The Rule of the Theotokos

If you are like me, you probably live in two spiritual worlds at once.  I am an Eastern/Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic from birth.  However,  I was raised by a mother who changed her rite from Roman to Byzantine when she married my father.  She wanted us all to be uniform in our ritual of prayer, and did her best to research and learn all the spiritual and cultural information that she could regarding the Byzantine rite.  That being said, she could not help but convey her Roman way of thinking to us children as she taught us our catechism.  I consider myself articulate in both rites, yet I am most certainly eastern in my spirituality.

When I taught school I would often tell my students that the rites of the church were reflective of the culture of the Christian, like the language one uses to pour his heart out to God in prayer.  There are many who are bi-lingual, but very few who don't prefer one language over another, find that they dream in one language and not the other, or who don't consider one their comfortable, native tongue.  The Eastern rite of the Church is my native tongue.  This became truly apparent to me when I began to befriend Catholics of other rites, specifically the more prominent Roman rite, who would often ask me to join them in prayer.  I often find myself standing respectfully aside as others recite joyfully, prayers I do not know.  I stand silent, smiling shyly when they all sing hymns that are foreign to my ears.  I attend the Holy Mass from time to time, but I must confess, I can't participate with all my heart, simply because when I read the words and pray the prayers,  I go through all the motions just fine, but my soul feels stiff.  I try too hard.  My heart is not free to get lost in the melody and allow my soul to fly to the throne of God as it is when my mind is not so occupied with the newness and particularity of the words.  Familiarity is wonderfully, comfortably, spiritually freeing. 

As I am a servant of the Theotokos, and one of my greatest desires is to reflect her, the Rosary is one of my favorite devotions.  The Rosary, you may ask?  Isn't that a Roman devotion?  You may be interested to know that the Rosary actually has its roots in the Eastern Church!  It is said that St. Pachomius, an eastern monk of the fourth century, was the first to orchestrate a "Rule" of prayer which is said using a prayer rope.  The rope, made of knotted woolen cord, was given to the saint by none other than the Angel Gabriel, with knots that the angel taught the monk to make.  It seems that Pachomius used knots to count the prayers he prayed, and the enemy, knowing the value of those precious prayers, desired to discredit them and untied the knots as soon as the prayers were prayed and the knots were made.  These angelic knots, however, were made by making seven crosses in the wool.  Seeing the sign of Jesus, the enemy would leave these knots alone, and the Saint could complete his prayers.  Later on, in the eighth century, it is said that the Theotokos, herself, taught an Egyptian monk of the Eastern Coptic rite to pray the "Hail Mother of God" prayer 150 times, referencing the 150 psalms.  These were said in groups of ten, each group commemorating an event in the life of Our Lady.  This prayer rule fell into disuse after some time, and was revived in the seventeenth century by St. Serafim of Sarov, an Orthodox monk.  These things, I did not know, but was so very happy to find out.  Not only is the rosary our prayer rule, but it can be said in our very own spiritual language!

A few years ago, a university student came to our parish from Ukraine who taught our teen ECF class.  One of the lessons he taught them, and us teachers as well, was this eastern way to pray what we all thought of as a western prayer!  I'm so grateful that he did!  Now I can offer Our Lady the daily recitation of her salutation in a manner that truly speaks to my soul as well.  Many have asked me to share this version, and I will gladly do so.  As I seem to have lost the copy that my Ukrainian friend gave me, I've managed to find it at

http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/files/rule.pdf

I'd like to thank them for making it available for us.  So now you can pray the rosary and let your soul fly up to heaven as you do!!