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Father Stephen
reflecting a bit as his book has been published, “There is no
problem….!”
How did you
arrive at the idea to write this rosary book?
Every Sunday evening, for many years, we’ve had Adoration in the
chapel of The Family School following the Mass. I’d often look for
some new source-book to help keep the prayer fresh and in doing so
come across a rosary devotional book which dated from the
1930’s.While the book was too pious and disconnected for our
purposes, I liked the technique, which used a consideration
or brief thought or message before each “Hail Mary.” The
considerations had the effect of keeping the mind locked on the
mystery being prayed. Good for distractible people. So while using
the book one night I heard a very distinct voice that said, “You can
do this.” So I immediately set out to do just that.
How did the
Assisi sabbatical come into play?
Years before,
when Tony and Betty Argiros were still very influential at the
Family School, we were having a conversation about something else
and somehow the idea of a sabbatical came up. I think I must have
been ordained over 20 years at that time. But I didn’t want to do a
traditional sabbatical of going back to school – even abroad.
Wanting very much to develop the idea though I was hesitant because
finding coverage is increasingly difficult with the shortage of
priests today. Still, Tony and Betty were very enthusiastic and gave
me a most generous, happy and supportive “go-ahead.” In fact, in all
the years of my priesthood, I don’t think I’ve ever felt such kind
support and love for my ministry and person. I remain very grateful
to them for that.
Then one day, I
was going to concelebrate a Mass in Honesdale and as I walked into
the sacristy where priests get ready, there was an older priest
standing by the vesting case looking my way. I said, “Hi, I’m
Stephen Morris, who are you?” He answered, “I’m Ed Scott.” I asked,
“What do you do?” And he said, “I’m newly retired and I go around
and cover for priests who want to get away.” I said, “How would you
like to cover my parish and school for 3 months – October, November,
December 2007?” He said, “I’ll be there!” And so he was. Talk about
God being in charge!
Through still
more wondrous events I wound up living in the guest house of the
Capuchin Franciscan Friars, just a few feet from the front entrance
to the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. I spent my days with a
little black book (the rosary book was written in longhand)
wandering from church to church, chapel to chapel. I wrote the book
on a train going down the Adriatic to Manoppello, in a primitive
convent in Amelia where I went olive picking with the brothers, on
the train to Padua and Venice, sometimes in my room looking west as
the sun went down in the evening, sometimes in the middle of the
night, sometimes while waiting for Mass to start – some of it was
written in Rome. I finished the book in a monastery on the top of
Monte Luco in Spoletto, where young men live who are just beginning
the Franciscan life as postulants. In fact, I wrote the last
meditations in the tiny Romanesque chapel of Saint Catherine there
after my Mass where it was so cold my breath clouded in the unheated
stone chapel.
All throughout
though, I had the students at The Family School in mind: our
concerns, our struggles and also that most of the young people who
might pick up the book would have no idea of religious language or
concepts. So I hope I was successful in making the mysteries of the
rosary available to them in a new way. I thought about the French
Jesuits who when they came to the “New World” to bring the gospel,
used the rosary as a teaching tool. I had the advantage of the 5 new
Luminous Mysteries which invite us into the adult life of Jesus
between the Infancy Narratives and the Sorrowful Passion of Christ.
What’s the
Family School–Rosary connection?
I’m at The
Family School for 13 years now and long ago I discovered that
somehow there is a Marian charism there that is rather inexplicable.
Perhaps my predecessor, Franciscan Father Anthony Moore, sparked it,
but it remains very real. Very simply, a lot of young people wake up
or get alive spiritually and humanly through Mary. Her statue is on
the lawn. For some people it’s just a woman praying – others get
nervous that the place is Catholic whatever – still others are just
drawn there – perhaps they miss their mothers or they don’t like
that they have treated women badly or they know that Mary is about
important human things like believing, being pure, being good,
saying “yes” in a world that has a million ways of saying, “no.”
The rosary is a
time-tested prayer that celebrates the life of Jesus Christ and in
many ways, Mary’s place in that life as seen in the gospels and the
early Church. You can’t ignore it – Mary matters in the gospels.
There’s this too big reaction to the rosary and the celebrated place
of Mary in the Church. The second half of the repeated prayer says,
“…pray for us sinners…” To call her an intercessor makes a lot of
Christians wild – as if Jesus – the definitive intercessor can’t
share his prerogatives. You can be sure that if you were going to
see Mr. Bush or Queen Elizabeth you’d go through a lot of mediators.
I think this American thing of direct access is kind of obnoxious.
“Let me talk to your manager….” Mary, a mother so tenderly with us,
is pleased to stand next to us as we utter the “little twitter” of
our prayer, C.S. Lewis says. And Mary adds a most wonderful warm
presence or atmosphere to the experience of Christianity. You either
get it or you don’t. But those who don’t get it waste too much time
arguing against it.
Anyway, I wrote
the book because of these things and also because I know throughout
my life that the rosary has been a weapon. I know it because I use
it and because I see the power the prayer has in the lives of
lifeless, angry, damaged people at school. I knew a fellow 30 years
ago in the seminary who I thought was on the fringe. Something was
wrong and I wouldn’t have been surprised had I heard he’d “gone off
the deep end.” But he had a rosary in his left hand all the time and
recently I found out he was ordained and has been a happy and
successful priest for nearly 3 decades. What can I tell you? Maybe a
psychologist would have field day with that. I don’t care; I know
what I know.
So what about
your hopes for the book?
I’m not
delusional. Some will buy the book and see the beautiful pictures.
Maybe a picture will seize a soul or imagination. The introduction
is a letter written to young people. Americans skip introductions
because they don’t imagine there’s anything to learn. Ah well! And
others will read it and ponder it and savor it and turn it over in
their hearts and minds. I think of the Jesus-parable of the Seed
Sower (Luke 8:05 ff) – the fellow throws seed
everywhere. And the seed lands everywhere! Seemingly
most of the seed is lost: people walking on it – too shallow roots
– birds eating it up – thorns choking it out. But some of it sprouts
and yields a great fruitfulness. The book is just a little effort
along the way – a handful of seed. It was a wonderful experience for
me. I grew personally by writing the book, by living with these
remarkable young friars. I prayed well for those months. I made some
beautiful and lasting friendships. God seized me at one point in a
mystical way that has become a defining moment for my life. If no
one else were to grow from the book – I did. Ultimately, I wrote the
book for God’s Glory – who has been so good to me as to love me into
existence and to salvage me from my own worst possibilities in
Christ – and to give me such a Mother! |
