Passionists Pray
Prayer Meanings
God gives the gift of prayer to you.
The Our Father
The Our Father
The Our Father is the final prayer morning and evening.
When his disciples asked him to teach them to pray, Jesus taught them the Our Father, a short prayer that summarizes his teaching and mission.The prayer was not intended to replace the psalms and scriptures; on the contrary, it finds its origin in them.
The gospels offer two versions of the Our Father. In the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 6:9-13), it’s the centerpiece of the Sermon on the Mount. We know Matthew’s form of the Our Father by heart from our earliest years. We say it together at Mass and in our public prayers.
Commentators say that perhaps Matthew is reminding Jewish Christians attracted to the “long prayers of the synagogue” that prayer to the Father “who sees in secret” does not have to be wordy prayer, but prayer from the heart.
The shorter version of the Our Father found in the Gospel of Luke ( Luke 11:2-4) is probably closer to the original version Jesus taught. It’s found in part of his gospel called the “travel narrative”–the journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem where he will die and rise again.
Luke’s Gospel sees the Our Father as a pilgrim prayer for our journey through life. He wished his gentile converts to learn it and pray it with confidence each day.
Both evangelists say this is how Jesus prayed; he taught his disciples to pray as he did.
Early church traditions like “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” call for the Our Father to be said “three times a day.” It’s a “summary of the gospel,” according to Tertullian, a “key to understanding Jesus.”
The Our Father comes appropriately at the end of morning and evening prayers as a summary of them.
The Hail Mary
Praying with Mary, the Mother of God
In our evening prayers each day, we pray with Mary, the Mother of God, joining in her Magnificat. The Hail Mary is another prayer honoring her that leads us to God.
The prayer’s earliest form developed in the Middle Ages as the simple greeting of the angel Gabriel at Nazareth, from St. Luke’s gospel:
Hail Mary,
full of grace,
the Lord is with you.
You are favored by God, the angel announces to her. Mary brought Jesus Christ into the world. That message to her is reflected in us, for like her, we are favored by God and called to bring God’s Son into the world. God’s promise of grace to Mary is also God’s promise to us. God will be with us.
Over time her cousin Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary, also recorded in St. Luke, was added to the prayer:
Blessed are you among women
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Finally, by the 15th century, the remainder of the prayer appeared:
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
The prayer asks Mary, full of grace, to intercede for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. She believed and she knows what it means to believe. She who knew her Son so well can teach us to know him.
On Calvary Jesus entrusted her to us as our mother when he said to his disciple “Behold your mother.” Ever since, Mary brings Christ into this world. She witnessed his life, death and resurrection. She helps us to know him in these mysteries.
Mary also knows our needs. Just as she was aware of the needs of the newly married couple at Cana in Galilee, she is aware of our needs and brings them to Jesus, her Son.By the end of the 16th century the practice of saying 150 Hail Marys in series or decades of 10 became popular among many ordinary Christians. Helped by her they remembered the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. That practice of prayer is known now as the Rosary. For many it became their morning and evening prayer.
Mary is a model of faith for Christians. When the angel Gabriel came to her, she believed the words he spoke even to the dark test of Calvary. She helps the family of believers make their journey of faith.
The Hail Mary and the Rosary are blessed prayers, simple and profound. They’re not beyond anyone’s reach; their repetition brings peace to the soul, drawing us into the joys, sorrows, and glory of Jesus. We ask Mary to help us “imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through Christ, Our Lord. Amen”
The Rosary
The rosary is a prayer we say with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who leads us into the presence of God and the mysteries of her Son.
“Hail Mary, full of grace” the angel said to her, inviting her to become the Mother of God. (Luke 1:28 ) Mary helps us know Jesus Christ as she did.
“Blessed are you among the women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus” her cousin Elizabeth said to her when she came to visit. (Luke 1:42) Mary is always ready to visit us.
“Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death” we say to her. In the rosary, as we slowly repeat the words of her prayer and reflect on the mysteries of her Son. Mary helps us see our lives with faith and the promise of life to come. The mysteries of the rosary are our mysteries too.
The School of the Rosary
Tradition suggests we remember certain mysteries of Jesus while praying the rosary: the Joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries. The rosary has been called a “School of Mary”, for she knows the mysteries of Jesus well and can teach them to us.
The Joyful Mysteries are found mostly in Luke’s Gospel 1-2.
- The Annunciation of the Angel to Mary
- The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth
- The Birth of Jesus
- The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
- The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
- The Luminous Mysteries are events in Jesus’ ministry found in all the gospels:
- The Baptism of Jesus
- The Wedding Feast at Cana
- The Proclamation of the Kingdom
- The Transfiguration of Jesus
- The Last Supper
The Sorrowful Mysteries are events in his passion and death described in the gospels:
- The Agony in the Garden
- The Scourging at the Pillar
- The Crowning with Thorns
- The Carrying of the Cross
- The Crucifixion
- The Glorious Mysteries follow his resurrection, found in the New Testament.
- The Resurrection of Jesus
- The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven
- The Descent of the Holy Spirit
- The Assumption of Mary into Heaven
- The Crowning of Mary, Queen of Heaven
As we say prayers on our rosaries, Mary quietly, gracefully, as a mother and wise friend, leads us into the presence of God and helps us see the mysteries of faith with her eyes; she knows them better than any scholar or follower of Jesus.
How to Pray the Rosary
There are many ways to say the rosary and reflect on its mysteries. The single beads of an ordinary rosary represent the Our Father, the prayer Jesus taught us to say. The series of ten beads represent the Hail Mary and the mysteries of Jesus Christ. The crucifix on the rosary reminds us to say the Apostles’ Creed, for the rosary is a prayer of faith.
The rosary is not a rigid prayer demanding it be said strictly word by word. It’s a prayer meant for us personally. It welcomes us as we are: unsure, joyful, sorrowful, looking for hope for what’s ahead.
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is a woman who welcomes us as we are. “Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. “
When to Pray the Rosary
The rosary can be an everyday prayer for some and an occasional prayer for others. On Sundays, it can be a prayer for recalling the mysteries of the resurrection of Jesus; on Friday’s for recalling the mysteries of his passion and death.
Every week, day by day, the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious mysteries can be remembered in the prayer..
The rosary is a prayer for Advent when we remember we live in a waiting world, a world Mary knew so well. The Christmas season recalls the birth of Jesus in detail, the flight into Egypt, the slaughter of the Innocents, the return to Nazareth and the hidden years. “The Word was made flesh,” St. John writes. Mary received the Word as her only Son.
The seasons of Lent and Easter offer further revelations of God in Jesus Christ. Mary went up with him and his disciples from Galilee to Jerusalem. She was there when he was crucified; she stood beneath his Cross. Then, she witnessed his resurrection and the beginnings of his church. She understands the scriptures that speak of him.
Our church calendar includes a feast of Mary every month of the year, reminding us of her continual presence in God’s unfolding plan.
The Rosary is a beautiful prayer. It brings wisdom to us as our lives unfold with their joys and sorrows, contradictions and questions. “Hail Mary, full of grace.” “Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”
Little Prayers
Little Prayers
Little prayers are just that–the small, taken-for-granted prayers we always pray. Like “Amen.” How many times do we say that word in prayer? Usually, we end all our prayers with it.
What does it mean? I suppose we could say it means “yes” in English. “Si” in Spanish or Italian. “Ya” in German. If you look it up in the dictionary, you will find it traced back into Greek and then Hebrew. Amen means “so be it”; a strong “yes,” and it’s been part of the language of our faith for centuries.
Here we are in the 21st century using a word generations before us have used; we draw on the faith of generations before us to say, “Yes, I believe,” “Amen” to God’s word to us and our word to God.
“The Lord be with you,” “And with your spirit.” This is another little prayer wishing that God be with us and bring us together in faith. We can trace that little prayer back generations, too.
Little prayers can give us a way to express what we can hardly put into words or understand. Besides words, they can also be simple gestures, like the Sign of the Cross; they can be moments of listening or seeing and waiting in silent attention before God.
Psalm 123 describes a servant waiting and watching before her mistress.
“To you I lift up my eyes,
you who dwell in the heavens.
My eyes like the eyes of slaves
On the hand of their lords.
Like the eyes of a servant
On the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes are on the Lord our God
Till he show us his mercy.”
Little prayers can be a cry or even tears. You often hear that kind of prayer in the Psalms:
“I cried to you, Lord, and you heard me,” the psalmist says in Psalm 30.
Remember the simple cry of the Canaanite woman: “Have pity on me, Son of David…Please, Lord” (Matthew 15:21).
Little prayers are important, they’re not little at all.