Posted by As a boy, Gary Jansen believed that Jesus didn’t like him.
It might seem strange for a Catholic school student to hold that view, but it stemmed more from environment than theology. Thankfully, Gary’s experience of faith and Jesus evolved significantly as he got older and took to heart many spiritual epiphanies, one of which even happened at the gym.
His prayer life also developed as he became devoted to the meditative practice of praying the Rosary, which prompted him to imaginatively insert himself into various incidents in Jesus’ life through its Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries. Gary is now sharing his insights in the book “The Healing Power of Praying the Rosary,” and we discussed it recently on “Christopher Closeup” (podcast above).
Recalling his childhood, Gary noted that his parents worked hard, but struggled financially: “My parents and I lived in a basement apartment, and when I was growing up, from the time I was born until I was six, we had dirt floors. We had carpet that was laid over dirt floors, but those were dirt floors. And so I started off in a really poor state. My parents worked hard, but neither of them graduated high school, so they struggled…They wanted me to go to Catholic school…but I guess I was the poor kid, and so I was picked on a little bit or felt a little ostracized. I think some of that rubbed off into how I experienced God…I looked at God as the image of the people around me and how they may have seen me. I thought, ‘Oh, God must see me in that way, too.'”
Over time, Gary learned that wasn’t how God actually saw him. And in retrospect, those experiences of being made to feel “less than” taught him not to be judgmental of others based on outer circumstances because you never know what is going on behind the scenes.
Another pivotal moment in Gary’s life occurred years later when he was working out at the gym. He was trying to do deadlifts with a lot of weight, thinking that would build up his strength faster. Then, a muscle-bound guy walked over and told him, “Hey, bro, you’re carrying too much weight on that bar.”
This man took some weight off Gary’s bar and demonstrated proper form to him. This would prevent him from hurting himself, while building strength more slowly – but better than – overloading, which is what Gary was doing.
“Later on,” Gary said, “I started thinking, ‘Maybe that guy’s an angel.’ Not only did he probably save me from hurting my back, but maybe his message was deeper than physical fitness, that it had something to do [with the] way that I was carrying weight in my own life. Whether that’s worry or anxiety, whatever I was experiencing, maybe I needed some help and I needed to take some of that weight off. It drove home the idea of Christ as the bearer of the weight of our lives.”
As the practice of his faith became a key part of Gary’s life, he spent more time in prayer, eventually turning to the Rosary he had learned as a child, but with a more enlightened view of its five decades of saying one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s, and one Glory Be.
“[It’s] something I thought was boring when I was growing up. It felt repetitive…As you get older, you realize all those people that lived hundreds of years ago, maybe they’re a lot smarter than I. Maybe they were onto something… If you’re praying out loud, you have vocal prayer. You have meditation and contemplation going on. There’s a tactile part of it where you’re actually holding a Rosary bead to make sure you’re not losing count of all the prayers that you’re praying. It’s something that incorporates mind, body, and soul.”
The four Mysteries which make up the Rosary include moments from Jesus’ life, ranging from the announcement of His birth, to His baptism to His crucifixion to His resurrection and ascension. And contrary to assertions by some non-Catholic Christians, Gary points out that the Rosary is not praying “to” Mary, but “with” Mary.
Gary explained, “I like to think of the Rosary itself as a scrapbook of Mary’s memories. There’s four different parts to this scrapbook that she keeps, and it’s the early years, the middle years, and the later years, and then also times when her son suffered. I think if you want to get to know someone, ask their mom lots of questions. The Rosary is a great place to ask Mary and to be in [her] presence because she can give you great insights about her son.”
This is exactly what happened for Gary, who found that saying the Rosary moved him closer to Jesus. Because he follows Ignatian spirituality – which encourages people to mentally and spiritually put themselves into specific Bible scenes – Gary felt the Scriptures come alive.
“Coming back to the idea of this scrapbook – let’s say the nativity of Jesus – it’s like you’re sitting next to Mary. She’s going through all these pages, and she’s like, ‘Oh, this is the day I had my son. It was amazing. You’re not going to believe who showed up and they brought all these gifts. We had no idea.’ It’s a way of making Jesus relatable without taking away the importance of who He is and His story. The Rosary has brought me closer to Jesus over the years because, as I said at the very beginning, I didn’t think God liked me. I felt like Jesus was very intimidating. But the Rosary was an opening for me to find Jesus and to experience those mysteries in a deeply spiritual way.”
Another thing Gary has learned is that meditative prayers, such as the Rosary, are not just good for the soul, they benefit the body. He titles one of his chapters, “Understanding Inflammation, Both Physical and Spiritual.”
“Chronic inflammation can lead to heart disease, arthritis, or cancer over time,” Gary noted. “The leading factor that a lot of researchers and medical professionals see now is stress…If there’s a bodily thing that happens to us, there’s also a spiritual component. It made me think: if chronic inflammation happens in the body, it must also happen in the soul and in the intellect. The book does talk about both spiritual inflammation and physical inflammation, and meditative practices like the Rosary can ease that. There’s been a lot of studies over the years that meditation and prayer can help reduce stress. It can help reduce blood pressure. It can lower your heart rate. It can boost your immune system…Anecdotally, I’ve done this for myself where I’ll pray the Rosary and sometimes take my blood pressure before, and then you take it after, and you see that it’s gone down. I’ve done it with my wife and other people in my family. Being able to look at that from an anecdotal way – and having the research that’s being done, studies by the Mayo Clinic, by The National Institutes of Health – the evidence is out there. So, first and foremost, the Rosary is about praying and being in the presence of Jesus, but there’s a healing quality to it that’s a byproduct that can help us mentally and physically.”
Ultimately, Gary hopes that people who read “The Healing Power of Praying the Rosary” get to “fall deeper into love with Jesus, and to see that through the Rosary, we’ve been given a great gift. One, to be in the presence of Jesus, to learn through these mysteries. And two, realize that there’s a byproduct for engaging in this, that it can actually make people healthier, so give it a shot.”
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