Bristol Parish Priest’s Book Published

06 December 2007

Father Michael Cleary SVD, Parish Priest of the famous Bristol city-centre church, St Mary-on-the-Quay, has just had his book ‘The Jesus Prayer Rosary’ published.  cliftondiocese.com brings you an interview with the author.  

‘The Jesus Prayer Rosary’ is made up of four sets of meditations that focus on the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke, Gospel scenes from the ministry of Jesus and from his passion and death. Finally, there are readings from the New Testament that give us insight into our experience of Jesus as the Risen One who gradually transforms our lives. Each meditation concludes with a prayer, usually taken from the liturgy. Biblical canticles, such as the Magnificat, are provided to bring the rosary to its conclusion. The ‘Jesus Prayer’, with its background in the Eastern Church and now regularly used by Christians of whatever tradition, is the rosary’s leitmotiv and has given it its name. A complete resource for praying privately or in groups, it is hoped that this will be a readily available “Rosary for all Christians”. ‘The Jesus Prayer Rosary’ (ISBN 978-1853118111) is published by Canterbury Press in hardback.

The cliftondiocese.com interview with Father Michael Cleary SVD

cliftondiocese.com: Could you say something about the book’s subtitle ‘Bible Meditations for praying with Beads’?

Father Michael: Wherever the Divine Word Missionaries are at work you will find what we call ‘the Biblical Apostolate’. Its aim is to make Scripture known and loved in the way the Second Vatican Council wanted it to be: ‘food for the soul and an unfailing fount of spiritual life’. The Biblical Apostolate tries to take seriously what the Council said about venerating Scripture ‘just as (sicut) it does the Lord’s body itself’. This Apostolate is not an optional extra for us, an additional mission. It is one of our ‘characteristic dimensions’ or ‘signs of presence’. It’s supposed to be at the heart of whatever other apostolates we may be engaged in. In some places the Biblical Apostolate has taken responsibility for publishing popular Catholic Bibles, producing Bible reading guides, and promoting basic communities around the Word. The Jesus Prayer Rosary (JPR) is just one little work within that great Biblical Apostolate of the Society of the Divine Word. That’s the reason for the subtitle ‘Bible meditations for praying with beads’. Take reflection on Scripture out of the JPR, because it is quicker that way, or you don’t have time, and you have changed it altogether”.

cliftondiocese.com: Right. That explains the Bible bit. But what about the beads?

Father Michael: There’s nothing magical about rosary beads! Beads are quite simply there to help us to pray. Used properly, they make us make time for prayer. They are spirituality’s equivalent to the ‘sleeping policemen’ on the road. They make us ‘slow down’ and, incidentally, breathe more easily.

cliftondiocese.com: But isn’t praying with beads a bit old fashioned? Lots of Catholics, for instance, especially the men, no longer say the Rosary.

Father Michael: Perhaps that’s got a lot to do with the way we’ve been using them, rattling off prayers with little or no thought at all – something that Pope’s Paul VI and John Paul II were very unhappy with and discouraged.

Praying with beads of course is not for everyone. But nowadays a surprising number of people of various Christian traditions are turning to them. There are websites displaying Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist methods of reciting the rosary. There are books authored by non-Catholics recommending it. There are so many reasons for this. We can’t go into them all here. But it certainly has something to do with our getting to know people of other faiths who treasure bead prayer. Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims, they all use them. We begin to think there must be something in it. And, after all, we do have our own, tried and tested over centuries.

By the way, saying the rosary is not so very old fashioned these days. For us Catholics, its popularity is increasing. This has a lot to do with the late John Paul II. He wrote a sometimes movingly personal Apostolic Letter on the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with lots of suggestions of how to recite it with benefit.  But I definitely think that the growth of interest in this form of prayer has a lot to do with a reaction to the somewhat pseudo-sophisticated approach that many of us have had in the recent past. Quite frankly, sometimes we need something to hold on to.

The whole point of beads is the importance of touch.  In the words of the Anglican writer, Tony Price, in his little 1991 book ‘A Telling of Beads: Discovering the Rosary’, “the sense of touch … is enlisted to focus the prayer of body, mind and spirit on a single point. Once we are ‘in focus’ by this means, we direct that single-pointed attention towards God, or rather we may find that our attention is taken up into God.”

cliftondiocese.com: Where did you get the idea of using the Jesus Prayer?

Father Michael: It was something in John Paul II’s Rosary Letter that gave me the idea of using the Jesus prayer: “The Rosary”, he wrote, “belongs among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation. Developed in the West, it is a typically meditative prayer, corresponding in some way to the ‘prayer of the heart’ or ‘Jesus prayer’ which took root in the soil of the Christian East.” Well, why not bring the two together? And so the idea came about of a Rosary that people of whatever Christian tradition could feel comfortable with. Its recurring prayer simply uses the great Christological titles of the New Testament. In its structure reflecting on Scripture is of paramount importance. The whole thing is unequivocally focussed on Christ. All I can say is that I have prayed it quite frequently in ecumenical contexts and have heard no complaints.”

cliftondiocese.com: Finally, what about the fantastic picture on the cover of the book! Tell us something about that.

Father Michael: So many people have been drawn to the book by that wonderful cover. It shows the icon of ‘Le Christ et le l’abbé Ména’. It was discovered in 1900. The image comes from the monastery of Bawit in Middle Egypt and it was created in the late 6th or 7th century. It’s the oldest-known Coptic icon. Christ is portrayed standing together with the Abbot Ména, at one time the Superior of the Monastery.

For me, the image expresses friendship and protection. We don’t find many ancient icons with such an affectionate Christ. His right hand is placed on the left shoulder of Ména. This is someone he loves and protects. The Saviour holds the Book of the Gospels, because it is through their fourfold witness that Ména will always come to find his friend. And what a friend! As totally wide open and attractive as are his eyes; for eye-to-eye contact is the way into truth and intimacy. You can always tell a good icon by the eyes. They are meant to draw you into it. I was introduced to the icon by a friend; and immediately I saw it I knew that it was to be the cover of the book. For what is the purpose of the Jesus Prayer Rosary? To draw us, with eyes ever more wide open, deeper into Christ.

Ména’s eyes are also wide open, inviting us into the friendship. He blesses us as Jesus’ friend; and he holds the monastic rule. What does it say? Who knows? But perhaps somewhere in it will be written ‘And use your prayer rope!’ – the forerunner of our prayer beads.


The ‘The Jesus Prayer Rosary’ cover price is £9.99 and it is available from Waterstones, Wesley Owen and online booksellers.