When I was in Instanbul I used to say the rosary on the underground with my beads out in the open. You might think this was mad in an Islamic country but the older ones often had prayer beads out which looked very much like the rosary so I thought no one would tell the difference. Anyway I was careful of waving the Cross about. I also though how many Catholics get to say the rosary publically in Islam and get away with it? The cheek of the Irish. But one day as I was saying it when I caught an old Turkish guy staring at me with a look of perfect hate and rage. He knew what I was doing. I stared right back at him and he looked away. But I thought to my self how terrible to hate someone just for being a Catholic. Anyway it did not stop me from saying it in public .
I did out some prayer cards to help me when praying the Rosary. They are 10 short lines or meditations, one for each Hail Mary. I hope to extend these to include different sources. Currently I have one main source, that is from the Holy Rosary and Confraternity website (rosarycenter.org). The site is run by the Dominicans and I am enrolled in the Confraternity. The main source for my prayer cards is from the 'praying the Rosary without distractions' section of meditations for the Rosary. They have another set of meditations based on Scripture which I hope to incorporate into my prayer card set. I have a second set of meditations for some of the mysteries based on Fr. Gobbi's blue book. There are many other sources that I can use to expand my prayer cards. For example, St. Faustina's Diary has a set of meditations that can be extracted for the Sorrowful mysteries. I have another scriptural rosary that I can use also. I used to have a little booklet of meditations by St. Padre Pio on the Passion of Jesus which would have been ideal. Alas, I gave this away to someone whom I thought needed it. There are quite a few other sources I can use which I have at my disposal. Sometimes I just meditate on my own but what I notice is that when I use the prayer cards, quite often something new occurs to me. Tonight, what was impressed upon me was Jesus falling under the weight of the Cross. I seem to have experienced this in a different way tonight. I never before particularly noticed this aspect - I mean the weight of the Cross falling on top of Jesus; I could imagine Jesus pinned underneath the Cross, with it leaning upon His shoulder wounds and mightily bruised body. It was I think just a grace imparted to me. Anyway, I do think the prayer cards help. They are really for praying at home. I find it difficult to enter into the scenes of the mysteries of the Rosary without some aids to recollection like this. And by creating different sets using various sources it should increase my capacity to meditate upon various aspects of the mysteries.
The beads might bear some resemblance to those that Muslims use, but the dangling crucifix would prove to be a dead giveaway.
One book I really love for meditating on the mysteries is Rosary Warfare, published by Angelus Press. They have a meditation for each Hail Mary, as you are saying. It sure makes a huge difference when I pray the rosary that way.
One thing I find helpful in saying the rosary is this: When I reach a kind of cul de sac in my meditations and keep thinking the same things at each mystery I ask the Holy Spirit to show me new things. Otherwise I find there is the danger of thinking the same things over and over. One thing I notice very much about Padre Pio is how very influenced he was in all he said by his constant meditations on the mysteries of the rosary. He had though about them so much he went deep, deep, deep into them. One thing I notice about Our Lady when she speaks in various places is that everything is a embroidery of scripture. Everything she says is pure scripture. She is like a walking, talking Bible. The rosary helps us to imitate her in this.
I am on a group online for live Rosary and I truly am bored with their meditations. I can quote them word for word. That is a great idea and I will try that.
The thing about these mysteries is that they are the Gift that never stops giving, the bottomless well. The goose that always lays the golden egg. Forever and ever.
Yes they are! I love the meditations that the Lourdes Rosary uses. I try to relate them to the intentions of my different decades. I have recently started doing a Thanksgiving decade. I always bug and bug God for help and then I forget to say thank you. I'm learning
One thing I love about the Rosary Beads themselves is how beautiful they can be, a reflection of Mary herself. As a child I was always envious of women with their diamond rosaries of crystals or of plastic glimmering like diamonds in the Light. We poor men seemed always to be stuck with sombre blacks or browns. Of course here in Ireland we had the lovely green marble ones, often in the shape of a shamrock. In latter times men have so much more choice, my personal favourite being the large warrior beads, expensive but gorgeous. There is nothing as nice as going into Holy Shops in a place like Rome and seeing thousands of rosaries of all differing colours and types glittering in the light. Will we have rosary beads in heaven? I cannot imagine not. Heaven would not quite be heaven without them . All jewels and gold.
