Furthermore…

Yesterday evening I went, as usual, to our charismatic prayer group.  We always open with a Rosary, saying the Luminous Mysteries (even though it is Monday, when the Joyful Mysteries are in order).  As we prayed the Rosary I was startled to note that a gentleman who always attends with his wife, we’ll call him” Mr. Sunday,” but seldom speaks up or says a word, took a turn at leading one of the decades in a strong clear voice.

At the opening of the meeting the lady who is our leader gave a little talk about how our group is expecting to have a miracle every week.  Sometime in the past, before I joined the group, she said a devoted person had told her this.  I can’t remember the circumstances she recounted that led to this prophesy, but at the time it made a kind of sense based on faith.

Hey, I thought, to me it is a miracle that “Mr. Sunday” was so moved by the spirit as to lead the Rosary for us in such a fine fashion, right there at the same table with me.  Up to now I haven’t witnessed any miracles that I can think of,  besides this one which so impressed me, unremarked by the rest of the group, which I’m considering the real thing, maybe the only one I’ll ever witness!

Anthony my teaching partner (”Mr. Anthony”) and I (”Mr. Bill”) had a great time today teaching the Rosary to our class of 5th graders from public schools.  Only a few of them were familiar with it.  He and his wife are involved in making rosaries, and he generously  brought in one for every student, some red, some yellow.  I told the kids that one of those colors is special, and that I’d tell them which color it is and the reason why toward the end of the class.  They seemed to think the special color was red.

Anthony brought in a magnificent Italian wall-sized rosary, which drew ooh’s and aah’s, as they had never seen such a thing.  I brought in a CD of a broadcast quality recitation of the Rosary I had obtained from nearby WBVM-fm (www.spiritfm905.com).

Today being Sunday, I set up the CD to play the Glorious Mysteries for the class.  Coincidentally, at the Mass just proceeding the class there had been a ceremony of dedication of the new Confirmation class for 2010, and part of the ceremony had been renewal of the truths of the Creed, so I explained to the kids how this was significant,  because they for their part would be hearing at the start of the Rosary the Apostles Creed, which contains a lot of the truths we are trying to teach them.  The WBVM Spirit FM production is done as a Scriptural Rosary, with a verse of scripture voiced before each Hail Mary.  I am sure this was new to them, even those who already had some experience with the Rosary.

We prayed and listened to only one decade, and then shut of the player so that we could teach and elaborate on what had just transpired.  I was surprised that even in awhole hour we were not able to bring out everyting we should have liked.

At the last minute I told them how when Our Lady appeared at Lourdes she had a yellow Rosary in her hands.  I expected that on this basis the kids who had selected the red ones would want to turn them back for yellow ones, but nothing like this developed.  I suppose they were just glad that the class had ended and they could go home.

I am pleased today because I had a chance to present my ideas for special music for with praying and meditating the Rosary to an interested individual who is a specialist in church music, and he had some very encouraging things to say. I feel that I am further along now on my path toward having an accomplished composer consider my concept and possibly work on it.  A step ahead!

I was fortunate enough to tune into EWTN at the time there was an interview with two people from a foundation devoted to furthering sacred art. One of them was a lady convert devoted to fine art and its place in the Church. I was pleased to  learn of their current mounting of an art exhibit devoted to works concerned with the Rosary.  The gentleman in his portion of the interview spoke interestingly about religious music.

Catching this program greatly pleased me in connection with my interest in finding some way to bring into reality  music that might enhance the experience of praying and meditating on the Rosary by contributing to creating moods and feelings consistent with the content of the Rosary Mysteries, as discussed in a March 22, 2009 post here.

I’ve started a quest for Rosary music, initially thinking in terms of finding a composer to write background music for praying the Rosary. For each of the 20 Mysteries, there would have to be background music styled to agree with the mood or emotional associations of that Mystery, such as glory for the Resurrection, struggle for Carrying the Cross, joy for the Birth of the Lord, and reverence for The Institution of the Eucharist.

Now, instead of trying to find a composer, I am convinced that music written for the movies would nicely fill the bill. The art of adding music to movies in order to enhance viewers’ feelings during a particular scene has been developed to a high state of excellence in the film-making world. I am thinking it all is “in the can.”

So the next stage of this quest will be to solicit suggestions, from anyone interested, of movie music selections well suited to being played along with each of the Mysteries, music that will serve to deepen and enrich the Rosary prayer experience.

There are already productions in audio, video, and on web sites to accompany praying the Rosary, often including music of some sort, but I haven’t come across any having music such as I am seeking, such as would tend to establish and convey feelings allied with the scenes within the Mysteries.

In the Chaplet of Divine Mercy we pray “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”
We pray “the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.”
When we see someone we love suffering, we feel sorrow.
We love Jesus and His Mother. She felt sorrow because of his sufferings. As we say the Sorrowful Mysteries, we feel sorrow meditating on His sufferings, and additional sorrow when we consider that she herself felt such sorrow knowing what He experienced.
His Passion is sorrowful to Mary, to us, and to Jesus Himself, as He sorrows considering how humanity “doesn’t get it” and fails to recognize its essence as creatures of God, offenders against God, and its blindness of hatred in attacking and killing the God Who created, loves and redeems them but Whom they will not admit into their mental construct of the world.

One of the contributors to the Catholic Friends group on Multiply.com illustrated his posting with the fine creations shown below, which in a way resembles a kind of Rosary. I wonder if anyone might be familiar with such an item and be able to add a comment to this post that will tell me something about it.