So we don’t have to say those prayers out loud and we don’t have to use a rosary? WHAT?!?! Why hasn’t anyone told me that before? Mary would you explain what vocal prayer is in Catholic tradition, since it is not vocalizing?
Hi,
I found this on the site linked below the paragraph:
A novena is a formalized vocal prayer extended over a specific amount of time. Remember, vocal prayer is the kind of prayer where we use other people’s words to address God and to lift our hearts and minds to him. The “Our Father” is a vocal prayer, for example. St. Francis of Assisi’s famous “Make me an instrument of your peace…” prayer is a vocal prayer. You don’t have to say these prayers out loud to make them “vocal,” rather, you just have to give “voice” to (“voice” and “vocal” both come from the same Latin root:
voco, vocare, which means to speak out or to call) the words of the prayer. We can recite the words of a vocal prayer in the silence of our hearts, or audibly. In either case, however, vocal prayers give us a channel for the desires and thoughts of our souls.
Read more:
rcspiritualdirection.com/blog/tags/vocal-prayer#ixzz1rEHWMnbX
You can check out the Catechism explanations too. Basically, vocal prayers employ words, but these words don’t directly come from
our hearts and minds- They are formulaic. In order to make them “yours” and more meaningful to you, you have to internalize them and think about the words and the person you are speaking to and what those lines are really saying to this person and try to “
mean” them as you say them, as if the words were your very own.
In fact, St. Teresa of Avila used to say that to do your meditation when it is difficult to do mental prayer, all you need to do is to pray the “Our Father” very slowly, this way- And it transforms into a beautiful meditation/mental prayer and eventually can lead to contemplation! It’s such an easy, beautiful and profound way to pray, per testimony of these great Saints and the Church.
That’s why I said before that the Rosary can be difficult because you want to pray the vocal prayers meaningfully this way and at the same time, focus on the mystery- Trying to focus the mind on two things at once! At some point, though, you get your rhythm and one takes precedence over the other, the other becomes supportive of the one. I remember reading somewhere that if you find the meditation on the mysteries impossible/too difficult (sometimes it can happen), that you can simply do like st. Teresa of Avila and focus and pray the vocal prayers meaningfully- The Rosary will still be meaningful.
The main thing is to start and try to keep the
awareness of the presence of the person you are addressing right in that room with you. So when you start, be first aware that with you in that room, invisible to your mind, but fully there and looking at you, attending to you, seeing through all your being, mind, heart and soul, and fully loving and sustaining you, is the Blessed Trinity. Christ is also there with you in his full humanity. During Rosary, you remember that the Mother of God is fully right there before you, in all her glory and beauty and that she fully loves you and is listening to every word of love that you speak to her. When you say the prayers directly to that person (The Father, Christ, Mary, All the Trinity as in the
Glory Be), if you say them in this awareness- that is already much, much more than vocal prayer.
Whenever I found it hard to be aware of God’s loving presence with me at prayer, know what I did? Something you see taught in "
Introduction to Devout Life" by St. Francis de Sales- Remind myself and really, really see that God is **
freely choosing to sustain me and keep me in existence
right at this moment, just like he chose to create me when I was nothing- and that’s why I exist. That alone is love- God is loving me right now, in spite of how good/bad I’m acting- He’s looking at me and sustaining me in existence with love- right at this very moment! If he stopped looking at me with love, if he got “distracted” and momentarily “forgot” or turned his focus off me, I would vanish! Cease to exist! That always made me so happy as it was such a testimony to God’s unceasing loving attention to me ever since my conception. I think it was St. Teresa or St. John of the Cross or St. Francis de Sales who put it as "
Attend to him who is already attending to you" or “
Look at him who is already and always looking at you”. Also, something like: You are always in God’s presence- Now, bring
him into
your presence.
You know, Heresiarch, all this talk with you makes me a little sad, because I used to be able to do these things I write to you easily- Been having some difficulties in my life lately. Oh well, I hope you can understand the Rosary and other forms of vocal prayers better now and the richness they can bring to you if you pray them with attentiveness.
It’s a private devotion. I say it to myself. In fact, if I lose count I add another Hail Mary (better too much than too little IMO).
).