How do you get comfortable with the rosary?

[Googler]

It was clear to me that the OP did not ask whether she is obligated to recite this prayer.
Posting here that it is ‘optional’, to me, is discouraging, rather than helpful.
That said, if I had to choose between daily Mass (the greatest prayer) and daily Rosary, I would choose Mass, of course. Yet I pray the Rosary out of love for Jesus and His Mother. And as a child and servant of Mary Immaculate I’m can only be obedient. She knows best. The benefits of the Rosary are far too numerous to mention here anyhow.
Please do not knock it until you’ve tried it. That means thoroughly learning it—yes, until you’ve memorized all the prayers and mysteries. By then you’ll know if this wonderfully holy Marian devotion can bring you closer to Jesus or not.
This is just me but it took 6 months of daily devotion to memorize it.
Like anything worthwhile it is a challenge.
Some tips:

• Don’t get too comfortable when reciting or you’ll most likely fall asleep before you are half way through it. I have to recite my Rosary either on my knees or while I’m active.
• Be creative to maintain your interest by inserting personal intentions before or after certain prayers. Ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to develop the virtues of Our Lady.
• Beginning each mystery with a scriptural reflection helps me.
• You may want to include the Fatima prayer. Maybe so, maybe no. You may even want to add an ‘Amen’ after the Fatima prayer.
• Put yourself in the scene witnessing each mystery.
• The goal is not to finish it faster. Force yourself to slow down the pace a little. Permit yourself to be absorbed by it—to fall in love with the prayer. Believe it or not God gives more time to those who spend time with Him.
• Once you experience the difference it makes in your day, you’ll want to pray it before your day unfolds.

Ave, Ave, Ave Maria!

“Hail Mary” Song (EWTN version)

 

[MyLittlPwn13]

It was suggested to me once that I pause at the word “Jesus” in each Hail Mary to refocus myself on the mystery. That helped a lot. Also, being a visual person, I like to be able to focus on an image while I’m praying to keep my attention from wandering. I have an app on my phone that has a painting for each mystery. Since I pray mine on the train on the way home from work, I just keep the Rosary in one hand and the app in the other. Also, there’s nothing that says you have to memorize everything. You probably will eventually, but there’s nothing wrong with reading the prayers at the end from a card (or again, the app ). And most of all, practice makes perfect

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

It was clear to me that the OP did not ask whether she is obligated to recite this prayer.
Posting here that it is ‘optional’, to me, is discouraging, rather than helpful.

I see how it can come across that way.

I have been pressured so many times about the Rosary, and about not acting “Catholic enough” when in fact I have my entire life and legacy devoted to the Church and as far as I can tell all they have invested is their ego and a few trinkets of time, talent, and treasure so they can have done “the proper things” to be a Good Catholic.

With that experience, I know what it’s like to give up the notion that something that is touted as mainstream IS optional, and decide I am somehow faulty and it must be fixed.

Once I’m past that point, I don’t even know it’s optional I just focus on my fault and whether there is hope is will be closed. If I hadn’t finally confessed this to a kind, and “old school conservative” pastor who personally loved the Rosary, I might have gone my whole life with a feeling of shame and guilt, thinking I am faulty for not loving something that I’m supposed to love.

So when the OP says, “gosh no matter what I’ve done I just can’t get into it, so somebody please help me get into it,” then I want to extend the kindness my pastor extended me in informing me that I am not required to get into it. I actually dislike the Rosary a lot less now, since it does not have that connection of guilt and shame.

You would have me withhold Truth from the OP, by failing to make sure they are aware that their dislike for the Rosary does not mean they are “less Catholic” as in fact you would have them believe. Why? Because you think the Rosary is good and everybody should do it. If I want coaching on loving the Rosary, I would come to you and as you have already done, you would give me lots of resources to help. Meanwhile let me relieve the person of the feeling of obligation which can work against every one of your suggestions, by making sure the person knows (s)he is learning to love the Rosary by choice, not by force of guilt and sin, or being defective as a Catholic. If you don’t make sure they know that, then you may be actually burying a deeper problem by painting it over with a nice veneer.

So please don’t even despair that being more informed of Truth is “discouraging.” Think instead about more honest and unbiased Truth, as opposed to more limited and targeted Truth, it as “empowering.”

I suspect the real reason you are discouraged by my mentioning that it is optional, is that you probably think it should be mandatory, if not by canon than at least by golly and by good conscience. You would sooner recruit a blind minion, than to risk letting go of a person who isn’t called to follow the same path as you.

If it involved a matter of salvation, then it would be an entirely different issue. I wouldn’t have said, “oh you don’t have to confess mortal sins because you could just die and go to hell instead,” then yes that is truth, but is not helpful.

Funny thing that’s the implication of many things we tell other Catholics: “you don’t have to say the Rosary to be a good Catholic. You can just miss out on all the blessings the ‘cool Catholics’ are getting.” I guess that’s how my statement must have come across to you. The only reason that would not be helpful, is that people like you would have withheld that option.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

It was suggested to me once that I pause at the word “Jesus” in each Hail Mary to refocus myself on the mystery. That helped a lot. Also, being a visual person, I like to be able to focus on an image while I’m praying to keep my attention from wandering. I have an app on my phone that has a painting for each mystery. Since I pray mine on the train on the way home from work, I just keep the Rosary in one hand and the app in the other. Also, there’s nothing that says you have to memorize everything. You probably will eventually, but there’s nothing wrong with reading the prayers at the end from a card (or again, the app ). And most of all, practice makes perfect

That actually makes it sound fun! I might even just try this.

Funny thing; my wife and I used to make Rosaries and give them away. And we’ve sent some to troops in the original Gulf War. Maybe some day I’ll try one out myself! Who knows but that this thread may have catalyzed a change in me for the presumed better?

 

[Della]

I’m glad you discussed the fact that no one is obliged to pray the rosary. It’s a devotion. All devotions are optional. If a devotion doesn’t help your prayer life (using the generic you here, meaning anyone) then you don’t have to do it. Find something else that speaks to you, instead. There are many Marian out there, as well as others, such as the Divine Mercy Devotion. The rosary is probably the most popular, but it’s not the end all and be all of Catholicism.

I always encourage people to pray the Divine Office/Liturgy of the Hours because it is the daily prayer of the Church, which is prayed around the clock all over the world, just as the Mass is. It’s easy to do. Indeed, it’s online: divineoffice.org/. Praying Morning and Evening Prayer is suficient, but anyone may pray any or all of the hours, if they wish. Considering that most of us can read and write now, and the DO is available in our own languages, there’s really no reason why anyone can’t pray it. Each office only takes about 10 to 15 minutes (depending on if you read it aloud or not). As I wrote in another post the rosary sprang from the DO. Going back to it keeps us in line with Church’s seasons, feast and HDO, as well as providing a solid spiritual foundation/discipline.

The rosary is fine, beautiful, wonderful. Still, it’s not mandatory. So, whatever devotion helps your spiritual life is a-okay.

 

[Googler]

I have been pressured so many times about the Rosary, and about not acting “Catholic enough” when in fact I have my entire life and legacy devoted to the Church and as far as I can tell all they have invested is their ego and a few trinkets of time, talent, and treasure so they can have done “the proper things” to be a Good Catholic.
With that experience, I know what it’s like to give up the notion that something that is touted as mainstream IS optional, and decide I am somehow faulty and it must be fixed.

I think that in general, mostly all of us are not Catholic enough. Our Lady was the only perfect Catholic. She is the only perfect human. I can understand some of the behaviors some of the Faithful display, may appear superficial at times yet I give them credit for their efforts and try not to judge. What is a ‘Good Catholic’ will always be open to debate and if there is a basic Church approved criteria, I’d like to see it. If we’re apostles that follow the usage and doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, there ought not be such criticism at the way we live our Faith. I do think that to live good Catholic lives, these days, requires heroic virtue. I’d rather encourage Catholic devotions than criticize them. Certainly things are ‘optional’. Thank God for variety! Just because something is optional does not make it unworthy. There are even poor sinners who insist the Catechism of the Catholic Church is optional, which to me, just discourages more than encourages the Faithful from reading it. Of course, I’m not putting blame on you for relating your experience which is totally valid. It just seems to me that the OP had already realized the option and decided to pursue her objective to go through with the intention. It’s just fine that you have no Rosary devotion. This may or not be helpful to the OP.

Are newbies better off with contemplative prayer?
Can the Rosary be a school of contemplation?
Related info HERE.
THE ROSARY AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER By Father Paul K. Raftery, O.P.

I don’t know if contemplative prayer is for everyone.
I do know ‘active’ prayers were requested by Jesus (the Divine Mercy prayers) and by our Blessed Mother for all the world to pray the Rosary daily.

C.C.C. 2679
Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus’ mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope.

You would have me withhold Truth from the OP, by failing to make sure they are aware that their dislike for the Rosary does not mean they are “less Catholic” as in fact you would have them believe.

I refuse to argue about whether its obligatory to have a Rosary devotion. Actually, for some that are involved in other devotions, they are obliged. It’s a subject for a different thread. Obviously, I think the Rosary is good. I’m fully aware it’s not for everyone. But if I come upon a poor sinner struggling with this devotion I’m obligated to help. It’s my job. It produces good results. I have no doubt.

Specifically there were 2 questions from the OP:
“Do you pray the whole thing?”
“Any newbie tricks for getting comfortable with the rosary?”
I replied to the best of my knowledge. Did your reply help the OP? Perhaps. I hope that it was an insightful and a considerable contribution even if it was (in my opinion) discouraging.

God’s peace unto you, brother!

To all the Faithful,
May this coming year be filled with a sense of wonder of God’s presence in your life. And through the intercession of Mary Immaculate may you experience from the depth of your heart and soul God’s love and mercy for you. May God bless you. And a very Merry Christmas!

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

First, thank you Della, for validated my desire to put on the table right from the start, whether this is something that’s required or it’s my choice.

The first thing I want to know when I’m working on something, is why I’m doing it. Because I never don’t have other things I could be doing with my mind and body – so like here I am typing knowing that it is entirely optional, and taking responsibility if it interferes with something that is more “important” to me or even “required” of me.

Because I can’t escape if the choice is loaded, because it’s “expected” to some degree of pain if I don’t, or because I actually have a choice and won’t be judged if I make the “wrong” one – by people who refuse to say there is a wrong one but then tell me why I’m wrong to have made it. It’s like saying I have a free will choice to stick my hands in my pockets when officers with guns drawn tell me to show them my open hands out to the side. It is a choice with coercive imminent threat, not a “free will” choice. No contract is legal if signed under duress, when it must be signed of free will.

:whacky:

It’s just fine that you have no Rosary devotion. This may or not be helpful to the OP.

Thank you. I also didn’t know, but I thought the risk of negative consequences of wanting to know and not knowing, was less than that of answering a question that wasn’t asked.

I don’t know if contemplative prayer is for everyone.
I do know ‘active’ prayers were requested by Jesus (the Divine Mercy prayers) and by our Blessed Mother for all the world to pray the Rosary daily.

Yes but those are not binding on Catholics either, are they? The CCC says prayer life “should” advance to contemplative? Does that mean it’s for everyone? The way I read it, it does. The problem I see is there are so few practitioners, and many of the ones that are trying are not finding it successful for one reason or the other including they’re listening to dumb advice on how to go about it, that it seems like an anomaly when IMO it should be commonplace.

You might check out “Expressions of Prayer,” CCC 2700-2724 It covers vocal, meditative, and contemplative prayers. It actually has more to say about contemplative prayer, than the other two combined? How come Joe Pew Sitter has heard homilies about how to become closer to God, every week for years, and never even heard of it?

Here are the summary paragraphs for each section, so you can see why I say we all “should” at least know about contemplative prayer, and preferably advance into it:

2704 Because it is external and so thoroughly human, vocal prayer is the form of prayer most readily accessible to groups. Even interior prayer, however, cannot neglect vocal prayer. Prayer is internalized to the extent that we become aware of him "to whom we speak;"4 Thus vocal prayer becomes an initial form of contemplative prayer.

2708 Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.

2724 Contemplative prayer is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in his mystery.

The reason we have such violent Dark Nights, is that when we untangle our mixed-up mental wineskins to add new wine, it’s a little more complicated than just reciting a creed until we think we believe in it whether we understand its implications or not. And there are so few directors and even fewer spiritual advanced so far, the harvest is only beginning and we are still taking in fresh new harvesters. It’s a totally different approach to think you can get closer to God by doing less with your mind rather than more, in a culture where “more critical thinking” is sold as the answer to and security blanket for all of life’s ills.

I am confident, having been through quite a tumultuous one and delivered healed, serene, and with more “fruit” than I can be thankful enough for, that as more of us get into this practice, we will be able to help each other manage the darkness. It’s just like sticking with a friend in crisis; you are there with them and don’t try to fix them because that’s the Lord’s problems. Poorly done psychiatric care, or none when there needs to be, problematic social behavior and risks to job and even civil rights if they think you’re nuts enough to lock up like they did me – they will even lie and catch you like an animal. You get to play the leper as you are shunned from places without strong men because they are scared of your behavior that your loved ones know is harmless, because they don’t understand it.

A few totally loving friends and family members, and especially ones who have had experiences like this before or currently, can do more in one week than any number of Big Pharmacy approved psychiatrists. Do you know why medicine controls but does not “cure” mental illness, but this is possible with God? Because love and truth will set you free, in most cases IMO of psychosis and schizophrenia without known physical pathology like stroke, seizures, or brain damage. Being controlled and locked up will keep you and society safe from each other, but cannot heal. What it impossible for man is possible for the Lord.

(continued)

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

And let me tell you that once it’s over – and it will be over sooner (and before we die) with love and especially good spiritual guidance and/or peers – you have died to your egoic self and with some optional Grand Finale fireworks, find yourself in “the kingdom” way of looking at things, and all of a sudden Jesus’s parables make intuitive sense and could metaphorically be applied to so many things they don’t even sound strange any more. As Jesus says, once you gain knowledge and talents of the kingdom, more will be given and you will grow rich (in this knowledge). Peace flows like a river where radical, severe, unfixable bipolar storms just went through and found peaceful outlets during centering prayer or I may have ended up institutionalized.

And being fixed by the Lord after being completely and “incurably” insane by standards of modern medicine, one cannot help but be grateful to even live in a new world with peace and serenity and do the King David dance while shouting on the rooftops, “Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord.” How to do this? For me contemplative prayer wasn’t the whole answer, but it was a critical part of it without which I would be dead or locked away for life. Instead of annoying you guys – now don’t get any ideas.

Vocal and meditative are active endeavors, and contemplative is arguably “passive” in that there is no focused attention or attempt at “controlling” the active mind, but simply relaxing doesn’t seem as effective as certain “methods” for lack of better term (basically sitting quietly and letting thoughts go without dwelling or meditating on them) so it’s active in that sense.

I suggest a gentle but very complete approach to the forms of prayer prayer, in a book being used for brand new seminary students in their first semester (easy to read, not technical) and written by a Jesuit, and with imprimatur and nihil obstat.

There is a “look inside” at Amazon so you only have to invest a few minutes to check it out. He talks of three main stages of prayer, and gives great ideas about how to do all of them, including the Rosary. 1) talking at God (memorized prayer) 2) talking to God (made-up prayer) and 3) listening to God (contemplative prayer).


Mark Thibodeaux S.J. (Author)

I refuse to argue about whether its obligatory to have a Rosary devotion.

Ummm… then why did you start the argument? I offered some information to the OP, and you made it a point to state that such information may not be helpful. There would be no argument, and I wouldn’t be going off on you right now if you hadn’t put that in your post. Everything else you wrote was excellent, but I responded to the one negative thing and why? Because I want to play the victim? Maybe, but since it was specifically a snipe at my post, I wasn’t about to let you get away with telling the group to ignore my post because you found it to be Your Solemn Duty to tell me that I had offered information that was “not helpful.”

If you don’t want to argue about it, then offer your own comments to the OP without judging and condemning mine. I found it rather insulting that you considered your advice better than mine, although I do agree you answered the OP question directly.

More than insulting, though, I find it sad that so many Catholics STILL, in the “information age,” don’t know what kind of prayer the CCC says we SHOULD be doing.

Actually, for some that are involved in other devotions, they are obliged. It’s a subject for a different thread. Obviously, I think the Rosary is good. I’m fully aware it’s not for everyone. But if I come upon a poor sinner struggling with this devotion I’m obligated to help. It’s my job. It produces good results. I have no doubt.

You are fully aware it’s not for everyone, but you take public objection when I point out that fact. Admit it – you don’t really believe it isn’t for everyone, and you would rather the Church didn’t teach that … am I right? Do you wish it were compulsory so that people like me wouldn’t distract your prospective students from following your advice?

It’s all about ego. Leggo my ego.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

Specifically there were 2 questions from the OP:
“Do you pray the whole thing?”
“Any newbie tricks for getting comfortable with the rosary?”
I replied to the best of my knowledge. Did your reply help the OP? Perhaps. I hope that it was an insightful and a considerable contribution even if it was (in my opinion) discouraging.

Yes, we all know you think it’s discouraging and now that I point it out you don’t want it to be a Big Deal. Next time don’t voice your negative opinions about the value of another poster’s advice, unless you are expecting a pushback – which you consider an argument. You don’t want an argument; you just want to take pot shots and have the last word with no dissent. At least it appears this way; I can’t judge you except to tell you what comes through your words and my (name removed by moderator)ut processing centers.

It was clear to me that the OP did not ask whether she is obligated to recite this prayer.
Posting here that it is ‘optional’, to me, is discouraging, rather than helpful.

OK. I just pasted the entire OP into word to get a count.

12 lines. 90 words. 472 characters, including spaces.

In that short of an OP, is it possible you missed an important clue – that another poster with a different life experience might have picked up on? Let’s me teach you how to read this in the way my “empathy detectors” kicked in and offered my :twocents:

One thing I have still is an issue how much prayers we have as Catholics, I mean of course it’s a good thing but I’m amazed at it! Protestant prayers are like boom! and then done. It’s definitely something I’m having to get used to.

Look very carefully at the highlighted section. What, precisely, is “still an issue,” in the context of the OP, referred to within that section? Check which comes closest to covering the explicit or implicit presuppositions. There is only one right answer:

a) that the OP doesn’t know how to say the Rosary.
b) that the OP wishes for more help on saying the Rosary.
b) that the OP is excited and thrilled to have so many prayers to say
d) that the OP is finding the large amount of (seemingly required) Catholic prayers as an issue
e) that Kat was surprised at the “required” prayers and is struggling with them.
f) both d) and e)

Did you get f? You should have. OP if you see this, and I am wrong, please correct me and I will apologize both for making wrong assumptions and acting this certain about it.

An analogy:

So I go to the professor and say, “professor I’m afraid I’m going to fail my test because I just can’t concentrate when I study.” The professor could say, “well, there are some great study guides in the library, and there is a study group that it meeting just before the test. Maybe that will help.”

Or, if the professor “happened to have” her grade book, she could say, “I see you have an A on all assignments; you can skip the final if you want but you already have an A so it’s totally optional if you want to study and/or take it.”

Which answer would you prefer? The one that increases your anxiety? Or the one that both lifts your burden and offers to help you with your goals?

That said, if I had to choose between daily Mass (the greatest prayer) and daily Rosary, I would choose Mass, of course. Yet I pray the Rosary out of love for Jesus and His Mother. And as a child and servant of Mary Immaculate I’m can only be obedient.

OK but by “obedient” are you referring to required Church teachings? Or to an apparition which is not binding on Catholics? There is a salient difference here.

You may obey what you believe Mary has told you. I think that is excellent.

What you believe she has told you is not binding on me. The only thing she said that is binding on me, is “do what He tells you.” There is no dogmatic evidence of further instructions as far as I know.

She knows best. The benefits of the Rosary are far too numerous to mention here anyhow.
Please do not knock it until you’ve tried it. That means thoroughly learning it—yes, until you’ve memorized all the prayers and mysteries. By then you’ll know if this wonderfully holy Marian devotion can bring you closer to Jesus or not.
This is just me but it took 6 months of daily devotion to memorize it.

No. I don’t want to. I’ve tried it plenty. I pretended for 40 years that I was really into it. I don’t need to memorize the prayers and the mysteries. I can Google them in ten seconds and see artistic renditions and listen to YouTubes about them, and yes I do those kinds of things. I just don’t go around and around in a circle repeating the same things like you like to do.

Ave, Ave, Ave Maria!

“Hail Mary” Song (EWTN version)

Beautiful video … I watched it once to see what it was. Another time to know it better, and a third in honor of you, and how good a sport you’re being about my making a Big Deal out of something you didn’t want to get into. I probably sound condescending but part of it is definitely defending my ego. I want to know what goals are calling to a student so I can better help them meet them. To me, a struggling student is helped by knowing for what purpose the struggle is. For personal edification and becoming closer to Mary? Or because we have to? If it’s the latter, there may be other issues involved.

And that’s what would have happened, if you hadn’t decided to judge my advice before giving your own. Or if I wasn’t in the kind of mood to defend my ego against perceived attack.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

And now, here’s a random song that I think is beautiful, which speaks of darkness and what we get out of it, based on St. John of the Cross’s writings. He’s not the mother of God, but he is a doctor of the church and an accomplished author and director of souls. And we have his actual writings in his own language and hand, as opposed to relying on a message allegedly delivered at an apparition. So I’d say he’s worth listening to.

Pio isn’t a doctor of the Church, right? Anyway this song has snippets of his “Stanzas of the Soul” in it, which describes a soul’s journey through a Dark Night, as it describes it after the fact – seeing that the darkness was actually its safety, and the light of love guided it brighter than any light. I think the stanzas should be recited every day, because they sum up the entire mystical journey to Divine Union, insofar as possible in our lifetimes.

It’s by Dan Shutte: please don’t let that stop you; it’s really very inspiring to me, and to others I knew especially while grieving.

Holy Darkness by Dan Schutte

I’ll make a deal with you. If you watch my Holy Darkness video once every day until the end of 2014, then I’ll watch your Rosary video for the same time and we can compare notes. How about that? Could you find a better devotion-swap offer than that?

If you want to one-up it, I’ll challenge you even further. If you promise to recite the entire Stanzas of the Soul once per day as well, then I will say the Rosary. Offer expires at 11:59 on Dec 24, U.S. Central time. I will check back to see if you have taken me up in this challenge either in this thread or by PM.

This is your chance to force me into taking your advice, and I’m happy to offer it because if I let you plant your seeds in me, I offer you mine in return. Together we’ll give a garden with lots of options for the Gardener to use.

Peace, joy, and Merry Christmas,
MS

Edit: the stanzas and intro comments from the Dark Night. Source: EWTN:

---

THE DARK NIGHT

An explanation of the stanzas describing a soul’s conduct along the
spiritual road that leads to the perfect union with God through love,
insofar as it is attainable in this life. A description also of the
characteristics of one who has reached this perfection.

PROLOGUE FOR THE READER

P. In this book we will first cite the entire poem, then each stanza will
be repeated separately and explained, and finally we will do the same thing
with the individual verses.

P.(2). The first two stanzas describe the effects of the two kinds of
spiritual purgation that take place in a person: one, a purification of the
sensory part; the other, a purification of the spiritual part. The
remaining six stanzas speak of some of the marvelous results obtained from
spiritual illumination and union with God through love.

STANZAS OF THE SOUL

	1. One dark night,
	fired with love's urgent longings
	  -- ah, the sheer grace! -- 
	I went out unseen,
	my house being now all stilled.
	
	2. In darkness, and secure,
  	by the secret ladder, disguised,
	 -- ah, the sheer grace! -- 
	in darkness and concealment,
	my house being now all stilled.

	3. On that glad night,
  	in secret, for no one saw me,
	nor did I look at anything,
	with no other light or guide
	than the one that burned in my heart.

	4. This guided me
     	more surely than the light of noon
	to where he was awaiting me
	 -- him I knew so well -- 
	there in a place where no one appeared.

	5. O guiding night!
  	O night more lovely than the dawn!
	O night that has united
	the Lover with his beloved,
	transforming the beloved in her Lover.

	6. Upon my flowering breast
  	which I kept wholly for him alone,
	there he lay sleeping,
	and I caressing him
	there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.

	7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
  	as I parted his hair,
  	it wounded my neck
	with its gentle hand,
	suspending all my senses.

	8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
  	laying my face on my Beloved;
	all things ceased; I went out from myself,
	leaving my cares
	forgotten among the lilies.

P.(3). Beginning of the explanation of the stanzas that deal with the way a
soul must conduct itself along the road leading to union with God through
love, by Padre Fray John of the Cross.

 

[Techno2000]

I still haven’t prayed it. I just look at it and am like…another day. Do you pray the whole thing? I have a book on how to do it but it’s just really complicated.

One thing I have still is an issue how much prayers we have as Catholics, I mean of course it’s a good thing but I’m amazed at it! Protestant prayers are like boom! and then done. It’s definitely something I’m having to get used to.

Any newbie tricks for getting comfortable with the rosary?

Thanks!

Kat

themostholyrosary.com/mystical-city.htm

 

[styrgwillidar]

My tip? It’s like working out, or dieting, or taking on a project- just do it. The most important step is starting. There are plenty of guides on praying the Rosary on line or in Catholic book stores.

I normally pray the Rosary- all four sets of mysteries - while I work out and offer up the pain/sweat/effort for the poor souls in purgatory. But that’s just me. Funny in that some folks don’t like saying the Luminous mysteries as they seem them being invalid since they were fairly recently incorporated into the Rosary.

The other tip is to read what the Catechism has to say on prayer, there are several chapters devoted to it. Approach the Rosary not as an end in itself, but as simply a means for achieving the purpose of prayer. This is why it isn’t a requirement, some folks find it more useful than others in achieving the purpose of prayer. If it doesn’t work for you, find something else. Again, the Rosary is not a goal it is simply one method of achieving the goal.

As I said, read everything the Catechism has to say on prayer, but I find contemplating a few passages may be useful:
usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/epub/index.cfm#

2559 **“Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.”**2 But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or “out of the depths” of a humble and contrite heart?3 He who humbles himself will be exalted;4 humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought,”5 are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. “Man is a beggar before God.”

2562 Where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays.** If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.**

2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.41

As you pray the Rosary, try to focus on raising your heart and mind to God-- which is why meditation/contemplation on the mysteries is important, deeper contemplation of God’s nature and what He was willing to go through as a man- more so than ‘counting the beads’ or execution of the prayers. Again, a method not a goal.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

As you pray the Rosary, try to focus on raising your heart and mind to God-- which is why meditation/contemplation on the mysteries is important, deeper contemplation of God’s nature and what He was willing to go through as a man- more so than ‘counting the beads’ or execution of the prayers. Again, a method not a goal.

This may be part of my own problem. To me it is more of a process than a means to an end, and even emoting over the mysteries seems like an obligatory part of the process.

TO a greater degree, I feel that way about the Church. If I go to church because I have to, compared to going because it’s part of my strategy to become closer to God.

I’ll make a deal with you. If you watch my Holy Darkness video once every day until the end of 2014, then I’ll watch your Rosary video for the same time and we can compare notes. How about that? Could you find a better devotion-swap offer than that?

If you want to one-up it, I’ll challenge you even further. If you promise to recite the entire Stanzas of the Soul once per day as well, then I will say the Rosary. Offer expires at 11:59 on Dec 24, U.S. Central time. I will check back to see if you have taken me up in this challenge either in this thread or by PM.

This is your chance to force me into taking your advice, and I’m happy to offer it because if I let you plant your seeds in me, I offer you mine in return. Together we’ll give a garden with lots of options for the Gardener to use.

Oh well time’s up.

Merry Christmas, everyone! :christmastree1:

 

[Miriam1947]

. . .

I don’t know if contemplative prayer is for everyone.
**I do know ‘active’ prayers were requested by Jesus (the Divine Mercy prayers) and by our Blessed Mother for all the world to pray the Rosary daily.
**

. . .

You are quoting an apparition and I personally find that unhelpful since as a Catholic I do not need to believe in any apparition.

 

[Mystical_Seeker]

You are quoting an apparition and I personally find that unhelpful since as a Catholic I do not need to believe in any apparition.

I know what you mean. We chase vague phantasms over actually following the documented Catechism and words of the doctors of the church which we have, written in their own hand compared to at least fourth-hand accounts of the phantasms, to advance our romantic notions of what we think it means to be a Real Catholic.

… and then chastise other Catholics for citing truth that is inconvenient vis-à-vis their own personal mutation of Catholicism we wish to advance. :tsktsk:

Who needs truth when you have more-Catholic-than-you posters, eh?