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Worshippers draw a bead on rosary
A growing interest among Protestants spawns Web sites, classes and prayers.
By Mary A. Jacobs
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS (2/5/2005)--The request came from a chaplain in Iraq -- American soldiers were asking for rosaries. But the chaplain was Episcopalian, and none of the soldiers was Roman Catholic.
"We were surprised," said the Rev. Jim Burns of the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City, which responded to the chaplain's request. He said he thought the rosary appealed to the soldiers because, Catholic or not, "when you are in harm's way, you want a talisman."
Burns organized parishioners to make Anglican prayer beads, a variation of the rosary that omits Catholic devotions to Mary. The group sent about 100 sets, and the project got some parishioners interested enough to try the rosary.
The church's story is one of many pointing to growing interest among Protestants in the rosary. It's showing up on Web sites such as ec umenicalrosary.org and chris tianrosary.com. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has on its site a "Lutheran Rosary for Lent."
The rosary figures in Protestant retreats and classes focusing on prayer and contemplative practices. Publishers say they're seeing many manuscripts on the subject.
Some Protestants are using the Catholic rosary, an age-old devotion that involves repeating a series of prayers -- mostly the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary -- and meditating on the mysteries of Jesus' life.
Others, such as Dennis Di Mauro of Herndon, Va., are recasting the devotion to fit Protestant beliefs. Di Mauro, a Lutheran, discovered the rosary while attending a couples group with his wife, who is Catholic. He liked the practice but stumbled over the meditations on Catholic beliefs about Mary's assumption and coronation as queen of heaven.
So he designed the Ecumenical Miracle Rosary, a set of scripturally based prayers that can be used with the traditional Catholic beads. There are no Hail Marys in this version; instead, Di Mauro prays, "Sweet Jesus, I love you with all my heart and all my soul. Help me to serve my family, and everyone else I meet today," a prayer based on "the Greatest Commandment" found in Matthew 22:34-40.
He posted the prayer on his Web site in 1999. The site averages 200 hits a day worldwide.
In the past, many dismissed the rosary as a rote exercise, he said, but "people who really pray the rosary aren't just saying those prayers mindlessly. . . . The rosary allows you to get into a rhythm and spend serious time praying."
Burns agreed. "It's a centering kind of thing," he said. "Sometimes, when you pray, your mind goes all over the map. When you have this tactile thing, it focuses you and allows you to go deeper."
George Trauth, a Catholic, decided to teach the Catholic rosary a few years ago at the Dallas Benedictine Retreat, a five-day ecumenical program on traditional Christian contemplative practices. He hesitated, because most of the 40 attendees were not Catholic.
Trauth explained that the rosary isn't a way to "worship" Mary; instead, Catholics pray for her intercession. "Many came up to me afterward and said they were deeply moved by it and would continue to pray the rosary," he said.
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