Sunday, January 25, 2015

January 25 – “On Rosaries and Hail Mary’s”

A while back when Chris and I went to her aunt’s funeral, it was preceded by a Rosary.  This post is my “outsider’s take” on what we saw.  Please feel free to enlighten me further on any of the points.  I am sure willing to learn.

That is a Catholic pre-funeral event where the people gather to collectively “pray through the Rosary.”  Of course the Rosary beads are one of the most recognizable in the Catholic array of symbolic artifacts and events.  Designed to be an aid to private prayer, each bead represents one prayer in a never-ending circle of communication with God.  The beads are divided up into segments with a different sized or colored bead beginning each new segment.  As the pray-er says the prayer associated with a bead, he then pushes it along, moving to the next bead and the next prayer.  Some of the beads represent the Lord’s Prayer, and others represent what is called the “Hail Mary” from the first two words.  Here’s a “semi-official” definition that I found after the fact:

The prayers that essentially compose the Rosary are arranged in sets of ten Hail Mary's preceded by one Lord's Prayer and followed by one Glory Be. During recitation of each set, known as a decade, thought is given to one of the Mysteries of the Rosary, which recall events in the lives of Jesus and Mary. Normally, five decades are recited in a session. Other prayers are sometimes added after each decade (in particular, the Fatima Prayer) and before (in particular, the Apostles' Creed), and after (in particular, the Hail, Holy Queen) the five decades taken as a whole.

Back to my impressions.  So, at the Rosary service the crowd essentially prays through the Rosary beads together.  The particular Rosary we went to occurred thirty minutes before the actual funeral service began, and it was set up much better than many I have seen.  I’m a big fan of explaining the why’s behind traditions that “everyone is supposed to know,” and that courtesy was, to an extent, extended here.  They broke it up into five segments that each started out with a scripture from one of the “mysteries” of the faith.  By “mysteries” in this case they mean segments of Jesus’ life.  I looked it up.  There are 20 different “mysteries” to choose from.  18 of them are about Jesus.  They have added two at the end: the assumption of Mary and the crowning of Mary as queen of heaven.  Those I begin to have questions about, since they are not in Scripture.  I understand that Mary was given her special status originally in an effort to glorify Jesus.  I think the logic probably went something like, if Jesus was the Son of God, then his mother had to be someone very special.  Otherwise he would have been tainted with her sin.  Of course that line of logic breaks down, because you would have to apply the same process to Mary’s mother and father, and to their parents, and so on.  And we know Mary was a descendant of David, so in just a few generations you run into this guy who regularly confessed his sins to God.  Whew.  I appreciate any effort to glorify Jesus, but this might have gone just a bit too far.  I also take great issue with those who say that you can receive salvation through Mary without any need for the sacrifice of Jesus.  That is, indeed, worship of Mary.  I have a problem with that.

This particular service just had scripture from five of the Jesus-life mysteries.  After each Scripture reading, they prayed through a segment of the rosary, asking Mary to pray for them five or six times (the Hail Mary), and then praying the Lord’s Prayer and giving glory to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit once.  That means over the course of the 30 minute service, they asked Mary to pray for them 50 or 60 times, and said the Lord’s Prayer or something that specifically honored or recognized Jesus 15 or so times. 

My take on that?  First of all, I guess I’m not your typical Protestant, by any means.  I don’t see the Hail Mary as an act of worship of Mary.  The first part is a Scripture quotation (Luke 1:28-30 - The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."  Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God).  “Hail” (Greetings in this translation) is a form of greeting from the Greek word chairo meaning be cheerful.  You might hear it today as “Aloha.”  So the angel is not worshipping Mary.  He is just getting her attention and saying “hello.”

It seems to me that the “Hail Mary” as said by Catholics, as well as “prayers” to any of the individuals designated “saint” (A “saint” in Scripture refers to any believer.  In Catholic life the term is used to designate someone who has attained a special status among the church because of a remarkably devoted life or because of some spiritually unusual circumstance surrounding them), is a request for someone, who is still alive (as we believe believers who have died to indeed be) and happens to already be in heaven with Jesus, to pray for you - to connect with Jesus for you - since, as they are already residents of the spiritual realm, they are spiritually “closer” to him than you are.  I have no problem with that.  It’s the same as asking someone at church to pray for you.  I admit I still get a bit frustrated over the rote nature of it all, though (probably my Episcopalian roots rising up again).  Chris noticed at the rosary that many folks followed along with their own rosary beads up to a point, and then just balled the beads up in their hands and seemed to go into automatic pilot on through to the end.  Just seems to me that it would be more effective, and more meaningful, if you quoted the scripture part of the “Hail Mary,” asked her to pray for you, then mentioned specifically what it was you’d like for her to talk to her son about for you.  I would assume that you are going to be talking to him as well, and you’ll probably be specific then, so why not give her the specifics as well?  And once you do it, isn’t it done?  Now, I know the history behind the whole thing, and the teaching value of the rosary beads.  I get it.  I just question the spiritual and practical basis behind it.

All in all, this Rosary for me was an interesting and relatively meaningful experience.  It definitely helps to go into new experiences like this with a mind ready to learn and a heart already connected to Jesus.  It helps you get past the years of misunderstanding and distrust and move on to caring for the people involved who are doing what they can to connect with Jesus as their Lord … just like you. 

Psalms 119:73 says, “Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands.”

Father, help me to never stop learning and to always keep you as the focus of my praise.  Amen.

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