Sunday, January 6, 2008

From Rosarium Virginis Mariae


If it's not too late, rescue any 2007 calendars with religious themes and make the pictures into Rosary books for your children or godchildren. I've done this in the past by simply using a three-ring binder and plastic sheet protectors. Back each picture with a sheet of solid paper to hide the distracting calendar back and divide them according to the Mysteries. Catholic magazines and the internet can also be sources for suitable pictures. It's a great help for little ones, to better focus and understand the prayers.

29. Announcing each mystery, and perhaps even using a suitable icon to portray it, is as it were to open up a scenario on which to focus our attention. The words direct the imagination and the mind towards a particular episode or moment in the life of Christ. In the Church's traditional spirituality, the veneration of icons and the many devotions appealing to the senses, as well as the method of prayer proposed by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises, make use of visual and imaginative elements (the compositio loci), judged to be of great help in concentrating the mind on the particular mystery. This is a methodology, moreover, which corresponds to the inner logic of the Incarnation: in Jesus, God wanted to take on human features. It is through his bodily reality that we are led into contact with the mystery of his divinity.

(Image Source)

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for the great idea. I have been trying to think of a simple, inexpensive, but spiritually enriching baptism day gift for my goddaughter. I think you have provided THE idea. :-)

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