SAYING THE ROSARY AT CHURCH AND AT HOME
The daily communal rosary has not yet resumed after weekday masses, but if any parishioner would like to arrive at church at 9.30 and lead the rosary before 10.00 mass, please let me know and we can do this during May. Please remember that the rosary said in public is an ecclesial act and if it is to be said well to honour Our Lady, we need to listen to each other and pray together as one voice so that it is not ‘me saying my rosary’ but all of us together, each dying a little to his or her own ego, that we might be one as Christ prayed to his Father that we be. Just a simple thing like saying the rosary together can be the starting point of humility before God if we do this in imitation of Mary, the model of humility. People have told me over the years that they do not join in public rosary because it sounds so awful with every participant projecting himself or herself at their own speed resulting in a quite horrid cacophonous drone of incomprehensible words from competing egos. The rosary is more about listening than what each of us say: listening to the sacred words, listening to each other, listening to the spirit within us. When we say it together it is truly a spiritual practice and will encourage others to join in, for in the unison of our voices in prayer, God’s invitation to Mary in the angelic salutation can be heard as an invitation to all.
We can also say the rosary at home in silence, and this is a great way to calm the mind and know the peace of God in our hearts. During this month, which is in Eastertide, we can also say daily the Regina Coeli, the great Eastertide antiphon to Mary of joy shared with her in the Resurrection of Jesus. The Regina Coeli is at the end of the newsletter.