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iThe Rosary | |
iMarch 06th, 2018 | |
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i | |
iI like to pray the rosary. I didn't understand it for a really | |
ilong time. Even when I made my way back to Catholicism it never | |
imade any sense to me. The formal, stilted prayer of my childhood | |
ididn't sit well with me. It felt like a performance and not | |
ia connection to the divine. | |
i | |
iThe first time I tried it was more of a lark than an honest | |
ieffort. The repetition, the monotonous droning of voices, it all | |
iadded up to nonsense. I tried it anyway. | |
i | |
iAt first I was lost in the specifics, the order, which comes next, | |
iand what is a Sorrowful Mystery. Somewhere around the second | |
idecade--that is, the second set of 10 Hail Mary prayers--I lost | |
ifocus on the words I was saying and felt my mind snap shut onto an | |
iintention. I thought of a close friend who needed the kind of help | |
ithat comes from God, the kind that's deep inside. I said the words | |
iand before I knew it the decade ended. As the Our Father began | |
iagain my mind flashed to someone else and held fast. Ten prayers | |
irepeated without a single distracted thought stepping in the way. | |
i | |
iIt is the way of a mantra. It is the spirit of the mandala. It is | |
ifound in a thousand traditions in a thousand faiths in a thousand | |
iforms. The repetition, the effort spent on the menial to provide | |
ifocus for the sublime, that is the spirit I find in the rosary. | |
i | |
i - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
i | |
iTonight I completed work on a small stick that my son picked up on | |
ia walk. It's about 9 inches long and not much more than a twig. It | |
ihas been cleaned of bark, soaked in boiled linseed oil, waxed, and | |
ithen carefully wrapped in about 4,000 individual threaded knots. | |
iThe colors are purple and orange, as he picked them. I'll share | |
ia picture of it on Mastodon without any description so the only | |
iones in-the-know will be gopher.club. | |
i | |
iI made one of these for myself years ago while on a silent | |
iretreat. It became, in a sense, a focus of prayer and intention | |
imuch like the rosary. My mind was free to engage on one special | |
ithought because my body was burning away distraction through | |
iprecise, monotonous physical actions. | |
i | |
iThe meaning behind the sticks isn't important to others, but | |
iI thought the idea something you all might relate to. I suspect | |
ithere's some element in the passion of knitters, bikers, and | |
irunners. I'm glad I was able to finish this for him tonight. | |
iI think I needed the prayer as much as he'll enjoy the result. | |
i | |