The Rosary: A Mystic's Journal Entry March 9, 2005

[figaro]

Wednesday, March 9

An e-mail from my friend Sarah. She read my first Journal entry about the scent of roses during meditation class & wrote: " Laurie, I have to tell you that I have smelled glorious fragrances, like super roses, on a number of occasions. It almost always happened when I was still living at mom’s. I always associate that heavenly scent with being in mom’s upstairs ballet studio in her house, which was my bedroom for the last six years that I lived there (and did hours of meditation there). It probably was related to the fact that I was spending some time with you then and the fact that we would go to the Catholic Church together. We often went there to meditate for an hour or so. When we were finished, we always knelt together in front of Mary’s statue, for quite some time, praying to her for all good things for the world. It was at that time in my life that I began to say a decade of my rosary each day for the Living Rosary. I always knew the divine scent was Mary’s. I knew those otherworldly scents were Her sign of Her presence with me. She was acknowledging my prayers, and I knew that with Her help they would be answered. It happened several times. I also think I had the experience once in Maryland (after I left Ithaca), when I shared a house with a very nice young woman, maybe in the last year that I was there.

I still say the entire prayer. I say many prayers - to many angels, archangels, to many divine beings."

Sarah has been one of my closest and dearest friends - for almost thirty years - & I never knew this. Of course, I had never said anything of my experiences to Sarah, either. This tells me that something is amiss - we should all share our experiences & bolster our faith & wonderment at these Divine favors & gifts.

Non-Catholics often have trouble understanding why we pray before statues. Well, we are not praying to the statue of Our Lord or Our Lady - we are praying to Our Lord or Our Lady!

For us, statues and holy cards and images are reminders of the Divine. I have them all over our house. They remind me to pray, they help me to remember that my life should center around God.

When I lived on Buffalo Street, in Ithaca, I once prayed to a little paper prayer card of Our Lady. I had bought it for twenty cents at out downtown Catholic shop. I had a terrible migraine headache and could no longer bear the pain. I said a short prayer to the little prayer card, it was propped up on the window ledge above my kitchen table - & a bolt of white lightning emanated from Her picture, into the room. I both saw it and heard its sizzle. My headache instantly disappeared. And did not return.

Statues are not just the plastic or plaster before us - if the substratum of this universe is Divine, then every atom in our universe must contain this Divinity.

One day I was praying the Rosary before Our Lady’s statue at our Church. The statue is fairly life-sized, and no ordinary statue! I have seen Her look directly at people kneeling before Her or looking above them. Non-clairvoyants have seen Her head & eyes move. One of my meditators said Our Lady turned Her head & looked at the altar during the Consecration at Mass one Sunday.

In any case, one Sunday I was praying the rosary while kneeling before Her statue. I inwardly asked Her the true meaning of the rosary, & I found myself laying my rosary out by Her feet, on the carpeted step that leads to Her statue. It was as though Our Lady was explaining the deeper symbology of the rosary to me, the mysteries beyond the - (at that time - now there are twenty ) mysteries of the rosary . Even though I am sometimes clairaudient, I heard no words from Her, not in the air nor in my heart. Yet, I felt it must have something to do with the geometry & arrangement of the beads of the rosary, for I had laid it out as a triangle, with the cross at the lowest point of the triangle. I knelt there, looking at the beads, knowing that Our Lady was explaining the meaning to me, even though I could not consciously hear Her.

It was through the rosary that I consciously met St. Gabriel. This was many years before the experience at the Church. I had been very ill & in bed for many months. During that time I often prayed the rosary as I meditated. In those meditations, I pictured the mystery for each decade before I prayed those prayers, & for every bead of the decade changed the image for a different aspect or event of the mystery. I always began the first decade, the Annunciation of Mary, with the same image - Our Lady with the Archangel Gabriel. As I daily continued this practice, the rosary & the events of Our Lord’s Incarnation became more real to me. Over time, as I imaged the Mysteries, & as they became more real to me, I began to step into them as though I were actually there. One could say this was only imagination - & that perhaps is true, and still valuable. However, I personally suspect that it was more than that. The events & mysteries that I was meditating on became more like my clairvoyant "movies" in my mind. The most striking example was the mystery of the Annunciation. One day, as I began to mentally image the usual frozen-frame scene I usually imaged for the Annunciation, the scene presented itself, unbidden, to my view, & this time in vivid color. St. Gabriel turned to me almost in surprise, as though I had actually just stepped into the room, to witness the scene. In fact, this time, I did step into the room, unlike the other times I had imaged this scene. These unbidden, moving, images happened, to a lesser degree, also with the other mysteries. Unlike the Annunciation scene, in those other mysteries, I seemed to be watching from a greater distance than usual, and the images were in vibrant color and moving, like a small movie, slightly blurred & mainly comprised of brilliant Light. These little movies were moving on their own, seemingly without any conscious effort or direction on my part. I can still see them - right now I am watching the little movie of St. Simeon, holding the Christ Child, with Mary & St. Joseph present. These movies are more like film clips. The details of the buildings and rooms of these little movies presented to my mind were new ones, not present in my own imaginings. Nor can I remember my own images, whereas these moving images seemed burned in my consciousness. These film clips, in their rich colors, radiate an unearthly Light that floods the scenes with more light than any physical sun could achieve.

This makes me wonder if one can, by praying the rosary & meditating on the mysteries - actually be present at those events as they happen. Even the scientists tell us that time, linear time, is illusory - those events, those scenes are happening now. If this is true, then the rosary, & our meditating on the mysteries, takes on a new meaning.

We then can be present at the birth of Our Lord, we can stand with the shepherds as the angels sing - we can be with Our Lord in His Agony in the garden & perhaps lighten His suffering on the Cross. Often I have imaged myself as our Lord hung from the Cross, or during His other trials, giving Him something to drink or healing His sacred wounds with healing herbs and ointments, or comforting Mary at the foot of the Cross.

I do this at other times as well, not only when I am praying the rosary. At these times, when I have the thought to aid Him, His sacred image often appears unbidden to my mind, in rich colors, as I gently apply herbs & other soothing ointments to His many wounds. Sometimes, in my mind, I will stand at the foot of the Cross & ask others who love Him to join me there - and in my mind, many souls appear, all of us giving Our Lord our hearts and love in prayer.