Missionary of Charity sister prays the rosary. / Daniel Ibanez
Vatican City, Oct 10, 2021 / 09:04 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 long 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.
This commentary was first published April 26, 2017.
[…]
As a matter of simple inquiry, from the back bleachers, five questions:
1. If not a permanent German “synodal assembly,” what more “universal” hybrid cut from the same cloth might we possibly see from synodal Rome?
2. In opposition to abstract “transgender ideology” (Dignitas Infinita!), at the separable (?) and concrete level why do we still have the half-blessing of irregular couples–as “couples” (Fiducia Supplicans)?
3. If not the “priestly ordination of women,” might we see halfway-house approval of non-ordained deaconesses–replacing Lay Ecclesial Ministers (?)–and perhaps no more fixed in place than were “civil unions” as a secularist step toward gay “marriages”? “Time is greater than space” (Evangelii Gaudium, 2013).
4. About “same-sex blessings,” already we have Fiducia Supplicans, although ‘splained by Cardinal Fernandez as a sorta restraint on the German proposal…
5. About “sexual acts,” generally, the overall pattern of ambiguous fluidity on so much (subjectivism, situationism), including silent dismissal of the Catechism and Veritatis Splendor on concrete moral absolutes (among the underground ever since publication in the early 1990s), adding up to a flanking reversal of Humanae Vitae without ever having to risk saying so in writing?
Beyond the “non-synod” Der Synodal Weg, what is the meaning of apparent synodal unity in Rome if our universal grounding in both natural law and the whole magisterium is obscured and even eclipsed? Procedurally, of course!…
…Experts, amnesiac study groups, mutually-isolated roundtables, 3-minute speaker limits, etc.
Just askin’…
‘Synodaler Weg’?
Hah!
That’s German for “Yodeling Heresy.”
At least there’s the nucleus for a 2nd German counter reformation.
The first, “Two Roman Catholic armies, the emperor’s and the League’s, converged on the kingdom [the Palatinate], routing Frederick V [a Calvinist] at the White Mountain in November 1620 and replacing the regime of the estates in Bohemia with a system of ‘confessional absolutism’ based on rigid Catholic conformity and political authoritarianism. At the same time, the Palatinate was conquered by Spanish and Bavarian troops, and the electoral title was transferred to Maximilian of Bavaria in 1623. In the Palatinate, too, the Counter-Reformation sought to bring Protestantism to an end. As the war spread into Hesse and Westphalia and as Spain resumed its attack on the Netherlands, Catholic forces seemed near triumph” (Britannica).
Cardinal Woelki bishops Hanke, Oster, Voderholzer [Gerhard Muller]can raise an army of faithful Catholics to inspire a revival using the weapons of truth, faith, prayer, professing Christ via media and all available means. Would our present Roman emperor support them? If not, with a flair of hope [verging on zealous fantasy], support from foreign interventionists Cardinals Willem Eijk, Ambongo, Sarah Africa, Burke the US et Al and a regiment of bishops [At least this dream betters the current nightmare].
German Synodality is an example of Absolute Duplicity: Bergoglio and C6 Marx created this German situation to justify the establishing of a Synodal Superlodge on the ruins of Post-Conciliarism.
Bergoglioism alone is deliberately responsible for this soul-destroying Synodal Mess, and the clean up is going to take decades.
I just used the term
“Bergoglioism.”
My preferred definition would be
“the dressing of Freemasonic Praxis against Catholic Truth.”
Perhaps there are more complete definitions out there?!
I think you chose the right handle!!!
How about: Bergoglioism: Where an old man acting much like a frustrated petulant child conducts assemblies of endless séances, called synods, to conjure up “the spirit” of some preordained prophecies he plans to impose on God to redefine the Catholic religion.
That pretty-much deserves to be the full OED entry for Bergoglioism
Yes, and about the “regiment of bishops” and others (?), perhaps one galvanizing factor is stirring in the Eucharistic Revival, and what the Mass actually means and does not mean?
In his posthumous book, “What is Christianity” (Ignatius 2023), Benedict XVI presents compact and lucid chapters on “Theology of the Liturgy” (pp. 57-61),” “The Catholic Priesthood” (pp. 122-155), and “The Meaning of Communion” (pp. 155-177). Included is the irreducible difference between the Eucharistic Catholic Mass and the assembled Protestant liturgies. In place of transubstantiation, Luther’s commingling with the unchanged elements, and the more reductionist and mere symbolism of Calvin.
At issue is Christ’s divine self-sacrifice to the Father in expiation [!] for our creaturely and abysmal offenses against both the Creator and our very selves (the image and likeness of God!). At issue is transitory celebrations of the Last Supper, stripped of the permanent renewal and extension of Calvary opening into the Resurrection.
Benedict writes:
“It is quite clear, therefore, that ‘Last Supper’ and ‘Mass’ are two completely different forms of worship, which by their nature exclude each other. Anyone who preaches intercommunion today ought to remember this [….] A Catholic […] perceives the Holy Mass, not as an illegitimate relapse into the sacrificial worship of the Old Covenant, but rather as our inclusion in the Body of Christ and therefore in his self-gift to the Father, an act that makes us all become one with him. The conciliar decree on the priesthood, as well as the Vatican II constitution on the liturgy, are supported by this calm certainty, even though, in the concrete implementation of the liturgical reform, Luther’s thesis silently played a certain role, so that in some circles it could be maintained that the Council of Trent’s Decree on the Sacrifice of the Mass had been abrogated” (p. 124).
QUESTION: About the Eucharistic Revival at least in the United States, how much of the alternative 16th-century mindset of “some circles”—German and others—is working its way into our synodal “roundtables” in Rome?
And of course, several Special Operations battalions of Laymen armed with tried faith and superb knowledge. I can hear the clarion call.
Amen, Fr. Morello, PhD! Thanks be to God for you SO soldiers of Christ/theologians! We Catholics appreciate your service!
This synod was a bad idea, period. Inclusion of uneducated, albeit well intended, lay people was a bad idea, period. The unnecessary pushing of women into the steps to priesthood is a bad idea, period.( And many women like myself neither want it nor feel oppressed by our current status.) This is again an exercise in “aren’t we clever”, not unlike V2, which came close to destroying the church in terms of the numbers of priests, religious and faithful lay people who walked away and never returned. Those who loved the Latin Mass are still being suppressed, like that is an intelligent idea. As far as the danger of schism, it is alive and well. If the Vatican saw this looming (and hard to imagine they would be so dim as to NOT see it) they should have done something clearer and more substantial years ago. Like remove some Bishops from office. One can only conclude that this uproar is exactly what they want in Rome. Or, this Pope wants it. However if they expect the remaining faithful to foot the bill for another crazed round of V2, I think they will be very much mistaken. And that is a lesson they will not learn until it is too late.
Let them go, we don’t need them! If they don’t go excommunicate them. Support the faithful ones and build a new loyal Church in Germany. If they return, repentant, kill the fatted calf for them and celebrate. But we are called to love them through it all.
Time heals. We must allow time to pass and eventually the bad of this Pontificate will be sifted and winnowed out and the Church will continue on as it has for over two millennia. In the future we will have a new set of problems , and those of the present may seem quite tame.
These German bishops started to vote on doing this a few weeks ago but Pope Francis quickly ordered it stopped threatening “serious consequences” if it continued. Despite the usual insinuations, Pope Francis is against the idea. This latest approach is a floater to reintroduce the idea of these bishops becoming self governing as a group. Germany’s problem is far worse than a group of clerical rouges. About a year ago I read an article pointing out that Germany is easily the most immoral country in all of Europe. If so what kind of shepherds would you expect them to have? Just the other day I caught a news item that the German parliament passed a law imposing a fine of 10,000 euros on anyone who mentions a person’s actual gender at birth without (his/her/or it’s) personal permission. It also said that parents could assign any gender they wished to a child at birth since they could choose later presumably. The German bishops don’t seem to have said anything about it.
Francis fiddles while Rome burns