book review

A Saintly Garland

by Nick Baggileo

Perpetual Angelus: As the Saints Pray the Rosary

by Rev. Romanus Cessario, O.P.

Alba House

136 pp., $9.95.

Reading Father Romanus Cessario's book is like listening in on a conversation among the saints on how they became holy. Because the saints are the ultimate realists concerning the human condition, for them, prayer is not so much the saying of words as a way of being that transforms human life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that the saints "share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today" (no. 2683). The saints have the fullness of life we hope to attain after death, so they are not dead examples to follow but "live in the glory of heaven," (no. 1370) where without ceasing they "intercede with the Father for us ..." ( no. 956).

In his writing, Fr. Cessario shows that those striving for holiness take Christian anthropology seriously. For the saints, the rosary is a living or perpetual angelus, a prayer in honor of the Incarnation, which was God's remedy for human sin. Sin disfigures "the image of God after whose model we were all created." Quoting the Blessed Guerric of Igny, Cessario notes the reassurance of Christ's coming as a little child, "when (Christ) manifested himself to mortals he appeared as a child, a little more lovable than terrible. Because he came to save and not to judge he preferred ways of inciting love to means of striking terror." The saints trust in God's merciful love.

The lives of the saints prove the Resurrection has the power to restore the Divine image marred by sin. Cessario points out that Pope John Paul II teaches that "the paschal Christ is the definitive incarnation of mercy, its living sign." After meditating on the second glorious mystery, St. Leo the Great taught "that when our Savior ascended into Heaven, his visible presence passed into the sacraments." The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "taken up to heaven and glorified after he had fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on earth in the Church" (no. 669). St. Ambrose lived this saving truth when he said, "you have shown yourself to me, O Christ, face to face; I meet you in your sacraments."

In his encyclical, The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II reminds us of the fundamental spiritual truth that because man is created in the image and likeness of God we have the choice between the way of life and the way of death. The central message of the Gospel is that Divine charity alone changes hearts. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the lives of the saints.

Those who deny the reality of sin follow the way of death. As Fr. Cessario points out, the culture of death leads to "an atmosphere of lies and the culture of the grotesque." This is easily recognizable today by the oxymoronic "compassionate death" of Dr. Kevorkian and those who think homosexual coupling is "marriage."

Cessario guides readers, especially laymen, in applying the saints' implementation of the sacred mysteries in their own lives. Three saints are the specific focus: Saints Benedict, Francis, and Dominic, though countless others are mentioned as guides to holiness. One constant teaching of all the saints emerges regardless of their spiritual model: Mary will lead us to Christ. "To pray the rosary means to live the mystery of Christ along with his Mother, the Virgin Mary." Through the rosary we are "confident that encountering the principal moments of our salvation history will foster transformations of grace in our own lives."

Through the saint's lives Cessario shows how they used prayer as a powerful spiritual tool for personal transformation. For example, we would be wise to replace those TV and music videos that so adversely influence our children. The rosary can be a mystical video whereby each person makes the life of Christ truly present in his own life. Cessario teaches that the mysteries of the rosary illuminate Christ, therefore we "should not regard them as narrative scripts, like old movies on video cassettes that we play over and over again. Rather the truths of faith that are witnessed in the mysteries of the rosary represent different aspects of divine truth that we can enact in our own lives."

For St. Dominic a true Friar Preacher is committed to "ponder prayerfully 'the glory of Christ,' and then to share the fruits of this contemplation with others." Cessario does this masterfully as he outlines the path to sanctity through discussions of the mysteries of the rosary. The Annunciation "manifests the compassion of God for the human race." Fr. Cessario tells us that with the Annunciation "we see a shift in the Divine pedagogy. Because the old did not work, God had to establish another way." The new way is the Gospel of Life. At the Annunciation, the Blessed Virgin Mary said, "let it be done to me according to your word," which inaugurates a new beginning for man. "At the Annunciation Mary accepts as her personal vocation the spiritual mothering of all those who accept new life in Christ."

The Visitation highlights the Blessed Virgin Mary's vocation of maternal mediation of her Son. Because the occasion marks the first time that Mary brings Jesus to another person, this joyful mystery especially invites us to deepen our understanding of Mary's instrumentality in our salvation." As Mary brought Jesus to Elizabeth and her pre-born son, John, so now as spiritual Mother of the Church she brings Christ to all men.

That Mary went to Elizabeth's house illustrates the difference Christ makes in the world. Because of old age Elizabeth was thought to be infertile. Zechariah was struck speechless for his lack of faith. Zechariah's family represents the old dispensation. Life without Christ is barren and somber.

Fr. Cessario notes that the Latin Vulgate text of Lk.1:41 reads, "the baby rejoiced in her womb." "The Fathers of the Church have traditionally seen in this leap of the infant in the womb of Elizabeth a sign of John the Baptist's sanctification." Christ brings fullness of life into the world. The spiritual life Our Lord brings to mankind is seen through the fruitfulness of Elizabeth and the joy represented by Zechariah's renewed ability to speak. Cessario reminds us that "left to ourselves, we remain impotent, insofar as we are unable to pursue and develop a full and complete life. Besides, our sins cause us to grow old and crabbed - whatever our chronological age - because sin is ordered only to death."

With the birth of Our Lord, God chose to engage personally in human history. "God's personal entrance into the human family generates expectations of a profound experience of the divine intimacy." When God established His new covenant with man He promised more than technicalities on how to live a stable life. As God's adopted sons, especially at Christmastide, "we look forward to receiving something more than new ideas about God. Like little children we want real presents." The gift we received from God was beyond our expectations, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14).

For Cessario, through the Incarnation, "the Word of God offers us a living truth." The truth is "no matter how sinful or ill-disposed towards conversion we find ourselves at a given moment, God's love still prevails, for he loves us, not because we are good, but because he is."

The way of civilization goes by way of the family as John Paul II constantly reminds us. Fr. Cessario's readable book should be in every Catholic home as a guide to transforming your family into the "domestic church."

Nick Baggileo heads the Office for Family Life of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.