A MID-LIFE AWAKENING
by Marty Dehen
Written in memory of Alfred Ebner; great pioneer to outdoor enthusiasts in Minnesota, great father to a wonderful family, a Knight of Columbus and great Catholic whose ultimate show of faith and belief in the Holy Rosary saved his own life so it could be shared with many through this Divine intervention. My grandfather hunted with Alfred and the entire Ebner clan. Alfred’s older brother, Rienhart and my grandfather, David Dehen, married two Endres sisters in Hampton Minnesota, a few years after the turn of the century, in a double wedding ceremony and rode a horse drawn buck-board wagon back to Albertville, Minnesota to homestead land and raise large Catholic families. The Rosary was a big part of their prayer life.
I use this rather lengthy testimonial (my own Rosary journey, if you will) as an initial hand-out to many fine gentlemen who elect to join the Knights of Columbus organization and go through the first three degree ceremonies. I am a fourth generation; Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus. The Rosary is a very important part of the KC organization. It came to me, by what I originally thought was accident, but later came to the belief was Divine Providence. My Rosary journey continues, today and I hope all new members who join the Knight’s get a fraction of what it has given me. It made the decision to join the KC’s really easy for me.
Throughout all of history, God has led many people to nature when they needed to find their spirituality. The Garden of Eden is nature. Most of the early prophets lived in or gravitated to nature to pray. Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray or cry out into the wilderness, as did John, the Baptist. My “ah-ha moment in the Bible, where it became obvious that this is the word of God, came from one of my least favorite chapters, the Book of Hosea. It’s a chapter filled with brimstone, fire, hell and damnation. But, Gods words jumped out to me when he is quoted as saying,”…the wilderness will lead you back to me, where I will speak to you...”Where’s your wilderness, your Garden of Gethsemane, your quiet place?
PREFACE
This book is dedicated to all who feel alienated from their faith through mistakes made long ago, through scrutinized interfaith marriages, through divorce, through miscommunications from religious leaders, through hard to accept church doctrine. That upon reading this, they find:
Memories that bring a smile to their faces
Peace with past enemies
Grace to let go of ill or misguided feelings
Faith in knowing God won’t lead them astray
Wisdom in understanding their church with greet them with open arms if they come home again
Momentum in a positive change of direction needed in their life
I hope to open doors of understanding, humor, encouragement and passion that lead you to discovering all the little miracles that often go unnoticed in life or deemed coincidence. Have fun with my story and see if you can’t identify with some of my experiences.
A MID-LIFE AWAKENING
by Marty Dehen
How do I get people from my era, currently not interested in the Rosary, to read this? Different news stand titles come to mind: IMPROVE YOUR SEX LIFE WITH… or STOCK MARKET SUCCESS WITH… or WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO A TWO HEADED HORSE WHILE PRAYING THE ROSARY. How about: THE ROSARY FOR A BABY BOOMER ? TWO MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE ! BOOST YOUR PRAYER POWER WITH THE ROSARY. TOUCHED BY ANGELS, PROZAC FOR THE POOR IN SPIRIT. I think I should call it :ALL OF THE ABOVE. (with exception to the part about the horse) If you consider yourself Catholic but not into all that “hard to identify with” stuff we were exposed to as children, you know, that “old fashioned religious hocus pocus, READ THIS! I promise I’ll touch your heart with this story without a lot of sack cloth and ashes, without guilt, without shoving a bunch of religion down your throat, but with a little tongue in cheek, and a shove in the right direction.
I’m now ashamed to admit that I used to refer to myself as a recovering Catholic, when ever asked what faith I practiced. In fact, when my wife and I were in our early courtship, we asked one another,” what religion did you used to be?” We were astonished to discover we were both raised Catholic. Since our return to the church, my (now deceased) uncle, the priest, referred to people like us as “buffet line Catholics”. Raised in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s under the assumption that all non-Catholics probably go to hell, it took twenty some years to unwind several misconceptions. In all fairness to my devout Catholic parents, whom I dearly love, Vatican II and six inquisitive children raised in a suburban setting gradually changed many of the earlier practices for the better. Just the same, my childhood memories are imprinted around some of the earlier teachings no longer interpreted the same way as they used to be. This is not going to be one of those sour grapes Catholic Church bashing stories. Satire and sarcasm are forms of comedy for many “baby boomers”. This is more about an awakening of dormant parochial seeds planted long ago. The process of me gravitating back to religious traditions requires background information, patience and a sense of humor. If you’re a seasoned veteran at the Rosary, you may have to go way back to your rookie days to identify with what I have to say today. Please, no letters or sacrilege finger pointing, believe it or not, God has to have a sense of humor or he wouldn’t have created us.
Growing up, the prayers we said as a family seemed mechanical and not from the heart especially around mealtime. Every weekend we were forced to go to confession even if we didn’t think we committed any sins. Often the prayers we were assigned as a penance by the priest were also assigned by our parents for minor screw ups or added on to our penance if the priest was soft on us in the confessional. “What did you get? I got three Hail Mary’s and an Our Father.” We liked to compare penance’s as a barometer so we could tell if we were really bad. The major screw ups (sassing mom or a teacher or using profanity) required a spanking or on rare occasions “the belt”. If our parents wanted to mess with our heads, they would threaten to write details of our bad deeds to our uncle Fr. Ray, a missionary priest, hoping to intimidate us into changing our behavior before he talked to God about punishing us. My first “Fr. Ray letter” went out for stealing rhubarb out of the neighbors garden and the second was sent after I sold some of the neighbor kids bogus tickets to the zoo and boarded them on the school bus, parked in front of a house owned by a bus driver during his lunch break. My wife’s siblings were forced to clean church pews and kneelers with small brushes when her parents got serious with punishment (she’s the only remaining practicing Catholic out of seven kids). The nuns at the parochial school we attended were rumored to have been trained in martial arts, wielding rulers and hickory pointers like num-chuks in a karate movie, although most of the punishments involved clapping the chalk erasers against the building after school or filling up the chalk board with “Hail Mary’s”.
Dad was 100% German and Mom was Irish. We ate a lot of fried
food and potatoes. Meat was something that was stuffed into an animal casing
and every Friday we had freshly caught walleye straight out of one of
Throughout the late ‘50’s and early 60’s, my Grandpa was very sick with asthma. I remember how all my aunts and uncles and grandma would pray the Rosary every time “last rites” were administered to grandpa (I’m guessing several times a year for several years). He was a tough old German who refused to die. Everyone believed the Rosaries kept him going. Who am I to argue? How spooky the Rosary sounded to us kids, as our relatives droned out emotionless monotone decades of Hail Mary’s. With slumped shoulders and bowed heads, crowded around Grandpa, they gave the feel of Tibetan monks being called to prayer. Once I had to say a Rosary as a punishment. You can imagine how much I got out of that episode.
I never really
thought about the Rosary again until many years later. Thanksgiving weekend in
November of 1997, I read an interesting article in the Sunday sports page about
Alfred Ebner, a 94 year old deer hunter from
Besides a passion for the “great outdoors”, one of the legacies my Dad and my Grandpa passed on to me is an affinity for playing practical jokes on friends and family members. I proceeded to craft a homemade Rosary out of a blaze orange plastic lanyard and miniature deer charms I found at the craft store. The Our Fathers are buck deer, the Faith, Hope and Love beads are doe and the decades are all identical little spotted fawns. My intentions were to have the Ebner Bait Store hang it up around a framed reprint of the news article of their great grandpa boasting it to be the only Rosary that guarantees you’ll see deer when you pray it.
Unfortunately, Alfred died unexpectedly in his sleep about the time I finished the official deer hunters Rosary. Hesitantly, I brought it to the wake, but left it in the car. After seeing all the hunting and fishing pictures going back over one hundred years, I retrieved it from the car at the request of Ron Ebner, his seventy two year old son, and hung it on one of the easels that held a collage of outdoor photos of Alfred enjoying the riches of nature. Ron proceeded to tell me a story about how Alfred was diagnosed with cancer in the early ‘50’s. Being a devout Catholic and now a diagnosed “short timer”, he prayed to God and every patron saint he could think of and promised to pray the Rosary every day in exchange for a productive and long life with his family. Both God and Alfred kept their promises.
It was a very quiet ride home, that night, and I didn’t sleep very well contemplating whether or not the deer Rosary was a little sacrilegious. What an incredible string of Rosaries Alfred kept going, as I did the math in my head. It’s too bad the Rosary isn’t “my thing”. I wasn’t even sure I remembered how to go about it as I made a shoddy attempt at an Apostles Creed combining the long and short versions, a few extra beliefs of my own and what seemed like lyrics from the old Gladys Knight/Johnny Mathis song, “I Believe”. While tossing and turning, I remembered my mom made all of us kids laminated Rosary bookmarks one year as part of our Christmas gifts, illustrating the sacred mysteries, the prayers and directions of how to pray the Rosary. We all politely thanked her and put them away somewhere. The next morning I rifled through drawers and boxes and to my surprise, found it. As I read over both sides of the book mark, I wondered how long it takes to say a Rosary. It didn’t seem like too tall of an order. What a shame it would be to let Alfred’s string come to an end of what I was taught to believe, a very powerful prayer meditation. I prayed to God and asked Alfred, Grandma, Grandpa and anyone who could hear me in heaven to intercede if possible and I pledged to try to keep the chain going for a while. The story doesn’t end here, it begins here.
Now I didn’t have this pseudo Saul/St. Paul, fall off the horse, transformation back into Catholicism kind of thing. That all happened fifteen years earlier when another tough old German Benedictine priest named Fr. Arnold Weber hooked my wife and I back into the Church. One Sunday morning, we accidentally turned into the drive way of Holy Name parish (we were on a golf date) when mass was about to start, so we stayed and heard the best sermon ever. In fact it was so good we decided to get married at his church during a time in our lives that neither of us was a practicing Catholic. He continued to awake all that is and was positive in our slumbering faiths every Sunday, through his retirement. That’s an entertaining epistle all by itself and a story to share at a later date. Now, as a regular attendee of mass (thanks to Fr. Arnold and Divine Providence), it was very helpful that my Catholic spirit was ready for this new task of keeping Alfred’s Rosaries going. I just needed to figure when and where to blend this into my busy schedule.
THE
Not being the most rigorous schedule, my day begins around 7
o’clock am, long after my wife has left for her job, when I grope for the
remote on the bed stand and turn on Good Morning America for the day’s
headlines. After a quick shower and shave, a local evangelist shows up on the
television with a commercial called “The Winners Minute” every morning at
exactly 7:20am. It’s a mini sermon about something current drawing parallels to
something in scripture and a great way to start your day. Call it providence or
coincidence, but that morning he asked about where the quiet place you go in
your heart when you pray in this noisy world and to find time each and every
day to go to your quiet place and do just that, pray. Without a doubt, my most
favorite quiet place is up in northern
Let’s face it, most Christians could argue that they don’t pray enough in the course of a day. In my new found quest for guilt free religion, I admit I dropped the ball in this department, but I don’t consider myself that different from everybody else. Mornings are a little hectic getting the kids ready for school and the drive to work would be tough without the humorous radio show hosts to listen to. Evenings are impossible; every night there’s something different going on with the kids (dance, swimming, soccer, basketball, CCD, girl scouts, etc.) not to mention all the really good prime time television shows I want to watch. Whenever I try to pray in bed, I invariably fall asleep the second my head hits the pillow. Praying at work is out of the question because the phone never stops ringing. We could always lengthen the current dinner prayers at the risk of creating children too much like ourselves. I have all these Christian beliefs and good intentions, but it doesn’t appear that I pray very much.
Recalling the last few times I prayed, it was in the car after one of those “bring you to your knees” kind of days at work where I question everything I do and feel. You know, those “off” days we all have where nothing seems to go right, where I doubt myself the most. My job; how the heck did I end up in this field when I studied for something completely different in college. My finances, how can I burn through so much money and have so little to show for it, my empty promises to myself for family vacations that never seem to get taken or new cars that never seem to get purchased, days where I catch myself starring into the abyss of life and wondering what my destiny is, etc. I’m told a lot of people in my age group do this, so to avoid being prescribed to prozac or lithium I often gravitate to prayer, usually on the way home from work. Typically, I shut off the radio and pray for guidance, for self-direction, for tolerance, for “a sign” to lead me to make changes in my life or just plain begging, whining and deal cutting with God. For whatever reason, something a Young Life councilor preached in 1971 comes to mind; when ever my problems get too big to handle; Jesus promised he would take those problems too big to handle from us if we completely give them up to Him. More often than not, this “hand off” was enough to survive a few weeks before it surfaced again. So there it was, my “quiet place”, my twenty minutes a day for the Rosary…the drive home from work. I threw Moms Rosary book mark in the car for a reference and continued Alfred’s string the very next day after work.
Now, which sacred mystery do I choose? The guide said Tuesday was a Sorrowful Mystery day. In reading the mysteries, I immediately identified all the petty things I often agonize about, how scourged or discouraged I felt about my lot in life. The negative little thoughts and personal problems pricked at my brain like thorns. I was carrying a heavy cross of worry relating to finances and other garbage cluttering my mind. Worry is the unproductive use of your imagination, someone once said at a motivational seminar. It never dawned on me that my absence from formal prayer was leading to my own self crucifixion. Wow! Where did all that come from? Retreat! Retreat! Now, regroup, rethink, reload and start over. This meditation stuff kind of sneaks up on you. This was no longer Alfred’s project, it was mine and it needed to be dusted off and cleaned up before someone gets hurt. The instruction card never said “some assembly required”. Believing God hears all prayers, I asked for wisdom and understanding. The Sorrowful Mysteries might look a little different from an angle other than my own. What came to mind was: God so loves all of us, that He commissioned His son, Jesus, to suffer and die on the cross for the forgiveness of all the past, present and future sins of all mankind for all eternity. All I have to do is believe this to be true and I can begin living forever. By adding these two words: …for me, to the end of each mystery (i.e. Jesus agonizes in the Garden of Gethsemane…for me, Jesus is scourged at the pillar…for me, Jesus was crucified on the cross …for me etc.), a transformation from sorrow to joy began to easter within me. My journey was ready to proceed.
Because of obvious safety reasons and obscene gestures I was attracting from fellow commuters, it became necessary to develop a system of keeping track of the prayers without the beads. By hooking a different finger at a time on the steering wheel with my left hand and driving with my right hand, I’m able to temporarily break concentration to react to normal traffic situations safely and not lose my place in the Rosary.
THE REVELATION
As an adult, now seeking spirituality instead of retribution, the words to the prayers and meditations took on a lot more meaning then they did as a child. Certain parallels to feelings and events seemed to fit better with the prayers this time around. The willingness to pray the Rosary opened up insight and deep thoughts, unlike when it was a penance. I discovered my indifferent feelings as a young adult towards the superstitious sounding Rosary (a prayer previously thought for senior citizens only) were unfounded and plagued with misnomers. For example; you don’t pray the Rosary TO the Virgin Mary, you pray it WITH her in sort of a two for one special to God. She’s our “most gracious advocate”, as stated in the Hail Holy Queen prayer at the end of the Rosary and the highest ranking Saint in heaven. If you ask for her to intercede, she will. Hearing the Rosary is a far cry from jumping in and actually praying one all by yourself in your “quiet place”. Another bolt out of the blue is, the Rosary is more of a meditation than a prayer. While you meditate about each sacred mystery the Hail Mary’s, effortless to remember, provide a background for your thoughts and hinder your mind from wandering. Sometimes when I pray conversationally from my heart, I tend to day dream and pray at the same time and meander off track as something I’m talking to God about reminds me of something else totally unrelated. The steady decades of Hail Mary’s almost act as a mantra filtering the distractions while I concentrate on the mystery at hand.
Every time I pray the Rosary I get touched with new meditations to think about over the same mysteries.
I was building a deer stand last fall and I had to carry an eight foot log up the trail to use as a post. I almost blew a blood vessel struggling under its weight. While catching a breather I wondered how heavy a cross would be if it were strong enough to support me and long enough to be buried into the ground so it wouldn’t tip over after they hung me on it. Being cut from a green tree would make it much heavier than a dry one. Figuring my wingspan of roughly six feet, the cross piece would have to be eight feet wide allowing room to nail me to it without splitting the ends out. The length would need at least three feet in the ground, three more feet to the bottom of me for elevation, six feet to the top of me and two feet above me to allow room for the sign INRI, for a grand total of fourteen feet long. Hey, the sins of the world are many, this is a seriously heavy cross and it requires an uphill three mile march through town. I’m not sure I could even tip it up on its side let alone carry it.
I got lots of meditations out of that thought process. My little aches and pains and agonies and questionable suffrages and self persecutions don’t hold a candle to His, but they’re not supposed to. He created places and deeds for me to off load all my human stuff so I can have a small piece of common ground to make sense of His birth, death, and resurrection. His and Mary’s life without sin, their total faith and trust in God, Their unending, unconditional love for every soul, is even bigger than that to meditate on. Accepting my own imperfections makes it easier to find tolerance in the world around me.
The Rosary opened the door to a part of my brain that I
hadn’t been using. It created a peaceful, quiet ride home every night and
provides avenues to better relationships, clearer and more productive thinking
and wisdom or knowledge that was there all along asleep in my brain. The three
Hail Mary’s at the beginning are for Faith, Hope and Love, the keys to getting
where ever you need to go in your “quiet place” to unlock mysteries, feelings
and thoughts that may have you bottled up at times. If you’re not sure you’re
ready for the Rosary, but you’re willing to experiment with the concept of
meditation; on the way home from work some night, pick an event in Christ’s
life (i.e. Christ’s birth; Was it a stable or a cave? What animals or people
were present? What were the sounds and smells? The star overhead, details etc.)
to contemplate while you repeat the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, the dinner
prayer or whatever other simple prayer that comes to mind, all the way to your
driveway then analyze whether or not you feel more relaxed. Don’t forget to
turn off the radio. You’ll find your brain is capable of thinking about
something at the same time it’s remembering the words to your favorite prayer.
Welcome to
NOT JUST FOR CATHOLICS
I convinced an off the deep end “born again” evangelical that I work with to try this after one of his Catholic bashing episodes criticizing praying on worry beads to Mary and various saints rather than to God. When asked if he ever petitions his own father, he believes to be in heaven, to lobby on his behalf to God when the chips are down or whether he’s asked, in prayer, any old ministers to pray along with him if they can hear him, he was hard pressed to come up with any argument in me recruiting the help of patron saints to various causes they pioneered. He of course had to pray for confirmation before hand to make sure the “great Satan” Catholic Church wasn’t behind this so called meditation. His choice of repetitive prayer was the Lord’s Prayer and he admitted to a mild religious experience and a pleasant ride home while he meditated over the seemingly harmless sights and sounds surrounding Christ’s birth. I deviously proceeded to tell him he was now a Catholic trapped in an evangelist’s body and I’m sure his pastor is still trying to exorcize the demons from his new found prayer form.
This may come as a shock to the hard core Catholics but in my melancholy period of feeling sorry for myself, I felt the need to invent new decades of the Rosary that would help me improve my self esteem. A cry for help? No, both prayer life and real life is an ongoing process. Lightening did not strike me dead for breaking with tradition, but I’m almost positive a few relatives turned over in their graves. There are thousands of mysteries within the walls of Christianity. There are thousands of saints and angels who would gladly intercede with you and by meditating on something that’s a mystery to you. It also gives God the opportunity to put thoughts in your mind that help clear away some of the cob webs. At first these feel and sound a little “Jesse Jackson-esque” , but the new meditations I conjured up are as follows:
1. ATTITUDE -Lord, what can I do to improve myself worth and attitude? Help me find what’s right with the world, it’s people, my life, rather than what’s wrong.
2. GRATITUDE - Jesus, I have so much to be grateful for; my wife, my family, my roots, my religion, my spirituality. Open my eyes, my heart and my soul to Your good works and grace.
3. APTITUDE - How can I use my God given skills better? Grant me an awareness of the many small gifts I possess and the knowledge or wisdom to use them in a pleasing manner to Your Will.
4. INTESTINAL FORTITUDE - God, give me the guts to do whatever it takes to change for the best, the guts to use my talents to do Your work. Give me strength to dig deep and go the extra mile.
5. ALTITUDE - Lord, help me take God’s abundant grace to new heights and carry it to others. Help me strive for the high road in life’s difficult situations, to see over life’s obstacles.
6. MAGNITUDE - Christ, help me to grow in God’s abundant grace. Magnify Your Word in me and I in You. Strengthen my skills, my will, and my spirituality.
7. PERPITUDE - Help me understand the true meaning of “forever”, of “life everlasting”, of Your “perpetual light”, Lord. Guide the Angels and Saints from the beginning of time to pray with me to You as my advocates echoing my prayers for all of eternity.
8. SERVITUDE - I have much to share. Lord, grant me the strength to get off “ground zero” and find the motivation to help those in need on my daily journey.
9. CERTITUDE - Lord, help me to be certain of my deeds and prayers, that they glorify You, that I give all the right assurances to those around me.
What you’ve just read may look a little silly or self centered on my part, but it was my way of reaching out to God and my religious foundation. Is it bold or pompous that I could actually think I could invent a whole new set of mysteries for the holy Rosary? Relax! Let’s just call it a phase I went through to prepare me for bigger things ahead. I was like a newly promoted department manager excited to introduce new ideas to an old corporate giant. The adage, “you have to walk before you can run” holds true in many areas of life including Catholicism. I’m a member of a special parish led by a great Benedictine teacher who encourages us to “think outside of the box” while, at the same time, obey the laws of the church. The Jesuits actually invented and taught this kind of Catholic adjustment. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the same Rosary experiment to anyone, beginning with the Sorrowful Mysteries and leading to other meditations. By the time you get that far, Providence and the Holy Spirit will guide you in the direction you need to go. The Franciscans added two more decades to their Rosaries and adjusted their Mystery sets to, “The Seven Sorrows of Mary” and “The Seven Joys of Mary”. Many other offshoots of Christian religions also have their own versions of the Rosary.
THE GIFT
Lent was approaching and for the first time in my life, I was looking forward to doing something special. Downtown Minneapolis is famous for its heated above ground “skyways” connecting most of the office buildings. Many people walk the three mile corridors during the lunch hour for exercise. At the far end of the skyway from my office, St. Olaf Catholic Church resides. One day, while getting a little exercise, I stumbled on to a purple pamphlet with St. Olaf’s Lenten schedule printed on it. I noticed they had a daily noon mass and every Friday, at 11:15, Stations of the Cross, something I’d completely forgotten since attending St. Stephen’s parochial school in the late fifty’s and early sixty’s in my home town of Anoka, Minnesota. They are offered in my own parish, but I hadn’t found the time to attend until now. My subliminal self crucifixion made me a ripe target for this new found treasure. When I got back to my office, I turned to the first Friday in Lent on my desk calendar and penciled in “stations”.
When the Lenten season arrived, I read in the Catholic Digest (a new found source of inspiration) that the translation of lent was “lengthen”, having something to do with the days getting longer as spring approached. This was going to be the year where I was compelled to make Lent different from all the other years of my life and all the other days in the course of the year. I needed to extend my quiet time to accomplish my goal of praying all fifteen (original) decades instead of five during Lent. After studying a city map of Minneapolis, I plotted out an alternative “lengthened” route home for added symbolism and because once I get home, my quiet place comes to a screeching halt. For those next forty days I would avoid the freeways and drive through residential surroundings on the way home from work. My eyes were opened to all kinds of humanity not found on the expressways. The new route took me through some of the “tough” neighborhoods, past small shops, numerous churches, a hospital, a retirement community, a blue collar suburb and back into my own community on the far reaches west of town. There were lots of new sights and sounds, people, places and activities to watch and think about as I drove by. Many memories of my own upbringing were stimulating new meditations. It was great not being in such a big hurry, not fighting over the passing lane, and not having to wait in those metered freeway entrance lines.
Friday arrived so I turned the page on my Day-timer and there in was written,”stations”. The daily Rosary had me feeling pretty good about myself. Did I really need to go to stations? Reluctantly, I lumbered through the skyway and found a seat among a strong representation of St. Olaf’s parishioners. I got the same feeling you get when you pull into a crowded parking lot at an obscure restaurant, “the food must be good here”. After looking around, I noticed a few familiar faces from my current parish west of town and also a few from my childhood home town parish that probably work down town like I do. The congregation was a virtual melting pot of race and fashions, career uniforms, street people, stock brokers, medical professionals, politicians and senior citizens. The service was the best kept secret in town. I was expecting a penance and got a Pentecost. I had been taking so much for granted up to this point in my life. It was as if I had been in a comma or as though I hadn’t paid very good attention to what went on around me over the years. The Stations of the Cross and all the scriptures read in the service are about you and me today as much as they are about Christ’s suffrage. As the movie critics say,”it’s a must see” each and every Lenten season. Once again I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t been the world’s greatest Catholic over the years and early on, in this lengthy epistle, I mentioned this is not for the seasoned veterans in faith, but more for the fringe observers looking to identify with things that can help make sense of their own experiences.
It was about the same time, a Protestant friend approached me with what he felt was a marital crisis. I like to refer to it as “the gift”. In my random walk through life, I have occasionally given the illusion to those around me that I’m on fairly solid ground. My friends come to me quite often with household common sense “fix-it” problems. Many refer to my garage as “the hardware store”, as I’ve accumulated a good number of tools and hardware treasures from dead relatives and yard sales and know enough about using them to be dangerous. I consult out my garage on a regular basis over a beer or an ice tea on deck building and remodeling projects, but up until now, I hadn’t had many opportunities to repair relationships. Reluctantly, I agreed to meet and hear his story.
Knowing I couldn’t turn him loose on the Rosary, I prayed for wisdom and understanding and received tremendous insights as I listened to his plight.
He came prepared with an outline and notes of what he perceived the problem to be, feeling as though he was looking down the barrel of an eminent divorce. His wife was making demands on behavioral changes or else… He was filled with anxiety, fear, emotional pain and felt helpless. Lucky for both of us, I was cool as a cucumber as God talked through me to him. Not having a lot of experience in giving marital advice, I suggested he talk to his pastor about available councilors through his church. His concern was a pride issue as they weren’t real regular attendees and his wife thought that only he had the problems therefore only he needed help.
Through meditation, I knew his pain as if it were my own and was able to help him pray and take the necessary steps to self analysis and improve his situation over several meetings and several months time. As I prayed my daily Rosary, I meditated on what to say or ask at our regular meetings. Thoughts came into my head and words came out of my mouth that weren’t mine. Questions were asked that made him dig deep inside for truthful answers. Really sound advice was being given that I should have given myself years earlier as Gods grace filled me with joy for helping someone in need. The real bonus was my own relationships at home as I saw clear to some of my own short-comings.
Now I realize I’m no Mother Theresa feeding and clothing the poor, but not all the Beatitudes are economically tied to the poor and I don’t have to join the Peace Corps to be a good Christian. Poor in spirit covers many classes not to mention hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the peacemakers, the merciful, those that mourn, etc. and yes I know “meek” is one as well even though I’m not sounding meek right now, but, for the first time in a long while I was feeling good about myself as a result of helping someone else.
A transformation was taking place within me as my blue funk appeared to be lifting. More gifts were being sent to me, other people in need of objective self analysis and prayer. There is no end to the opportunities to help those in need once we stop feeling sorry for ourselves. I felt God was giving me a look at myself through other people and a responsorial song from Mass came to mind; “if we can die to ourselves in Jesus, then we shall arise to new life in Him”. I needed to let some things “die” inside me in order to grow spiritually. The process of me reacquainting myself with my Catholic roots continues to progress into new territories every day. It wasn’t until I stopped praying just for me and started praying for those who really needed help that I started feeling God’s grace. It was time to leave the “salad bar” and step over to the real “buffet table” within the Catholic Church. It was time to embrace tradition and to go back to the basics in the Rosary, to let old frustrations and bad habits die, to cling to new found wisdom and insight. What does your “buffet table” look like? What are some of the questions or hang-ups you have with the Catholic Church? Is there anyone in your past that drove you away from your faith? Made you angry? Are you afraid to open your own “Pandora’s box”? Take the Rosary for a test drive. Walk before you run. Meditate. Once you get into it a little further, you can turn the heat up on the seriousness and depth of your meditations. The effortless din of Hail Mary’s in your mind can drown out that which distracts you and soften pains and ill wills. “Physician, heal thy self.”
A SAMPLING OF MY ROSARY MEDITATIONS
The new mysteries I mentioned earlier serve a purpose for me and gravity takes me back on occasion, but the Rosary that Divine Wisdom intended us to use seems to do the best for me now and I’d like to share some of the meditations with you now. Besides the obvious petition to Mary to pray with me, I like to start out my Rosary by calling upon all my deceased grandma’s and grandpa’s and aunts and uncles and cousins and friends, that I believe are now in heaven, to pray along and I appeal to my favorite Angels, Saints, Divine causes, my dad and our deceased deer hunting buddies (especially Alfred Ebner) to intercede. Since my children were old enough to talk, part of their bedtime prayers went something like this,” God bless Mommy and Daddy, my doggy and my sister, all my grandma’s and grandpa’s and aunts and uncles and cousins and friends…” So simple, but so profound. Try, sometime, to pray as a child. It’s not as easy as you think. When I was a child I recall my dad leading various Rosaries for Knights of Columbus events and family funerals, so I emulate that and try to feel the presence of my intercessors as I drive in peace. I also ask the Holy Trinity to clear my mind of all distractions before beginning the Rosary; to leave work thoughts at work and home thoughts at home. Last, I call to mind anyone in special need due to illness or strife and dedicate today’s Rosary to them.
THE ROSARY
The Rosary consists of the repetition of three basic “rote prayers”; the Lord’s Prayer and the Glory Be, which bracket ten Hail Mary’s called decades. Each decade requires one to contemplate a specific Mystery while reciting the prayers in a mantra like fashion. With five Mysteries in each of four different themed New Testament, Biblical era’s, surrounding Christ’s life, death and resurrection. It’s helpful to use as much of your imagination as possible to visualize the sights, sounds and emotions of each individual Mystery.
Begin the Rosary with the Sign of the Cross and the Apostles Creed and while reciting it, think about what you’re saying. I call it, “the take inventory prayer.” Concentrate on what you believe in. Before you go on a trip, you make a list of what to pack. Contemplating the Mysteries of the Rosary is like a journey through your imagination, even though much of the scenery is what God wants you to see. It’s helpful to refresh your core beliefs before you start prayer and meditation by going over the list of you actually believe in. If you were the author of the Creed, could you make it any simpler? Can you think of anything else to add? What a magnificent prayer this is:
THE APOSTLES CREED
I believe in God, the
Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only
Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilot, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He
arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of
God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the
dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the
Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and life everlasting, Amen.
The reference to “the communion of saints” strongly suggests that there’s large number of holy people willing to pray along with you if you petition their help. Grip the steering wheel tightly for this prayer and imagine the little Crucifix on the end of the Rosary in the palm of your hand. Sometimes I break with tradition and pray the long version from mass because it’s more detailed. If you feel the need to ask St. Christopher to protect you while you drive, feel free to do so. If you feel unsafe or uncomfortable driving and praying at the same time, it would be best you find a different “quiet place” other than the car. It should go without saying, but just to be on the safe side, don’t attempt to read the prayers while you drive, recite them from memory as best as you can. If you forget the words, make up new ones until you can reference you prayer guide. I’ve yet to be stuck dead for improvising when I forget. Remember, there are other drivers on the road, many of which would love an opportunity to annihilate you or gesture wildly at you over something petty.
Next, imagining the first bead on the Rosary, I open my palm of my left hand and face it skyward on my lap while I hang on to the steering wheel with my right hand and pray The Our Father. Meditate on “our daily bread” and how it’s always taken for granted that it’s there every night for us, our dinner or for that matter all our meals. Think about “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Do we readily forgive? I always say the long version (the Lutheran version according to old relatives) and often times imagine it being sung by Pavarotti to magnify it’s beauty. The next three (Hail Mary) beads are for faith, hope and love. I reference in my mind, the passages in Matthew about having faith the size of a mustard seed, in Mark regarding all things being possible to attain for those who believe and back to Matthew again for the passage : if you give up all your possessions and your body up to flames and have no love, you have nothing. I pray to receive the hope a child has as he looks under the Christmas tree at his gifts and I ask to feel God’s unconditional love as I drive home. Again with my left hand on my left knee I imitate the hand in the Sistine Chapel where the out-stretched index finger of a man is reaching toward another out stretched hand, for the Faith- Hail Mary. For the Hope- Hail Mary, I imitate the hand shape Christ is pictured using so often, where His two fingers are extended in a sort of boy scout or girl scout pledge position. During a certain part of mass, the priests stretch open their arms and their index finger and thumb form a tight “o” while the other three fingers stay straight. I use that hand position for the Love- Hail Mary. My grandma used to hold her Rosary in her fist like it was a baby bird, which is the way I hold my hand for the Glory Be prayer at the end of this first part of the Rosary as well as at the end of each of the five decades. Sometimes stop lights change or traffic makes you react. Your mind has to be able to go back and forth from reality and prayer without losing your place. Imitating religious gestures for these prayers is an added bonus to feeling the prayer while you’re saying the prayer. It may be easier to understand the added emotion if it were turned to anger and you use an external gesture to aid in expressing your internal feelings at another driver who just cut you off of didn’t properly signal a turn. I’m not recommending you express your anger, but I thought the visual would helpful in understanding the available choices of good hand gestures to consider replacing the bad ones and how they enhance mood.
After the very last Glory Be, at the very end of the Rosary, we recite the “Hail Holy Queen” petition. Analyze the words carefully and understand that you never pray the Rosary alone. This is the ultimate “two for one” special of all time.
HAIL HOLY QUEEN
Hail Holy Queen,
Mother of mercy. Our Life our Sweetness and our Hope! To Thee do we cry, poor
banished children of Eve. To Thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping
in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy
toward us; and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed Fruit of thy
womb, Jesus. Oh Clement, Oh loving, Oh sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us, holy
mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
She’s our advocate who prays for us and with us. Her prayer is usually followed by:
Let us pray;
Oh God, by the life,
death, and resurrection of Your only Begotten Son, You have purchased for us
eternal life. Grant, we beseech Thee, that by meditating on the Mysteries of
the most holy Rosary of the Virgin Mary, we might imitate what they contain and
obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord, Amen.
What a great way to end the meditation.
THE ROSARY ORIGIN
In 1208, the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Dominick in the Chapel of Notre Dame and gave him direction for building and praying the Rosary. She, further, instructed him to teach all of the world how to pray it. Europe was in absolute chaos and nearly self destructed during the “Dark Ages”. Hoards of barbarians were defeated by Christian forces who prayed the Rosary before battle, even though they were greatly outnumbered. Since then thousands, if not millions of miracles are directly associated with the Rosary. Many believe the original fifteen decades of ten Hail Mary’s represent or symbolize the 150 Psalms in the Old Testament. The Rosary would be the size of tire chains if they put them all on, so it was broken into five decades and church leaders recommend three different mystery groups (Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious) to meditate on for the corresponding days of the week, but only as a recommendation, not a requirement. There is plenty of doctrine on all of this along with some fascinating history with specific saints, but I’m trying to avoid complicating the simple beauty and peace of it all. Gravity and God’s grace will take you where you need to go on your own time frame once you begin your own journey with the Rosary. The goal in writing this was to share experiences related to my “epiphany”, which in turn would touch the hearts of “fringe” Catholics looking for answers as they try to make sense of misguided feelings or misdirected teachings common to many in my age group. One of my biggest frustrations was not so much believing in the Virgin Mary’s role in the scope of everything, but more my ability to explain or even argue my beliefs with challengers and non-believers. By praying for and receiving wisdom and insights on those specific mysteries, I can now hold my own in most circles. Because the Sorrowful Mysteries were the easiest for me to identify with initially, I’m going to suggest you begin your meditations there. I stuck with them, daily, until a desire to understand the other mysteries grew inside me. Then it dawned on me that maybe that’s why they’re called mysteries. Try to feel God’s love as you open your mind to the mysteries that challenge your Catholicism.
THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES:
1. JESUS AGONIZES IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE- picture a dark night with heavy air. There’s a haze over His sleeping friends. The normal sounds of night are absent. Only the pounding of His heart is heard in His head as He knows completely what events are about to unfold. His human side is frightened, but in His omnipotence He carries the weight of the entire world, past, present, and future. All that is evil can be forgiven as a result of His impending “Passion”. His agony is immeasurable. Think about it and meditate. Pray, Dear Lord, that I can give up all that agonizes within me and I find comfort in Your Grace. Help all of us who agonize over work, family, religion, any kind of loss, any kind of hatred, anger, jealousy, or harsh feelings, none of which can hold a candle to Your agony. Help me to pray, ”Thy will be done” the way You did on that night in the garden.(Say the Lord’s Prayer followed by ten Hail Mary’s and a Glory Be after each meditation)
2. JESUS IS SCOURGED AT THE PILLAR - In a dusty, crowded town square, You were stripped of Your clothing and tethered to the post like a defenseless animal. People cursed You and spat upon You. Your flesh ripped open with every lash of the whip. The pain would be unbearable to any human. What harm have You caused? How could You be so misunderstood? Meditate. Lord, sometimes we find ourselves discouraged in life’s struggles, we feel picked on or singled out at home or work, we discover we’re our own worst critic at times and become depressed over chastising ourselves. We scourge others with unkind thoughts or words. Help us to barter our discouragement for Your encouragement and turn over a new lease on life.
3. JESUS IS FITTED WITH A CROWN OF THORNS - In front of thousands, they mocked You by twisting everything You said and did out of proportion. They put cracks in all that was concrete. They created fears and doubts and uncertainties in those that followed Your teachings. Thousands of tiny spurs penetrated Your scalp. Meditate. Lord, that which distracts us most in life is the petty little worries over superficial junk; finances, home improvements, broken cars, appliances and promises. We discover we are somewhat sinful in nature, at times, even though we try not to be. Little things frustrate us and “prick” at us. Help us to place all of our thorns into Your crown and find a resting place for You in my soul.
4. JESUS CARRIES THE CROSS TO MOUNT CALVARY - You trudge through town, up a steep incline, past jeering and uncaring people clamoring to see You suffer. Every fiber and molecule of that cross represents the sins of the world. How heavy it must have been. How humiliating it must have been. Where did You find the strength? Meditate. Lord, some of us have heavy crosses we chose to carry; incurable diseases, bankruptcy, divorce, job layoffs, tax audits, natural disasters, family misunderstandings, etc. Help us to understand that You will carry any cross we choose to give You. Help us to find a clear path to let go of our crosses and find safe refuge in Your church.
5. JESUS IS CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS - Darkness has fallen on the land in the middle of the day. Thunder and lightning, the curtain in the temple is torn in half. The noisy crowd is silenced. The hair is standing on the backs of everyone’s neck at the thought of killing an innocent man. They ask, “could He be the son of God”? How could God let this happen? Meditate. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die so that sins may be forgiven. Whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life- JN 3-16. All the sin of all the world for all of time no matter how great or small is forgivable by God. Lord help us to forgive those who wrong us. As simple as that should be, we often make it difficult. Help us to forgive ourselves as we so often forget to do. Help all those who are hopeless to the point of suicide to forgive themselves of what haunts them. Help us discover all the blessings available to become the best Christians and Catholics we can be. ( follow the last Glory Be with the Hail Holy Queen and closing prayer)
God’s unconditional love and sacrifice of His only begotten Son is the ultimate show of Grace entitling the whole world to be saved. As horrible as the events within the passion are, we should feel loved after meditating on these mysteries. The next set of mysteries; The Glorious Mysteries, require a huge leap of faith for wavering fringe believers. Supernatural events way beyond mere miracles pit common sense and imagination against faith. How far can you open your mind? Meditations become ponderings as we push the envelope of faith. Fear is the only real obstacle to faith according to the great orator and author, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. (hint: Sheens paperback book,” FROM THE ANGELS BLACKBOARD” is a collection of his greatest sermons and a must read for struggling Catholics.)
THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES:
1. JESUS IS RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD - The disciples sprinted to Your tomb the minute they heard of it’s opening. They found the shroud and embalming cloths. Filled with fears, doubts and uncertainties they weigh out the possibilities. Later You appeared to them and again when Thomas was present. How could this be possible? Lord, resurrect my faith, my career, my fiber as a human being. Help all those in need of bolstering their faith to find what it takes to believe. Help us to believe in each other and love as you have taught us.
2. JESUS ACSENDS INTO HEAVEN - Was this a quiet event among followers or a well attended witnessing by many? Were there trumpets sounding and angels singing something out of Handel’s Messiah? Did clouds and brilliant lights fill the skies as Jesus was lifted up to the Heavens? Lord, no matter how big we are capable of thinking, we probably fall short of the actual Ascension. Help us to accept the greatness of Your glory and find comfort in Your grace.
3. THE HOLY SPIRIT DESENDS UPON THE APOSTLES - The Pentecost! Lord, I picture a room full of people from all walks of life, suddenly speaking all kinds of different languages at the same time and yet completely understanding one another. All at once their minds are filled with Divine Knowledge and Divine Wisdom while their souls are filled with the Holy Spirit. For the first time, in their time with You on earth, all that confused them earlier now makes perfect sense as the haze over their path in life is lifted. Their fears mesmerize into an unending faith that they will preach to the world to the point of death and imprisonment. Lord, help all those souls who are confused, find direction. Strengthen our faith in You. Grant us wisdom to say and do and think the right things as the little voice inside us, our conscience, guides us through the tough situations.
4. MARY’S ASSUPTION INTO HEAVEN - Sinless and beautiful, Mary is brought to Heaven, body and soul. Her work on earth is not finished, it’s just starting. She’s an advocate to all just causes, to all races, to anyone who asks for her prayers “now and at the hour of our death”. Lord, help us to petition Mary’s prayers and grant us the belief that we are all miracles in the making, waiting for our turn to help those around us in a way that is pleasing to You.
5. MARY IS CROWNED QUEEN OF THE HEAVENS - Hail to you, Mary, the highest ranking saint in heaven. Your love for us has no end. You hear us, see us and feel what we feel. Pray for us, Holy Queen, that we have faith strong enough to believe all the words we pray in your Holy Rosary. Let us feel your presence as you pray the exact words we pray and believe you take our petitions to God our Father. Help those who are uncertain come to know God hears all prayers and grants us the strength and understanding to accept the answers if we ask in Jesus’ name. Mother Mary, you’ve asked intercessors throughout time to fast and pray over worldly issues, give me the grace and strength to do it when it’s my turn.
Last of original three sets, are The Joyful Mysteries. The hope of the coming savior, the hope of Elizabeth’s son John paving the way for mankind and Christ, the hope of prophecies coming true for the holy Simeon and people of the world, the hope of a great teacher bringing light and understanding to the world. Christ didn’t need hope because He was Hope. Embrace these next meditations and refer to the first chapter of Luke for additional thoughts, meditations and insights.
THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES
1. THE ANNUNCIATION OF CHRISTS BIRTH TO THE VIRGIN MARY FROM ANGEL GABRIEL
Born without sin and now an innocent, sinless teen standing in the presence of God’s holy angel,
Gabriel, Mary accepts her calling with, “ be it done according to thy word”. The dictionary defines
“annunciation” as a foretelling of an upcoming big event or change. Change is something most
people fear. It’s full of uncertainties treading on new ground. We can only guess at the effects of a
perceived change beforehand. What an immeasurable amount of faith Mary lived her life by. Lord,
help me to really mean it when I pray, “thy will be done”. Help me accept the result if it’s not as
expected. It’s Your will that is done not mine.
2. THE VISITATION OF MARY TO HER COUSIN ELIZABETH - Together with your elder cousin, both in possession of the Divine knowledge of the special gifts inside, you find comfort in each others company. Lord, you give us many friends and relations in our brief stay on earth. If we fall short of our own visitation duties, make us aware of the importance of ministering to those near us who are in need of a kind word, a helping hand, a prayer, or a visit for it is in giving we receive.
3. THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST - Was it the starriest night in the history of the world? What do “hosts of angels” look like and sound like? Everyone in the world was suspicious that something was different about that one night. What were the shepherds feeling? How did the visiting “kings” handle this blessed event? Lord, You gave the world Your only begotten son to be our savior, to live in the hearts and souls of those who choose to believe, to die for the forgiveness of the sins of the entire world. Help me better understand the meaning of my birth, my life and my eventual death in relation to Yours.
4. THE PRESENTATION OF THE BABY JESUS IN THE TEMPLE - The holy Simeon professes the completion of prophesy and all rejoice. Later on during the census, against all odds and in fear of their baby’s life, Mary and Joseph are visited by an angel, who helps them make their way to Egypt, while Herrod’s soldiers were killing all the male children in the neighboring towns over the foretold birth of a savior. Lord, it’s hard to identify with all that You went through as a baby. Help me to celebrate in my own baptism in You along with all the other sacraments and religious traditions passed on to us from the Holy Sea.
5. THE CHILD JESUS IS LOST FOR THREE DAYS AND FOUND TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE -At one end of Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph are at their wits end. The search for their child is now three days old. Fears, doubts, and uncertainties are held at bay with faith. In the holiest temple of Israel, at the other end of town, a twelve year old child is three days into a leading a teaching marathon with all the top religious leaders of the Hebrew world. It would be like a seventh grader teaching the professors of Harvard or Oxford. The Einstein or Socrates equivalents of Christ’s time were all present and learning new things from a child. What a mystery Divine wisdom can be to us mortals. Lord, grant me the wisdom to use all my God given talents to do Your work. Help me to use my common sense as the gift it was meant to be in educating others responsibly.
Just prior to his death, Pope John Paul II introduced five new mysteries called the “Luminous Mysteries”, through what many claim was Devine Intervention. Some “hard core” Catholics have trouble with breaking from tradition and resist using the new set of five mysteries. There is quite a gap between the last Joyful Mystery, when the boy, Christ was found in the temple teaching and the first Sorrowful Mystery of Christ agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane. The entire New Testament, the Gospel, the Living Word and the miraculous deeds of Christ’s public life are at the heart of the Luminous Mysteries and they literally link the other Mysteries together. After numerous contemplations on the newest meditations, I can’t imagine not having them be part of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
THE LUMINOUS MYSTERIES:
1. THE BAPTISM OF JESUS IN THE JORDAN- The crowd followed Jesus into the desert to the River Jordan as his cousin, St. John the Baptist came out of the wilderness to profess the prophecies of the coming Savior. To John’s surprise at the sight of the Messiah, fell at Jesus feet and proclaimed aloud, “I’m not worthy to loosen the straps of this man’s sandals”. Nor am I, Lord. Through my own Baptism, help me be a better evangelist. Help me be a better person. Help me help others to find their way in the mass confusion of modern ways.
2. THE MANIFESTATION OF JESUS AT THE WEDDING AT CANA- The host of the wedding is shocked to find out he’s run out of wine. Mary turns to Jesus and asks him to begin “His Fathers work” by performing a miracle. The servants filled several large containers of water and Jesus changed them into wine. Guests were overheard saying, “most serve the good wine first, but you saved the best for last”. Lord, make me a vessel of your finest wine and fill me with the graces necessary to be a better Christian.
3. THE PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD- For the next three years, Jesus manifests himself into the New Testament by preaching His own Gospel and performing countless miracles throughout the Holy Land. “…and the Word became Flesh”. The parables, the Beatitudes, the loaves and the fishes which fed 5000 people, the raising of the dead, are all mysteries inside of this one larger mystery. Lord, continue to give me the right thoughts and images as I read and listen to the Gospel.
4. THE TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS- Up on the mount of Olives with His closest disciples and in the presence of Abraham, Isaac and Isaiah, Jesus is completely illuminated by light as Gods booming voice says’ “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.” If today, I hear your voice, Lord, harden not my heart. You are the light of the world. You are my light and salvation. Help me see the all the ways You are my light.
5. THE INSTITUTION OF THE EUCHARIST- At the Last Supper, Jesus, once again, manifests himself into the New Testament by becoming the Living Body and Blood of Christ, creating a way to share Himself with the world, every time Mass is performed, for all who believe. “This is My body which will be given up for you…this is my blood which will be shed for you so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in remembrance of Me. Lord, help me receive You.
Contemplating all these mysteries can drown out all the distractions “life” throws your way. Give it a try