Inbox Inspiration: September 7, 2020: The Rosary

 The Rosary

Dear Friends,
Today I am thinking about mysteries.
I do not mean a Sherlock Holmes mystery that a good detective can solve.
Instead, I am referring to the great mysteries of life, like 
the birth of a baby, 
a sudden and breakthrough insight,
sickness, suffering, and death,
loving and being loved,
or simply the universe.
These realities are, at least to some extent, mysteries.
We can never solve or fully explain them.
Instead, we stand in awe or wonder before them.
So, today I am thinking of these mysteries because October 7 in our Catholic calendar is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The rosary is in honor of Mary, and it is divided into the mysteries of our faith:
the Joyful Mysteries (e.g. the Birth of our Lord), the Luminous Mysteries (e.g. the Institution of the Eucharist), the Sorrowful Mysteries (e.g. the Crucifixion), and the Glorious Mysteries (e.g. the Resurrection). 
We are drawn to these mysteries because we experience mystery in our own human experience. 
In turn, the mysteries of the rosary bring us comfort and strength for dealing with the mysteries of life.
At one and the same time, the rosary draws us closer to God and closer to our inner self in the journey of life.
And so, we stand in awe before them and become one with them in prayer.
This is why the rosary is a good prayer for us to know and to have in our spiritual toolbox.
 
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee…”
 
Father Michael Schleupner