"half prayers" during group prayer?

[Matas]

Hello everyone, this is my second “first post.” Been reading this wonderful forum for a while.

I want to learn of your thoughts and feelings about something that bothers me a little bit. just a bit…not getting eaten up over this…

I participate in a group prayer at church at least once a week. When we pray the rosary, one person will recite half of a prayer (Our Father, Glory Be, Hail Mary, etc.) and then everyone chimes in to finish the prayer. This strikes me as very odd. You might surmise that I am rather new to this, but praying “half a rosary” seems somehow “wrong.” I feel strongly compelled to pray the whole thing out loud, so I do. I don’t follow the “Leader-Response” model of prayer. As far as I know, there are prayers where you do that (Litany of Saints, for example) and there are private devotions that you do not (Our Father, Hail Mary, etc.). No one has “corrected” me and let me be content to happily pray along in my own way. But everyone still does the “half prayer” thing.

Am I being stubborn here for not going with the flow?

-Matas

 

[LilyM]

I would consider that praying the Rosary in a group in Church is in fact at least a semi-public devotion. Similar to praying the Liturgy of the Hours. There are certain responses and parts that are to be said when the Liturgy is prayed in a group situation that are or can be omitted when it is prayed by yourself. And there are certain parts that are said (or led) by a leader when it is said in public.

Secondly - do you never pray mentally but not vocally? Do you never pray the Our Father or Hail Mary silently to yourself? Do you consider that saying it silently is not the same as or at least equivalent to praying it aloud? Do you consider that you’re not saying a prayer (or an Our Father or a Hail Mary) at all unless it’s said out loud?

To me there is no difference except convenience between praying mentally but silently and praying vocally. That is WHY in certain situations, such as the Mass, the priest can in fact be offering all of those prayers on our behalf, even the ones he alone says, because we’re hearing them said and mentally praying along with him.

Short answer is there’s no hard and fast rule, but convenience dictates that in situations of group prayer someone takes a lead, which in the case of the Rosary means praying the first half of each prayer. Try getting a largeish group together and NOT praying the Rosary in that way - much more chaotic and takes a lot longer!

 

[Dorothy]

Hello everyone, this is my second “first post.” Been reading this wonderful forum for a while.

I want to learn of your thoughts and feelings about something that bothers me a little bit. just a bit…not getting eaten up over this…

I participate in a group prayer at church at least once a week. When we pray the rosary, one person will recite half of a prayer (Our Father, Glory Be, Hail Mary, etc.) and then everyone chimes in to finish the prayer. This strikes me as very odd. You might surmise that I am rather new to this, but praying “half a rosary” seems somehow “wrong.” I feel strongly compelled to pray the whole thing out loud, so I do. I don’t follow the “Leader-Response” model of prayer. As far as I know, there are prayers where you do that (Litany of Saints, for example) and there are private devotions that you do not (Our Father, Hail Mary, etc.). No one has “corrected” me and let me be content to happily pray along in my own way. But everyone still does the “half prayer” thing.

Am I being stubborn here for not going with the flow?

-Matas

I don’t understand the problem. At my parish, after Mass each morning some stay to pray the Rosary. That is the way it is said in a group - the leader says the first part, and the rest respond.

Of course, we should all be meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, and also being mindful of the words of the prayers whether we are saying them aloud, or the part that we say in our mind.

When saying the Rosary aloud in a group, for practical reasons we take turns to finish the prayer. It gives us a chance to catch our breath before we begin the next response.

But, our heart and focus, of course, should be on the entire prayer whether speaking aloud or praying it silently, so we are not just saying half a prayer.

 

[AJV]

In my parish we also do it antiphonally. But I like to pray the whole thing also, so I say whichever half I’m supposed to say aloud and the rest silently.

Just guessing, but perhaps they pray it like that so that people don’t run out of breath?

 

[jmcrae]

I participate in a group prayer at church at least once a week. When we pray the rosary, one person will recite half of a prayer (Our Father, Glory Be, Hail Mary, etc.) and then everyone chimes in to finish the prayer. This strikes me as very odd. You might surmise that I am rather new to this, but praying “half a rosary” seems somehow “wrong.”

No - this is the proper and traditional way to pray the Rosary.

Praying it by oneself is actually the “new” and innovative thing - the Rosary is traditionally a group prayer that is prayed antiphonally, just like the Liturgy of the Hours, the various Litanies, and the Psalm at Mass. (In fact, the Rosary and these other practices all come from the same roots in Church liturgy, ultimately going back to the Psalms that were prayed by the Jews as they travelled to Jerusalem for the Passover - which also were prayed aloud (actually sung) antiphonally.)

I feel strongly compelled to pray the whole thing out loud, so I do. I don’t follow the “Leader-Response” model of prayer. As far as I know, there are prayers where you do that (Litany of Saints, for example) and there are private devotions that you do not (Our Father, Hail Mary, etc.). No one has “corrected” me and let me be content to happily pray along in my own way. But everyone still does the “half prayer” thing.

They probably realize that you are a new Catholic, and they don’t want to “crush the smouldering wick” by criticizing how you pray. That, after all, would be very rude.

Am I being stubborn here for not going with the flow?

Yes! But you already knew that, didn’t you?

 

[lvngembrs]

Matas - I feel the same way as you do. I attended a funerary Rosary not long ago. No one told me that I was “praying” the wrong way for reciting the entire Rosary rather than “half” of it.

I think there’s no correct way to pray. As long as it’s for intercession, or conversation with the Lord, I’d say you’re fine.

 

[estesbob]

Hello everyone, this is my second “first post.” Been reading this wonderful forum for a while.

I want to learn of your thoughts and feelings about something that bothers me a little bit. just a bit…not getting eaten up over this…

I participate in a group prayer at church at least once a week. When we pray the rosary, one person will recite half of a prayer (Our Father, Glory Be, Hail Mary, etc.) and then everyone chimes in to finish the prayer. This strikes me as very odd. You might surmise that I am rather new to this, but praying “half a rosary” seems somehow “wrong.” I feel strongly compelled to pray the whole thing out loud, so I do. I don’t follow the “Leader-Response” model of prayer. As far as I know, there are prayers where you do that (Litany of Saints, for example) and there are private devotions that you do not (Our Father, Hail Mary, etc.). No one has “corrected” me and let me be content to happily pray along in my own way. But everyone still does the “half prayer” thing.

Am I being stubborn here for not going with the flow?

-Matas

The way you describe it is the traditional way to pray the rosary in a group. Of course you can pray any way you want but i susepct the way you pray is distracting to others(which, BTW, it appears to be distracting to you also)

 

[InLight247]

When we pray the rosary, one person will recite half of a prayer (Our Father, Glory Be, Hail Mary, etc.) and then everyone chimes in to finish the prayer.
-Matas

This is the normal way to pray Rosary in a group.
By doing so, it is a real group effort. When one person leads the first half, the rest of us participate by listening and reciting along in our hearts. The Bible says two or three get together in Jesus’ name, God is among us. With a group effort, our prayers are more effective. As long as you are truly participating, it doesn’t matter you vocally say out loud every word. Even the other person is leading, the rest of us are still part of it. That is a group effort.

 

[Matas]

Yes! But you already knew that, didn’t you?

Yes, I know I can be stubborn.

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I pray silently and out loud. Doesn’t make a huge difference to me, but sometimes, out loud seems better - just like we don’t pray silently certain prayers during Mass. Sometimes I don’t want to keep it inside.

Regarding the newness of the way we pray the rosary - I didn’t know that the rosary was only prayed in groups. Didn’t anyone ever pray the rosary alone way back when? I pray the rosary out loud when I pray it alone.

 

[InLight247]

Yes, I know I can be stubborn.

Regarding the newness of the way we pray the rosary - I didn’t know that the rosary was only prayed in groups. Didn’t anyone ever pray the rosary alone way back when? I pray the rosary out loud when I pray it alone.

When I say it is a group effort, I did not mean it is only for a group.
What I mean is when praying in a group,“one leads, the rest answer” is a group effort.

Of course we all pray Rosary on our own. You can pray out loud,or you can pray silently. When you pray, you don’t have to finish all decades at one time. In case you were disturbed, you can come back and continue, you don’t have to re-start all over.

When you pray the mysteries, it will be good to meditate on them,
use your imagination to think about what happened, to visualize
the incident, to walk with our Holy mother or walk with our Lord.
Rosary is a very powerful prayer.

 

[blessedstar]

If you think about it the Mass is a ‘half prayer’ as you phrase it. The Priest offers the Mass and has his ‘bit’ to say and the congregation has their ‘bit’ to say, still it is a complete prayer, infact the most complete and efficious prayer of the Church. This is the case because the Prayer of the Mass is Christ Himself.

The Prayer of the Rosary is Christ Centered in the Holy Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary. You can think of it as a ladder, the first rung (step on the ladder) being Mary, the second rung being Christ Jesus and the third and top rung being God the Father and the whole prayer is said by the power of the Holy Spirit who runs up and down all of the rungs. It is far better to say one half of the Hail Mary recollected to God than it is to waffle the lot through the whole Rosary on your own meaninglessly mouthing the words. Even here whatever we offer the Holy Spirit makes it into a beautiful and pleasing prayer.

Quality not quantity. You’ve nothing to worry about. The Holy Spirit doesn’t offer rubbish carried by the Saints to the Altar of God in Heaven and one half of an Hail Mary or an Our Father lovingly said is certainly a most fragrant and beautiful prayer at the Altar of God. Moreover the meditations and loving thoughts you have whilst praying the Rosary are more beautiful to God than any recited prayer that may be said, the words of our own hearts to God are gold.

There is also the point of trusting the Holy Spirit in others to offer prayer on our behalf when the Rosary is said in this manner. The Holy Spirit is no less efficient in the soul of others as He is in yours. You might like to spend the time when the ‘other half’ of the prayer is offered by others meditating on the Holy Spirit, His gifts, His Spouse, His Love, His Power, His Advocacy, His Teaching us, His Enlightening of us, etc and ask Him to deepen your understanding of the Sacred Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary.

Prayer is not meant to be a source of worry, it is succour for our souls, it is the time we take rest in the Lord and refresh our spirits, it is the source of our spiritual growth in Christ Jesus, it is the time we spend totally absorbed in God and He in us, in short, it is a source of peace for our souls.

Ask God the Father and Christ Jesus to show you who God the Holy Spirit is. You might also like to find some spiritual reading material on the Holy Trinity, perhaps someone here can suggest some good reading material that will especially talk of God the Holy Spirit.

In my prayers

 

[jmm08]

Read “The Secret of the Rosary” by Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort. I especially recommend the Catholic Book Publishing Co (c) 2004 because of all the extra reading at the back.

From the 46th Rose (there are 50 chapters in the book called roses after the beads on the Rosary):

“Of all the ways of saying the Holy Rosary, the most glorious to God, most salutary to our souls, and the most terrible to the devil is that of saying or chanting the Rosary publicly in two choirs.”

“God is very pleased to have people gathered together in prayer. All the angels and the blessed unite to praise him unceasingly. The just on earth, gathered together in various communities, pray in common, night and day. Our Lord expressly recommended this practice to his apostles and disciples, and promised that whenever there would be at least two or three gathered in his name he would be there in the midst of them.” …

There is much more in the book. What I like best is that when we pray together, we share in each other’s prayers. In this way the weak are supported by the stronger. And in sharing and presenting our prayers – we who have many needs offer our prayers to Jesus through Mary, and it can be just like when Jesus blessed the fishes and the loaves and fed the 5,000. Mary with the help of the Holy Spirit (her Holy Spouse) arrange and perfect our prayers perfectly. Then Jesus takes them and multiplies them like the fishes and the loaves and He can meet the needs of so many. Much more than we could possibly dream of doing by ourselves. It is far beyond the ability of our efforts, but yet our efforts and our praying together in unity is what it takes to begin the biggest blessings.

So be very glad that you have the opportunity to pray with others who also love the Holy Rosary.
= = = = =
And yes, a lot of people pray the Rosary “by themselves”. In the Fellowship of the Saints, however, we have the opportunity to pray with others who are not physically present. Of course we can pray the whole thing out loud, softly or mentally in such a situation.

One way to pray with many others, is to enroll in “The Rosary Confraternity”. See pacifier.com/~rosarweb/ and also read more about the confraternity in “The Secret of the Rosary”. Members pray the Rosary once a week with intentions for the Rosary Confraternity and its members.

Another easier way to pray with others (in groups of 15) is to enroll in “The Universal Living Rosary Association of Saint Philomena” – see philomena.org/
Each person in a group of 15 is assigned a decade of the Rosary. Each one prays their assigned decade every day. And in this manner they share in praying a Rosary each day.
= = = = =
And by reading about Our Lady of Fatima, you will become encouraged to pray the Rosary every day. At least to pray the five decades of a chaplet (Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful or Glorious). Pope John Paul II has recommended which to say each day and almost any small pamphlet on how to say the Rosary will tell you what to pray on which days of the week.