Translate

Monday, December 8, 2014

INDIVIDUALIZING A POPULAR DEVOTION LIKE THE ROSARY: KOSHER OR NOT KOSHER, THAT IS THE QUESTION

I exercise every morning at about 5:45 at the downtown Macon Health Club. I use an elliptical machine that has mind hands and legs moving and I go fast and do so for 45 solid minutes. It is a real penance.

I pray the Holy Rosary about 30 minutes into my exercise routine.  I always use the various mysteries of the Holy Rosary on their proper day. But today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Lady. So I decided to personalize or individualize my meditations for the Holy Rosary this morning by substituting other meditations.

I chose the following meditations:

1. The Immaculate Conception
2. The Nativity of our Blessed Lady
3. Her Presentation in the Temple
4. The Annunciation 
5. The Nativity

I could have chosen others and in fact I was tempted to eliminate the Presentation of Mary in the Temple so that I could conclude with her Glorious Assumption.

Kosher or not Kosher, that is the question!

14 comments:

Gene said...

I don't know. When I pray the Rosary sometimes, on each Ave (instead of the Mysteries), I let the faces of my loved ones and friends for whom I am praying pass across my mind like on a screen. I don't guess there is anything wrong with that.

Anonymous said...

No! Anything connected with a "Bacon Health Club" is definitely NOT kosher!

What's that? Oh, Macon Health Club. That's different.

Never mind.

Anonymous said...

Kosher for private prayer, not kosher for public recitation of the Rosary. I sometimes personalize the decades of my Rosary by offering each decade for a certain need, person, or intention, with or without meditation on a particular Mystery.

Rood Screen said...

"Kosher" refers to fulfillment of divine law imposed upon descendants of the Twelve Tribes of Jacob, especially the tribe of Judah. For Gentile Christians, the divine law is the Gospel. Neither the Torah nor the Gospel make any requirements concerning meditation with the Rosary.

As far as pious exercises are concerned, it is for the pope and bishops to regulate these. In this case, "the liturgical character of a given day takes precedence over the usual assignment of a mystery of the Rosary to a given day; the Rosary is such that, on particular days, it can appropriately substitute meditation on a mystery so as to harmonize this pious practice with the liturgical season" (Directory of Popular Piety 200).

Православный физик said...

Fine in private, not so in public

Mordacil said...

I came into the Catholic Church praying the rosary and it's dissapoonting to find how controversial it can be as I explore deeper into the faith. I took the luminous mysteries for granted for example only to find that including them is really offensive to some and then find that even eastern christians have a problem with the whole process of imaginative prayer (I know, they're not catholic, but I thought this devotion to mary would be something we could agree upon)

Anonymous said...

545 in the morning?!? Talk about discipline!!! Reminds me of the old country saying, "don't let the sun(rise) catch you sleeping!"

Rood Screen said...

Mordacil,

There are many Eastern Christians in full union with Rome. The Maronites, for example, never broke this communion. They may not pray the Rosary, but they do not find it offensive to the Faith.

If there are Catholics who actively oppose the Rosary, then they do so in opposition to the clear and consistent teachings of the popes.

Anonymous said...

JBS 9:46, when I read this post I honestly thought it was a tongue in cheek joke. It isn't?

Do you really think that you have to explain what "kosher" is?

Anthony said...

Many days while driving to and from work,I say 2 out 3 rosaries.There are days like today,where I didn't say one on the way home.Personally speaking,I think the holy trinity would rather you pray instead of reading or listening to worldly,secular,trashy,garbage.However,I am not a Canon lawyer or a theologian.Do not take my word over the Baltimore Cathetcism.

Mordacil said...

I know that the eastern catholics have no problem with it as it's consistent with catholic teaching. I was referring to the orthodox churches. I know they pray the Jesus Prayer on prayer ropes but was surprised to find that imagining the mysteries of the rosary was a problem for them

Anonymous said...

Yikes...this place is getting freakier and weirder every day.

("If you don't like it why don't you leave"?

George said...

One should try to say five decades every day. I would recommend this devotion to anyone. Fr McDonald, I don't see anything wrong with the Mysteries you listed, especially given the feast day we are celebrating today(December 8).


Anonymous said...

I'm so sick of all this noncense. If you don't like the teachingsmand practices of themVatholic Church then go aomewhere else and leave the rest of us alone. Things that have been normative for centuries are sudenlly being debated by arrogant people who don't believe a thing the Church teaches. It's insanity.