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Stories, Essays and non fiction by
Anthony Price
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This is a unique story, in that it's true. I believe even the names have not been changed,
as the innocent wish to be identified.
The History of the Rosary From 1970 to 1999
Copyright 1999 Anthony Price
"Come on, kids, it's time to pray the Rosary." My mother meant so well when I was a
kid. But I hated praying the Rosary. I thought it was so boring. I often fell asleep. I was a
Catholic kid lead by rules without explanation, politics, guilt, and the ever boring prayer.
By 1981, I had left the Sunday Masses, the Rosary, and the one true, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hollowed be Thy name. (MT 6:9)
Through the 1980's, I heard other people speak without researching, about the
"ungodly" practices in Catholicism; mostly about Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the
backbone of this prayer called the Rosary. I usually pretended to ignore the nay-say-ers;
having so little interest. I guess there is something about having that stuff hammered into
your head through years of Catholic schools that makes it hurt just a little bit, though. I remembered all the things they said, albeit not verbatim.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (MT 6:10)
By the late 1980's, I developed a curiosity about the origins of the Rosary, and the
devotion to Mary shared by most Catholics. Of course it took me ten years to read up on
it. My first questions, posed mostly to Catholic priests, yielded the name of St. Dominic.
I had never heard of St. Dominic before 1998.
Give us this day our daily bread. (MT 6:11)
In her biography St. Dominic and the Rosary, Catherine Beebe explains: "In 1216,
Brother Dominic was praying in a wood when the Mother of God appeared to him. She
instructed him on how to pray the (way we do now). Mary instructed him about the Divine Mysteries of (Catholic) religion; Divine truths that God has reveled to us, but that (people)
cannot understand." (108)
I wondered about the accuracy of this
account, since there were no written records of anything in 1216; or
at least there was very little.
And forgive us our trespasses; as we forgive those who trespass against us. (MT 6:12)
Prayer and belief are personal. Very personal. I have always tried to live by the
words of comedian George Carlin, recorded in 1975's Class Clown LP: "Religion is a lift
in your shoes, just don't make me wear your shoes if I don't want to." I always felt that
since my religion was my own, I didn't need anything anyone else had to say. But "they"
say that God works in mysterious ways and I can account for that.
And lead us not into temptation. (MT 6:13)
I was tricked. Hoodwinked. Conned. Misled. That's what happened. I thought I was
going to see Rome for ten days. I ended up in what must be the most Rosary-driven village
on the planet! If I'd known that's where I was going, I would have never agreed to go to
Medjugorje (pronounced: MED jew gore ee ah). But I went. And I met (and lived with for
six days) a woman named Marjianna (MARY ah na). Marjianna has (and no one has been
able to disprove this) experienced apparitions and conversations with Jesus' Mother,
Mary, for about eighteen and a half years now. These visions occurred every day until
about a year ago, and now return twice each year on her birthday and on Christmas.
There are six people, who have been experiencing these apparitions together, but now
only four receive daily visions, and Marianna and one other receive bi-annual visits.
But deliver us from evil. (MT 6:13)
I didn't start to believe so strongly just there, it was the part of the trip that landed me
in a town called Dubrovnik in a country called Croatia that shook me up. This town of
three thousand or so people had 47 churches within about a twelve square block area.
Inside one of these churches I found myself staring at a glass case with a young man
inside. He was a very young man with curly blond hair. I can't tell you about his eyes,
because they were closed. He was dressed in Roman sandals and a woven skirt-looking
thing; the clothing of the day in the third century, Rome. But this boy wasn't resting. He
wasn't playing the part of a Roman man in some weird play. He wasn't sleeping. He had
a three-inch long gaping wound in his neck. The boy was dead. And he had been for
(near as I can tell) 1600 years.
Even though the boy was dead for so long, his skin held the color of a youthful,
healthy, vibrant person. His blood had been cleaned away, but his wound was left for all
this time exposed. Nothing had ever been done to preserve his body. And my body started
to shake.
I read on a plaque that he had been asked while a blade was against his neck to
renounce his love of Jesus Christ, he refused, and his throat was cut. He was seventeen.
At seventeen he was asked. And the proof is lying here in this incorruptible body. There
was no pretending. No maybe. No wonder. He was there, and his name is St. Sulvano.
So, I started to believe once again. And I made a friend of Jesus. And six months
after my visit, while experiencing intense personal pain, I learned again how to pray the
Rosary.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with You. (LK 1:28)
The Catholic Rosary is made up of 150 Hail Mary's, 15 Glory Be's, 15 Our Father's
(the Lord's Prayer), and 15 "Mysteries." A "Mystery," according to David Lay from the
Office of Adult Formation, "in deep theology is not something to be solved, but a source of
deep inexhaustible meditation and pondering." This description lends a little more clarity
to the one already offered by Beebe earlier.
Praying the Rosary lifted me from the pain and heartache associated with being
separated from my new wife for extended periods of time, but I'm not the first to use the
Rosary to be lifted up from what is certainly considered "dark" circumstances. Quoting
David Lay again, "The popularity of this devotional prayer can be attested to Pope Pius V
in 1572 where he set aside a liturgically recognized day known as "Our Lady of the
Rosary." Today this feast is celebrated on October 7th. The pope's purpose behind this
was to thank God for a great naval battle over the Turk Moslems who far (outnumbered)
the Christian forces in manpower (1571).
Pope Pius V attributed this (victory) to a great response to his plea that everyone
prays the Rosary for victory.
If you believe in any God, you should believe in some form of prayer or a way of
talking directly to your God. If you believe in a loving God, then you most likely pray in a
friendly manner. This can be difficult when "life in the 90's" gets in the way. But if this is
you, then you could think about prayer as if you were spending time with a friend. But how
do you keep friendships when you barely have time to say hello in the elevator? After all,
"Friendships take time to build and effort to keep," says William Bennett in his written
collection, The Book of Virtues (583). With this self-evident truth before us, taking the
15 to 20 minutes required to pray the Rosary seems to work well for the "helping build"
part of the friendship with God.
Blessed are You among women. (LK 1:42)
As for the other end of the Rosary question (why pray to Mary?), my personal
thoughts are simply this: If you want to win a man to your cause, first win his mother, and
ask her to help you persuade the son. And for that purpose, again, the Rosary is second
to none.
Now that I am a Catholic again, it is not for the politics or guilt, but because of an understanding of the finality of my own human existence and a knowledge that Jesus did
say to Peter, Upon this rock I will build My Church (MT16:13). And I use the Rosary
daily, often all 15 decades, but rarely do I fall asleep. After all, do our friends like it when
we fall asleep while talking to them?
And blessed is the fruit of Your womb, Jesus. (LK 1:42)
My reasons for knowing how to pray the Rosary may be different than the ones my
mother tried to teach me, but I don't think she cares about that. She still thinks I should be
a priest, but somehow she seems happy enough knowing I use my knowledge.
Works Cited:
Beebe, Catherine St. Dominic and the Rosary Vision Books. 1956
Bennett, William. "Friendship" The Book of Virtues. 1993
Bible, New Testament, Mathew
Bible, New Testament, Luke
Carlin, George Class Clown Little David Records. 1972
Lay, David. "How and When Did the Rosary Get Started" Office of Adult Formation. (1999)
www.dwc.org/webpage/rosary1.html
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