As I was doing my walking meditation just before, I heard the murmuring and the movement of the beads. Congratulations, you have joined an ancient linage of Christian monks and nuns. As an old Greek Orthodox monk once told me, do it a couple of billion times and soon it will begin to show some results. Well, I think that he was being a bit flip, because merely the feel of the beads on my finger in my coat pocket acts as a sort of talisman, as a type of string tied on my index finger to remind me of my need for prayer and my relationship with God. Maybe we might not reach the state of radical kenosis as quickly as a monk, but God is pleased with the journey we are on.
Make no mistake about it, the journey is transformative, slowly but surely, One of the most beloved saints in the Eastern Church is Mary of Egypt. For most of her life she was an ancient version of the call girl, a high class, well paid prostitute, who had all of material pleasures that this life could afford, who possessed both money. Yet when she encountered what CS Lewis was later to describe as the "God-shaped hole" in her soul, she sought out one of the Desert Fathers for advice. His prescription, which she followed to the letter, was direct and explicit. Go into solitude and recite constantly "Thou that has created me, have mercy upon me."
Now, I mentioned before that each tradition had a special way of configuring their version of the prayer rope and the Western Christian tradition is no exception. We are fortunate in that our tradition's prayer rope is explicitly kenotic in intent and it is particularly fitting that we are discussing, and, for some of us, first encountering the Rosary in Advent.
That is because the Rosary is intimately tied to Our Lady. It is a recitation of her receptivity to God's will and our plea that we might be able to do the same. Yet as the focus of the Blessed Mother is upon her Child so to is the focus of the Rosary upon the Word made flesh. The Rosary is a constant repetition of prayer in a way that directs our heart to construct a dwelling place for the Lord.
In the main prayer of the Rosary, the Ave Maria or "Hail, Mary," we first recite the words of Mary's kinswoman Elizabeth, as found in Scripture: "Hail, Mary, Full of Grace. The Lord is with Thee. Blessed art the fruit of Thy Womb." Our words create a linguistic womb for us to house Jesus. We like Mary, recognize the miracle that is taking place within us-- a baby-- the Godhead -- growing slowly within us. Transforming our lives by His presence. We like Mary, have no desire to hide that growth--it will mark us as surely as the pregnant abdomen marked Mary's being in the "family way." As with Mary, this may cause us to be viewed with skepticism and disdain by some in the world. Do we have the same faith, the same emotional and spiritual wherewithal to withstand the japes and sneers that being a person of faith requires in this world? Now as Episcopalians we might not encounter such giggles openly. But don't let that fool you. If you take your faith seriously-- if it animates your life, as it animated Mary's, it will cause you trouble.
All of us have seen the metallic fish on the back of someone's car-- the fish, as Father Tad, a Cambridge Ph.D. in specializing in the catacombs, knows better than almost anyone alive is among the earliest Christian symbols. Such a symbol provoked reactions in ancient Rome and it provokes reactions now. Inevitably the fish symbol was morphed into an amphibian with legs and the loss of the tail. Written within the body of this new symbol was the word "Darwin". Now leaving aside that Charles Darwin was an ordained deacon in the Church of England, it is obvious the intent of this morphed symbol-- those of us who do not hold with the Christian faith have modernity--science and all that science represents on our side.
If this wasn't plain enough yesterday I saw a even more explicit metallic symbol. The fish was there, but so was the amphibian. But this time the amphibian's jaw was agape and about ready to kill the fish. No, the world has little use for believing Christians. We like Mary will have to face the scorn of unbelief.
And the second half of the prayer invites this upon us-- we ask Mary, as we ask a friend, our mother, for her love to make us whole and complete in the sight of the Lord. We ask for the kenosis of forgiveness. Here are the words: "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen".
Some Reformation critics of the Rosary misunderstood what was happening--we ask not for Mary's forgiveness, not for Mary to empty us of our ego and faults, but for Mary, as a special friend, to continue her sense of kenosis and to be present to our needs. Note too that the linchpin of the "Hail, Mary" is the name of "Jesus." It is only by and through Him that Mary has a special status, it is only by Him that our intercessionary prayer has any meaning.
This prayer is the backbone of the Rosary. Again and again--fifty-three times to be exact--we proclaim and request, proclaim and request, proclaim and request. Like Mary of Egypt's prescription, we cannot do it enough.
Around this backbone of the "Hail, Mary," we have several other prayers that encapsulate the Christian story. John Paul II in his recent encyclical on the Rosary, reemphasized that the whole of the Gospel is found within the Rosary. Indeed, many monks would pray the Rosary instead of the Psalms and antiphons for their eight times a day "office".
Take a hold of a Rosary. At its base is a cross, the crucifix of the Lord. As the fish became less prominent as the central symbol of our faith, the cross has taken its place. Through the transformative and kenotic actions of Our Lord our salvation was secured. Holding the cross we acknowledge this fact by reciting the Apostle's Creed. Why the Apostle's Creed and not the Nicene Creed? I don't know for certain, but perhaps it has to do that the Apostle's Creed is the creed to be recited by each individual rather than as a collective faith community. Perhaps because it is the creed stripped bare--to its essence, the way the Rosary strips the Salvation narrative to its most basic tropes.
After the Creed there is a solitary bead. I always like the symbolism that through it, like its siblings, other solitary beads, we express the essence of monotheism of our faith-- the "Glory Be"-- our proclamation of the mystery of Three in One existing in a transcendent state not in time as we understand the term but in a time beyond time. Our bow here is deep and profound as is the mystery that these words represent. Try to explain it to a non-Christian-- even the greatest Christian apologist's analogies-- and the Lord knows that priests and ministers have had to struggle with this fact every Trinity Sunday--seem weak and unconvincing to the ears of a child of the Enlightenment.
If the "Glory Be" is about a transcendent reality, then the "Lord's Prayer," is the cry of faith in the immanence of the Christian God. Given to us by God himself, it speaks to us about both our state of being--our desire for kenosis "thy will be done" and our need to see that change in our state of being to have a practical outcome in the here and now "on earth as it is in Heaven." Not sort of like Heaven, not a pale imitation of Paradise made up of pastels instead of bold primary colors--no, that is not what He wants us to pray and pledge. He wants the same sense of God's will carried out in this world as it will be in the next. The rest of the prayer is more of the same--demands for a life that is at odds with the ethos of the world--reliance upon God's providence instead of our own devices, a plea to be released from the desires of the world and for such a lack of ego that one let's go of grudges. That my be hardest request of all-- not to see the universe as in equilibrium where each wrong must be "corrected" in order to "balance" things out-- it offends an Aristotelian sense of proportionality.
Yet that is what we pray and pledge. I told you this silence thing wouldn't be a cakewalk.
On a practical note that is basically all there is to it. Say the "Our Father" before each decade of Hail Mary's and end with a "Glory Be." Soon you will be pros and if ever Warner Brothers wants to reshoot some old Bing Crosby movies they'll have no problem finding extras for the church scenes.
At this stage spend some time concentrating upon each prayer, meditate upon each prayers words and internalize them, possess them. If your mind wanders-- stop. Refocus, begin again. Even if you can't get beyond the first decade, make it a intentional decade. Now if you are a whiz kid, don't stop at the end of the five decades. There is a reason why the Rosary, like almost all prayer ropes are circular. There is no end point--no completion. Keep going and get deeper.
Once you feel that you have been plumbing these depths for some time, the Church has given each decade-- indeed now twenty decades are officially recognized by the Vatican -- Canterbury has been thus far silent on the subject but perhaps the new Archbishop, who is Marian to his core, will make a statement -- a Scriptural basis and an object for meditation.
Each decade has a theme, an part of the salvation story to which we can focus our attention which our conscious mind is occupied with the recitation of the repetitive prayers. Through the use of the complete 20 decades, the entirety of the Gospels become the object of our meditation. A number of good booklets are available that list these decades.
But don't be limited by the official lists. Choose five topics-- for example, five intercessionary prayers, five part of the Hebrew Scriptures, Five of the emanations of the Divine, Five mysteries of the Faith, Five temptations to be avoided--are topics off the top of my head and devote a decade to each.
Don't be internally reflexive--asking yourself--"Am I meditating now?" As Dom. John Chapman, a scholar of the Rosary, points out, the recitation of the Rosary should "[a]always focus on the giver, never on the gift." Keep your mind open and focused upon God and your critical self will soon quiet down. The patience of the Rosary, the slowing down to hear the call of the Divine, is an additional benefit which is wise to cultivate.
But speaking of the Rosary, like speaking about any contemplative prayer technique is a very poor substitute for experiencing the real thing. So I'll stop talking now.
Let's get started on our Rosaries together. Will everyone stand and face the tabernacle for the recitation of the Apostle's Creed. If you are like me and always, always get it jumbled with the Nicene Creed, it can be found on page _____ of the Book of Common Prayer.
