2003 LAPSED CATHOLIC
December

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Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
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NOTES FROM A LAPSED CATHOLIC
December 2003

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THE ROSARY

It may be more like 40 years ago than 35 that I last said a rosary. I think the age of twelve would be a safe bet as the overnight process of turning thirteen automatically infused me with the Sum Total of Human Knowledge. Thereafter I believed that God was not the intellectual property (or any other kind) of any one religion and that the rosary, if thought of at all, is to be considered accompanying the image of mustached peasant women dressed in black.

It is only in recent years with the onset of heart disease and the full-blossoming consequences of a bibulous life that I realize there is an inner mustached peasant woman in me that needs to be addressed. She demands, if not to be nurtured exactly, at least to be respected. Not a single bone-throwing, but the self-conscious positioning of a clutch of (often literally, "luminous") beads. At least her bony hands might be occupied for fifteen minutes of the day with this metaphorical "cluster of roses," that is prayer(s), observed with beads moving deliberately back and forth between thumb and forefinger.

Close on the heels of that very word is the realization that I know next to nothing about the rosary but this can be remedied. I had been given the name of Father Steve Grancini and an address and phone number at Our Lady of the Rosary Church on Columbia Street in Little Italy. "The rosary goes back to the time of the monks," Father explains, "when they would sing many different songs [as prayer] and also the time of Saint Dominic. He was preaching to the heretics but it wasn't working, he wasn't succeeding at anything. Finally he started saying the rosary, and he succeeded. The word itself is from the Latin, rosarium, meaning a garden of roses."

Father Steve has just finished a lunch down the hall, and the rectory smells the way one might imagine it would after lunch in an Italian parish. He sits across from me at his desk, and I am put at ease when I see that it is no more fastidiously ordered than my own work area. It turns out I am right in my unvoiced assumption that the priest knows immediately which pile to reach into to retrieve what he wants. He mentions the role the rosary played in the Blessed Mother's appearance to St. Bernadette at Lourdes and the children at Fatima.

Quickly laying his hands on the pamphlet, "Say the Rosary Daily," he says, "it is a simple prayer and an occasion to concentrate on aspects of the life of Jesus and Mary." He will continue to refer to the rosary as "a simple prayer," in the singular when, of course, it is multiple repetition of five prayers (I'm not counting the sign of the cross). I am about to use the phrase in fact, repetition of prayers, when I am reminded of why I brought one of my bibles. I hope Father Steve will infer no disrespect that I have brought a King James version, but the priest hardly looks easily offendable nor defensive.

What I wanted to ask him about were Jesus' words (in red) when he is instructing his followers as to prayer. Father Steve is still accenting the simplicity of "the prayer," saying that children can do it, that a rosary can be said anywhere: at work, at home with family, at the gym. "It is simple, and Jesus said, 'unless you become like children you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.'"

The King James is weighing heavily in my hand. I am a little unsure as to how to phrase my point and I read more of the quote than I intended to. I arrive at Matthew 6:7 which reads, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."

"Isn't saying the rosary an occasion for vain repetition?" I ask. "Vain repetition," the priest laughs, "is if you just say it for the sake of saying it. But if you meditate on what you are saying, like a mantra from the center of yourself, it helps to collect you. Everybody should pray as he feels."

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