October marks the month of the Rosary in the Catholic Church. To find out more about the rosary, I visited Father Jerome Cudden at the Newman Center on campus.
Q: What is the significance of the rosary?
A: It is a way to meditate on faith. There are three mysteries the rosary is dedicated to: joyful, such as praying for humility, obedience, and good will; sorrowful, where one prays for their sins, purity, perseverance; and glorious, praying for faith and hope.
Q: Where is it predominantly used? Throughout holidays? In church?
A: There's public and private devotion. While some people prefer to pray in their homes in private, others meet in public to pray the rosary. In a way, it is a public meeting but in private.
Q: What do most people rely on the rosary for?
A: It offers help to most. Such as praying to the different saints, such as Saint Anthony for finding lost things.
Q: Do other sects of the Catholic faith (Spanish/Irish) refer to the rosary more often?
A: It depends on the time period. I grew up Irish catholic and we used the rosary everyday. A lot of the newer generations, like today's John Paul II's generation is bigger on the rosary.
Q: What is the rosary made out of?
A: Most are made of wood. Others are plastic, some people string pieces of rope together, and there some very fancy ones created with jewels.
Q: When using the rosary, is one praying to God, Mary, the Saints?
A: It is a prayer to an intersession of Saints in the Catholic faith.
Q: Is it sacrilegious to wear rosaries or hang them on rear-view mirrors?
A: No, in the old days, priests would actually carry swords with them. Today, I carry the rosary by my left side as a symbolic way of carrying a sword--without using violence.
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