Courtney McGrailHow to Pray the Secret Rosary
by Frank M. Rega OFS
(CreateSpace, £9.27pb).
Donal Anthony Foley
This slim paperback from Frank Rega gives guidance on how to pray the rosary when you aren’t necessarily able to pray with rosary beads – if you are doing household chores, for example.
It has 15 chapters, and a three part preface, with the first 10 chapters focusing on what the author describes as “Aves” in which he looks at virtues such as humility, faith and love, as well as the three persons of the Holy Trinity.
The themes of these chapters are then associated by the author with the 10 Hail Marys of each of the traditional decades of the rosary. For example his first concept is humility, and the idea is that for each of the first Hail Marys of the five decades, the person praying the rosary should meditate on that particular mystery with the idea of humility in mind.
Selection
Even if individuals might find it difficult to pray in the above manner, the book has value in that Rega provides a whole selection of passages from acknowledged spiritual writers which can provide valuable material for prayerful reading or meditation.
Rega collected these passages together over many years, and ties them in with what he describes as the seven pillars of wisdom, which he associates with passages found in four locations in the Bible and traditional spirituality, that is the Beatitudes of St Matthew’s Gospel, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven petitions of the Our Father, and the seven last words of Christ on the cross.
Each pillar has what the author describes as a mini-Gospel attached to it. For example, in the second chapter, on meekness, we have the gift of the Spirit as piety, the beatitude as “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the land”, the passage from the Our Father, as “Thy Kingdom come,” and the word from the cross as: “Amen, I say to thee; this day thou shalt be with me in paradise.”
The strength of How to Pray the Secret Rosary lies in the fact that is very solidly based on traditional writers and the Scriptures. At the end of each chapter there is a space for the reader’s own personal reflections.
In sum, this is not a book to be read quickly – rather it is really a work to be prayed and meditated over, and in that respect, any careful reader will surely find it very helpful.