bookstore not too long after that), but En Route is offering a special 30% discount for anyone who orders directly from them prior to that date. Hope you will take them up on it!  God bless.

Interspersing the Rosary with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy

When you intersperse your praying of the Rosary with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy you have the ingredients for powerful meditation and transformation. In the Rosary we, like the Apostles in the Upper Room, join Mary in meditating upon the life of her Son, in the light of Scripture (Acts 1:13-20). When we intersperse our meditation on the mysteries with a decade of the Chaplet we not only find our meditation led in exciting directions; but we join Mary at the foot of the Cross. We pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy with her, joining ourselves to Christ's offering of His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity - the same offering made present in the Eucharist - and intercede for the graces we have just meditated upon. I am sure you can see how this would be true while praying the Sorrowful Mysteries, but I have found it to be true of the other mysteries as well.

First, however, let me explain the mechanics of interspersing the Rosary with the Chaplet. I begin the Rosary as I always, with the Apostle's Creed, Our Father, three Hail Marys, and Glory Be. (Note how the first three prayers are also found at the beginning of the Chaplet, albeit in a different order.) I then pray a decade of the Rosary, followed by the Fatima Prayer:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.

It is here that I interject a decade of the Chaplet:

On the Our Father bead: Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.  

On the Hail Mary beads: For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the whole world.

I then pray the Our Father and begin my Rosary meditation for the next mystery. After meditating upon five mysteries in this manner, I conclude by praying the Hail Holy Queen and the triple recitation of the Trisagion (Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world).

What I found most exciting about combining these two beautiful devotions was the way the Chaplet colored my meditation on the Mysteries of the Rosary. Venerable Fulton J. Sheen said that our Lord's Cross cast its shadow backward over His entire life; and that is exactly what I have found. I offer the following three samples from the Luminous Mysteries:

The Wedding Feast of Cana
When Mary approached Jesus about the shortage of wine, He replied, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come” (Jn. 2:4). Our Lord then went ahead to grant His Mother's request, the first of His "signs" (Jn. 2:11). The remainder of John's Gospel makes clear that Jesus's "hour" refers to His Passion (for example, 16:2, 32; 17:1). Jesus's turning of water into wine was a sign that pointed ahead that hour - to His sacrificial passage from this world to the Father and the Messianic Age His passage inaugurated. 

Isaiah had prophesied that in the Messianic Age God would provide "a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine - the best of meats and the finest of wines" (Is. 25:6). It was on the Cross that the Grape (Christ's Body) was crushed, and the new wine (His Blood) flowed; and it is in the Eucharist (the wedding feast of the Lamb, Rev. 19:7-9) that they are given to us as supernatural food and drink.

The Proclamation of the Kingdom
Walking beside the Sea of Galilee, Jesus called Peter, Andrew, John, and James to follow Him and become "fishers of men." "Immediately they left their nets and followed Him" (Mt. 4:20). Where were the four at Jesus's crucifixion, though? Only John had the courage to stand before the Lord's Cross (Jn. 19:26). I found myself praying for the grace of final perseverance.

The Transfiguration
There on the mountain the Apostles heard Moses and Elijah speak with Christ about His "exodus" (Lk. 9:31), His Passover from this world to the Father. The Apostles heard the Father's voice, "This is my Son, my Chosen" (Lk. 9:35). My mind was led to another mountain, the one scaled by Abraham and his "only son" Isaac (Gen. 22:2). Isaac climbed, carrying the wood of sacrifice on his shoulders. Abraham intuited that God would send a "lamb" to take the place of his son upon the altar (Gen. 22:8). It was a type of the Passover which, in turn, was a type of Christ's sacrifice and Eucharist.

Our Lord's Transfiguration foreshadowed His Resurrection. Before that moment of Transfiguration glory, though, Christ and the Apostles had to climb a mountain. There is no Resurrection without first experiencing the Cross. We must embrace the Cross, and we petition our Lord for the grace to do so.


By linking my Rosary meditation with the praying of the Chaplet, my meditation was led in unexpected directions. I haven't given up praying each separately nor am I advocating that anyone else should. I reaped positive fruit from praying the two in tandem, though, and I humbly submit that others may as well: They will not only share Mary's contemplation of Christ's life, in the light of His Cross, but unite themselves to Mary's intercessions at the foot of the Cross. "Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son....For the sake of His sorrowful Passion..."

The Rosary & Our Mother Mary's Jewish Prayer Life

When I ponder what it means for Mary to be the mother of God incarnate, one of the most astounding aspects is to recognize the role she played in shaping Jesus’s human prayer. Yes, in the heights of His soul Jesus beheld the Father as clearly as the angels in heaven; but as a child, “He learns the formulas of prayer from his mother. . .He learns to pray in the words and rhythms of the prayer of his people” (CCC 2599).  When Jesus entrusted the Church to Mary at the Cross (Jn. 19:26-27; Rev. 12:17), He extended her motherhood to His entire Mystical Body. She became, in an utterly unique way (next to her Son of course), the Church’s great instructor in prayer. I think we see this most especially in the Rosary, and the way it mirrors the prayer times Mary and Jesus shared as devout Jews.

As faithful Jews, Jesus and Mary stopped three times each day to pray together.  They recited Israel’s creed, the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart. . .  .” (Deut. 6:4–9, 11:13–21; Num. 15:37–41). They also prayed the Eighteen Benedictions, a beautiful, comprehensive tapestry of praise and petition. And between those times of prayer, as Mary went about the business of the day, she pondered the words of the Torah and the Prophets that she had heard in the synagogue and discussed with Jesus and Joseph. Through her meditation the Holy Spirit planted the words of Scripture so deeply in Mary’s heart that they naturally permeated her spontaneous prayer (see 1 Sam. 2:1-8 and Lk. 1:46-55) Most importantly, Mary’s heart was fixed upon her Son’s every word and action, contemplating the divine condescension to which she was exposed on a daily basis and how the covenants with Abraham, Moses and David were all reaching their fulfillment in Jesus. Mary’s prayer, so intimately united to the prayer of her Son, is the most beautiful imaginable – and that is what the Holy Spirit wants to give us in the Rosary!

You see, in the New Covenant, the magnificent prayer of God’s people has been to new heights. Jesus commanded His disciples to pray the Our Father, a prayer whose seven petitions encapsulate all others – the Eighteen Benedictions included. And when it is prayed slowly, with the proper awe and love expressed in the words, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,” it can encapsulate all blessing and thanksgiving as well. The early Church recognized this quite clearly (CCC 2767). The revelation of God’s oneness constantly confessed by the Jewish people in the Shema, has been completed by Jesus’s revelation of the Trinity and our confession of it in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds and our making of the Sign of the Cross (the Creed in miniature) each time we prayer. All of this, and more, is present when we pray the Rosary.

We also join in Mary’s contemplation of her Son – contemplating Him in the light of Scripture. We invoke her intercession, softly praying the words of Scripture (the Hail Mary – Lk. 1:28, 42-43), as we mediate upon the mysteries of her and Jesus’s lives, narrated in the gospels. As we think and rethink the evangelists’ inspired words the Holy Spirit blesses us with deeper understanding of their significance and calls us, as He did Mary, to ever more profound discipleship. We complete our meditation on each mystery with the Glory Be – even more Scripture (Lk. 2:14; Matt. 28:19; Rev. 1:8). It’s such an amazing reflection of our Lady’s own prayer life! Pope St. John Paul II called Mary’s meditation, “the ‘rosary’ which she recited uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life;” and he invited us to join her: “With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 11; 1). Is it any wonder that when our Blessed Mother has been sent to earth – such as at Lourdes and Fatima – she beseeches us to pray the Rosary? It is one of the most important ways she nourishes and instructs the children entrusted to her by Jesus, at the Cross. It is one of the main ways she cooperates with the Holy Spirit to mother the Body as she did our Head!

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If you enjoyed the information shared in this post, you may also enjoy the book, Through, With, and  In Him: The Prayer Life of Jesus and How to Make It Our Own (Angelico Press, 2014), which explores these points in further detail.

Rosary Mysteries for Holy Thursday

My admiration of the Rosary as a form of prayer is no secret. I use it on a daily basis. For most of the year I pray the Mysteries usually associated with a given day of the week (Joyful Mysteries on Monday & Saturday, Sorrowful on Tuesday & Friday, Glorious on Wednesday & Sunday, and Luminous on Thursday), but at special times of the year such as Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter, I like to use the Rosary to unpack and meditate upon these events more in depth. 

On my drive into work this morning I was thinking about the events of Holy Thursday and how we could use five decades of the Rosary to join Mary in uniting our hearts to Jesus’s on this night. I recommend stopping to read Scripture at the beginning of each Mystery and then softly praying the Hail Mary as you visualize and go over what you have read in your mind:

The Washing of the Apostles Feet – John 13:1-20

The Institution of the Eucharist – Luke 22:14-22

Jesus’s “High Priestly” Prayer – John 17:1-26

His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane –  Mark 14:32-42

The arrival of Judas and Jesus’s arrest -  Luke 22:47-53

My Friend, the DOOMSDAY PREPPER

I went to Mass with a good friend this past Sunday.  In the middle of the Gospel reading he leaned over to me and and whispered, "DOOMSDAY PREPPERS."  My buddy has talked about this National Geographic Channel show for months and never misses a new episode.  What reminded him of it in Mass?  Jesus' words:  

"Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.  You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." (Lk 12:39-40)

Now I'm always on the lookout for new ways to relate the Faith to pop culture, so after Mass I asked him point-blank, "So if Doomsday was looming, what would a 'prepper' tell me I had to do to survive it?"  And without batting an eye he answered, "You need to stock up on water, find a sustainable food source, shelter (hopefully bomb proof), and then you need to stock up on weapons and ammo."  Sounded pretty thorough to me!

As I listened, I was like, "Yeah - that's exactly what we need to do to survive Judgment Day."  Everything he listed has a corollary in the spiritual life; and if we prepare ourselves in this way, then we will be ready to meet the Lord when He comes - cosmically or individually.

• Stock up on water?  In Scripture the Holy Spirit is frequently spoken of as Living Water.  The Spirit flows from Jesus' Heart as from a spring (Jn.7:37-39), "whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (Jn 4:14).
• A sustainable food source?  The Eucharist is always available to us.  And it just isn't any food.  It is, in the words of the Our Father, epi-ousios, “super-substantial” bread (CCC 2837).  It is Christ Jesus Himself! 
• Shelter?  A bomb-proof shelter?  The Church.  Not only is she the "household of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth" (1 Tim 3:15), but Jesus has guaranteed that nothing can destroy her - "I tell you, you are Peter (Rock), and on this Rock I will build My Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it" (Mt 16:17)!
• Weapons and ammo?  God's Word is the sword with which we confront the deceptions and temptations of the Enemy (Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12); and Prayer calls forth the power of Almighty God to both strengthen us for the fight and to tear down enemy strongholds (2 Cor 10:4).  And to quote Sts. Padre Pio and Josemaria Escriva, "The Rosary is the 'weapon' for these times;" "The holy Rosary is a powerful weapon. Use it with confidence and you'll be amazed at the results."

You can argue the merits of being a Doomsday Prepper, but only a fool will argue the merits of being a Judgment Day Prepper.  "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (2 Cor 5:10).

face to Face

Have you had the experience of  dreaming about something, waiting for it to happen for years; and then finally seeing your hopes  realized?  I felt like that when I held a printed copy of The God Who is Love in my hands.  For ten years I had been longing for the day when I would be able to share the story of what God did for me, the Truth He opened my eyes, in depth - and there it finally was.

I was reminded of that feeling while praying the Rosary and meditating on Jesus' Presentation in the Temple.  The elderly Simeon had waited years, perhaps the majority of his life, to see the Messiah. (God had promised him that he would before he died.)

"Moved by the Spirit, [Simeon] went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:  'Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.'” (Lk 2:27-32).

Between the time God made His promise to Simeon and the day it was finally realized, it must have come to feel a bit like a dream:  Simeon had tried to imagine the child's face thousands of times, only to see a blur in his mind's eye.  And then, on a day that started like any other, Jesus was suddenly in his arms, Simeon looking down into His small face and taking in His delicate features.

You and I share Simeon's experience.  Jesus is the focus of our lives, and we think about Him and speak to Him throughout every day; but we are still waiting to see His Face!  But we have the promise that we will:

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Cor 13:12)

We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 Jn 3:2)

Some days, with the passage of years, that day may seem foggy and hard to envision; but it is coming.  We will see Him face to Face; and the years of waiting and longing will melt away in the light of Reality.

Face on the Shroud of Turin, compliments of thejoyfulservant.com

God's Temple - A Mobile Home?

A few months back I caught Peggy Bowes on Relevant Radio, fielding questions about The Rosary Workout.  One of the callers was concerned that Peggy's combining of the Rosary with walking and running was irreverent, that the Rosary should be prayed while one was stationary, stilled both interiorly and exteriorly.  Peggy's response, which I really enjoyed, appealed to the example of the Blessed Mother herself:  Luke's Gospel tells us how following the Annunciation "Mary rose and went with haste into the hill country of Judah" (Lk.1:39), to visit Elizabeth.  Isn't it natural to assume that Mary prayed as she trekked the over 75 miles from Nazareth to the outskirts of Jerusalem?  Of course it is.  And not only was Mary speaking to God; she was also meditating on Scripture - look at how quickly the words of the Old Testament (1 Sam.2:1-8) leapt to her lips when she met Elizabeth and burst into the Magnificat (Lk.1:46-55).  Prayer and meditation upon Scripture - that's the Rosary - and our Blessed Mother was engaged in it while on a 75 mile hike!  I ask you to keep Peggy's insights in mind as you continue to read.


After Mass this morning I remained seated, directing my gaze at the Tabernacle and praying.  "Lord, thank You for coming into me.  I can't believe that You have made me Your tabernacle too, and that You're coming with me as I visit my family this afternoon, as I head to work tomorrow . . . Lord, You've made my body a mobile Temple, a mobile home."  And then the connections started coming fast and furious:  God had dwelt with Israel for 400 years before Solomon built Him a stationary Temple of stone - and He was a God on the move.  His dwelling throughout those 400 years was a series of tents known as the Tabernacle.  When God picked up and moved, Israel packed up the Tabernacle and set off through the desert following Him.  The Ark of the Covenant, God's Old Testament throne, was even equipped with poles so that the priests could carry it.


Luke brought Tabernacle and Ark imagery together in the way he worded his narratives of the Annunciation and visitation of Mary to Elizabeth (Ex.40:34 and Lk.1:35; 2 Sam.6:2-16 and Lk.1:39-56).  Yes, in the Visitation Mary acted as Jesus' mobile home - the Tabernacle and Ark of the New Covenant.  You and I continue this awesome reality.  We bodily carry Jesus' presence into our homes, workplaces, etc.  That is our impetus in taking care of our bodies - giving them the right fuel, keeping them as agile as possible, and with sufficient strength to perform acts of love (e.g., helping your best friend move, throwing your kids up over your head).


Our Lord Jesus is of course the greatest example of this.  Tramping across Galilee, the Decapolis, and Judea, up on the mountains and out in the desert - He was a Temple on the move!  Like our Lord, the day will come when our bodies will finally yield to death, when we will find ourselves on a Cross, a bed of pain.  At that moment we will unite our agony and the failure of our bodies to His sacrifice.  (And like Him, we will one day receive them back, glorified, in the Resurrection.)  In anticipation of our Passover from the present order we daily offer our bodies in service to the Father, just as Jesus did - as Temples on the move.  We train our bodies (1 Cor.9:27) and through them offer ourselves as "living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God."  It is through the body that we Christians offer our "spiritual worship" (Rom.12:1).

Between Ascenion & Pentecost - Were the Apostles Praying the Rosary?

It sounds like a ridiculous question for me to pose. It's common knowledge that the Rosary didn't take shape for at least another thousand years! Upon reflection however, I hope you will agree that the the "soul" of the Rosary was always present in the Apostles' prayer.

Jesus' instruction at the time of His ascension was, "not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father...before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit." And the Apostles did just that: "All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren" (Acts 1:4-5, 14). That was how they spent the nine days between Jesus' ascension and the descent of the Spirit on Pentecost.

Of what did their prayer consist? Petition, combined with a great deal of meditation (the "soul" of the Rosary) - thinking and rethinking the things Jesus had said to them, the actions and miracles they witnessed, the meaning of His death, resurrection, and ascension. It consisted of reflecting upon Scripture; when Jesus appeared to them on the night of His resurrection, He had "opened their minds to understand the scriptures...the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms" and how they had been fulfilled in Him (Luke 24:44-45). And this meditation was being done in the presence of Mary. She was engaged in it with them. As John Paul II pointed out so beautifully:

Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring his every word: “She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51). The memories of Jesus, impressed upon her heart, were always with her, leading her to reflect on the various moments of her life at her Son's side. In a way those memories were to be the “rosary” which she recited uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 11).

The Apostles spent nine days engaged in this with her, making the Church's first novena. We can see the fruits that emerged - Peter's move to replace the office left vacant by Judas' defection emerged from his reflection upon the Psalms (Acts 1:20) and then the explosion of Scriptural insights he unleashed up the crowd at Pentecost! (Acts 2:16-41) Isn't it likely that the Holy Spirit had been bringing key points of that first sermon to Peter's consciousness throughout the nine days of prayer?

When we today pray the Rosary, when we recite the Hail Mary while meditating upon the events recounted in the gospels and Acts (the twenty Mysteries), we enter into the Apostles' experience. "With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love" (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 1). And by doing this regularly, daily, our souls grow and become progressively docile to the movement of the Holy Spirit. We receive not one, but several Pentecosts as our eyes open up onto new spiritual vistas and we find ourselves acting with a freedom and strength we imagined ourselves unable to attain. And rightly so - these things can only take root in souls that have been broken up and seeded, over time, through prayer. These souls are made ready for that moment when the Living Water rains down and causes the new life to burst forth out into the open.

We won't see Pentecost without it. Jesus knows how we are made, and He knows how to "remake" us in His image; that was why He sent the Apostles back to the upper room. They needed to spend that time in prayer, in meditation ... in the company of His Mother. My friends, almost two thousand years may have passed, but the prescription remains the same.

Today is the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, and I can't think of a better way to recognize it than honoring our Lady's request to pray the Rosary.

0.34 Seconds - That's All It Takes

0.34 Seconds - the time it takes to blink your eye; that's as quickly as everything can change for the better.  When I prayed the Rosary this morning, I meditated on Jesus' Resurrection, putting myself in his tomb.  One second He was there, wrapped in His shroud.  And in the next second, with a brilliant flash of light, the shroud lay flat on the stone slab; He was gone.  That's how quickly God can change defeat into victory.  

We have little glimpses of this throughout life.  Think of those times when the phone has rang with a surprise invitation, or you ran into someone you hadn't seen in months; or you got an email out of the blue.  One moment everything was moving along as ho-hum as usual and then boom - you're like a rocket shooting into the stratosphere.  Life is not just one long struggle, carrying the Cross up Calvary; it's also shot through with these experiences of the Resurrection -and we never know when the Lord will surprise us next.

What we know for sure is that each second brings us closer to that instant when "we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15:51-52).

That Tight-Lipped Jesus ...

So here is a stream-of-consciousness post for you.  Stay with me though, there is a point:

On the drive to work today I was praying the Rosary and meditating on the Lord's Resurrection.  I was thinking of the women at Jesus' tomb.  Nothing could have prepared them for the absolute shock of the empty tomb - and definitely not for their encounter with the Resurrected Jesus.  I was struck how you and I are often so completely in the dark about all of the good things that God is doing behind the scenes, completely surprised when they break out into the light.  God seems to work in silence; He doesn't make us privy to His plans - just shocks us with their awesomeness.

Wait, that's not quite right.  Hadn't Jesus told His disciples, over and over, that He would be rejected by the chief priests and elders and be raised on the third day?  Yes, He had; but they didn't understand.  Jesus had told them exactly what was going to happen.  His crucifixion shouldn't have come as a shock - and neither should His Resurrection!

And here is what Jesus says to you and me.  We should listen closely so that we're not caught off-guard:

“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (Jn.16:33).
  
Fore-warned is fore-armed.  We will suffer the Cross.  And if we stay united with Him, we will experience His Resurrection.

The Blessed Mother, Receiving Jesus from John (A brief thought on the Priesthood)

Reading Luke's Gospel and praying the Joyful Mysteries this evening held a couple of surprises.  The first was one of those realizations that happens when you've known a couple of facts, but you've never put them together before.  I was meditating on the time when Jesus (age 12) stayed behind in the Temple after celebrating Passover.  Mary received Jesus back after a three day absence, as she did twenty some years later when He rose on the third day - quite a foreshadowing.  What I had not registered before was how the Finding in the Temple and Jesus' death and Resurrection were connected not just by the three day absence, but the Feast of Passover!

The difference between the two events for the Blessed Mother of course, was that she didn't receive Jesus back in the same way after His three days in the tomb.  He appeared to her, visited her; but he didn't return to Nazareth with her the way He did as a boy.  Resurrected and glorified, His body no longer belonged to this world, still subject to decay.  He belonged beside the Father, ascended.

And yet, Jesus did still come to His Mother, again and again, really and substantially in the Eucharist!  Mary lived with the Apostle John from the time of the Crucifixion.  Imagine what John must have felt - the unworthiness and awe - as he returned Jesus to Mary in Holy Communion!  And imagine Mary's incredible love for John, this man who brought her Son physically, sacramentally, back to her when he prayed the Eucharistic prayer!

I think about my parish priests and how they bring Christ to me in exactly the same way.  I don't love and appreciate them nearly enough.  I remember reading a fantastic line from Matt Swaim a couple of years back, about how we can't look at our priests as "mere sacramental vending machines," and thinking how absolutely right he was; but I look into my heart today and realize that I'm guilty of it!  It wasn't intentional; I live and just begin to take certain things for granted.

Every Mass is the celebration of Jesus' Passover.  And united with Mary in the Communion of Saints, we receive her Jesus again and again.  May the Holy Spirit bring the love that filled her heart to ours ... and may we love and appreciate the priests ordained to bring Jesus to us.

Jesus' Prayer (offered through YOU) Will Bring an End to Abortion

Here is my talk from today's luncheon:

My hope is to encourage you and renew your excitement over the Mystery at work in you - this Mystery I saw lived out this morning at Mass and in praying the Rosary on behalf of the unborn. We have many incredible Mysteries in our Faith, to which one am I referring?

The Epistle to the Hebrews says that in Heaven, Jesus always lives to make intercession for us. The Catechism of the Catholic Church draws our attention to the way He exercises that intercession through His Mystical Body, the Church!  (CCC 2740)  “The prayer of Jesus makes Christian prayer an efficacious petition. He is its model, he prays in us and with us … the heart of the Son seeks only what pleases the Father …”   We’re going to look at Jesus’ human prayer, He wants to reproduces it within us. We want to consider how we can most effectively cooperate in this Mystery, how we can allow the intentions of Jesus’ Sacred Heart, especially for the unborn, to be lifted up to the Father through us.

Short outline:

1)    Details of Jesus' daily prayer

2)    Talk about His Passover, His offering of Himself, to the Father

3)    How we the Church enter into His Passover sacrifice and prayer

4)    And how Mary assists us in this.

It seems strange for us to think about Jesus learning to pray.  This is God the Son.  He, the Father, and Spirit are eternally communicating Themselves to each other.

When God the Son became one of us, He didn’t lose anything of His Divinity.   He is still one with the Father.  In His human soul He gazed upon the Father just as clearly as the Saints and Angels in heaven.  What He did learn, what He did grow in, however was how to express His love for the Father as a human being - in words and actions!  (CCC 2599)   “The Son of God . . . learned to pray in his human heart.  He learn[ed]  to pray from his mother… He learn[ed] to pray in the words and rhythms of … his people,”

Jesus’ prayer was Jewish prayer.  When we think of Israel’s prayer, the first place most of our minds go is to the Temple.  Luke both began and ended his gospel there.  Jews recognized God as being present in the Temple as in no other point in all creation.  The Holy of Holies was His earthly throne room, heaven’s embassy on earth.  Jesus called the Temple His Father’s House and like all Jews, He, Mary, and Joseph traveled there three times a year for the Pilgrim Feasts of Tabernacles, Passover, and Pentecost.  John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus and His relatives made the 75 mile trip from Nazareth  even when it wasn’t required, such as to celebrate Hannukah (Jn.10:22)

The worship of the Temple was avodah, sacrifice.   Why was that?  With New Covenant hindsight, we understand that God is an exchange of life – A Son Who receives all He is from the Father and pours Himself out in a return of  Love in the Person of the Holy Spirit.  Man and woman were created to share, to have a created participation in, that circle of love and life – to receive all we are from God and pour ourselves out in gratitude and love.  Our first parents said “No” and that original sin damaged us, closed us in on ourselves.

God started to undo the damage by establishing a covenant with Israel.  He began the long process of rehabilitation by calling them to sacrifice,  to give back to Him a portion of the earthly gifts they received.  For an agricultural people like the Israelites, when they sacrificed their animals and crops – the very elements of life – to the Lord, they symbolically offered themselves.   In many sacrifices the Lord stipulated that a portion of the animal was to be held back – part of it eaten by the priests and part by the family making the offering.  God and his people were united in the life of the sacrificial victim.  This was how God wanted to be worshipped, and it was the absolute heart of Jewish prayer. 

I had heard of the Passover sacrifice and sacrifices for sins and to give thanks.  What I didn’t study until very recently though was the Temple’s daily liturgy.  It took place every day at 9 a.m. and again at 3 p.m.  The liturgy began with the priests leading the people in the Shema and the Ten Commandments.  With a crash of symbols priests and people launched into singing the Psalm for that Day.   Trumpets sounded  between the verses and everyone in the Temple went facedown in worship!   After that the priests then placed the perpetual, or daily offering, on the a lamb, cake of bread, and wine on the altar.  Trumpets sounded again and everyone in the Temple prostrated themselves in worship.  A priest chosen by lot went into the Holy Place to offer incense on the altar at the entrance to the Holy of Holies- the prayers of God’s people ascending upward.

The Temple and its sacrifices were the pinnacle of Jewish worship.  Obviously though - Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and millions of other Jews could only participate on very special occasions.  So what did they do on a daily basis?

At least two centuries before the birth of Jesus, Jewish people adopted the practice of stopping wherever they were to pray … 3 times a day, facing toward the Temple.  They prayed at 9 a.m., and 3 p.m., when the Tamid – the lamb, bread, and wine – were placed on the altar and then again around sunset when any final scaps remaining from the day’s offerings were burned on the altar and the Temple gate closed for the night.  Their daily, personal prayer  united them to the sacrifices in the Temple.

At their first and third time of prayer, as the spiritual bookends of the day, they recited the Shema, the Creed.  "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD;  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Deut.6:4-5).  [The full Shema consists of  Deut.6:4-9; Deut.11:13-21; and Num.15:37-41]

Just like when you and I begin and end our day with the Sign of the Cross.  Yes, we have our Creeds, the Nicene and Apostle’s; but every time we make the Sign of the Cross we pray the Creed in miniature. Through the Christ’s Cross, we enter into the inner life of the Blessed Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and His grace empowers us to do so with all our mind, all our heart, and all our strength!  There’s the Shema, our Christian Shema.

At all three times of prayer people prayed The Eighteen Benedictions.  In Hebrew they are known as Tephilla, simply “the prayer”  (Because the Benedictions are always prayed  while standing, you’ll also hear it called the Amidah, which means “standing.”  This is probably what Jesus was speaking of in the Gospels when He said, “When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them” (Mk.11:25).  The Eighteen Benedictions are a beautiful tapestry of blessings and petitions:  “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – our shield (#1);  Blessed be the Lord, the only God. (#3); Blessed be the Lord Who raises the dead (#2); Blessed be the Lord Who loves repentance.  Make us turn back to you. (#5) … Who forgives, forgive us our sins. (#6)  ... Who rebuilt Jerusalem.  Restore the kingdom of David, your anointed. (#14).

Scripture says that Jesus entered history in the “fullness of time” (Gal.4:4), precisely the right moment in history, when these blessings and petitions would be a part of his prayer three times a day.  I suggest that when God willed the Incarnation,   He willed the petitions Jesus offered as a man, willed to bring about Jesus’ resurrection, and all that would mean for humanity, in response to them.

The early Church kept the Jewish practice of praying three times a day, but they didn’t pray the Eighteen Benedictions.  Instead of the Eighteen they prayed the Our Father.  (We find this in the Didache, the earliest Christian writing we have outside of the New Testament.  The Catechism makes note of it in Paragraph 2767.) The Our Father is the perfect prayer.  Listen to the Catechism, “, in the words of this prayer the only Son gives us the words the Father gave him [Jn.17:7] … [Jesus] knows in his human heart the needs of his human brothers and sisters and reveals them to us: he is the model of our prayer” (CCC 2765).  In those seven petitions of the Our Father Jesus encapsulated all Eighteen Benedictions!

The Gospels show Jesus’ prayer extending far beyond the 3 fixed times.  He prayed long after everyone else fell asleep.  He got up before anyone else to go off and pray.  Sometimes He just stayed up the entire night communing with the Father!  But the pinnacle of Jesus’ human prayer was reached at the Cross, when as the Catechism says (2605), “prayer and the gift of Self were one”

It’s at the Cross that Jesus’ gathered up his whole earthly life and poured it our to the Father in one great, irrevocable act of obedient love. The words of Psalms 22, 69, and 31 were on his lips, even as the texts took flesh in His Body – the piercing of His hands and feet, His incredible thirst, and his heart melting like wax within Him.  Mark’s Gospel tells us that He was nailed to the Cross at 9 a.m., the time of the morning sacrifice. His sacrifice was culminated at the 3 o’clock hour, as the Tamid – the lamb, bread, and wine – were again placed on the altar and Jews throughout the world prayed the Eighteen Benedictions:  Blessed are You Lord:  Restore the Kingdom of David … Make us turn back to You … Forgive us our sins … Raise the dead!

That was the moment when Jesus “cried out with a loud voice and yielded up His Spirit.”  The Catechism says that His final cry pulled all of the petitions and intercessions of all history into itself and carrying them to the Father. Jesus’ death was when all the prayers of God’s people, all the prayers of our Messiah’s thirty some years on earth reached a “critical mass” and the Father unleashed the graces of salvation upon the world through the Spirit, blood, and water issuing from Jesus’ pierced Heart.

This  great mystery of salvation and of Jesus’ prayer is being lived out by you and me.  In baptism our souls were fused to Jesus and the Holy Spirit rushed from His heart to ours.    As Paul said “It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me.” (Gal.2:20). The good works we do are not done under our power but His – it is Jesus loving His Father and brothers and sisters through us. St. Paul says that our sufferings are a participation in Jesus’ Cross, and because of that, they have redemptive value. And part of our prayer is Jesus praising and thanking and petitioning the Father through His Body.

We pray the Our Father – St. Paul says that “God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out ‘Abba, Father” (Gal.4:6)  The Spirit started praying in us the moment we were baptized.   Paul told the Romans (8:26-27):  “. . . the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.  And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

The highest point of Jesus prayer, where prayer and the gift of Self became one was at the Cross.  And His sacrifice becomes really, truly present for us at every Mass!  That’s why the Eucharist is the CENTER of our lives, the source and summit of our prayer.

Just this morning, Jesus once again made pilgrimage to His Father’s House.  He made pilgrimage in us!  The Shema echoed when we began with the Sign of the Cross and it will echo again in tomorrow’s Mass when we pray the Creed.  The Eighteen Benedictions were prayed in our Gloria and the Our Father.  The true perpetual offering – the Lamb, under the appearance of Bread and Wine – became present upon our altar.  And we offered ourselves and all of our petitions to end abortion through, with, and in Him!  It is Jesus’ offering, and Jesus’ petition to end abortion, so we know with absolute certainty that they are pleasing to the Father.  The petitions made by Jesus through, with, and in His Body are efficacious – they will be answered by the Father!

But we’re not able to stay at the altar, at least not physically.  God has given us work to do out in the world.  We have to go to our jobs, and see to the needs of our families and friends.  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph did too!  But that’s where personal prayer comes in. That personal prayer is meant to unite our entire day to Jesus’ sacrifice, made present on the altars throughout the world.   It’s meant to help us live the Eucharist, to become Jesus’ offering to the Father.  Like Him, our every thought, word, and action are to be an offering to the Father.  St. Paul practically begged the Romans, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, for this is our spiritual worship” (12:1)

Anybody else out there feel like they ain’t getting’ the job done?  Like they’re coming up short?  How do we change that?  I believe that Jesus gave us the answer at the Cross when He told the beloved disciple, "Behold your mother." We have to take note of what John did, "And from that moment on the disciple took Mary into his home."  John took Mary to himself.  Wherever John was, there was the Blessed Mother. 

Think about John’s Gospel.  It soars up to speak about Jesus Divinity, it penetrates His Mystery in a way much different than the synoptics.  It shows Jesus’ connection to the great feasts in the Temple and the way they were fulfilled in Jesus.  He give us the Bread of Life Discourse and Jesus’ great high priestly prayer at the Last Supper.  I have to think that sharing his life with Mary had something to do with that! 

She became John’s mother.  The woman who taught Jesus to pray as a boy prayed with John.  Think about this woman:   For 9 months His Heart physically beat beneath her own; the flesh and blood He offered in sacrifice were taken from her…;  Mary was Jesus’ prayer partner throughout His Life  - and then she became John’s.  She became John’s mother too.  Jesus wants that for us.  The Mother of the Head, is the Mother of the Mystical Body as well.  In the Communion of Saints she has a special connection to each soul.

Today is the 95^th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima.  What did Mary say to the children?  Jesus wanted to establish devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.  Very simply that means to love Jesus with the Heart of Mary.

The way that I read St. Louis Marie DeMontfort it means that the Faith, Hope, Charity, and virtues that the Holy Spirit poured into the soul of the Blessed Mother remain accessible to other members of the Mystical Body - what is of benefit to one, is of benefit to the whole.  And the Holy Spirit wants to knit our hearts together with Mary’s so that we can share her union with Jesus – her prayer and surrender to Him, her performance of every thought, word, and action out of love for God.  One of the most awesome ways we join Mary in loving Jesus is through the praying of the Rosary.

How did Jesus tell the Apostles to prepare for Pentecost.  Go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Gift My Father promised. The went back to the Upper Room and spent the next nine days in prayer, with Mary. What was there prayer like in those nine days?  Petition, combined with a whole lot of meditation.  They were meditating on, thinking and rethinking the life, death, rez, of Jesus in the light of Scripture.  (Look at Acts 1, and you’ll see Peter sharing what he discovered in the Psalms)  They were meditating on the life of Jesus in the light of Scripture, with the Blessed Mother.  That's the Rosary!

Outside of the Mass, the Rosary is where I think you find the greatest number of elements from Jesus’ human prayer woven together.

· Sign of the Cross – Shema

·  Apostle’s Creed – Shema

·  Our Father – the prayer taught to us by God the Son, the prayer that comes to us in Scripture, and the Holy Spirit cries out within us!

·  On the Cross, Jesus prayed the words of Scripture:

·   The Hail Mary – a prayer composed from Scripture, the words of the Angel Gabriel and St. Elizabeth.

·   The Glory Be – “The glory be to God” the angels sang at Jesus birth;  “as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be” – that’s the Book of Revelation’s “God Who is, was, and is to come”

These are the words are lips are praying as, along with Mary, our hearts and minds are focused on Jesus and how He brought about our salvation.  I love the way Pope John Paul II put it, “With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 1).  If Mary was good enough for the Apostles, if she led John deeper and deeper into the Mystery of her Son … if she taught Jesus how to pray as a child, then she’s good enough for me!

On this 95^th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima we recall our Lady’s requests to the children.  Our Lady was sent to bring about conversion.  She requested acts of penance, Communions of Reparation (the celebration of the Eucharist), and the praying of the Rosary.  That is the prescription to bring an end to abortion too. 

 

Just as Jesus offered petitions throughout His entire earthly life, before that critical Mass of intercession was reached at the Cross, so now the Father seems to have ordained a participation in the intercession of Christ to us.  But know this:  It is the intercession of Christ.  It will be efficacious.  God the Father wants to answer this prayer, and He will answer this prayer.   In His Providence He has woven our petitions, penances, and participation in the Eucharist into His plan to end abortion.  He has ordained that certain graces only be released in response to our prayer, our participation in the intercession of Jesus!  What an honor!  To share in the redemptive prayer and mission of Christ!

Let’s join the Blessed Mother in uniting everything else we do today with the Eucharist celebrated this morning:

Daily Offering from the Apostleship of Prayer (with one addition)

“O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world.
I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, AN END TO ABORTION, and the reunion of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month.”