Rosary most
relevant today
By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
October 7, 2014
WE have just celebrated the
liturgical memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7). It’s this
celebration that has made the whole month of October the month of the
rosary. Let’s hope that we appreciate the true value of this prayer.
I still remember my
childhood days in the province when we were “forced” or at least
“pressured” to say the rosary with Lola and Mama and other siblings
who were “caught” at the time of this prayer. We did it kneeling down.
Of course, I didn’t quite like it, but neither did I feel mistreated.
Filial obedience played a big role in this.
Since I could not escape, I
just played along, but wondered why this prayer was so important it
had to be that way. In a sense, I was both there and not there, my
mind alternating between praying and getting distracted. Pretension
reigned often.
It was only late in my
youth, while I was already separated from the family to study in
Manila, and therefore quite independent but aware I had to fend for
myself, that I realized how important this prayer was. For a start, it
gave me a tremendous calming effect.
To a person who was
extremely excitable and sensitive as I was – though I would also know
how to cover these traits – the rosary was most welcome. It gave me
time and space to breathe and consider things more calmly.
But I soon discovered other
more important aspects of this Marian prayer. I realized the value of
vocal prayers. What I tended to take for granted actually contained
precious ideas. I somehow discerned a certain beauty in them, far
removed from merely physical beauty and transitory worldly pleasures.
And so to prevent me from
falling into mere mechanical praying, I would focus on some phrases of
the prayers, one at a time, and try to understand and fathom their
meaning and figure out how they can affect my life.
That’s when I relished the
reality of God being a father to me, of what my attitude should be
toward him, what I can expect from him, what I ought to ask from him,
etc. Also, that Mary is such a wonderful mother who is a most worthy
model to follow, the most competent teacher with respect to the
virtues I ought to develop, etc.
More importantly, the rosary
would start to give me a global picture of the redemptive life of
Christ which I used to take for granted. Even a cursory meditation of
the mysteries of the rosary would elicit all kinds of insights and
considerations that I felt were very useful to me. I could use the
youth-speak of ‘cool’ to describe them.
With the rosary, I get the
sensation that I am seeing the different parts of the life Christ
through the eyes of Mary, the one who understood perfectly the life of
Christ and conformed herself to it is the most intimate way.
In other words, the rosary
helped me to be a practical contemplative right in the middle of the
world, teaching me how to see things through the eyes of faith and
devotion. It inculcated in me a living piety that knows how to be
lived right in the midst of the secular world.
This, to me, is the greatest
effect of the rosary. It is indeed an effective means to instill a
supernatural outlook in us, a handy tool to ask for special favors
through our Mother’s intercession, a good way to spend time and know
more about Christ and about her.
If there are pressures to
bear, problems to solve, challenges to face, and even special
intentions to pray for, the rosary is a good companion. Even when we
get visited by insomnia, the rosary helps us go to sleep.
Especially these days when
we are buffeted with all kinds of tension-causing predicaments, the
rosary is a good antidote. It puts our mind and heart in their proper
place, firmly rooted on Christ and oriented toward him. It makes us
conscious of our human and Christian duties.
The rosary can be done
anytime, anywhere. It need not be finished in one seating. And with
the new technologies which enable us to follow it while listening to
its recording, it can be done quite easily, even while we are driving.
It’s good to spread this
devotion as widely as possible, first in the family, then in the
neighborhood, in schools, parishes, offices, etc. We can also organize
pilgrimages to shrines of our Lady. All these can only have good
effects on us all.