The Dakota Access Pipeline is now up and running. Is it time to move on?

On March 27, oil began to flow along the Dakota Access Pipeline’s 1,172-mile journey from North Dakota to Illinois. The last of the protesters cleared out of the area one month before. The protest hashtag #NoDAPL is no longer the viral force it once was on Twitter. Soon, we’ll mostly have forgotten about the protests, the tear gas, the high- profile arrests. Shouldn’t we just move on?

No, we shouldn’t. There’s still much we can learn from the dispute over the building of the pipeline. Its opening raises concerns about the treatment of our planet. More- over, questions linger about abuses toward the already marginalized Native American population in our country.

Standing with Standing Rock

The website DAPLPipelineFacts.com states that “the pipeline does not encroach or cross any land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.” Though this is technically a true statement, it would be more accurate to say “land currently owned by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.” The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty reduced their tribal land, which later continued to shrink due to violations of the treaty by General Custer and others. So, while the pipeline now crosses through land that is no longer owned by the Standing Rock Sioux, it is land that they still consider sacred since it contains old burial grounds and other areas of religious significance.

The 2007 United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People ensures rights to “lands, territories, and resources.” Interestingly, the United States was one of the four voting states (out of 158 total) that were against the declaration. It seems that the struggle for Native Americans to recon- nect with and protect the land they consider sacred is still being met with resistance today. The Standing Rock Sioux—and indigenous people everywhere—need allies at their side when human-rights abuses hap- pen. Our faith calls us to be voices for the voiceless. Still, the construction of the pipeline touches on other aspects of our Catholic approach to the world.

‘If One Part Suffers . . .’

According to DAPLPipelineFacts.com: “The Dakota Access is one of the most technologi- cally advanced and safest pipelines ever built. It is entirely underground and sur- passes federal safety requirements.” How- ever, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has reported more than 3,300 incidents of leaks and rup- tures at oil and gas pipelines throughout the United States since 2010.

In his encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis, referring to the treatment of Mother Earth, writes, “We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will” (2). The results of this objectification have proven to be harmful for both the planet and the poor, who often come face-to-face with environmental degradation first. The Global Catholic Climate Movement is a great resource for those looking for more information on environmental issues related to the pipeline, as well as ways to assist the Stand- ing Rock tribe.

As Catholics, it is part of our moral fabric to stand with the marginalized, like the Sioux. We’re also responsible for passing along a healthy, sustainable environment to our descendants—a kind of ecological last will and testament. St. Paul, in 1 Cor 12:12, 26, writes: “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. . . . If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.”

That body could be the whole of humanity; it could be our planet as an integrated ecosystem. The truth is it does not matter. If we are really living out the Gospel, we’ll take good care of both.

St. Anthony worked as hard as he could for as long as he could, and that is all any one of us can hope to do.

St. Anthony of Padua, one of the most revered saints in the Church calendar, faced several startling paradoxes. A paradox is defined as “a situation or event that appears to be of one value, perhaps negative, but then in time it is seen to be something positive.” It can happen the other way, too. Paradoxically, Jesus’ death had to be a sign of a complete failure of his mission and life.

To observers, Jesus was rejected by his own people, abandoned by his disciples and seemingly abandoned by the Father. Yet, in just three days, with his resurrection, everything was turned upside down. His terrible death meant salvation for all and was a promise of life everlasting. Good Friday was just a prelude to a glorious Easter Sunday.

Look at St. Anthony and what happened in his short life. As an Augustinian monk in Lisbon in the year 1221, Anthony met some Franciscan friars who were returning from Morocco with the remains of other friars who had been martyred for preaching the Gospel to Muslims. Anthony was so deeply moved by what he saw and heard of these Franciscan martyrs that he begged and received permission to enter the Franciscan Order. In a short time, he was allowed to make his own journey to the Mideast so that he could preach and perhaps die a martyr for Christ.

What a noble intention he had! But it never happened. The ship he was on ran into a terrible storm, and he ended up in Sicily. Why would he run into such bad luck? Paradoxically, he met other friars about to leave for a meeting in Assisi called by St. Francis. Three thousand friars would be there also.

Anthony’s Early Experience as a Franciscan

Anthony, who was new to so many friars, had no assignment and asked the provincial minister from northern Italy to take him into his province. Anthony had studied Scripture and theology for nine years, bringing to his studies a brilliant mind. All Anthony wanted was to learn more about the Franciscan life. He never mentioned his background. And so he was assigned to cook in the kitchen—to which he did not object.

What an apparent waste of talent! But, here again, we see another paradox. A Dominican friar was ordained a priest, and Anthony went with his whole friary to attend the celebration following the ordination. The superior asked one of the friar priests to give a short sermon, but all declined since they were not prepared.

The superior then told Anthony to preach, figuring that no one would expect much from him. “Just say something simple,” was the command. Paradoxically, what happened was that Anthony preached from his heart and, because of his knowledge of Scripture and theology, the listeners realized that Anthony was so talented that he needed to become a preacher for the Order.

This is exactly what he did. Anthony preached Church missions throughout Italy, making 400 journeys in the next 10 years. He entered towns where heretics lived, but his preaching was not angry or volatile. His approach was to point out the grandeur of the true teaching of the Church rather than scold and castigate listeners who had been misled by false teaching. But even more than his preaching, it was Anthony’s personal holiness that attracted people.

He later taught theology at the University of Bologna, though none of his lectures are still in existence. But, in one of his sermons, he used 183 citations from the Scriptures. Some said he knew the Bible by heart.

Anthony lived only 10 years in his ministry, dying at the age of 36. We might say what a shame that he did not live to be 60 or 70. Of course, we have to remember the average age of death in the 13th century was a good deal younger than it is today.

What we can say is that Anthony worked as hard as he could for as long as he could, and that is all any one of us can hope to do.

In Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods, Deacon LeRoy Gill sows seeds of peace.

One day in 2010 when Deacon LeRoy Gill was visiting Holy Angels Catholic School in Chicago’s violence-prone Bronzeville neighborhood, he noticed a student wearing a small urn around his neck. The urn contained the ashes of his brother, who was murdered on the streets. The boy’s sister wore a similar necklace.

The knowledge that these young people had experienced so much pain and violence—when they weren’t even out of elementary school—changed Deacon Gill’s life forever. Today he is one of the foremost Catholic leaders in the fight to keep safe the kids living in Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods.

Along with the Black Catholic Deacons of the Archdiocese of Chicago, he has organized sunrise prayer services before the start of the school year on the beaches of Lake Michigan, where Catholics gathered to pray for the safety of the children. Those services continue today.

During the 2011 service, Deacon Gill remembered Darius Brown, a 13-year-old Holy Angels student who was shot and killed while playing basketball just weeks before.

“I died with him,” Deacon Gill said, recalling Brown’s tragic death. As soon as the deacon heard the news, “I jumped in the car and went all the way down to the hospital, but he had died.”

Last summer, Deacon Gill ministered to the family of Terrance White, a 4-year-old who had just finished preschool at the Academy of St. Benedict the African, located in Chicago’s violent Englewood neighborhood. White was shot while riding in the car with his mother. Fortunately, he survived.

Shortly after, responding to heightened antipolice sentiment in the city, Deacon Gill organized a prayer service and cookout at the academy for members of the Chicago Police Department who patrol the neighborhood to thank them for their service. Over the years, Chicago police have made extra efforts to keep the children at the school safe.

But the effects of violence are not limited to those who live in violent neighborhoods, Deacon Gill says.

“Violence affects us all. Even youth who are not direct victims of violence are victims to the chronic presence of violence via the media, in their homes, and in some neighborhoods. It is a part of daily life.”

In the spirit of St. Francis, this retreat center opens its doors to refugees.

Driving up the long, steep hill from Danville, California—escaping the congestion of the town and the roar of I-680—one who sees the first sign for San Damiano retreat center breathes a sigh of relief. What a far more welcoming sight the friary, with its graceful Spanish architecture, must be to a refugee who hasn’t had a permanent home in 17 years!

The story of Franciscans housing refugees intertwines the three Abrahamic religions—Christianity, Islam, and Judaism—in stunning harmony. It echoes St. Francis‘ experience of Islam. And it offers small steps toward answering the larger question of refugees confronting the United States and the world.

A Refuge of a Different Kind

San Damiano’s red tile roof and white walls surround a courtyard filled with fountains and flowers native to California. It’s easy to see how the place has become an oasis for retreatants seeking prayerful beauty and calm.

But if, as some believe, the retreat business is dying, what’s the future for this and centers like it? Or, as Franciscan Brother Mike Minton, the center’s director from 2015 to 2016, asks, “How do we become something the world needs?”

His community considered several possibilities suited to its mission of being “a Franciscan presence in northern California. ” Since 1961, the friars of the St. Barbara Province have made the 55-acre site “a peaceful environment of natural beauty where spiritual renewal and growth may be sought by people of all faiths and backgrounds.”

The friars have sought to build on that foundation.

For example, the Franciscans’ commitment to care for creation has led them to offer a 12-session course in permaculture, a method of sustainable farming based on natural ecosystems. Trying to offer winter shelter to the homeless proved impractical, however. So the discussion evolved to, “Whom can we help? Maybe refugees?” When Brother Mike saw an ad in a local paper requesting housing, it seemed a perfect fit. He exclaimed, “We’ve got 80 bedrooms!”

Meanwhile, Amy Weiss was losing sleep in her role as director of refugee and immigrant services at the nearby Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay. Because real estate prices in the area have skyrocketed, she had nowhere to house the influx of refugees. Her umbrella agency, HIAS (formerly called the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), is the oldest of the nine resettlement agencies in the United States. “We do this work not because we’re resettling Jewish people, but because we are Jewish people, ” says Weiss, echoing the ancient tradition of hospitality that Jews practice because they know the migrant experience firsthand: “‘My father was a refugee Aramean who went down to Egypt with a small household and lived there as a resident alien'” (Dt 26:5).

In a partnership that might seem improbable, she welcomed the Franciscans’ offer of emergency and transitional housing. This “love at first sight” led to ongoing collaboration: she has placed nine men at the retreat center who have stayed for periods of three weeks to seven months. The relationship remains fluid: depending on what’s happening at San Damiano, the friars must sometimes say no or ask for a brief delay.

A Place of Safety and Hope

The collaboration began two months before Pope Francis, in September 2015, asked every convent and monastery in Europe to house refugees. It isn’t always idyllic: some guests have quarreled over the washing machine and cleanup, or the timing of meals. Mistrust and suspicion have arisen because of religious differences. A retreatant fearfully warned Brother Mike, “There’s an Arab with a backpack in the courtyard!” But, as he says, “A Franciscan place should be able to take people who are at odds and bring them together.” Grinning, he adds, “Pax et bonum [‘Peace and good’] is the bumper sticker; with human beings, it’s always a process.

Brother Mike asks only that refugees define goals and work toward them. While it’s tempting to linger indefinitely, they must shape their futures in a new country and move forward. For example, Jalal, 21, says, “Here I have a dream and freedom.” He wants to be a chef; his brother Kamal, 20, studies computer science. They hope to bring the rest of their family here, just as another refugee brought his wife and five children to the United States.

Originally residents of Afghanistan, the brothers’ family was targeted by the Taliban because their father served in the army. Leaving when Jalal was 4, they fled through five different countries. The family finally arrived in Russia, but without legal status there, they could not be schooled or employed. The San Damiano friars were deeply touched by a Nativity scene that these Muslim brothers painted and gave them at Christmas dinner.

The screening process to enter the United States is intense and can take years. While waiting in refugee camps, undocumented refugees face formidable obstacles, many stemming from language barriers and cultural differences. Often, they are pumped with adrenaline for the process, but can finally calm down at San Damiano.

The relief in the voice of a Ugandan reaching San Damiano is palpable: “This is the only place in my life I’ve been fed without expectations.” Those who come as families or friends move on more quickly; those without rely more heavily on the Franciscans for emotional support. Those who have sustained serious psychological damage can receive pastoral counseling. Some mask wounds or avoid memories too painful to confront.

When an employee saw a resident lifting a laptop high and low around the grounds, she thought he was searching for a signal and explained that he could get Wi-Fi in his room. The boy replied, “I’m Skyping with my mom. I just want her to see how safe I am. “

Many Faiths, One Human Family

Brother Mike speaks for the San Damiano community: “When we first thought about doing this, it seemed like we were doing a really good thing. But what I’ve discovered is that our refugees have called us to the best humanity we can be. God created humans, not religions. Now we all stand bigger, fuller, and better within our own traditions.”

He refers to the joint effort: Episcopalians arrange transportation and free haircuts, Mormons donate from their food banks, and Muslims give clothes. A Methodist minister who had been making a retreat at the center met the refugees and donated money toward their expenses.

Two weeks later, she e-mailed that her congregation had prayed for Catholic Franciscans, in partnership with a Jewish agency, helping Middle Easterners of various religious backgrounds. Given the incentive of vulnerable need, humans can move past their divisions.

While only about half the refugees are Muslim, Brother Mike has a long-standing interest in Islam. He prays at the mosque on Fridays, fasts for part of Ramadan, and has taken close to 300 Christians to visit the mosque, helping them wrestle with their feelings about Islam. Long engaged in Muslim-Christian dialogue, he hosted 90 people for a retreat where each religion learned about the other “branch of the family” and prayed together. As Islamic scholar Dr. Nazeer Ahmed said: “Coming together in the spiritual domain has huge effects. It’s like opening a second window into the infinite vastness, seeing the beauty of creation not only through the inner eye of our own tradition, but also through the other’s.”

St. Francis and the Sultan

Brother Mike’s hospitality places him squarely within the lineage of St. Francis. Nothing in Francis’ culture would have prepared him to think Muslims might be good. The emphasis then was on killing the infidel to serve Christ. Popes offered the promise of heaven to Crusaders who would “cleanse” the Holy Land of the evil “enemy.” Francis went along on the Fifth Crusade in 1219 and crossed the battlefield to speak with Malik al-Kamil, the sultan of Egypt.

Scholars disagree on exactly what motivated Francis to go initially or stay and visit, but evidence is clear that the experience affected him profoundly. The two leaders who tried at first to convert each other grew in appreciation that each already loved and revered God. In an atmosphere of violent hatred, Francis, the man of peace, tried—and failed—to stop the Crusaders from attacking the Muslims at the Battle of Damietta.

His willingness to cross the battlefield parallels an earlier experience, to which Francis attributed his conversion: embracing the leper. In his day, lepers had ashes spread on their heads, their funerals were held with their families present, and then they were banished outside the city walls, forced to cry the chilling word unclean. For Francis to hug the leper meant embracing the other; there he found “that which had before seemed bitter was now changed for me into sweetness of soul and body.”

It’s possible the same thing happened with the sultan. After their time together, when Francis was steeped in Islam, the effects showed in his prayer. When he told people to fall to the ground in adoration, he must have remembered the posture Muslims take five times a day. When he savors God as light, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness, he seems to echo Islam’s “99 Beautiful Names for God.”

“Be at home,” Brother Mike said almost casually to visitors. What depth his words must carry to those who have not had a home for so long. G.K. Chesterton wrote, “St. Francis walked the world like the pardon of God.” Perhaps at San Damiano, he continues to walk one corner of this world in a similar style.

Divorced Catholics long for understanding and acceptance. Here’s how the Church can help.

The institution of marriage is in trouble today. The divorce rate is anywhere from 50 percent for first marriages to 80 percent for subsequent marriages. Perhaps, as a result, more and more couples are choosing to live together without bothering to get married.

The Catholic Church’s response has been to get proactive about better preparing engaged couples before they marry. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) National Pastoral Initiative for Marriage has made strengthening Catholic marriages a top priority.

My own Diocese of Phoenix and other dioceses around the country are revisiting their marriage requirements, lengthening preparation periods and examining couples closely, looking for trouble spots in their relationships and families of origin—indications that they may not be ready for the vocation of marriage just yet.

As a divorced Catholic, I am happy to hear about the Church’s new vigilance. But what is the Church doing for us? Annulling past marriages and saying, in effect, “We hope you do better next time,” is hardly adequate. Many parishes offer post-divorce workshops designed for the first months after a divorce. But the pain of divorce goes on for many years.

The Church—the institution as well as the individuals—needs to minister to the millions of divorced Catholics by both changing ingrained attitudes and reaching out in love. Yes, the Church is and should be pro-marriage, but, like its Lord, it must also love and support those whose marriages have failed. It’s a fine line to walk, but it is necessary.

As the survivor of divorce after 30 years of marriage, I know there needs to be a healthier dialogue within the Catholic Church between those who have never divorced (including our clergy) and those who have. Here are seven things you may not know about divorce.

1) Non-divorced Catholics often come across as judgmental of the divorced. Perhaps they don’t mean to. But there is a definite, although largely unconscious, attitude in the Church that the divorced are less spiritual, less committed to marriage and/or less forgiving than the long-term married.

Non-divorced Catholics need to be careful of assumptions, to discard any trace of judgment toward the divorced. Since I have “been there, done that” when it comes to being judgmental, I can address this issue personally. It is too easy for those who have never experienced the desperation and sorrow of a failed marriage to believe that “they could have done something to save it.”

Let me assure you, the divorced Catholics I know (including myself) are spiritual, forgiving people who are committed to family and to the institution of marriage. And they did all they could to save their marriages. It is time for all of us in the Church to stop judging the divorced.

2) Not every marriage was ‘joined by God’ even if it took place in a church. This may seem like a rationalization, but Jesus’ statement in Matthew 19:6 (“Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate”) does not apply to all marriages. Many of us, looking back, realize that God was simply not a part of our decision to marry. In my case, I never asked God, never gave God the chance to stop my headlong (and headstrong) determination to get married. And God was trying to get my attention.

There were real problems. My intention was to head to a war zone for a year, and friends and family counseled me to wait. But I would not listen.

We have all attended enough weddings to recall what the priest or deacon always asks a couple at the beginning of the marriage ceremony: “Do you come here freely and without reservation?” For most of us divorced Catholics, the answer to that question, if we had been truthful, was “no.” How can anyone claim that a particular marriage was “joined by God” if that was not the intention of the parties getting married?

3) The divorced do not have to justify themselves. Even if a divorcing/divorced person is very close to you, you do not know what really happened. Therefore, you should refrain from making comments or asking prying questions. Perhaps we divorced Catholics are overly sensitive, but certain statements and inquiries are like rubbing salt into a very sore wound.

I have been asked, “Did you try counseling or Retrouvaille?” as though I would smack my head and say, “Gee, why didn’t I think of that?”

Yes, I tried everything I could think of.

“Why can’t you just forgive him?” is another gem, to which I answer that forgiveness is not the same as a pardon. People have commented, “But you seemed like such a happy couple.” That’s what we wanted you to think; that’s what we wanted to believe.

The bottom line is this: Such questions and comments just hurt, and they are unfair. If a divorcing or divorced person does not want to confide in you, do not prod him/her to tell you what happened. Just love that person. And give him/her the benefit of the doubt that he/she tried everything to make the marriage work.

There are a variety of reasons why marriages fail. The “big three” most of us think of are adultery, addiction and abuse, but the real reason behind most failed marriages is simple indifference, often on the part of one spouse. There is no way a husband or wife can save a marriage single-handedly. When a marriage fails, no amount of effort, enabling or denial will save it.

It is wrong to ask for details before you support your divorced friend, family member or parishioner. People should not have to justify their actions before they are loved for who they are.

The psychological counseling and spiritual direction I received during my divorce made me a healthier person than I ever was before. I have worked through the deep problems caused by my dysfunctional childhood. I have faced and forgiven everyone who helped shape my early years in negative ways. And I understand and embrace my individuality. Yes, divorce was a painful passage to go through, but I am a better person today because of it.

5) I don’t need to marry again to be happy. I get a lot of comments, concerns and advice about finding someone when people learn I have been divorced for eight years. I really am happy as a single person, and not at all lonely or bitter about the past because I choose to remain single.

I understood right from the beginning of my new life as a single person that, in order to be happy in a new relationship, I would have to be happy just being me and being single. My attitude now is, “If it happens, it happens.” In the meantime, please accept that I am fine as a single person. And for goodness’ sake: Don’t try to fix me up with anyone!

6) I hope my divorce makes you question assumptions about your marriage. Does that shock you? It shouldn’t. It means that I love you and I love the institution of marriage. But healthy marriages don’t just happen. I was sure my marriage would never end. At the same time, I was unaware of what makes a healthy marriage and very much in denial about our problems.

My marital problems went a lot deeper than most, but every marriage needs constant care. And every marriage can use a tune-up now and then: a few counseling sessions, a Marriage Encounter weekend or a retreat together. Marriage takes a lot of work. I am delighted when friends and coworkers tell me that watching what I went through eight years ago or hearing me talk now about my divorce compelled them to take a second look at their own marriages, strengthen what was weak and recommit themselves to the relationship. The divorced have a great deal to teach the married about what a good, healthy and Christian marriage really is.

7) Every marriage ends. The marriage covenant ends when this life ends. Jesus tells us in Luke 20:34-35 that there is no marriage in heaven. Marriage is an earthly institution with a heavenly purpose. Marriage is a training ground wherein we cosmic youngsters learn about the love that has existed from all eternity within the Holy Trinity.

Its purpose is to train us to give up our selfish tendencies, to care for another as we would care for ourselves, to take our place in the Kingdom of God. Marriage is a foreshadowing of our eternal relationship with God and with one another. Marriage is a wonderful thing, but it is not a forever thing. Knowing and remembering that should deepen not only the relationship with your earthly spouse, but also your love for your heavenly spouse, Jesus.

As a divorced Catholic, I have taken great comfort from the story of Jesus’ encounter with the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well (John 4:4-42). This poor woman had been married five times and was now living with yet another man. That’s a lot of failed relationships—even by today’s standards!

Jesus’ tenderness toward her and his sympathy for her situation are apparent. Did he deliberately go to that spot at that unlikely time of day because he knew she would be drawing water then? Did he send the disciples away to get lunch in the town so he could talk to her alone? I don’t doubt it.

Jesus never spoke to this woman or any other hurting person in ways that increased their pain. He offered this “living water,” himself, which was what she had been searching for in all her relationships.

It is time for the rest of the Catholic Church to do the same.

Divorce and the Catholic Church

The first thing Catholics should know is that divorce is not a sin that should keep a divorced Catholic from receiving the sacraments. A divorced or separated person is not excommunicated and is still a Catholic in good standing. The only reason for excommunication after divorce is remarriage without going through the annulment process.

Before a divorced person can remarry in the Catholic Church, he or she must obtain an annulment by a Catholic diocesan tribunal. Obtaining such a decree does not mean that the marriage never took place; it is a determination that a sacramental marriage did not take place.

This does not mean that the children of that marriage are illegitimate or that the couple was “living in sin. ” It means that, in that particular case, the marrying couple had little or no idea what Christian marriage was all about or that there were deep problems from the beginning of the marriage, either in the couple’s relationship or in their families of origin.

Therefore, the Church may determine that it was impossible then for the couple to enter into a truly Christian marriage. Divorced Catholics who are seeking an annulment should talk to their pastors, who will direct them to the proper contacts at their diocese.

The annulment process can give divorced Catholics three gifts:

CLARITY, by helping them see the why’s and how’s of their failed marriage in a new light.

HEALING, by allowing them to work through their anger and guilt and come through to a better place spiritually and emotionally.

TIME, by forcing the divorced person to wait before making any more relationship decisions.

Recently divorced people are especially vulnerable to needing companionship, support and sympathy. The first person of the opposite sex who provides that is going to be very attractive, but the newly divorced person does not need that kind of complication in the healing process. The newly divorced person needs breathing room after a marriage ends.

The dismal divorce statistics after second and third marriages are proof that too many divorced people simply don’t wait long enough to recover completely. Taking part in the Catholic Church’s annulment process is one way to ensure that a good healing process has begun. If a divorced Catholic does meet someone he or she might want to marry, that person will not only have better tools for discerning whether this is a good relationship, but will also have the Church’s blessing on a second marriage.

The Mysteries of Light seem to be not only a most fitting development of the rosary, but also a providential one for our age and one that is likely to stand the test of time.

According to one tradition, the rosary’s defining moment came during an apparition of Mary to Saint Dominic around the year 1221. Dominic was combating a popular heresy in France called Albigensianism. Mary gave him the rosary, told him to teach people this devotion, and promised that his apostolic efforts would be blessed with much success if he did. We know the religious order Dominic founded (the Dominicans) clearly played a major role in promoting the rosary throughout the world in the early years of this devotion.

The Poor Man’s Breviary

Another important development in the history of the rosary is found in its roots in the liturgical prayer of the Church. In the medieval period, there was a desire to give the laity a form of common prayer similar to that of the monasteries. Monastic prayer was structured around the Psalter—the recitation of all 150 psalms from the Bible. At that time, however, most laity could not afford a Psalter, and most could not even read.

As a parallel to the monastic reading of the 150 psalms, the practice developed among the laity of praying the Our Father 150 times throughout the day. ­is devotion came to be known as “the poor man’s breviary.” ­e laity eventually were given beads to help them count their prayers.

Marian devotion followed a similar pattern. Gabriel’s words, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28), sometimes were read in the monasteries at the end of a psalm, showing how the psalms found fulfillment in the New Testament with the coming of Christ through the Virgin Mary. Some laity began to recite these words in the manner of the Our Father—150 times, while counting their prayers on beads. In repeating the words of Gabriel, they were reliving the joy of the annunciation and celebrating the mystery of God becoming man in Mary’s womb.

Christians linked this prayer with Elizabeth’s words to Mary at the Visitation: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42). Finally, with the addition of the name “Jesus” in the thirteenth century, the first half of the Hail Mary was in place. ­is early form of the Hail Mary was recited 150 times on the beads. By the fifteenth century, the 150 Hail Marys had been divided into sets of ten, known as “decades,” with an Our Father at the beginning of each.

Meditating on Mysteries

Another line of development in monastic prayer eventually led to the practice of contemplating Christ’s life while reciting the Hail Marys. Some monasteries began associating the psalms with an aspect of Jesus’s life. At the end of each psalm, the monks would recite a phrase relating that psalm to the life of Jesus or Mary. Taken together, these phrases formed a brief life of Christ and his mother.

A devotion that joined fifty of these phrases with the praying of fifty Hail Marys began in the early fifteenth century. However, since fifty points of reflection generally could not be recalled without a book, the devotion was simplified by reducing the meditation points to fifteen, with one for every decade. ­us, by the end of the fifteenth century, the basic structure of the rosary was in place: Our Fathers dividing decades of Hail Marys, with meditations on the life of Christ and Mary.

In the sixteenth century, the sets of five Joyful, five Sorrowful, and five Glorious Mysteries as we know them today began to emerge. Also, the vocal prayers of the rosary were finalized. Th­e Glory Be was added to the end of every decade, and the second half of the Hail Mary was formalized: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” In 1569, Pope Saint Pius V officially approved the rosary in this form: fifteen decades of Hail Marys introduced by the Our Father and concluded with the Glory Be.

And so the rosary remained for over four centuries. ­Then, in 2002, Pope Saint John Paul II proposed something new.

The Luminous Mysteries

You know you are living in a historic moment when USA Today is teaching people how to pray the rosary. Its October 17, 2002, edition featured an article that included a typical USA Today visual aid graphic with very atypical content: a diagram of the rosary.

­The graphic offered clear instructions on how to pray the rosary, explaining which prayer—Our Father, Hail Mary, or Glory Be—should be recited with which bead. While one might expect to find such a picture and explanation in pamphlets in the back of a church, it was surprising to find it in the pages of the secular press and, no less, in one of our nation’s most widely read newspapers.

What was the impulse for such catechetical instruction in this most unusual of settings?

The day before the article’s publication, Pope John Paul II published his Apostolic Letter on the Most Holy Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae. The letter announced the Year of the Rosary and called on Catholics to renew their devotion to this traditional prayer. However, what grabbed the attention of USA Today and the entire Catholic world was John Paul II’s proposal of a whole new set of mysteries for contemplation in the rosary, the “Mysteries of Light” or “Luminous Mysteries.”

John Paul II suggested that reflection on the mysteries of Christ’s public ministry would help Catholics enter more fully into the life of Jesus through the rosary: “To bring out fully the Christological depth of the Rosary it would be suitable to make an addition to the traditional pattern which…could broaden it to include the mysteries of Christ’s public ministry between his Baptism and his passion” (RVM, 19). ­The pope proposed the following scenes to be contemplated: (1) Christ’s baptism, (2) the wedding feast at Cana, (3) the proclamation of the kingdom, (4) the Transfiguration, and (5) the institution of the Eucharist.

­The pope’s invitation to reflect on these mysteries makes a lot of sense. As some have noted, in the traditional form of the rosary, the transition from the fifth Joyful Mystery to the first Sorrowful Mystery seemed rather abrupt. We moved from Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy found by his parents in the temple to Jesus as a 33-year-old man about to be crucified on Calvary. ­The Mysteries of Light fill in the gap.

­The pope also said he hoped the addition of new mysteries would give the rosary “fresh life” at a time when the rosary was devalued in many parts of the Church. He hoped this new vitality would help “enkindle renewed interest in the Rosary’s place within Christian spirituality as a true doorway to the depths of the Heart of Christ, ocean of joy and of light, of suffering and of glory” (RVM, 19). Indeed, the Mysteries of Light seem to be not only a most fitting development of the rosary, but also a providential one for our age and one that is likely to stand the test of time.