Holy Mary, Mother Of God

Spoiler alert – Columnist Kristine Schroeder is going to tell you a lot of wonderful things about the Rosary in her May 17 column.

We are, now, almost two weeks into the Marian month of May. This is a wonderful time to contemplate Mary and her “perfect prayer,” the Rosary. I have a couple of suggestions to offer, but Kristine will handle the Rosary “heavy lifting” next week. We are grateful for her good work!

For now, I ask you to consider just a couple of things related to Holy Mary, Mother of God. One is to add a short prayer, daily, to whatever your prayer routine happens to be. It is a prayer to Mary, Undoer of Knots:

“Holy Mary, Mother of God and my mother, deliver us from all evil and untie the knots that keep us from being united with God, so that, once free from all sin and error, we may find him in all things, may have our hearts placed in him and may serve him always with our brothers and sisters.”

I timed myself saying that prayer a few times. You will need around 12 seconds for it. That’s one-fifth of a minute. Well worth it, in my opinion.

I also want to suggest that you visit rosaryconfraternity.org. Learn about the confraternity, and consider joining it – as I did a number of years ago. The “dues” will cost you about 20 minutes at least once a week.

The Dominican Friars, Province of St. Joseph, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, offer the website and invite all to join the Confraternity. From the website: “Today, members of the Rosary Confraternity promise the recitation of a weekly Rosary as their sole obligation. Although this obligation is very minimal—and does not bind under pain of sin—the spiritual benefits are extensive.”

In my opinion, a major spiritual benefit is the significant impact on one’s personal prayer life that Confraternity membership provides. I say that from personal experience. I now pray the Rosary daily, along with the Divine Mercy Chaplet. And I pray to Mary, Undoer of Knots, using the prayer above.

I have a leather pouch in my pocket as I type that holds, in addition to some saints medals, single-decade metal Rosary rings. I suspect you have seen them before, and each of mine has a special focus – Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Miraculous Medal, St. Michael the Archangel; you get the idea.

They are not as fancy or as pretty as full-size Rosary-bead sets, but I have grown to prefer them for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I can carry them without much worry of damage. As I find myself hurtling, pretty much unimpeded, toward my middle 60s, I will confess that I have always been hard on Rosary beads and eyeglasses. Neither lasts as long for me as I believe they should.

That’s probably a good thing with the Rosary beads. It’s tough to damage them unless you’re using them – fairly often.

My prayer this month is that you will use yours – more than a time or two. Add that prayer to Mary, Undoer of Knots. Make the most of Mary’s month; graces and blessings you can’t imagine will show up in your life.