The Harried Mystic

The “rosarium,” or garland of roses, has been a favorite Catholic prayer for centuries. Centering on the christian mysteries ( sorrowful, joyful, glorious and luminous) the fingering of the beads is accompanied by a repeated recitation of prayers.

In time, as the practice is frequently used, the penitent reaches a dimension of prayer in which the recitation assumes a life of its own and a deep contemplative peace is achieved.

This has long been a part of my own meditations. and archetypally is suffused with the mystical feminine. This is made manifest in the Marian character of the recitation punctuated by the repetition of 10 Hail Marys between each announced mystery.

Variations on the Rosary are many and, with deep respect for the Rosary itself and in the spirit of creative liturgics, I offer another variation. My intent is to reach around the World into many traditions in meditating on mysteries using diverse prayers interspersed with some of my own as they occur to me.

I make use of the standard 5 decade Rosary beads in sharing the architecture of the contemplation as follows:

I. At the crucifix: A dedication

For the wounds and rifts that separate people on the basis of their beliefs that they may instead find room in themselves to embrace true diversity of thought and the emergence of possibilities.

II. At the first bead:

May I be a protector to those without protection,
A leader for those who journey,
And a boat, a bridge, a passage
For those desiring the further shore.

May the pain of every living creature
Be completely cleared away.
May I be the doctor and the medicine
And may I be the nurse
For all sick beings in the world
Until everyone is healed.
Just like space
And the great elements such as earth,
May I always support the life
Of all the boundless creatures.
And until they pass away from pain
May I also be the source of life
For all the realms of varied beings
That reach unto the ends of space.
—–  Shantideva – 8th Century

II. Next 3 Beads:

O Birther! Father- Mother of the Cosmos
Focus your light within us – make it useful.
Create your reign of unity now-
through our fiery hearts and willing hands

Help us love beyond our ideals
and sprout acts of compassion for all creatures.
Animate the earth within us: we then
feel the Wisdom underneath supporting all.

Untangle the knots within
so that we can mend our hearts’ simple ties to each other.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.

Out of you, the astonishing fire,
Returning light and sound to the cosmos.

Amen.

[Lords Prayer, from the original Aramaic
Translation by Neil Douglas-Klotz in Prayers of the Cosmos]

IV. At the Next Single Bead:

Look deeply; I arrive in every second

To be a bud on a spring branch, to be a

tiny bird, with wings still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest

To be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,

to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up

And so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion.

– Thich Naht Hahn

V. Announce the 1st Mystery [ The 1st five proposed mysteries for my own meditations today will be listed at the end of this description. In this context, the whole idea is to generate the mysteries that you are inspired by and that fill your lives. Perhaps you’ll find some of those I am using as a reasonable starter list.]

VI. Next 10 Beads ( in repetition)

Praise be to Thee, All-pervading Beloved. Open our hearts towards Thy Beauty, Illuminate our souls with Divine Light. O Thou, the Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty! Lord God of the East and of the West, of the worlds above and below, And of the seen and unseen beings. Pour upon us Thy Love and Thy Light,  And guide us on the path of Thine Own Goodness. Draw us closer to Thee every moment of our life, Until in us be reflected Thy Grace, Thy Glory, Thy Wisdom, Thy Joy and Thy Peace. Amen.”

— from a prayer written by Hazrat Inayat Khan of the Universal Sufi Order with small adaptations by Br. Anthony for the sake of brevity in this context

VII. A Summative Prayer:

Glory be to you, O Father.

Glory be to you, O Word.

Glory be to  you, O Grace.

Glory be to you, O Mother.

Glory be to you, O Most Holy.

I give thanks to you, O Light,

In whom darkness does not dwell.

VIII. Announce the Next Mystery & Repeat the 10 bead set of recitations and the closing Gloria.

IX. After the last decade, a final meditation:

In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.

– The Navaho Blessing Way Prayer

In closing today’s entry, I do so with a starting list of mysteries that come to my mind as things on which I find myself thinking and meditating often. Late today, I will return with another five and so completing the recitation of 10 decades of the Rosary:

5 Personal Mysteries

1. That I am
2. That I live to love, to think, to act
3. That I will return to where it is I came from
4. That there is suffering and ignorance, hatred and fear
5. That there is a way beyond suffering, ignorance, hatred and fear
   

© The Harried Mystic, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.