A great reflection sent out by Deacon Kullick

What, really, do the liturgies of the triduum celebrate? Most all of us believe we know the answer. We assume that Thursday commemorates the day Jesus instituted the eucharist; Friday commemorates the day he was executed on the cross; and the vigil commemorates his emergence from the tomb. We assume, further, that the liturgies of these days are dramatic ‘reenactments’ of events – by turns touching, tragic and triumphant - which happened during Jesus’ last days and culminated in his victory over death. We assume, in other words, that the paschal triduum is simply springtime’s parallel to winter’s Christmas. As it gathers on these days, the liturgical assembly is often thought to be engaged in acts of historical ‘reconstruction’ that recreate the scenes in the ‘upper room’, on Calvary, and at the tomb. People are encouraged to imagine they are ‘actually present’ at these events – comforting Jesus during his fearful watch in Gethsemane, walking with him along the via crucis, and witnessing his miraculous ‘return to life’ on Easter morning. This view may frequently be reinforced by popular hymns that focus on the ‘historical facts’ of the celebration.

But is ‘history’ the central focus of celebration during the Triduum? Certainly the early Christian creeds anchored belief in the historical, this-worldly circumstances that accompanied Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion ‘under Pontius Pilate’. Jesus’ life, career and death were, in other words, attached to a specific time in a specific place. His proclamation of God’s arrival in the present moment (God’s reign), his bold challenge to understand God in and as one’s neighbor, his rejection of ‘religion’ as a means to social or political control – all this took place not in some cosmic cloud of unknowing but in a remote province of the later Roman Empire at a time of sociopolitical transition.

Precisely because these faith-anchoring events are historical however, they cannot be repeated or ‘reenacted’. That is why the church’s long tradition insists that what happened once in history passes over into the mystery of the assembly’s liturgical/sacramental celebrations. What the paschal triduum actually celebrates is mystery not history; anamnesis not mimesis. The liturgies of these days no not “take us back” to the upper room or the path to Calvary. Their ultimate purpose is not to retrace or relive the last hours of Jesus’ life – not to catch sight of him emerging from the tomb at Easter’s dawning. They celebrate not what once happened to Jesus, but what is now happening among us as a people called to conversion, gathered in faith, and gifted with the Spirit of holiness. They celebrate God’s taking possession of our hearts at their deepest core, recreating us as a new human community broken like bread for the world’s life -  a community rich in compassion, steadfast in hope, and fearless in the search for justice and peace.”

 Taken from The Three Days of Pascha by Nathan Mitchell in Assembly, Vol 18:1; Notre Dame Center of Liturgy, Notre Dame, IN  as quoted in The Order of Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours and Celebration of the Eucharist 2009, Paulist Press.

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On the Origin of Rosary Beads

The complex history of the rosary deals normally with the following stages of development:

1.  Repetition of the Hail Mary, in the 12th century, related to the joys of Mary, first five (Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, Assumption)

2.  For the next two centuries (13th and 14th) a similar development regarding Mary's sorrows (five, later seven) takes place (from Franciscan and Servite influences).

3.  In the 14th century the rosary also has the meaning of florilegium, a collection of pious thoughts or little poems about Mary. 

4.  The 15th century sees the appearance of the Carthusian and Dominican rosary, both still prayed today.  The Carthusian rosary (Dominic the Carthusian of Trier, Germany, ca. 1410) is a succession of 150 Hail Marys with appended references to the lives of Christ and Mary (for example: Annunciation...).  The Dominican rosary (from Alain of Roche, Douai, ca. 1460) is structured in three groups of mysteries related to the Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection of Christ.  This latter rosary recitation became the most common, even the norm, since the end of the 15th century, not least thanks to the confraternities of the rosary (since 1475).

The Rosary Beads

The physical "rosary" is not a Christian invention. It was, and is, essentially a tallying device, known in Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. It has had the same function in Christianity since antiquity (pebbles, strings, chains).

1.  Originally, this tallying device served to monitor penitential exercises. Penitents used strings or little cords with knots to count the number of "Our Fathers" to be recited. The name given to this tallying device was Paternoster or Pater. The Paternoster is older than the physical rosary but co-existed with the latter throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.

2.  The transfer of the name rosary from the prayer form to the physical object took place at the beginning of the 16th c. Long before this occurred, the tallying devices, later called "rosary," were either simple cords or closed chains of various lengths, with or without subdivisions, and made of a variety of materials (wood, bone, coral, mother of pearl, pebbles, seeds, pits ...).

taken from a reference posted by the University of Dayton, Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute, Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390