Learning to Pray the Rosary Part 6

+JMJ+ Greetings, y’all! We’ve been exploring and learning to pray the Rosary and using art to help us. Last week we prayed the Third Joyful Mystery, the Nativity. This week we’ll continue the Joyful Mysteries with the Presentation, we’ll add the Apostles’ Creed, and I’ll add some artwork to help you enter into the scene if you like. You can go through what to do, then pray the Rosary, you can use my comments as a jumping off place for your own reflections and meditations. Or ignore me completely. (Well, maybe not completely. That’d be weird. Well, not weird, I mean, it has been done. Oh, never mind.)

On the crucifix, we pray for those who don’t believe:

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 Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
He descended into hell;
on the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there He will 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.

Then on the first single bead, we pray for the Holy Father:

THE OUR FATHER (1x)

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

Amen.

On the next three beads we pray for an increase of faith, hope, and charity in our souls and in our world.

THE HAIL MARY (3x)

Hail, Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Then we pray the Glory Be.

GLORY BE (1x)

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

Amen.

Now announce the Mystery: the Fourth Joyful Mystery, the Presentation, also known as the Purification and the Circumcision. (And all three of these have to do with:)

The Fruit of the Mystery: Obedience.

Now there’s something that’s hard for most of us, isn’t it? Obedience. But it’s one of the three evangelical counsels: poverty, chastity and obedience.

There are three evangelical counsels in Christianity: poverty, chastity, and obedience. Each, of course, presents challenges, but all are rooted in a similar goal: detachment. In obedience, God gives us the grace to free ourselves from pride and willfulness. In chastity, God gives us the grace to order and moderate our sexual passions according to our state in life, thereby reducing our obsession with their energy. And in poverty, God gives us the grace to suppress our greed and to make moderate, proper use of the things of this world.
From a blog post by Msgr. Charles Pope.

Obedience is also one of the vows that religious take upon themselves when they answer the Lord’s call to enter religious life.

And there’s something I did not know before I began studying Catholicism, that religious was not only an adjective (“Oh, he’s so religious”) but also a noun referring to the person who has the vocation and not just a way of describing the vocation. I didn’t even think in terms of vocation. Now, I wasn’t one of those people who went around saying “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual.” I’ve always been drawn to religion, or what I thought religion was. Catholicism showed me that I had a lot to learn about that. (I still do.) And I know that our religion is how we learn to be spiritual, how we cultivate a spiritual life, and that people who go around saying how spiritual they are, but then only ever talk about physical, material things, are not really very spiritual at all.

The Holy Family was deeply spiritual and deeply religious. They kept the ritual law and the moral law. Their religion wasn’t a burden because they loved the Lord with all their heart and mind and strength and soul. When you love someone like that, serving them is not a burden. Whom you don’t love, you don’t want to serve. Haven’t you found that to be the case? A heart filled with envy and hate will not be one that serves anyone willingly and certainly not with love. I can think of one example from Scripture who stands out as one who will not serve.

If only that one could understand that serving the Lord brings freedom. And the Lord is the only One Who deserves all of our love and service. We love and serve others because we love them in Christ. What does that mean? Well, we love others because we see the image of Christ in them, and He is the image of the living God. And we love others because we have Christ in us and we are in Him. We were baptized into Him, into the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, and we are made part of the Family of God, adopted by God the Father into His Family and we love our sisters and brothers that Family. Our Family.

St. Benedict says, Prefer nothing to Christ. By the way, St. Benedict was quoting St. Cyprian of Carthage with that line. Here’s the rest of it.

Prefer nothing to Christ, because He preferred nothing to us, and on our account preferred evil things to good, poverty to riches, servitude to rule, death to immortality.
Prefer Nothing to Christ, Mike Aquilina.

Christ always shows us the way because He IS The Way.

Well, enough rambling on by me. Now it’s time for you to put yourself into the scene of the Presentation and pray your Rosary, keeping the them of obedience in mind, and asking the Blessed Virgin to intercede for you that the grace of obedience be granted to you. (And don’t be surprised if you have a marvelous opportunity to practice obedience right away. Hey, don’t ask for her help if you don’t mean it. Just sayin’. I know this form experience.) Here’s a short video from Fr. Peyton’s Family Theater Productions. And then the account of the Presentation from Luke’s Gospel.

Video, the Presentation from Family Theater Productions. Very brief.

21 And after eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised, his name was called JESUS, which was called by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb.

22 And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord:

23 As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord:

24 And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons:

25 And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was in him.

26 And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.

27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law,

28 He also took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said:

29 Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace;

30 Because my eyes have seen thy salvation,

31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples:

32 A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

33 And his father and mother were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning him.

34 And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted;

35 And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.

36 And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; she was far advanced in years, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity.

37 And she was a widow until fourscore and four years; who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day.

38 Now she, at the same hour, coming in, confessed to the Lord; and spoke of him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel.

39 And after they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their city Nazareth.

40 And the child grew, and waxed strong, full of wisdom; and the grace of God was in him.

41 And his parents went every year to Jerusalem, at the solemn day of the pasch…

—Luke 2:21-42, Douay-Rheims, American edition, 1899, public domain.

Thank you for joining me here. May we grow in holiness and virtue praying the Rosary, devoted also to the Sacred Heart, and, by His grace, become united with Him, becoming the saints He always meant us to be. God bless you, and may His peace be always with you. +JMJ+

“The Rosary is the ‘weapon’ for these times.” — Padre Pio

Join me on Fridays for the Rosary Project Live on X (formerly known as Twitter) at 8pm ET, 7pm CT, at the pinned thread on my profile page, to cultivate a culture of Light, Life, Love, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, for the conversion of sinners, and for the salvation of souls. Optional Preparation thread begins at 15 minutes before. There’s also a Rosary here on the blog that you can use anytime, 24/7/365.

Notes and Links

From a blog post on the evangelical counsel of poverty but mentions the others, too. Written by Msgr. Charles Pope.
Prefer Nothing to Christ, Mike Aquilina.
The Presentation, a video from Family Theater Productions.

Images: In the banner, a photo from Pixabay. Other images of the Presentation in the Temple via Wikimedia Commons, public domain, unless otherwise noted. Artwork by these artists, in order:

Ambrogio Lorenzetti,
Hans Holbein,
Unknown artist, from the Sherbrooke Missal,
South German, Late 15^th Century.

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