Learning to pray the Rosary

I have a very distinct and fond memory of learning how to pray the rosary.

I had received a rosary from a Carmelite Nun when I was in high school.  I was in a play that featured some Catholic nuns and some of the cast got rosaries...including me.

Even though I was thoroughly Baptist, I was fascinated by it.  I thought it was beautiful and seemed spiritually powerful to me.  But I had no idea how to pray it.

Many years later, while I was going through RCIA at Texas A&M, I asked my sponsor to teach me how to pray it. 

He totally underestimated how little I would know, or how much he would have to explain.  For him it was all so obvious, second nature even.  It was hilarious.  

He said to start with the creed.  I already knew the Nicene creed from Mass, so that was easy enough, although to this day I pray the Nicene Creed on the rosary instead of the Apostle's Creed.  

Then he told me to pray an Our Father on each big bead.  Now, what he called the “Our Father” I called the “Lord’s Prayer” but that was easy enough to understand; however, I always said the doxology instead of ending with "...but deliver us from evil." (that’s how you can spot Protestants at Mass…they always keep going into the doxology "...for the kingdom the power and the glory are yours, now and forever.")

I, of course, had no idea how to pray the Hail Mary, but he told me to say one on every little bead.

Then he told me about the Glory Be.  I didn’t know the prayer at all, or even that it was a prayer, so I thought he said "Glory Bead."  And I really had no idea what that meant, but it sounded nice.  

So, anyway, I started praying the "rosary" when I walked to work.  But what he said should take 15-20 minutes only took about 3-4 minutes, no matter how slow I went.  

Because what I was doing was: praying the Nicene creed, saying the Lord’s Prayer on the big beads, and then saying simply "Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary,..." on all ten little beads, and then just smiling real big on the Glory Bead. And repeating 5 times.  Didn't take long.

I mentioned this to him a couple of weeks later and he realized the extent of his task.  He taught me the rest of the prayers and the meditations, which he had completely forgotten to mention the first time.

The rosary made a lot more sense then.  I could even understand the purpose of it now that the mysteries were in place for me to contemplate.

One thing that he taught me that I later found out wasn’t a standard practice was to declare a "fruit" of each mystery.  To declare what you wanted to grow in as a result of each mystery.  

I remember perfectly well how moved I was by the fruit he declared of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth.

"The 2^nd Joyful mystery," he said, "The Visitation...and the fruit of this mystery is the ability to recognize with joy the presence of Christ in other people."

Let us today, on the feast of the Visitation, ask our Lady to pray that Jesus will give us this grace.  The ability to truly recognize with joy the presence of Christ in other people.  Especially as we receive him into ourselves in the Eucharist.  After we receive, let us imagine each other carrying him as truly as Mary did.  And let our hearts leap with joy.