The Path

Mary is not the one we pray "to".

She is the locus of our meditation on:
The life of the church
The life of our saviour
The life of our faith

Christ is the son of man. Mary is his mother.
That relationship was gifted to us at the foot of the cross at Golgotha.

We acknowledge her as our mother.
We approach her as our advocate.
We pray with her as a friend.

We begin by asking for the blessing of the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This is done grasping the crucifix and tracing the sign on ourselves.
We touch the forehead, seat of the mind (In the name of the Father)
We touch the breast, symbolic of the spirit (and of the Son)
We touch the two shoulders, symbolic of the bearing of our daily burdens - both physical and emotional. (and of the Holy Spirit)

I look at the cross. It is not barren. It has a representation of a suffering person on it. It reminds me of the reality of what has passed. An Object of torture and execution is the focus of my meditation on the goodness of God. (Amen)

None of the above is dogmatic pronouncement on what is to be believed or understood. It is just what happens to come to mind when I search for meaning in "meaningless" symbolic gestures.


The title of this entry is "The Path".

A path is a way to get from where we are, to where we want to be.

If we believe
What our parents taught us
What our church teaches us
What the scriptures teach us
What the voice of God whispers into the center of our being, we hold this as true:

We are made to know the fullness of God's love.

The human adventure is the freedom to look for or ignore that ever present perfect love.

Words from the mouth of man can roll off the tongue till the end of time, and attempt to describe that perfection, and they will ever fall short.

The gift of prayer is a bridge, a way, "a path" that we can follow. When we pray, we place ourselves in the presence of God. He makes his ever-present availability to us, apparent. It is necessary to push out the distractions that inhabit and inhibit us. Our world is a noisy place. There is the noise measured in decibels. There is also the noise that free-floats between our ears. We are bombarded with commercialism, hedonistic societal mores, too-many-demands-on-not-enough-time, interpersonal relational difficulties, politics, 24-hour news cycles, grocery shopping, laundry, Saturday morning soccer, rising costs, stagnant pay, taxes, car payments, mortgage payments, credit card payments, tuition payments, did I mention stagnant pay? You get the idea.

All of that tends to "dilute" the quality of the time we set aside for God.

The Rosary is a durable bridge from that freneticism to a place of calm where we can hear once again.

The first prayer uttered before a single "Ave" is said is the Creed.

I believe in God, the Father almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the Holy Catholic Church,

the Communion of Saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and life everlasting.

These are the enduring truths of the Catholic Church, announced as the foundation of our faith.

This is succinct theology in encapsulated form. A concise narrative of what it is we believe.

This is the first hint that the rosary is not simply "A Marian thing".