October 26, 2004 Discover your Life within the Mysteries of the Rosary

by James M. Hahn
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My name is Jim Hahn, and I pray the rosary a lot... Oh wait, that's a different meeting that I go to.

I am from Logan and I still live there. My wife Nicole, who is here is from Hot and steamy New Orleans and she is due with our third child tomorrow. We have a plan that if this talk starts to die, she will fake labor pains.

We have two other children, Anthony blaise, 3, and Christopher Andrew is 2. I am working for Christ in the Church and his mother under the direction of Fr. Pendolfy.

I thank you for inviting me to come here. The first time I came to TAP I came to see Deacon Steve Seever. It was just an incredible talk. I had class with him and I heard a bit about him and I wanted to learn more. When I was here, I experienced something else, if you haven't ordered already get a Corned Beef Ruben and some fries and might a suggest a pint of Guiness. The more you drink the better I sound.

I'm here to talk tonight about the rosary. Perhaps to give you some ideas about the rosary. I want to give you an image of Mary that I have had a long time. A gift God has given to me through my mother. I don't remember everything but I remember the feelings that went on with it. I was 6 or 7 and I had a rough day, I came running to the house. We had one of those set of steps then a landing then up the next set of steps and my mom was coming down and she met me halfway. She could tell there was something wrong and she sat down and sat me on her lap. She said, "what's wrong?", I said "Everybody hates me." She said, "Why would you say that?" "Because I'm ugly." I was serious, I thought that way because everyone said I look like my mom. A 7 year old boy doesn't want to look like his mom. I was convinced though that I was ugly she just wrapped her arms around me and said, "Jimmy you're not ugly, you are beautiful, so very beautiful." I remember this image and feeling and I realized that's what Mary wants to do with each one of us.

She wants to take us, sit us on her lap and tell us we're beautiful. No matter what we're going through tonight, she wants to hold us and comfort us. That's an awesome thing to think about especially when you think of placing your head on Mary's chest, hearing her heart beat. That which was a few inches from Jesus when she carried Him, the heart that was pierced.


The purpose of my talk is to talk about discovering your life in the mysteries of the rosary. And I think that's the title. I want you to discover your life in each mystery of the rosary. I want to first talk about the purpose of praying the rosary.

To pray the rosary enables us to see her son in each other and in her. The main purpose is to get to know them better. And each other and ourselves. And the more we see them and get to know them the more we are like them. The people who came off the ark in Noah's time, they could finish each other's sentences, they knew each other very well. That's like praying the rosary too, the more we pray the more we think and act like them and even look like them. And we can get the ability to see them in everyone around us.

First we want to pray so we can see as Mary sees. Then we want to become more like them, and in doing so we will start to see them in everyone. It would be like a love-struck boy seeing his girlfriend in everyone he sees. Everything I think i see, becomes Jesus and Mary to me, it's a bad tootsie roll pun but it fits.

Our Holy Father said something in a letter about the mysteries of the rosary. I want to read a paragraph about what he says and how we can start see everyone as Christ and Mary and how we cannot possibly not see them if we're really contemplating the mysteries of the rosary. He says, and I won't try to do it with his accent.

How could one possibly contemplate the mystery of the child of Bethlehem in the Joyful mysteries without experiencing the desire to welcome defeign and promote life and to shoulder the burdens of suffering children all over the world. How could one possibly follow the footsteps of Christ the revealer in the mysteries of light, without resolving to bear witness to his beatitudes and daily life. And how could one contemplate Christ carrying the cross in Christ crucified without feeling the need to act as a Simon of Sirene for our brothers and sisters weighted down by grief or crushed by despair. And finally how could one possibly gaze upong the glory of the risen Christ or of Mary Queen of Heaven without yearning to make this world more beautiful, more just, more closely conformed to God's plan.

So the holy father too wants us to see Christ in everyone and he suggests doing that by meditating on the mysteries of the rosary. So what I want to do tonight is to get you to look at the rosary in a different way. It's a bold thing to take the rosary and look at it in a different way but that's what the Holy Father did so I'm just following his lead. We need to remember that the rosary is not an end, it's a means to finding Christ.

He says this much about changing the rosary.

This is not to say however that the method cannot be improved. Such is the intent of the addition of the new series of the mystery of light, to the overall cycle of mysteries, and of the few suggestions which I am proposing in this letter regarding it's manner of recitation. These suggestions while respecting the well-established structure of this prayer are intended to help the Faithful understand it in the richness of it's symbolism and in harmony with the demands of daily life. Otherwise, there is a risk that the rosary would not only fail to produce the spiritual effects but even the beads with which it is usually said would be somehow be regarded as a kind of amulet or magic object thereby radically distorting their meaning and function.

So the Holy Father changed the rosary, and I think it was an awesome change. And he did so to help the faithful to understand it in the richness of it's symbolism and it's demands of daily life. And I want to help you see this and meet the demands.


When I came back into the Faith I had a problem with praying the rosary. It got boring, to tell you the truth. I meditated on the scriptures and I came off with the prayers but it was lacking something so I decided to approach it a different way cuz I have a good imagination.

So, what I stared doing was putting myself in the scriptures; as if I was living 2000 years ago, perhaps a bystander, perhaps a saint or a participant. I imagine perhaps what it would be like in heaven when God made the announcement on who would tell Mary at the annunciation. I imagined myself as the guy with the whip whipping Jesus. Or I imagined being with the apostles or outside the upper room. This was a great help and it brought things to life for me but eventually that got old cuz my mind needed more.

I needed something more concrete. I wanted something that reached into my life and took my life into the light of the rosary. So I wanted so much more and I slacked off. Until I read, this Apostolic letter from Pope John Paul on the Rosary. I printed it off the computer and took it to adoration and read the whole thing which made me late for work. I wept when I read this. I never heard anything like this. I suggest you read this, it's very beneficial. One of the things he suggested, which I love, is to add a clause to the hail Mary. Like "...thy womb Jesus.. Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit". And that's great because it keeps you focused. It's better than "Hail Mary, full of grace... I have to get my oil changed... I gotta do this." My mind would just wander sometimes. And I would start out saying, "Lord this will be the best rosary I've ever prayed." and then I couldn't get past the creed!

When I read this some words just exploded on the page it was the answer for my desire to make the rosary real in my life at every part of my life.. It made it real for me. He wrote:

25 years later thinking back over the difficulties which have also been part of my exercise in the ministry, I need to say once more as a warm invitation to everyone to experience personally, the rosary does indeed mark the rhythm of human life bringing it into harmony with the rhythm of God's own life in the joyful communion with the Holy Trinity; our life's destiny and human longing.

And the words that really exploded on the page for me where "The Rosary does indeed mark the rhythm of human life". On the surface I thought that makes sense. Jesus parallel to my time on earth but something kept eating at me and I kept reading it. But then the Holy Spirit gave me a crazy idea. It wasn't just birth, life, death but birth, life, gotta get the car, the children, the groceries, everything. So I should be able to pray about my marriage and I can find it in the joyful, sorrowful, luminous mysteries, in everything. And I discovered that they're in there. It's like Ragu, they're all in there.

So I found my life, death, suffering sadness, joy, decisions on building a house, buying a house, addiction and everything in these beads, but it's not an easy thing to do. For some it may be easier than others. I think this praying the rosary and keeping steady at praying it is exactly what the Holy Father keeps saying over and over and over and he mentioned it again in his last apostolic letter. He Says Christians must be trained in the art of prayer. I thought about that, the 'art of prayer' so that's not always going to be easy. Think about the military--obstacle courses, etc--I want to propose to you, that if you pray and you are tempted to not pray it, that those are the obstacles that are basic training in prayer that you need to overcome. This is something we need to work on and he keep calling us to do this.


How do we train in this and discover every aspect of our life in each mystery?

The first thing I suggest is to place yourself in each scenario. Be a friend who may be cruising by the window where Gabriel and Mary are talking. Be creative, there is nothing wrong with it. The scriptures are great and I'm not putting it down but paint your own picture with you in it.

The next step is to bring whatever is most pressing in your life whether that's a bad job or marriage and bring them to God and think of them in every mystery and I hope to be able to show you how to do that. Bring the little things and the big things.

God wants to be part of everything, even the little stuff.

So if I'm going to put my money where my mouth is I prayed the mysteries of this talk. The first joyful mystery of this talk is the annunciation. I saw this talk in the annunciation in that Jen asked e to do this and I stepped out in faith cuz I had no idea what I was doing. I'm not saying Jen was an angel or anything but I see that in this talk.

The next one is the visitation, and hopefully prayerfully, I am like Mary carrying Christ to you through the rosary.

The nativity, this really struck me. We don't expect to find Christ in a cave in a manger. The last thing I would expect finding people talk about Christ is in a pub. I see this talk in the nativity in that way.

The wedding feast, I am bringing the stuff to you like the servants at the wedding feast. I'm taking the water to the guy thinking I'm going to lose my job. I'm bringing this to you hoping God will give you the best wine. Or Guiness.

And hopefully, the glorious mysteries we can see the ascension you will think why are we staring here looking at him, let's go pray the rosary. It's a different way to pray the rosary and I hope hat helps.


I am very sheepish about my book, I printed it myself, I would never make it as a publisher or a salesman. I brought it, if you want it fine, if you don't that's fine. What I did in the book to give you more ideas is I took seven topics and applied them to every mystery. Work, children, addiction, the mass, death, marriage, and first-person meditations. I just want to go through some of those and give you Some examples.


We can see work in the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. Sometimes our work is stressful people come at us from all sides. Especially if you work in a parish. Or we can see our work in the baptism cuz I'm sure John was stressed out. He had to deal with the temple, and people repenting We can see our work in the baptism.

In the agony of the garden, my wife is mostly alone with the children, she can find her aloneness in the agony in the garden and perhaps be inspired to offer them up.


You don't have to have children to get focused on children. You can learn how to be more child-like. The nativity, you have the child Jesus, but also I saw that Jesus was born in a simple place and simple time. I try to take that into my family where my boys don't need the x-box, toys, etc. We clean out our toys all the time.

Jesus was surrounded by people who loved him. Meditating on children I thought abut the finding in the temple thinking how hard it is to lose a child. But also the joy when Mary found Jesus. Our Faith tells us if we lose a child to death or other we'll find out child again.

The sorrowful mysteries, we can suffer because of our children, or vicariously because of their sufferings.

Transfiguration and Pentecost I thought of them because of Peter because they just blurt things out like Peter. My son saw our ultrasound and said, "Mom, I think it's going to be a dog".


It's not something people really want to meditate on. There are lots of good things to meditate on whether it's the joyful or sorrowful. In the visitation I saw death comes to everyone, but I saw the urgency to go to others and bring Jesus to others.

In the transfiguration I see God is the God of the living. Not the dead. It gives me hope.

The Eucharist, I see, what St. Paul means when all things work for good for those who love Him.


I realize I'm an addict of many sorts I won't go into that. I saw in the annunciation that Mary says yes to God and no to sin and I am the other way around. I get inspiration from that.

In the proclaimation of the kingdom, I see my addiction as a temporal thing where I should focus on the kingdom to put those addictions away.

In the sorrowful mysteries I found the hope and strength to deal with my addictions.
In the glorious mysteries the strength to overcome. The decent of the Holy Spirit; the need to surround myself with prayerful people and accountability.


My favorite, it's everywhere. The annunciation we are open to God without using contraception. Imagine that
Visitation, I learn to bring Christ to Nicole and learn to carry Him to her every chance I get.

The wedding feast at Cana, it's a wedding, but I also hear Mary's call for married couples to do whatever He tells us.

In the Eucharist, I see marriage and what the Holy Father is talking about, the gift of self in the institution of the Eucharist, Christ gives himself completely, I give myself completely to my wife.

In the sorrowful mysteries if you want to have a perfect image of marriage, look at the Crucifix, sometimes you're Christ, sometimes you're the cross. It's true. The sorrowful mysteries help me to try to be more Christ than the cross.


Annunciation of Christ in the mass, the word became flesh at the Annunciation.

Visitation, we receive Christ in the Mass in the Eucharist. We should be running out of the church to give Christ to the peeople.


Joyful mysteries through the eyes of St. Joseph Luminous with different people; St. Andrew watching the baptism of Jesus, a Servant, a leper, and James, etc. Sorrowful is like a short story with John. Glorious are seen through the eyes of the blessed mother.

You don't have to get the book you can go to my website for free to help you. I'm just giving you ideas to take things from your life and dig into the scriptures and bring it out. Because it's in there, I guarantee it's in there. If you have a problem finding it, call me, I'll help you out.

Every aspect of your life can be found in the mysteries, I guarantee it. I encourage you to persevere in the art of prayer, don't listen to the devil, work through it. Pray the rosary, especially in adoration. And take advantage of all the free stuff up here, and remember the image that I began with that Mary wants to take you and tell you you're beautiful, so very beautiful.

Thank you.

If anyone has question that are simple yes or no answers.


Question: On the mysteries of light, some people aren't in favor of them, one criticism is that the third mysteries the announcement of the kingdom, unlike the others that are one event, this one is not, it's all over the Gospels. It doesn't seem to fit. What do you think?

I think it's an interesting comment that it doesn't appear to fit a major event because it can be combination of different things. Like Jesus after His temptation, but I think the Holy Father points more toward the beatitudes. Personally I love the new mysteries. I think the proclamation of the kingdom encourages to me to live the beatitudes. That the kingdom is here, now.

Question: You told us the story about when you were a child. Can You tell us when you became an adult and how Mary started to play out, briefly.

You've been talking to my wife? (Your mom) I tried to make this talk fit into the time allotted but I have a couple other examples of Mary working in my life. One of them is where I attribute Mary to saving my life. I had gone through a real rough time living an un-christ like life. I was kinda forced to move home and my brother and his friend went back to college. I was working in landscaping. I came home with all my baggage with partying and as well as $17,000 in debt on credit cards. It wasn't a pretty site. My family was very upset. Bill collectors were very upset. My mom met me on the steps again, one day, but probably to bend me over her knee this time. She had bills in her hand and fire in her voice about how I had been lying to her. It had just exploded. I ran up into my room and I took those bills and was so upset and I openend up my drawer and thew the bills in there and I saw this black rosary and it set me off. It's God's fault, how could he put me in this position and I took the rosary and broke it into pieces.

I reached into the drawer and pull out a pistol and went out the barn, and I sat on a bail of hay and struggled with it and cried. I said all my good byes I guess and I was about to do it. But for some reason I saw every bead from that rosary that I just broken in my room and that made me think of the things I said to my mom on the steps and made me think of when I was younger what happened before and I broke down and threw away the gun. I attribute that to Mary. Just the way that image of that rosary and the image of my mom on the steps, and that was my beginning to my trip back to the Church. And through all of this, Mary has an incredible influence in life. She won't leave me alone, praise God for that.