
Vatican City, Apr 26, 2017 / 12:29 am (CNA).- It is interesting that in her appearances at Lourdes, Fatima and other locations, the Mother of God repeatedly recommends praying the Rosary. She does not invite us to pray the Divine Office, or to do spiritual reading, or Eucharistic Adoration, or practice interior prayer or mental prayer. All the mentioned forms of prayer are good, recognized by the Church and practiced by many saints. Why does Mary “only” place the Rosary in our hearts?
We can find a possible answer by looking at the visionaries of Lourdes and Fatima. Mary revealed herself to children of little instruction, who could not even read or write correctly. The Rosary was for them the appropriate school to learn how to pray well, since bead after bead, it leads us from vocal prayer, to meditation, and eventually to contemplation. With the Rosary, everyone who allows himself to be led by Mary can arrive at interior prayer without any kind of special technique or complicated practices.
This does not mean – and I want to emphasize this point – that praying the Rosary is for “dummies” or for simple minded people. Even great intellectuals must come before God as children, who in their prayers are always simple and sincere, always full of confidence, praying from within.
All Christians are called to the kind of interior prayer that allows an experience of closeness with God and recognition of his action in our lives. We can compare the Rosary to playing the guitar. The vocal prayers – the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be – are the central prayers of Christianity, rooted in Scripture. These are like the rhythm in a song.
But simply strumming a guitar is not a song. And mindless repetition of words is not interior prayer. In addition to rhythm, keys are needed. The Mysteries of the Rosary are like the chords on the guitar. The vocal prayers form the framework for meditation on the Mysteries.
There are always these five chords to the rhythm of the repetition of the prayers, which make the lives of Jesus and Mary pass before our eyes. With meditation, we go on reflecting on what happens in each Mystery and what it means for our lives: At Nazareth, the Son of God is incarnated in Mary. In Holy Communion, He also comes to me. In Gethsemane, Jesus sweats blood. He suffers, is in anguish, and yet his friends remain asleep. Can I keep vigil with Him or do my eyes close with tiredness? On Easter morning, Jesus rises and breaks forth from the tomb. The first day of creation brought light. The first day of the week conquered death and gave us life. Christ can change the darkness in my life into light.
And so, our prayer begins to change into music. That is to say, it is no longer monotonous and boring, but now it is full of images and thoughts. And when the grace of God permits, it is also filled with supernatural illuminations and inspirations.
There is one more thing needed to have really great music, or to have a prayer that is even more profound and intimate: the melody that the heart sings. When playing the guitar, a voice is needed to interpret the song. When praying the Rosary, it is the song of our heart, as we place our own life before God, to the tempo of the prayers and meditations.
It is this song of the heart that allows us to enter into the mysteries of the Rosary: For my sake you were scourged, and it was I who struck you. Forgive me! You have ascended into Heaven, Lord. I long for You, I for your kingdom, my true homeland.
In contemplation, the person praying sees the mysteries pass before his eyes, and at the same time he abides in particular affections or movements of the heart before God. The one who prays sings the song of his own life, in which naturally there can arise specific desires: You wanted to be the son of a human Mother; help my sick mother! You were crowned with thorns; help me in this financial difficulty which I can’t get out of my head. You sent the Holy Spirit; without You I don’t have the courage or the strength to make a good decision.
With this understanding, the following tips can help those who pray the Rosary move from vocal prayer to meditation to inner contemplation:
1) Schedule the time
Our schedule is full of appointments. More or less consciously, we also plan out the time we’re going to need for each task or appointment. Sometimes it is good to set aside 20 or 30 minutes to pray the Rosary, and write it down in the schedule. This “appointment” with Jesus and Mary is then just as important as all the other ones planned. For all of us, it is possible to set aside a time to pray the Rosary, at first, once, twice or three times a week. Over time – and this is the goal – it will be easier to find a time to pray the Rosary daily.
2) Don’t rush
We can learn a lesson about prayer by observing people in love. During a romantic candlelit dinner, no one would be constantly looking at the clock, or choking down their food, or leaving the dessert to one side to finish as quickly as possible. Rather, a romantic meal is stretched out, maybe lingering for an hour to sip a cocktail, and enjoying every moment spent together. So it is with praying the Rosary. It shouldn’t be treated as sets of Hail Mary’s to be performed as if one were lifting weights. I can spend time lingering on a thought. I can also break away from it. I can, principally at the beginning, simply be peaceful. If I keep this peaceful attitude and an awareness of how important this 20-minute “appointment” is, then I will have prayed well. It will have been a good prayer, because my will is focused on pleasing the Beloved and not myself.
3) Savor the experience
Saint Ignatius recommends what’s called the “third form of prayer,” which consists in adjusting the words to the rhythm of one’s own breathing. Often it is sufficient in praying the Rosary to briefly pause between the mysteries, and to remember that Jesus and Mary are looking at me full of joy and love, recognizing with gratitude that I am like a little child babbling words every so often to in some way affirm that I love God. To do this, it can be useful to pause and take a few breaths before resuming vocal prayer.
4) A gaze of love
The vocal prayers of the Rosary only provide the rhythm of the prayer. With my thoughts, I can and should go out from the rhythm to encounter the Mystery which is being contemplated. This is more clear in German, where the mystery is announced not only at the beginning of each decade, but before each Hail Mary. It’s a time to look your Beloved in the eyes and let Him look back, with eyes full of love.
5) Allow yourself to be amazed
One of the first and most important steps for inner prayer is to go from thinking and speculation to looking upon and being amazed. Think of lovers who meet, not to plan out what they’re going to give each other or what they might do on the next vacation, but to enjoy the time together and to rejoice in each other. Looking at a family photo album is very different from looking at a history book. In the photo album, we see people who are important to us, whom we love – and even more – who love us! That’s how our gaze at Jesus and Mary ought to be in the Rosary.
6) Allow your “inner cameraman” to notice details
Some people close their eyes while praying in order to concentrate. Others find it useful to focus their eyes on a certain point (such as a crucifix). Either way, what is important is for the eyes of the heart to be open. Praying the Rosary is like going to the movies. It’s about seeing images. It’s useful to ask yourself: Who, What, Where am I looking at when I contemplate the birth of Jesus, or his crucifixion, or his ascension into Heaven? And on some occasions, like a good cameraman does, come in for a close-up image of some detail: contemplate the warm breath of the ox that’s warming the Child, the pierced hand of Jesus that spread so much love, the tears in John’s eyes as he gazes at Jesus rising up to Heaven.
7) Pray in words, mind, and heart
The words accompany, the mind opens, but it is the heart that has the leading role in prayer. All the great spiritual authors agree that inner prayer is about dwelling in the affections, that is, the inner sentiments and movements. Teresa of Avila says very simply: “Don’t think a lot, love a lot!” An elderly lady was ruefully complaining to me that she could not reflect while praying her daily Rosary, and that in that situation she could barely say “Jesus, Mary, I love you!” I congratulated the lady. That is exactly what praying the Rosary ought to lead us to.
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There may be a pope and his idolators, some pastoral workers, or movements and associations with particularly unChristian ideologies which close themselves off to outsiders.
It’s all within the realm of possibility.
“Pope Francis said Jesus wants us to stop judging others and to worry about our own behavior first. ‘Indeed, the risk is to be inflexible towards others and indulgent towards ourselves,’ he noted.”
Actually, Matthew 7:2 has Jesus saying, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Jeremiah 34:17 also speaks to those brutally flexible reeds who see fit to bend the Lord’s commandments and to disregard Sacred Tradition. Jeremiah speaks the judgment of the Lord to those who judge the keepers of the Lord’s commandments and Catholic tradition as unloving and rigid. Yes, they are as rigid as Christ would have them be.
“Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the LORD–freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine! I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.”
I heard on yesterday’s news that wild boars have invaded Rome.
Pope Francis said Jesus wants us to stop judging others and to worry about our own behavior first.
The Pontiff who is not a theologian, not a liturgist, not a Canon lawyer and fundamentally very poorly catechized in the Catholic faith needs to be reminded that Jesus said otherwise. He also needs to engage in a thorough examination of conscience and amend his own judgmental behavior prior to his demise.
“And why even of yourselves, do you not judge that which is just?” Jesus Christ, Luke 12:57
St Aquinas states that man’s relations with foreigners are twofold: peaceful, and hostile. Therefore, each nation has the right to determine who should be admitted as citizens.
Even the good Samaritan did not take the man who was robbed and beaten with him. He helped him where he lived.
“Artist Timothy Schmalz, depicting migrants throughout history crowded together on a boat with the Holy Family”, is pure schmaltz. It’s art, though the theme is propaganda for a Vatican open border policy that’s destroying national identity. National and ethnic diversity are considered assets to cultural enrichment.
Welcoming, yes, and some would urge, even proselytizing.
But, here’s a side story…’bout a year ago I was early in the church, preparing as a lector, and off the street strolls a totally new young man. Never seen before. The few early parishioners are kneeling. The tabernacle resides, centered, in holy silence.
Off to the side, the newcomer ambles straight to the piano, assumes command, and begins playing as if he owned the place. I first discerned (!) and then suggested, politely, that as a walk-on perhaps he should not presume so much. (This is a parish church, after all, and a few minutes before Mass, and not a high school practice room or home rec room.)
He stops. But before heading back to the open door he approaches and, kicking the dust from his sandals, as it were, judges me and the entire parish over his shoulder: “this place is not very welcoming!”
Should I have offered Its/all/about/Me a doughnut? Should he have hung around for a bit of Eucharistic incoherence? In particular this side story—-examining my own behavior first—-what should I have done differently?
IMO the name you gave him is the answer to your question. The phrase “Be still and know that I am God” suggests itself to me at this point.
I also get the impression that he wanted to be offended so he could deliver bis exit line.
Nothing. Christlike admonition may have saved that pianist from a life of donut Christianity.
Like many, I have a lot of criticisms of Francis, but listening to him carefully he is obviously equating himself to the Devil. Well, I think he should simply go to confession and resolve to sin no more but also stop describing himself in Satanic terminology.’
The Church must be “welcoming”, to whom and what? Sin, heterodoxy, idolatry, leftist ideologies which aim to destroy and subvert the faith? The Chine Totalitarian regime? Certainly not Traditional Catholics, who simply want to celebrate the timeless Mass of Ages undisturbed. Certainly not ordinary Novus Ordo attending Catholics like myself, who were willing to give Francis a chance when he was first elected, and even tried to square his utterances with tradition and scripture, but got turned off of him due to his arrogance, tolerance of corruption (doctrinal, moral, sexual and financial), open contempt for the very people he is supposed to shepherd, refusal to teach the faith as was handed to him by his predecessors (and blatant contradiction of same, whether directly or indirectly).
As Fulton Sheen put it long ago, our problem is that we are too tolerant, not because we are intolerant. We cannot be “welcoming” to sin, error and immorality. We already tried that and it led directly to the McCarrick scandal and the sex abuse crisis.