Falling asleep while praying the Rosary

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InSearchOfGod

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I try to pray the rosary every night, but a few nights, including last night, I fell asleep before I finished it. It was the end of the day, I was in bed, I was closing my eyes to try to focus on the prayer, and while praying I guess my mind somehow wondered off to dream world.

Is this a really bad habit? :eek:
 
Are you serious?

Why do you say the Rosary? What does it mean to you? Are you saying it because it draws you closer to Christ? Is it a form of meditation? If so, how could falling asleep while meditating on Christ be a bad habit?

The Rosary isn’t magical. It is not a talisman. There isn’t an exactly right way to say it. It is a prayer format, the most widely known in the Church, beloved by many, encouraged by Popes. It hsould be a means of prayerful meditation.

If you simply stop and think of why you actually say the Rosary, you should be able to answer your own question. If you are approaching it as a superstition, you need to change. If you are approaching it as a meditation, then the question doesn’t really make any sense.
 
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InSearchOfGod:
I try to pray the rosary every night, but a few nights, including last night, I fell asleep before I finished it. It was the end of the day, I was in bed, I was closing my eyes to try to focus on the prayer, and while praying I guess my mind somehow wondered off to dream world.

Is this a really bad habit? :eek:
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Absolutely not! Your intentions were to pray the rosary and you happened to doze off. It’s happened to me and it’s not a bad habit.
 
A dear friend of mine says that if you fall asleep while praying the Rosary, the angels will finish it for you. 🙂
 
Thanks for the responses! I was just thinking . . . how would you like it if someone was talking to you and they fell asleep while doing it? :sleep: :eek: But my concern was that by falling asleep, I’m not finishing the Rosary (but if the angels help me finish it, that’s very nice of them! :angel1: )

I pray the Rosary to meditate on my faith and bring myself closer to the Lord. Sometimes reflecting on the mysteries of my faith brings me close to tears . . . prayer can be so powerful! Other times, it seems I just fall asleep :o
 
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singerlady:
A dear friend of mine says that if you fall asleep while praying the Rosary, the angels will finish it for you. 🙂
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Ditto.
 
I’m guilty (very) of this. I would like to set it so that I give myself plenty of time before I sleep to say the Rosary and really focus on the meditations. But lots of times, I don’t have the time. The Rosary is a comfort to me at the end of the day, because I feel that I close my day focusing on what’s important to me, which is God. 👍
 
I have fallen asleep while praying the rosary before . . . but I woke up, with my fingers in the right place on the beads, so I just finished!

That was once. On other occasions I just finished it later, remembering what mysteries I contemplated and which ones I didn’t.

It’s really no big deal, just don’t fall asleep during Mass. That’s not good!
 
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singerlady:
A dear friend of mine says that if you fall asleep while praying the Rosary, the angels will finish it for you. 🙂
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In my case it wasn’t a friend. It was my mother. And she says that’s what her mother, my grandmother, would tell her when she was just a child.
 
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singerlady:
A dear friend of mine says that if you fall asleep while praying the Rosary, the angels will finish it for you. 🙂
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I’ve always thought that was total crackpot. So if you sleep in instead of going to mass, your angels will get communion for you?

I say this not to condemn it, but to save it. Cuz if you have the full intention of staying awake for your rosary, and before hand ask your guardian angel to keep you awake for the rest of your rosary, then if you fall asleep its your GA’s fault for not keeping you awake. So then he’s morally obliged to finish it for you. There’s a difference.

But let me tell you, it won’t come to that. Because if you mean your prayer, your GA will keep you awake.

Josh
 
Oftentimes when I pray the rosary in bed, I , too , fall asleep. Far as I am concerned, what a wonderful thing to be doing as I drift off to sleep.
~ Kathy ~
 
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singerlady:
A dear friend of mine says that if you fall asleep while praying the Rosary, the angels will finish it for you. 🙂
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I wonder if she is the same nun who, when I was in grade school, told us to ALWAYS carry a rosary (35+ years later I STILL do…EVERYWHERE) or the same one who told us if we make the sign of the cross on our pillows when we went to bed, if we died in our sleep, we would be assured of going to heaven.
~ Kathy ~ 😃
 
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singerlady:
A dear friend of mine says that if you fall asleep while praying the Rosary, the angels will finish it for you. 🙂
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Love this! Does it work for unfinished prayers too?
 
You know that you don’t have to pray the entire rosary. It’s nice if you do but you can pray only a decade. So falling asleep shouldn’t be a problem. If you want to make sure to get throught the whole thing, pray it earlier that day. 👍
 
I’ve always thought that was total crackpot. So if you sleep in instead of going to mass, your angels will get communion for you?
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We’re bound by the Church to finish the (apparently new) Sacrament of the Rosary, now?

Any Canon Lawyers in the house? 😛
 
I doubt it offends God if you fall asleep while praying the rosary, and it’s better to pray when you’re tired than not at all (in these cases, try standing or kneeling- preferably with nothing to lean against). It’s also better to be wide awake when you meditate- or meditation will quickly become sleeping.
 
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InSearchOfGod:
I try to pray the rosary every night, but a few nights, including last night, I fell asleep before I finished it. It was the end of the day, I was in bed, I was closing my eyes to try to focus on the prayer, and while praying I guess my mind somehow wondered off to dream world.

Is this a really bad habit? :eek:
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Let’s see. Is it a bad habit to pray myself to sleep? :gopray2: :yawn:

Hmmm. I could leave the TV on instead and drift off into a nightmare world of SouthPark or Beavis and Butt-head. :bigyikes:

Nahhhh.
 
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Ghosty:
We’re bound by the Church to finish the (apparently new) Sacrament of the Rosary, now?

Any Canon Lawyers in the house? 😛
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You silly. I was referring to unrequired daily mass. You know, how parishes insist on having them at ungodly hours of th emorning like 6 and 7 a.m., instead of something nice like 7:00 p.m. when everyone can go. I just don’t get it.

The point I was trying to make is sacrament or not, there’s no reason why angels should be saying your prayers for you. That’s not their job. “No priest are hearing confessions today. Guardian angel, go say it for me to some priest who is.” “I don’t have 15 minutes to meditate with Marry for my first Saturday devotion, can you do that for me Angel?” Just because you weren’t able to do something doesn’t oblige them to do it for you. What I was saying is that you can utilize them in other ways that is in their duty, such as making sure you stay away for your rosary, that you wake up in time for mass, that you can find a confessional. If you ask, they will do these things for you, because you asked, and you’re not-not doing something, but rather seeking to do something.

I would also like to point out that I believe falling asleep while praying is a prayer in itself, and therefore doing so with the rosary isn’t a loss of grace. I just think the mindset of “Your guardian angel will finish it for you.” Needs a little refinement.

Josh
 
This happened to me just today while praying the Chaplet for St Anthony. I was in the adoration chapel, and nodded off between the Our Father and the Hail Mary several times but not losing my place.

The chapel was so wonderfully silent (at church, there is usually people talking or the cleaning is going on, etc.), and I closed my eyes to reflect on the prayers. Usually I say my prayers aloud, but had to picture them silently and that’s when the trouble began :yawn:

Don’t think I’ll hit the adoration chapel after a 12 hour shift anymore or the snoring will disturbe the others.

Please don’t flame me, I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful, but that’s the first time that ever happened, I was embarrassed.

Maggie
 
I have to say I think that maybe your guardian angel does finish your rosary for you if you fall asleep. I like to think that when I am praying, my angel is too. We send our prayers up together. If that is the case, and we are praying together, why would he stop just because I fall asleep? 🙂

Morning Glory, I think it is just wonderful that you took the time to go to adoration after a 12 hour shift. I think God perfectly understands. After all, He is the one who made your body to require sleep. You were still keeping Him company, even though you weren’t being a very good conversationalist at the time. 😉 I wouldn’t make a habit of it or anything, but it is completely understandable.
 
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