Rediscovering The Rosary- A Contemplative Prayer

The church is like a great old house with many treasures...the Rosary is one of these, waiting to be rediscovered. The Rosary, one of the oldest and richest popular Catholic devotions, has its roots in the early prayer traditions ot the desert Fathers, monks who recited psalms first on stones, later on string of beads. The Rosary also shares the ancient traditions of some Eastern religions whose members use beads and counting devices for repetitive prayer. Over centuries, these early prayer practices developed into the devotion we have come to recognize as the modern Rosary.Today the Rosary is being "rediscovered" as a tool for contemplative prayer both by the baby-boom generation as well as those who never learned it in their formative years. Father Paul Philibert, a dominican priest and scholar who heads the Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, guides the viewer through a three-part reflexion on the Rosary Mantra, Mystery and Meditation. With gentle instruction, Father Philibert encourages the praying of the traditional Rosary in a fashion that opens our hearts and minds and bodies for an experience of contemplative prayer.He explains the value of praying the Rosary scripturally, integrating the stories of lives of Jesus and Mary into our own lived experience.