So the Pope changed the Rosary.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/16/pope.rosary/index.html

Good for him, I guess. He is 80 something, and the fact that he can string a few words together and make people listen is sort of an anomaly in our society.

The new mystery added is the mystery of “Light”. If you’re not familiar with the rosary, they are a set of ‘prayers’ used to mediate on the profane existence of Yesu Ben Mary (the improperly named Jesus). The three rosaries were: Joy, sorrow, and Glory. If you read the CNN article, you’ll get a simple explanation of all of this, so I won’t go into it too much. Just realize that the mediations are a way for the individual to get a better personal understanding.

The new mystery of Light actually is subdivided into the supposed 5 periods of Yesu’s life.

It’s about this idea of prayer. You see the Catholics have the idea of prayer right, that is it is a form of reflection. A type of mediation. A way of being for oneself. Even though I don’t believe in the whole thing, you’ve got to take your hat off to the original Catholic church. They latched on to what ever ideal fit their needs. And stealing mediation from the east was genius!

Somewhere along the way Martin Luther was hatched and he obviously didn’t agree with the blindness the Catholic Church had started to develop to Yesu by convoluting everything with icon’s and mysteries and he went ahead and protested against the church. That’s an over simplification. There was one hell of a lot more involved.

Then John Calvin shows up in the middle of the reformation and he inscribes his own ideas about what it all means on the newly formed churches. You can argue for or against protestant reform, I don’t care.

Somewhere in the transformation of churches the idea of self-growth got lost. The protestant churches of USA have lost the beauty of mediation in prayer…instead they use prayer as ‘talking’ with god. They view it as a way to better their relationship with god. As if a one sided conversation makes you better understood. According to that logic I should have a great relationship with my cat, being that I talk with him often. Yet he still hides from me, ignores me, and doesn’t really care if I’m around.

That’s the real point here. That even though the catholic church is based on lies and impossibilities, they had the basic idea down: Take care of yourself, be good, because you know it’s the right thing to do. And these tenants were arrived at by mediation. They were reinforced through self focus, using Yesu’s life as a model for the self.

Now what we see instead is shit like this, “I’ll pray for you.”, and “Will you pray for them?” That’s not prayer! That’s idol worship! Prayer is mediation. Prayer is selflessness without form. And the minute you start asking for new cars and better skin you’re introducing something to it and thus missing the original meaning!

That’s why I hate the Protestant churches, especially they crazies that call themselves Non-denominational. Those people have no idea what the original idea behind the faith was. They’ve lost it! Yesu said to his disciples that they could do what he did with the smallest bit of faith, and to prove this he sends them out to do wonders. Basic story telling, First the Hero hears the call, and then he performs the deed. The real heroes are the disciples who understood the real message. Yesu is just a tool for the story. A simple plot point trying to get individuals to find the ‘god’ within.

The Protestants have lost that. Instead it’s all about the god without. It’s all about what god, the other can do for you, the individual. Why in the world would god create a universe full of beings that have the ability to think, feed, and cloth themselves, only to require that they demand his ‘help’ at every turn? The planet earth is already alight with millions of other non-thinking creatures that would be better served by a god sitting with his remote control up in heaven.

When a prayer becomes something to eject into the atmosphere, it looses it’s meaning. When a prayer becomes something other than one asking the self for help, then it becomes nothing more than a child asking his father for permission to eat a cookie after dinner.

Prayer is not asking God for Help; you already have all the help you’re going to get.

Prayer is not hoping for a different outcome; because changing my outcome might adversely effect yours.

Prayer is meditation.

Just because John Calvin was diluted by his power lust doesn’t mean you have to be.