I’ve received another new book in the mail, “Rediscovering the Rosary” by Antony Outhwaite. It is subtitled “Rosary meditations based on Pope John Paul II’s ‘On the Most Holy Rosary.’” That would be the Pope’s 2002 apostolic letter on the Rosary that added the luminous mysteries to the traditional three sets of mysteries.
The book is organized around seven themes found in the apostolic letter: “The mystery of Man,” conversion, “The art of prayer,” Christ our Redeemer, “Rooted and grounded in love,” “At the school of Mary,” and trust in God. For each theme there is an opening reflection and then for each of the 20 decades we are given a Scripture reading, a meditation, an optional “Hail Mary” clause (a phrase added to the prayer, e.g. “Thy womb Jesus, made flesh to dwell among us), and then a final prayer at the end of the decade.
Of course it also gives basic instructions on the prayers and how to pray the Rosary.
Many people tell me that they have a hard time praying the Rosary because they get distracted praying the repetitive prayers over and over and their mind wanders in the middle. Scriptural rosaries and other meditational aids are good for helping to focus your prayer. What’s nice about this book is instead of just one set of meditations that could also become rote, there are seven. Thus if you pray with each meditation for a week, you’ll have a seven week cycle. That’s not bad.
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The relationship between baptism and mikveh is like the relationship between the Eucharist and Passover. Christ took the Jewish ritual and made it the basis of the sacrament.