Fr. Paul Weinberger
St. William’s Catholic Parish
Greenville, Texas
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 18, 2005
With God all things are possible. And Mary said “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to Your Word.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
There was an article in the Religion section of the Dallas Morning News yesterday comparing the Church before Vatican II and after Vatican II. I think the pictures are contraindicated. It shows a picture of the altar before Vatican II where the Sanctuary is loaded with people and crowded with activity and then the picture after Vatican II shows just one person in that same Sanctuary and there is an echo, echo, echo. I don’t know who took the picture but anyway…the story was about the Church pre and post Vatican II and they make all these points I am sure about how the big bad Church before Vatican II is now the nice Church after Vatican II.
A lot of people said things about the Second Vatican Council without having it in writing and many people believed them. For example, the picture says that the priest now does not have to face away from the people. There is nothing in the writings of the Second Vatican Council that say that the priest will now turn and face the people. There never was! It is not in there! That is one of the things that people just took for granted.
It was common before the Council for people to pray the Rosary during Mass. Suddenly what had been a venerated practice, and now like an on and off switch – praying the Rosary during Mass was now “off.” This was somehow considered pornographic to pray during Mass. With the Rosary no longer permitted during Mass many people began to fall completely away from praying the Rosary. Somehow, they were told, the Rosary was no longer helpful to the Mass.
“You have a rosary in your hand during Mass? You make me sick! What are you, a pervert?”
That is essentially a Vatican II perception. Nowhere did the writings of Vatican II say that. I have heard stories where people were praying the rosary and someone comes along and snatches the rosary out of their hand. That would only happen to me once and then I would be in jail. We never heard of anyone being killed by a rosary before. But it was that bad, I am not exaggerating. People were made to feel terrible for praying the rosary during Mass. The council never gave anyone permission to snatch a Rosary out of someone’s hands nor was permission given to denigrate praying the Rosary. But devotion to the Rosary began to wane.
In October of 2002, Pope John Paul II, who was present at the Second Vatican and wrote many of the documents of the Council, published and Encyclical on the rosary called “Rosarium Virginis”, the “Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary”. Guess what Pope John Paul says about the rosary? The Pope writes that praying the Rosary according to the mind of the Church is to contemplate the Face of Christ. It helps to focus on the life, death and resurrection of Christ and helps us to meditate on the central mysteries of our faith, which draws us deeper into the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass is the representation of the Sacrifice of Jesus at Calvary but in an unbloody manner. The Rosary is a meditation on the life, death and resurrection of Christ as I said previously. It is a very good preparation for the Mass in the words of the Pope John Paul II in Rosario Virginis in October of 2002.
Pope John Paul II suggests that we not pray the rosary as though auctioning off tobacco. You know, the guy that talks really fast.
“mumble, mumble, mumble….SOLD! Mumble, mumble…Hail Mary…mumble…Our Father.”
Now if you pray the rosary that way I am not going to take you on. I think if you have found a way to pray the rosary and that it actually helps you to pray it that way then, "one size” doesn’t fit all so I say keep doing that. But if you have put the rosary down or have failed to take it up because you have heard other people praying it in such a rapid and mechanical way, perhaps page six in your bulletin will help you. I admit, I came late to praying the rosary because nothing attracted me about the mechanical way of praying it like I have heard so many times. Praying the rosary with scripture is very attractive to me.
So, Pope John Paul II walks us through the rosary saying that you make the Sign of the Cross, pray the Apostle’s Creed, pray one Our Father for the intentions of the Pope, three Hail Marys for Faith, Hope and Charity, a Glory Be, the Fatima Prayer and then you announce the First Mystery.
The First Joyful Mystery is the Annunciation. Now this is where Pope John Paul II is recommending that we introduce into the rosary, Scripture. Of course the Our Father and the Hail Mary are taken right from Scripture. So we are introducing more Scripture to the Rosary; the Old and the New Testament. I am going to walk you through a couple of the Mysteries and then you can figure the rest out because they are modeled on these two.
The Annunciation…after you announce the First Joyful Mystery, which is the Annunciation, you say some Bible verse connected with the Annunciation. The Gospel today is from the Annunciation. I like the passage where the Archangel says,
With God, all things are possible.
Then Our Lady says,
Behold I am the handmaid (the slave) of the Lord, be it done unto me according to Thy Word.
If you were here five minutes before Mass you prayed those words because we prayed the Angelus. Then you pray an Our Father, ten Hail Marys, a Glory Be and the Fatima prayer. After this you go on to the second Joyful Mystery.
The Visitation…If you look at page sixof your bulletin, you can pray the whole quote that is provided for you from St. Luke’s Gospel or you could pray what you see in bold type or just one line if you wish.
Blessed are you who believe what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.
Then as before you pray one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, one Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer. This is a way of introducing more Scripture into the prayers of the Rosary. The Rosary without Scripture has little attraction for me but with Scripture it is riveting and it pulls me into it.
Last Sunday I asked you to look at that picture on the front of the bulletin, which was the exact replica of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and I asked you to find an expiration date on the image. Of course there is none and when we put the word of God into the Rosary, we see that the Rosary speaks to us today in 2005. St. Paul says that the Word of God is alive and it strikes to the heart; it pierces more surely than a two-edged sword. If you look at page eight in the bulletin at the last paragraph, number 12, this is the article from last week that I corrected and printed again. My computer made some mistakes last week but I was able to fix those errors. This is from a priest who is preaching to Pope Benedict XVI on December 9, 2005.
The Holy Spirit and Mary, in different ways, are the two best allies to have in our efforts to draw close to Jesus; to ensure that He is born by faith in our lives this Christmas.
Again, it is a way of showing that what happened two thousand years ago is still as fresh as it was at that moment. Paragraph two says that Fr. Cantalamessa, the Preacher to the pope, says that Jesus continues to seize the hearts of people today with the same force that he seized the hearts of St. John and St. Paul. Then paragraph four and five speak of a man who was way off base and the Word of God converted him. Paragraph five says,
Now the artist helps others grow in the Christian faith and teaches them to pray the Rosary.
So, just when you thought the Rosary was this antiquated devotional item from the remote past and that today no one would dare use or mention it, the pope’s preacher made specific reference to the Rosary. As recently as October of 2002, Pope John Paul II wrote the Encyclical, Rosarium Virginis, so the Rosary is fresh. If we prayed the Joyful Mysteries from now until January 6th, not using the other mysteries at this time, the Joyful Mysteries are immediate preparation for Christmas and we will see a marked difference and a spiritual preparation through the Rosary.
On page five you will notice that I reprinted with corrections that tidbit from St. Louis de Montfort. I would suggest that when you get home, cut this out and save it because it is the kind of reference that, if you go back to it again and again it will always produce more. St. Louis de Montfort recommends exactly what is written in the Gospel today, which says,
The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the Child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit and wherever she is, there is found the Holy Spirit as well. People who make place, even a very small place for the Blessed Virgin Mary are going to find her Spouse entering in with all His, the Holy Spirit’s, gifts into that souls and then wonders are going to begin. St. Louis as well as the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes and Fatima recommends that we pray the Rosary. Pope John Paul II recommends that we pray the Rosary and even gives us an example of how to pray it.
When the Pope was a young man he saw his mother and father praying the rosary. He lost his mother when he was in the third grade but he saw his father continue to pray the Rosary everyday and this helped to form him and to make him the young man, who in Poland during the time of the Nazis, became part of a group of other young men that went against the Nazis and prayed the Rosary. They were called “The Living Rosary Group”. A layman, a tailor named Jan Tyranoski started the Living Rosary groups and there were fifteen men in each group. You can read about this in George Weigel’s “Witness to Hope”, the biography of Pope John Paul II. They would get together in groups of fifteen and you can imagine who the leader was in the pope’s group; he was the leader and this made a great impact on him. I contend that praying the Rosary according to Rosarium Virginis is the model of the Living Rosary. Scripture is added to the prayers and the Rosary comes alive.
After you begin the Rosary, say the First Joyful Mystery aloud…The Annunciation, and then read those verses from Scripture. Pray the decade, which include the Our Father, ten Hail Marys, a Glory Be, and the Fatima Prayer, and then you should immediately prepare to be distracted. The minute you start praying the Rosary expect to be distracted. Like static on a bad cell connection, you should expect that the minute you pick up the Rosary to pray, the “other team” is in the background causing static and reminding you of things you didn’t do yesterday or things you have to do today or tomorrow, or something someone said. All of these things become very urgent but just let them go and keep praying and going forward with the prayer. Don’t concentrate on the distractions because they will occur but who cares, just dismiss them and go forward. If out of ten Hail Marys you concentrate on one, it is better than if you had not picked up the Rosary at all. You and I are the worst judges of how our prayers merit in the eyes of God, let Him figure it out; let Him be God and let us be His slaves, His servants.
The Rosary can be a way to bring up passages from the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Instead of the Annunciation you could use that passage I quoted last Sunday from Isaiah. Isaiah had caught up with Ahaz, the evil king who was running away and Isaiah told Ahaz to ask for a sign from the Lord his God and let it be deep as the netherworld or high as the sky. But Ahaz said that he would not ask and he would not tempt the Lord and Isaiah said,
Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary
men, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel
That is a passage from the Old Testament from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah that applies to the Annunciation. That was a long quote. I wish I could say I was the Amazing Kreskin and that I had the whole Bible memorized... don’t you have it all memorized? Right! I don’t and neither do you. That whole passage I just quoted, I probably got a few words wrong here and there but the thing is, this is praying the Rosary not filling out and IRS tax form. You know that if you fail to fill out your tax form correctly you get a phone call. Father uses a German accent
”Vee undershtand you have an eddor,”
There goes your day, right? But if you happen to quote a passage from the Old Testament and you don’t get it right God will spot you five points so don’t worry. The Bible and Scripture should be so familiar to us by now that we should have our favorite passages, ones that pull us through life because they speak to us. You could move on to the Sorrowful Mysteries. The first is the Agony in the Garden and every one of the Scriptural Rosaries I’ve seen usually always quote the one line that says,
And His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.
That is true but I like the passage from the Agony in the Garden where Jesus says to the Apostles,
Stay awake and pray that you may not be put to the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
I like that one; when I hear that one my hand goes up! I identify with those words of Christ and I recognize the other one but this one has such a force when Christ comes out and says to the Apostles,
So, you are still sleeping and taking your ease; get up, my accuser is here!
These are so wasted today because we get stuck in a rut using only the one that the little book gives us. We should be familiar with the Passion of the Christ so that certain passages jump out at us. The Carrying of the Cross…Jesus took up His cross. Well, you could include St. Veronica wiping hHis face or when Jesus stops carrying the cross and turns around speaking to the women of Jerusalem and tells them not to weep for Him but for themselves and their children. That is a beautiful meditation; Christ is carrying the cross for our sins and we should weep over our sins.
How about the Crucifixion of Christ? You could use Psalm 22 for this mystery.
My God, My God why have You abandoned Me?
The Psalm is there and it sounds like exactly what happened on Calvary. I like the words of Christ to the good thief, the one who stole Heaven.
Remember me Lord when You come into Your Kingdom.
Jesus replied.
I assure you that today you will be with Me in Paradise.
Gee, when you start going to scripture passages like that the Rosary just tugs at your heart adn you find yourself saying,
“Give me that Rosary, I want to pray it!”
Or like when Jesus asked the Father to forgive them because they knew not what they were doing. Think of that the next time you are driving down 1-30 and some nut is weaving in and out of traffic and you want to communicate with them somehow, right? [Laugher] Why not just say,
“Father forgive him, he knows not what he does.
THEN you can honk your horn. [Laughter] But…when the Rosary is combined with the Word of God it jumps out at us.
We prayed the Rosary but without the Scripture because we were outside for seventeen nights from November 26th to December 12th at 8pm. We had about a hundred people here every night. We carried that large image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with us. She is about 4’ X 5’. A couple from Blessed Sacrament gave it to me. The wife is from Mexico and her husband is from here.
Raquel lived in Monterrey and her father and mother ran a business out of their home. Every night when her father closed the business and zeroed out the cash register, he would lock up and then at the same time every evening they would pray the Rosary. Raquel says that if there happened to be visitors at the house her father would tell them that they could stay or they could leave, but they were going to now begin the Rosary. Some would leave…so much the better. Some would stay…that was great too. But, they weren’t going to stop praying the Rosary for anyone.
The Rosary can bring us through so many difficult times. When praying the rosary it is like holding the hand of the Blessed Virgin Mary; so if you are holding one of her hands, guess whose hand she is holding on the other side? Her spouse, the Holy Spirit! The Rosary has to be seen as a way of continuing the conversion of the world.
As Fr. Cantalamessa said on December 9th to Pope Benedict,
The artist now helps others grow in the Christian faith and he teaches them how to pray the Rosary.
The Rosary helps us to ensure that Christ is born by faith in our lives this Christmas. By praying the Rosary every day, according to Rosarium Virginis, we are setting up our own customs. I have to say that in my home my parents did not pray the Rosary. I ought to go on Oprah, Dr. Phil or Jerry Springer and say that the reason I am in such bad shape is that my parents didn’t pray the Rosary with us as a family, and then I will extort money from them. [Laughter] Well, my dad has passed away and I can forget my mom so I guess I am out of luck? But my mom and I pray the Rosary today when we are going on a trip or just driving in the car.
My father and I started praying the Rosary when we were on a trip one year and we began praying it together a lot more after that. My dad was with me for the last six months of his life living in the rectory with me and every night after poking and prodding him we would get him into bed. Of course what happens when you have wanted to go to bed all day long and you finally make it to bed? You can’t get to sleep. The rosary is a perfect prayer for that so by the time he went to bed I was finished with my day and I could sit across the room and we could pray the Rosary. My dad loved to pray this Rosary because it was big and he could follow along. Father holds up the Rosary his dad used when he prayed the Rosary. We were able to pray the Rosary a lot.
During his last months alive…(he died four days before Christmas, may he rest in peace)…my father made up for not praying the Rosary with us as a family. You grandparents and parents are hearing this now and there is no reason not to pray the Rosary with your children. Oh yea, I can give you two reasons why you may not pray the Rosary with your kids today…TV! Yea, isn’t that the reason why. It use to be that people actually spoke and visited with each other and prayed together; now you have the modern age and TV. Turn the TV off or turn it on when Mother Angelica is praying the Rosary and pray the Rosary with her. They have some lady from England and she quotes the Scriptures so they must be true because she has a British accent. Of course we are suckers for that British accent. Father imitates the accent of a British person. That is how she sounds! [Laughter] It makes it so much easier to concentrate because we are suckers for that British accent, aren't we?
Pray the Rosary with your kids. Have them lead it sometimes. Write it out with scripture for them to follow. If you don’t like praying the Rosary, how are you going to feel the twenty or thirty minutes you should be meditating on the bible? Yea, right! The Rosary prayed this way has some formal prayers that come easy to our memory and then the verses from Scripture so you have an ebb and flow in the Rosary that keep your attention focused on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, making the Scriptures come alive and by faith, bringing about His birth today in 2005. The world could be so much improved if we followed such simple and excellent advice. Don’t regret not having prayed with your children or grandchildren the Most Holy Rosary, because when you are gone the Blessed Mother can still hold their hand as they pray the Rosary.
So many people say that they don’t want to die in the hospital. I figured out why; they say they want to die at home because they will be close to the second drawer from the top where they keep their red and blue socks. Right between the red and the blue socks they keep their Rosaries, Miraculous Medals, and Scapulars. All the religious things they have been given in life they keep right there in the sock drawer and they want to die at home to be close to all their religious articles. Your Rosary should not be there. You should pray it and not stick it in some drawer. Get your Miraculous Medal out and start wearing it again, along with the Scapular.
We have to see the need. As it says on page eight of the bulletin, Jesus continues to seize the hearts of people today with the same force that he seized the hearts of St. John and St. Paul. Don’t you want Him to seize the hearts of your children, grandchildren, and your spouse? There is no reason why spouses cannot pray the Rosary together; I don’t care if you are sitting down praying the Rosary. I mean, if you pray the Rosary and you are not kneeling are you going to get a knock at the door and the police will be standing there telling you that you are not kneeling? If you could kneel you would be kneeling; if it is not easy for you to kneel just sit down to pray. I like to pray the Rosary walking, that way if I fall asleep I fall down and wake myself up. [Laughter] Whatever works for you but pray the Rosary and see it as Pope John Paul II saw it, as something worthy to prepare us to focus on the Mass and appreciate the mystery of the Mass and bring Christ to birth in our present time.
With God all things are possible. And Mary said “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to Your Word.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit