Days of Cyprian – Day 4

This is a practice that I recently read about although I had done it before.

There is a growing movement of people who are not necessarily aligned with the Catholic church, or any church per se, who are taking to praying the rosary for 9 days at a time. It is called the Way of the Rose.
It has an interesting back story and some books associated with it, and there are groups who gather to do it in person, or in this time of Covid et al, via video conferencing, and pray the Rosary together. You can google it (Just search Way of the Rose, you’ll find something) and you can learn more.

The rosary was something I learned about in college, although I had always found them interesting accessories. I had been wanting to collect them since I was a teenager, and in college, there happened to be a woman who was Catholic working on campus. I was wearing my rosary, and she gave me pamphlet explaining the traditional means of praying with it, the prayers associated with each section, and how during praying it, depending upon the part of the liturgical year, one would meditate upon different events and things in the bible, with most of it being about the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. I found it interesting and later through my own study I learned that a popular bit of church art, the 13 stations of the cross, are often integrated with rosary practice, with people praying the rosary while moving from station to station at the same time in churches and chapels that have those stations depicted. This led me to praying the rosary periodically just because. Many times I felt a presence and a growing nearness to God but I didn’t really think anything of it other than, if you pray the rosary often you receive a plenary indulgence ie a get out of hell/purgatory for free card because of this devotion. Later I would learn that doing the rosary or having a mass for the dead was also a way to help free others from purgatory, and I would use it while doing work with the dead and ancestors. Then I came across the Way of the Rose, and the many testimonies of people who had prayed for a multitude of things, from getting a job to protection in very difficult situations to just finding a new couch which seemed to happen in response to their action of praying the rosary, once a day for nine days.

That is the working I offer to you. You can achieve anything. Just pray the Rosary once a day for nine days, and your prayers will be fulfilled.

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