Irish Rosary Priest

The General Instruction on the Missal (No. 9)  states: When the Scriptures are read in church, God Himself is speaking to his people, and Christ, present in his word, is proclaiming the Gospel. Hence the readings from God’s word are among the most important elements in the liturgy, and all who are present should listen to them with reverence.” Of great importance also is the homily. It is a necessary part of the Mass on Sundays and Holy-days, while on other days it is desirable that there be a homily. By its means the homilist explains the sacred text in the light of the Church’s teaching for the building up of the faith of those present.

I am highlighting four points in the above statement:

1 God himself speaking: Listen with reverence: As we participate in the celebration of the word, Our Lady is our model for she is “the attentive Virgin who receives the word of God with faith, that faith which in her case was the gateway and path to the divine motherhood”. (MCul 17)

2 Christ present: The famous Parish Priest of Ars in France made the daring statement,  that to let the word fall idly by the way, was equivalent to letting the Sacred Host lie neglected on the floor. There is a real presenmce also in the proclamation of the word.

3 Proclaiming the Gospel: Not just information, but declaration, Speaking forth with boldness and efficacy for the building up of faith.

4 The Word is creative: It brings things into being.  As at the dawn of creation, God spoke a word: Let there be light. Let there be living things, so the word of God spoken with divine authority is life-giving:   Hebrews: 4,12 reminds us of the spiritual strength and sharpness that is inherent in the liturgy of the word:   For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Isaiah: 55,11 states:  So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

With Mary then we respond: Be it done unto me according to your word. Lets be open not only to what the word is saying to us but still more to monitoring what the word is actually effecting in our lives.  hartygabriel@gmail.com

Vicki of St. Simeon Skete has just sent this splendid picture of the Bible and the Beads to show how the two are linked. The Rosary is often called The Gospel on its knees

Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. And they watched him, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger and deep sadness, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.  The Pharisees went out, and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. Mark 3:1-6

The Sabbath Day: Much of Our Lord’s healing was done on the Sabbath and little wonder as it is the day of rest and re-creation. The book of Genesis is a witness to this: Thus the heavens and earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work which He had done in creation.

The Sabbath is a time for rest and recovery. If the all-powerful, all-knowing God needs rest, then we His tiny creatures need rest too. If we think and act like we do not need rest, then we are placing ourselves above God.We need to do essentially the same thing. It is no coincidence that the relationship between Sabbath and healing is highlighted.

Meditation such we have in the Rosary is an on-going Sabbath rest when we stretch out our souls to the healing touch of Jesus. Without even being aware of it—we are touching the edges of eternity.  Power is going out from the Lord, as happened with the woman who had the issue of blood.

The hand is a figure of power of direction of helping, or strength; physical and spiritual. We speak of showing your hand revealing your intention.. Of opening or closing clenching the hand

Jesus tells the man to Stand in the centre—in the middle. Clearly he was standing back on the margins—and hiding his withered hand. We need to be open to aacknowledge ou weakness and our withered lives.

Luke says that it was his right hand.:The withered right hand, because all of these things, I think, have spiritual significance? Tradition says that he was a stonemason, and he asked the Lord Jesus to heal him in order that he might not have to spend his life as a beggar.  We picture someone unable to work.  In the spiritual sphere that would mean that he is unable to please God by anything that he does.

Paralyzed hand: The thing about being paralysed is that you just can’t stretch out. The man was  incapable of obeying a command like that by his own power.  Yet, our Lord Jesus addressed him with a command that he could not, of himself, perform. The Lord doesn’t call the able. He enables those whom he calls. God often lays obligations upon us which we cannot perform in order that we might turn to him and ask him to perform things that we cannot of ourselves perform. Jesus gave him some power that enabled him to stretch forth my hand, and he did, and was healed. If you would like to receive a copy of The Healing Light of the Rosary, contact me at Dominican Priory, Tallaght Village, Dublin 24, Ireland or hartygabriel@gmail.com

Stand up in front of everyone. Imagine Jesus, just after he has stared at the crowd around you in utter discouragement, He looks directly in your eyes and says, “Stretch out your hand.”

My mother went to Lourdes and brought us back beautiful glass rosary beads. She also brought a Statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and placed it in the room where we would say the Rosary every night. I could not see clearly the difference between my mother and Our Lady herself. They seemed to be mystically entwined. It may have been something to do with the fact that her birthday was August 15th. Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady into heaven.

The first spiritual book put into my hands was about the True Devotion to Mary as expounded by St Louis Marie de Montfort. All my priestly life, I have been associated with the Legion of Mary and its True Devotion to Mary. As I pondered the words of Scripture: In me is all grace of the way and of the truth,  I wanted to join a Marian movement that preached the grace of the way an the truth. This led me to the Dominican Order:

As a young friar, returning from studies in Rome on the eve of the Marian Year, 1954, the Master of the Order, gave an order: “Send this man to Lourdes on his way back to Ireland, so that he can prepare himself to preach the rosary.” When I got there, a railway strike intervened and I was grounded in Lourdes for the six weeks of the industrial dispute.  There were no planes to Lourdes at that time and  now there was no train either. Pilgrimages were halted and I had the place almost to myself. Each day I would kneel on the marked spot where Bernadette herself knelt and recall her account of the Vision in the Grotto:  The Lady looked at me. She smiled at me  and said: Come closer.

Sweet Mother, remember how in my youth, I knelt entranced before your sacred Grotto and how you looked upon me and smiled as you did on Bernadette. Look on me this day and smile on me. And now that I am old and grey and nearing the end of life’s pilgrimage, I ask you to speak to me and to all I love and care for, those same words “Come closer…” 
Gabriel Harty O.P hartygabriel@gmail.com
Dominican Priory, Tallaght Village, Dubin 24
Tel 01— 4048100

There was a village by a lake that had a fine Church and bell tower. However, during a  movement of the earth, the
whole village was buried in the water. Later, the tradition developed that the Church bells could sometimes be heard ringing. A holy man was intrigued by the story that he wished to hear the bells for himself. He spent a long time by the lake, listening intently for the bells, but never heard them. He decided to give up his search. Unable to hear the bells, he decided one day,  to just listen to the sound of the waves. It was then that beneath and above the roaring of the waves he was convinced that he heard sound of the bells!

Spiritual hearing and seeing is something like that. St. Paul writes of having eyes for the unseen and no doubt he was given a voice and a vision that was truly out of this world. But that is not the way that most of poor human beings reach out to the eternal hills or listen to the sound of the Spirit.  So often  we have to get in touch with the invisible and intangible world through the day to day ordinary events of life.

The Rosary mysteries remind us that each one of us has a personal Annunciation– a vocation that grounds us in the here and now. And while we look to the home prepared for us in heaven, we know that only in the measure that we live well in our earthly dwelling can we claim the promise made by Jesus: In my Father’s house there are many mansions I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you also may be. So let’s not dream by the mystery lake or the wishing well, but take up our beads and get on with the sweet mystery of life here and now.

hartygabriel@gmail.com

Once upon a time there was a Rabbi who used to dance when he prayed. When he prayed a solemn prayer it was a solemn dance and when he prayed a joyful prayer it was a joyful dance. The Rabbi died. Many years later there was another Rabbi who loved to tell the story about the Dancing Rabbi. But this second Rabbi had a problem – he was paralysed from the waist down. One night, as he was telling the story of the dancing Rabbi, he was so engrossed in the story, and the audience were clinging to his words so intently, that suddenly he got up and danced!

The story shows how when the spirit of another fill us, we take on something of his/her likeness. People who are closely bonded in love and who have lived together for a long time begin to speak and look alike. How much truer this is in the case of Jesus and ourselves. He fills us with his Spirit so that we become in a very real sense Other Christs.

In each mystery of the Rosary, we not only tell the story of Jesus. With faith and love we remember all he was and all he did and we endeavour to enter into the very life he lived on earth. We draw on the grace of each mystery so as to share his childhood, to be part of his agony and be healed by his wounds and to dance with delight as we sing our Easter song.As the prayer at the end of the Rosary has it: we meditate on the mysteries, so that we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through Christ Our Lord.

hartygabriel@gmail.com