82: Two ways to say the Rosary (1)

Indeed there are two different ways of contemplating Jesus and his mysteries using our Rosary. One is very known but the other is much less known and understood. The reason we have two ways of saying the Rosary is because we have two types of contemplation.

Contemplation is a supernatural action of God where he gives himself to us as a nourishment. 

Each type of contemplation nourishes principally (Lat. “principaliter”) a different area of our being. One nourishes essentially our soul (i.e. conscious mind and will) and the other nourishes essentially our spirit (or heart, i.e. supra-conscious part of our mind and will). These two types of food absoutely complement each other. 

We have these two foods (or “breads”) in the Mass: 

1- the first bread is Jesus’ words for us that are “Spirit and Life”, they nourish our soul (conscious mind and will). 

2- the second bread Jesus offers us is his Body and Blood (and soul, spirit, divinity). 

These two moments of manducation (process of eating) have, related to each one of them, two moments of digestion: Lectio Divina for the first bread and Prayer of the heart for the second one. 

I guess, if you are familiar with the “School of Mary” teaching you would be familiar as well with these clarifications about Spiritual Life, Mass, Contemplation. 

Now, back to the question about the Rosary. The Rosary initially was set up in order to help the poor who can’t read in the MiddleAge to have the possibility to access the Gospel. The Gospel was therefore divided into three sets of mysteries, each one with 5 moments of Jesus life. So, with Mary, the faithuful would be able to remain in contact with the Gospel, Jesus, his mysteries and benefit from them. So the rosary is not a “marian devotion”, it is a Gospel, Jesus, contemplation, listening to. We need to remember that. Of course Mary is fundamental, because she gives us her eyes and her heart in ordet to contemplate Jesus and listen in our conscience to his word for us. 

Note: the majority of people today do read and hear about the lectio divina. So what? Would we then have to cancel the Rosary? I think that we need to learn to practice the lectio divina “with Mary”, this is fundamental. This means that we need Mary’s heart, mind, will, in order to listen to Jesus and put his word into practise.

Is that all about the Rosary? What about the second type of contemplation, of food? Would we just leave it without Mary? 

I do deeply believe that there is a more silent/quiet way of saying the Rosary, closer in its form to the Prayer of the heart. In the Prayer of the heart you have a short prayer that accompanies our movement of lifting our heart. You remember that? I do deeply believe that we could use as a prayer the “Hail Mary”, holding our Rosary in our hands. Therefore, in this case we do not “meditate” (or better: contemplate) one of Jesus’ Mysteries, we are in Jesus, in THE mystery himself, and we do not need to see or hear anything, because God, in this type of contemplation pours himself in our heart, directly, and our mind should remain quiet, in peace.

Note: the Eastern catholic (and orthodox) churches have a different Rosary (chotki), and they use it for the Prayer of the heart (Jesus' prayer).

We can’t go to the Prayer of the heart without Mary. We need to repeat a prayer that has Jesus’ name and/or Mary’s one, so, why can’t we just hold our (western) rosary in our hands and just say it quietly, silently, having Mary in our heart, with us, that receives Jesus, and his Holy Spirit?!

So, conclusion: we do indeed have two ways of saying the Rosary, and they are coherent with the two “Breads” we receive in the Mass, and with the extension/prolongation of this manducation in digestion: Lectio divina and Prayer of the heart. The two ways are not oppposed, or exclusive, they absolutely complement each other. They are both necessary: we need Mary in order to listen to Jesus (contemplate his mysteries in the Gospel) and we need Mary as well in order to be immeresed in Jesus’ being and receive his Holy Spirit. 

I hope that helps, sheds an important light and liberates many people who would like to say – as well – the Rosary with a type of “contemplation” identical to the type of contemplation involved in the Payer of the heart and in Communion.

40: Transfiguration (2/4) and Mass

Continuation of 39: Transfiguration (1/4) according to the Greek Fathers

The Byzantine tradition tells us that the Transfiguration is that important that it encompasses all the mystery of “christian prayer”.

It is only by willing to enter in this mystery (the Transfiguration's one) that one starts to discover how wide it is. Let us explore one of its aspects.

Transfiguration and Mass

The Transfiguration could be seen as a spiritual summary of the Mass.

1- First: the Mass used to be mainly celebrated on Sunday, where all the Christians used to gather to meet the Risen Lord. The most early accounts of that gathering could be found in s John 20, with the Apostle gathered in the upper room, the door closed; see as well Luke 24, the structure of the apparition to the two disciples of Emmaus.

The Three accounts of the Transfiguration give us a hint about the relationship between: the Resurrection (happening the 7^th or 8^th day) and the weekly Gathering (the Sunday Mass): “6 days later” (Mt, Mk), or “8 days later” (Luke).

2- Second: we enter in the Mass by climbing to that High Mountain of the Action of God (the “Divine Liturgy” that God will deploy). Notice that we have to receive a special grace in order to climb. The same greek verb is used in the Transfiguration and in the Mass: anapherei (“Anaphore” = “Eucharistic Prayer”). Jesus is the one who “grabs” them by His Grace and makes them climb with him.

We start the Mass (Kyrie) by asking forgiveness, preparing us to be put in the Hands of the Mercy of God. This is an act of purification and surrender (offering ourselves in the Hands of Jesus). Later in the Mass, will elevate our hearts (“lift up your hearts”), and He will put them in Him (or “under the shadow of the Cloud”).

3- Third: the early Church kept the readings of the sabath liturgy of the Synagogue: one reading from the Thorah (Pentateuk) and one reading from the Prophets (check that even now with the Jewish Liturgy) and added to it the reading of the Gospels and some reading from the Apostles (and Acts).

In the early Church Christians used to have a very special experience of seeing Jesus in the Old Testament (see Luke 24, 1Co 10). So what used to happen is that Jesus would “appear” in the Text of the Liturgy of the Old Testament.

In the Transfiguration we have Moses (Thorah) and Elijah (Prophets) and the fact that Jesus' cloths and face are transformed, transfigured. The letter of the text (the clothes of the text) of the Old Testament is transfigured and shows the Presence of Jesus. Jesus appears, and sheds a light over the Old Testament (Moses and Elijah). This is the first part of the Mass and the first part of the Transfiguration. The Power of the Light of the Gospel and the presence of Jesus in the Proclamation of the Gospel, sheds a light over the two readings from the old Testament.

4- Fourth: we then enter in the second part of the Mass, the Eucharistic part. We enter as well in the second part of the Transfiguration: where the Cloud (symbol of the Presence of God) will overshadow everybody, like the Eucharist will overshadow everybody, everybody will receive the Body and the Blood of Jesus, and then only Jesus will remain (as the text of the Transfiguration will state in Luke 9:36). This is “the vision” par excellence.

5- Fifth: the Transfiguration is about seeing, having a vision: it starts with a promise of seeing the Son of God coming (see this Promise before the Transfiguration), and ends (while coming down the mountain) with Jesus saying “don't say anything bout what you saw”.

Receiving the Eucharist is about seeing Jesus, the True Light. This is what everybody sings right after Communion in the Byzantine Rite: “We have seen the True Light, and we received the Heavenly Spirit”. We are truly overshadowed by the Heavenly Spirit as were the Apostles on the Sacred Mountain.

The parallel between the Transfiguration and the Divine Liturgy is tricking. For me, this shows that Jesus was entrusting to the 3 Apostles, as heads of liturgical traditions, the Divine Liturgy itself, so, through this unique experience on Mount Thabor, they can understand, enter, and measure the greatness of the one single Mass.

He asked them not to reveal what happened during the Transfiguration until He rises from the dead, until He is capable of delivering, on a weekly basis, the “apparition”, that “transfiguration”.

This is why we gather each Sunday.

Each Sunday we are invited to climb the Hight Mountain of the Glory of God, to listen to His Word, to see Him transfiguring the Old Testament text, each Sunday, with His Light, as “the Risen Lord”.

We then are invited to enter under the Divine Cloud (the second part of the Mass where the catechumens were excluded, and the doors shut (see John 20 and the doors shut)), and receive the Communion that makes all of us One in Him, that make us “one Jesus” only.

Do we really enter in the Mystery of the Divine Liturgy? Do we really enter in the Mystery of the Transfiguration? Do we understand that the Transfiguration (seeing the Lord's Glory) it is given to all of us?

We sing in the Byzantine rite, during Communion and say that we won't betray the secret of our Lord like Judas, with a kiss. The “secret” is what we see, what we experience during Communion.

Come on great people, be aware of your greatness, of the greatness of What God is offering you weekly (or daily)!

With the great intercession of the Mother of God, we thank You Jesus-God for your indescribable Gift. Amen.

(Continues in 41:  Transfiguration and St John's Gospel)

16a : The unavoidable mystical dimension of Christianity 1

Some people might argue that there is no “mystical dimension” in Christianity. Others would say that “there is one”, but that it is “not for everybody”. Others will claim: “we can’t describe ‘mystical’”, so we remain in the obscurity, or worse: with the “ambiguous”.

Let me start by defining what do I mean here by “mystical dimension”. In front of a phenomena that is very difficult to describe, where two (or more) beings are truly, but mysteriously (and strangely), united, or intricated, one doesn’t have other words to use than “mystical”. It is like saying: “hidden”, “difficult to describe”, or “ineffable”.

Let me take two examples that will very easily help us get closer to this dimension in Christianity. Again, this dimension is so fundamental that if we empty Christianity of it, Christianity won’t be anymore Christianity.

* The first example I will take is Communion.

Two mystical acts were willingly performed by Jesus:

1- one day, He took some bread and said: “this is my Body”.

2- The second, no less “crazy”, is when He said: “eat it”, so “I can live in you and you in me” (John 6).

Lets face it:

1- A loaf of bread is not a human being. Not even a divine Being.

2- Eating a human (or divine) Being is a very strange act. How would you do it? What will happen if you do it?

This is what I call “mystical”: it is something very real, but as difficult to grasp. And it is still very dynamic, active and transformative. Jesus says that the human being, in order to be complete, needs more, needs to be grafted in another bigger being: Jesus. When Paul of Tarsus says: “it is not me who lives, but Christ who lives in me”, he embodies in this expression the very essence of the mystical aspect of Christianity. You’ll certainly agree with me, that this is not just “a secondary aspect” in Christianity. It touches its essence. It is not an optional aspect.

The contact that God wants to make with us is not an intellectual or notional contact. It is a deep, real, transformative contact. First God becomes a human being, he takes a human nature (without changing His Divine Nature). Second: He wants to be united with us, he wants to transform us in Him. On the Cross He will unite Himself with each one of us. This will be performed by the mysterious (mystical) Action of the Holy Spirit, the Master of  anything Mystical.

* Let us take a second example, that precedes “Communion” and is at its core: Baptism. Baptism says Saint Paul is to be immersed in Christ, it is to participate to His Death, and therefore experience the transformative Power of His Resurrection. Baptism is a Seed, Jesus in us, who will grow in us. The new being in us, or “the new man”. This Divine Seed, planted in us, needs to grow until it reaches its fullness.

All this is “mystical”. Difficult to grasp. Real, indispensable, unavoidable. It allows us to get so close to Jesus, to get united to Him. And yet, if from one side we feel we can’t escape from it, we struggle to describe it.

How would you describe this necessary union between Christ and us, union that is not confusion, that doesn’t cancel our freedom, but fosters it, union that we don’t feel directly?

To rap all this in one thing: just ask any fervent Catholic or Orthodox faithful to describe to you what he or she feels right after Communion, right after having received the Body and Blood of Jesus: they will all agree to say that this very moment is the highest point of the day or the week. That it is indeed the most intense moment. The moment when they are the closest to Jesus, to God. The moment when they feel that their prayer is answered. They often feel peace. They would like this moment to last.

I would simply call this moment: a simple, daily or weekly, mystical moment. Real, but difficult to describe. Happening in the deepest part of ourselves, but it is not shown to the conscious part. But still some great peace and closeness do still “leaks” to the conscious part. Some real change in the exterior part does happen if we allow it.

We are here at the essence of Christianity, at the unbreakable nucleus that constitutes Christianity. Christianity is indeed “mystical” in its essence. So please, let us not hide from this dimension, let us acknowledge it. God, in Christianity, is not a remote Being in which one believes or not. No. He is not a set of Dogmas. He is a Being. United with whim we are more complete. Just try Him.

How would you describe the way we are we united with him? - “Mystically”. Deep in us (you can’t directly grasp it), but truly united with Him. He is truly in us, and with us. “dwell in Me” says Jesus. “without me you can’t do anything” (John 15). Quite a statement. It is a mystical statement that shows the mystical dimension of all our day.

Here is a mystical Prayer:

Soul of Christ, santify me.

Body of Christ, save me.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me.

Water from the side of Christ, wash me.

Passion of Christ, strengthen me.

O good Jesus, hear me.

Within your wounds, hide me.

Never let me be separated from You.

From the malignant enemy, defend me.

At the hour of death, call me; and bid me come to You.

That with your saints I may praise You forever and ever.

Amen.

(St. Ignatius Loyola)

Lets face “mystical”.

(To be continued... see "Spirituality 43")