Fr. Michael Williams

Many years ago, I remember working on a building site as a laborer. And I remember one of the workman saying to me that many people in the world were intelligent, but many of these intelligent people had no wisdom. For example, we could say that a great scientist who didn’t believe in God, may have some intelligence, but they lacked wisdom, because he Spirit of Wisdom allows us to know God and His ways.

How do we obtain this Spirit? Well, the answer appears in today’s first reading from the book of Wisdom: ‘I prayed and understanding was given to me. I entreated and the Spirit of wisdom came to me’. Prayer opens our hearts and our minds to divine realities; prayer puts us in touch with God and allows us to develop a relationship with Him- who made us and sustains us and wants us to be with Him forever.

As Catholics we have a wonderful prayer that allows us to pray and open our hearts and minds to God’s Spirit of Wisdom. That prayer is the Holy Rosary. In the Church’s calendar the month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary. So it might be worth reflecting on this special prayer of the Church.

Unfortunately many Catholics have forgotten about the Rosary today; many others just wear Rosary beads as a fashion item after David Beckham! So what is the Rosary?

At the most basic level it is the recitation of the Our Father, Hail Mary’s, and the Glory Be. I’m sure you all know that bit! But the Rosary is a meditation on the mysteries of Jesus’ life. The Rosary is composed of twenty mysteries. The joyful mysteries which reflect of Jesus’ infancy; the luminous mysteries, which reflect of elements of His public ministry; the sorrowful mysteries, which reflect on His suffering; and the glorious mysteries, which reflect on His victory over death and the eternal life of heaven.

The idea is that when we say the ten Hail Mary’s we close our minds and think about the particular mystery of Jesus’ life. The Hail Mary’s are a mantra, which settle our mind to a spiritual rhythm and then we use our imagination to ponder and think on the mystery. So for example, say we were saying the first glorious mystery-the Resurrection- we would read a little piece of scripture about the Resurrection and then say the Our Father and Hail Mary’s reflecting on the mystery as we go along.

Like anything we only get better at praying the Rosary by actually doing it! As it says in the Nike advert ‘Just do it’! By getting into the habit of praying the Rosary we will get better at it. But we need to put the effort in. Of course we come up with all sorts of excuses like, ‘I haven’t got time, etc’. But we’ve got the time for Coronation St or MOTD! Nearly, all the saints of recent times prayed the Rosary. Padre Pio said it was the weapon to use against the devil!

Lets make a commitment to say the Rosary this month, at least one decade of the Rosary. I guarantee it will bear spiritual fruit. It will open our hearts and minds to the Wisdom of God, which the Lord wants to give us; it will obtain many blessings for ourselves and our loved ones and our world. With this in mind we have some one decade Rosaries, which are doing nothing in the store cupboard. Let’s put them to use for our good and the good of others.