Attention deficit rosary

[lux_in_tenebris_1]

So I pray the rosary daily, but I cannot for the life of me meditate on the mysteries for a period greater than 2 beads. I have a pretty bad case of the ADD, so much so that the psychiatrist I worked with wanted me on meds, which I politely declined. So what I’ve been doing is using the prayer time mostly for silence reflection and listening. Is this necessarily wrong and does anybody else have any thoughts?

 

[maryjk]

I don’t have ADD, but I love the Scriptural Rosary.

Between each “Hail Mary” there is a scriptural reading that keeps you on track.

There are many available.

I use one on CD from this company.

 

[david_patrick]

hi, i will share something-don’t know if it will help since everbody is different; i have ADD-most people don’t realize (to tell others) that sounds are distracting-my handicapp-is sometimes focus-i might be bothered by electric buzzing-or the noise of crowds-perhaps, the focus is still there, to speculate, unfortunately-on the very sound that is a source of distraction; while, people describe me to have super dog hearing- you know when you tap a glass full of water? there is a resonance-seems (correct me if i am wrong) that there would be a spiritual hearing and the soul in the body-to speculate-might resonate-purley spiritual-recently, i would go to quiet places; the obvious choice; yet there is such a thing as a distraction in prayer-as if a fly to take one away from the presence of God…which might be related to ADD; on the other hand-today i was summing up the quality of my prayer life, those ups and downs-and might figure that God has a level of empathy and intimacy-the empathy would be evident in the trinity, when the Son has earned all the sensory (name removed by moderator)ut-including sorrow and pain; hence, a priest might agree that now since God came to earth, now God knows how you feel…while the rosary or a bead represents a time to overlap your own voice with Mary, sometimes to pray with-sometimes to pray to-that overlapping could include a reflection on Jesus’ ministry as he healed many-in which case, Mother Mary is repeating your prayer to Jesus of whom shows great empathy/ i would include that people of whom jesus healed had been not only sick, or cripple, or bleeding-but those who suffer and lived a life of isolation, being apart from society because of their malady-and ADD -offers perhaps a situation to feel some what isolated-yet a suffering can be healed; pray for healing for your heart , mind, body, and soul-it will really happen/ thx patrick

 

[St_Francis]

One thing that really helped me was a Scriptural Rosary and *praying every single day. *Some days I didn’t pray well at all, but it happened every day.

I realized praying the Rosary is like learning a musical instrument. You do what you are learning for the practice (unlike football, where practice might include running through tires). So praying and practicing are one and the same. And the more we practice, the better we get.

The Scriptural Rosary helps a lot because there is a new bit for each Hail Mary, which helps keep me on track. Eventually, I had the Scripture parts pretty much memorized

But doing it every day is totally necessary for me.

 

[lux_in_tenebris_1]

Scriptural rosary sounds like a good place to start. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Granum_Frumenti]

I probably don’t have ADD, but I’ve long used two methods similar to different “Scriptural Rosary” versions–one reflection per bead. I don’t “need” either such method to pray the rosary, but I tend to prefer them. With enough use, these may be memorized–if not the verbatim texts, then at least the subjects of each reflection.

I first came across reflections in a Rosary Center booklet entitled “Praying the Rosary without Distractions.” It’s similar to various “Scriptural Rosary” versions in having one reflection per bead, ten reflections per mystery, which according to a page there may be used as you like or find helpful.

The booklet is available for sale off their site ($3.00 each as of this writing).

The texts of the reflections are available for free viewing online, too:

rosary-center.org/joyful.htm
rosary-center.org/luminous.htm
rosary-center.org/sorrow.htm
rosary-center.org/glorious.htm

A similar practice is St. Louis de Montfort’s fourth method, also available for free viewing online, with a similar (and I think complementary) set of reflections for the fifteen “traditional” mysteries.

(His fifth method is also similar in form, but it’s more of a set of “150 motives impelling us to say the rosary,” reflections on the rosary itself, than a set of reflections on the mysteries covered by the rosary.)