Real Catholics say The Divine Mercy (DM) also. Most Catholics learned the rosary at one time or another. Either as a child from their parents or CCD teachers or as adults in a RCIA or catechism class. But a lot of Catholics haven’t even heard of the Divine Mercy, let alone know how to say it. It is definitely for the hard-core Catholic. To relate it to music, everyone has heard of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones but only the cool kids have heard of Vampire Weekend. The Divine Mercy is the Vampire Weekend of the Catholic prayer world.
Don’t believe me? Take a poll. First go to a Mall and ask teens and young adults if they have heard of Vampire Weekend. The kids with the torn jeans and retro Iggy and the Stooges t-shirts will say yes. And then go ask the kids with the high-waters wearing Garanimals who look like they eat their boogers when no one is looking, they will answer no.
The Divine Mercy is along the same lines. All the hip (young or old) Catholics are saying the DM. Since the DM is also said on rosary beads it’s hard to tell what prayers some one is saying. And it would be kinda tacky to take a poll of people sitting in church praying – not that that would stop me. but one way to tell is this; if the person is wearing a t-shirt like the ones below, then they are probably praying the DM and not the rosary, or they may be saying both with a set of beads in each hand (the showoffs).
The prayers of the Divine Mercy are shorter than the rosary. So if you saw the person's hands flying over the beads than they are probably saying the DM not the rosary. Although I do know some people who can knock out a rosary in 10 minutes or less (he types while blushing).
You get bonus points (or indulgences) for saying the Divine Mercy at 3 in the afternoon (the hour that Christ died).
This is not to say that the Rosary is passé or lame. I mean it's not the Vanilla Ice or Milli Vanilli of the prayer world. No it’s still the Mother of All Catholic Prayers.
For those of you not familiar with the Divine Mercy see here for more information
2 comments:
THAT was a great post. I need to say the DM. I used to. I not much in to anything lately which is most likely my problem. Speaking of Vampire Weekend (which sounds kinda fun) don't you think their music does not sound like their name. It is so funny seeing there name flash before a video and then hearing these beachy reggae tunes. I first heard them last year and thought "Shouldn't a band called Vampire Weekend be more of a Sisters of Mercy cover band than a Police throwback?" :-)
"Hard-core Catholics" you said ? I'm affraid there are no more left, overthere. Or they're hidden in catacombs.
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