Reply to Renihan - 4

Friar Hubert has taught you how to pray and meditate making use of a set of
beads.  You count off the prayers on the beads, and as you do so you think
of various scenes from the life of Jesus and his mother.  There are fifteen
of these scenes in all, but you don't do them all at once.  Usually you only
do five at one sitting - or standing - and your rosary has five rows of
beads to make that easy.

The first set of five 'mysteries', as they are called, the Joyful Mysteries,
consists of:  the Annunciation - when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary
that she will give birth to the saviour;  the Visitation, when Mary goes to
visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist;  the
Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem;  the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, when
Jesus is still a baby;  and the Finding of Jesus in the Temple, after he had
gone missing at the age of twelve.

All of these are taken from St Luke's Gospel, and although you cannot read
the stories for yourself, you are familiar with them because Friar Hubert,
Brictric your Priest, and for that matter your mother, and your Aunt Mary
who is a nun, have often told you about them.  Several of them are depicted
in your church.

The second set, the Sorrowful Mysteries, consists of:  the Agony in the
Garden - when Jesus prayed before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane;
the Scourging, when Jesus was whipped;  his Crowning with Thorns;  his
Carrying the Cross;  and finally his crucifixion.

The final set, the Glorious Mysteries, consists of:  the Resurrection of
Jesus on Easter Day;  his Ascension into Heaven;  the Sending of the Holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Whitsun).  Finally there are two scenes
concerning Jesus' mother, her Assumption, or taking-up into heaven, and her
Coronation as Queen of Heaven.  

Again, you are familiar with all these stories;  and you are familiar with
the prayers you recite while thinking about them, the Apostles' Creed, the
Our Father and the Hail Mary.  Not long ago - in 1215 - the Pope summoned
the Bishops from all over Europe (or, as you then called it, the World) to a
council at his Cathedral in Rome, the Lateran.  It was said that people were
generally rather ignorant about the Christian faith, so some reforms have
been made.  Now you must make your confession every year during Lent.  It
takes quite a time, because Brictric uses the occasion to test you on your
religious knowledge.  He makes you recite the three prayers I mentioned, and
some other things as well, to make sure you know them.

It's a clever idea really.  You might not be attentive during  a class, or
you might stand at the back and not take much notice during a sermon, but
now every single person has to go and see the priest individually and
satisfiy him that he or she knows the basics of the faith.  There's no
getting out of it!  And that, I suppose, is a form of control.  But he
doesn't control you by keeping you ignorant - quite the opposite!

So, you're standing there, reciting your rosary, when Brictric enters to
begin the Mass.  As he enters, the choir begins to sing.  Actually the choir
consists of your three friends, Absolon, Jankyn, and 'Hende' Nicholas.  They
sing a chant called the Introit ('Entrance').  This consists of a verse or
two from the Psalms.  Now, like most (but not all) of the Mass which
follows, it is in Latin.  You don't speak Latin.  So how will you understand
what was going on?  What benefit will you receive from it?

I'll tell you tomorrow.

Bill.




%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%