The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary 2021

Growing up in the 50s and 60s, the Latin mass was still a central part of our lives. During mass many said the rosary because it was hard to follow what was going on as the priest, with his back to the people, said the mass in Latin as altars boys held the hem of his chasuble or waved thuribles of incense. It was all very mysterious. But thank God for the rosary. My mother had a great devotion to the rosary, as indeed many Catholics did in those days. I recall those days as we celebrate today the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. It does sound like a long lost age and yet it was only 50 or 60 years ago. But the rosary was more than just a set of beads. It was an identity symbol. God forbid if you had forgotten to put your rosary beads in your pocket and Brother suddenly decided to say the rosary at the beginning of class. While I can recall with good humour our attachment to those beads back in those days, they were more than just a symbol or a method of prayer. They were the only opportunity that many Catholics had to reflect upon key events or texts of Scripture. We need to remember that Catholics in those days were not encouraged to read the Bible because there was the belief that, without proper theological training, one could easily misinterpret the Bible. What we memorised very carefully in those days were the mysteries of the rosary and the days of the week dedicated to the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries. In recent times, the Luminous mysteries were added. But if there is one devotion from those days before Vatican II that continues to play an important role in the lives of Catholic Christians, it is the rosary. I thank God for that and I hope that we continue to teach younger people how to pray the rosary. If there is one thing about the rosary that strikes other people is that, when the occasion calls for it, like being with someone who is dying or during a burial ceremony, there is always something we Catholics can fall back to, something which helps during those difficult moments of grieving, and that is the rosary. I hope that the “Our Father”, the “Hail Mary” and the “Glory be” will always be central prayers in our lives, for when the time comes when the journey of our earthly life comes to a close, I believe that there few things more comforting than to hear family and friends around the bed saying the rosary.