The Rosary, Marian Devotion, and Lockdowns

Elena Feick talks about her Marian devotion, a great article about St Maximillian Kolbe and I write on genuflexion. Our lesser spotted Saint is St Erchard. Welcome to the Coracle!

The lockdown in Scotland this year hit me really hard. I've been a fairly regular daily Mass goer since my conversion in 2007, usually going at least 2 to 3 times a week plus Sundays. When they suspended the public attendance at Masses in Scotland, I felt like reality had just suddenly stopped. I wept through that Mass on the Feast of St Joseph, feeling abandoned and confused and like.. how could Jesus expect me to keep going without the daily chance to be in His Presence and receive Him?

At first, I tried watching the Mass on livestreams, which I know comforted a lot of people. But for me, I found I couldn't get through a single consecration without this sorrow and longing to be there welling up and leaving me weeping for hours at a time... eventually, after a few weeks of crying headaches every day, I decided to stop torturing myself.

All I felt I had left was my rosary.

When I first became Catholic, I was given a book called "the Scriptural Rosary" with a line of scripture for each Hail Mary in the rosary. I loved it, but I used to struggle a lot with two mysteries in particular. 

See, all of the scripture for the mysteries came from the Gospels or book of Acts, and followed a sort of narrative... except for two mysteries. 

The Assumption of Our Blessed Mother into Heaven, and her Coronation. Those lines of scripture were taken from Revelation and from books scattered throughout the Old Testament. 

I always struggled to get an image in my mind or to connect to any narrative in those mysteries. 

Still, I did have a love for the rosary and would pray it often though not enough. I did try to make the Rosary a daily devotion in my life, though it hasn't always been one. 

But during lockdown... it was all I had. I felt as if I was clinging to Our Lady's hand, and she definitely pulled me through that time.

They say that the rosary, once called Our Lady's Psalter, was the way of bringing laypeople who couldn't read into the prayer of the Church which is the Liturgy of the Hours. I feel like, during lockdown, though I could, and should have read and prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, the rosary became for me my one way of keeping close to the Church through what felt like an interminable distance which lockdown had created for me.

And now, after lockdown.. that devotion continues in my life. I look forward to the Feast of the Assumption this Saturday, though I am still frustrated by a lack of a narrative story for my meditations on that particular mystery. 

It is a sorrow that many of us still won't be able to get to Mass for it. I will likely be there helping with the cleaning and stewarding for it, and I will pray for those who can't be there now that I've had a taste of how painful that sorrow can be. 

But whether you can be at Mass or not, I encourage you to pray a rosary that day in particular. Especially if you don't frequently pray the rosary, perhaps this Saturday is a good day to start anew. Even if you do already pray a regular rosary, perhaps plan to take a bit longer with it this Saturday and to really enter into the mysteries in a new way, or sit quietly after it to read a scriptural account of one of the mysteries contained therein. 

In Our Lady,

Elena Feick | Paisley

St Maximillian Kolbe: A brillant article from Church Life Journal on the Priest who was murdered in Auschwitz in place of another man. His feast day is today.

Genuflection: Why do we genuflect when we enter church? For most of us it’s almost an unconcious thought. However, like most things in the Church, it has a far deeper significance. I write a short article on Roughbounds Media.

The Assumption of Mary: A short video on this important dogma ahead of the Solemnity on Saturday.

Mission: What are we living for? Catholics and evangelisation. A talk from Fr Michael Shields who is the Pastor of The Church of the Nativity, Magadan, Russia. Includes some great video on a young mission group who went out there from the States.

St Erchard

John Woodside tells the elusive story of the Bishop who evangelised the Picts.