How often and why shall we pray the rosary?

[figs]

You can start with a The History of the Filipino People by Teodoro Agoncillo.
For a more literary take, you can also check how the religious culture of the times in all its glory and tyranny is reflected in the works of Jose Rizal (Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo).

Like I thought, no, you can’t.

Looks like I and others can rest easy an continue to pray as much as we like guilt free!

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Like I thought, no, you can’t.

Looks like I and others can rest easy an continue to pray as much as we like guilt free!

Um, those are real sources. Google them. Check your local library for all I care. Heck, I’d dust up my own copy right now if it wasn’t 11 pm and I’ve got better things to do besides accommodating intellectual laziness and sitting around looking like I’m talking to myself.

Tell me honestly, have I struck a nerve? Cuz apparently, you seem quite defensive when someone dictates the dangers of overemphasizing prayer to the point of counter-productivity.

I’m not apologizing if someone reacts badly when they actually have compromised any value in their life because they spent more time with their hands together when they were supposed to be doing something else with them.

 

[figs]

Um, those are real sources. Google them. Check your local library for all I care. Heck, I’d dust up my own copy right now if it wasn’t 11 pm and I’ve got better things to do besides accommodating intellectual laziness and sitting around looking like I’m talking to myself.

Tell me honestly, have I struck a nerve? Cuz apparently, you seem quite defensive when someone dictates the dangers of overemphasizing prayer to the point of counter-productivity.

I’m not apologizing if someone reacts badly when they actually have compromised any value in their life because they spent more time with their hands together when they were supposed to be doing something else with them.

eh, yea…ok

 

[Carolus_Martell]

The Rosary is a wonderful daily devotion esp after church when said aloud with others. I’m pretty sure there’s an indulgence for that, the usual conditions met.

But any time convenient for you a good #2 as well. That imo is just one of a major reasons why this devotion is so loved around the world.

In a church that holds suffering, hardship, regimen, fasting, adversity, protocol etc…in high regard. That is not the case with the Rosary. With that devotion YOU sit in the big chair, YOU control the horizontal and the vertical.

…“hey I’m not doing anything, why I’m even bored so I’ll say the Rosary”

^while that may seem irreverent it is not meant to be because once one reviews our beliefs reciting the Apostles Creed they should be tracking spiritually.

It’s very good for quieting the mind of a lot of unwanted angst. Someone should do a test for any provable therapeutic benefits, I mean over the years you keep hearing the same stories from folks that make that devotion.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

eh, yea…ok

A clear indicator of religiously-motivated intellectual dishonesty is refusal to look up sources when they’ve already been provided. Thanks for demonstrating why atheists look down on us with an equally idiotic lack of seriousness.

books.google.com.ph/books/about/History_of_the_Filipino_people.html?id=VTwMAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noli_Me_Tangere_%28novel%29

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Filibusterismo

google.com.ph/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=si%20tandang%20basio%20macunat&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEAQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipilipinas.org%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DSi_Tandang_Basio_Macunat&ei=u851T8bPFMqOmQXFhpDpDw&usg=AFQjCNEZZXQsrTQtOD0Ic-sFczibQybZHg&cad=rja

 

[TimothyH]

"Lost Wanderer:

and yes praying too much.

There is no such thing.

Many in the Church have struggled with this very question. Is there such a thing as praying too much?

Paul told the Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing.” He repeated this call to constant prayer to the Ephesians as well, and told the Corinthains to “Persevere in prayer.” Christ himself even tells us to pray always.

Then he told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. (Luke 18:1)

If this is a command from Christ, then there really can’t be such a thing as praying too much. But the question is, how to we satisfy the command to pray contstantly and still work and take care of our families and sleep?

The earliest Christians wrestled with this question, and when the earliest monks went into the desert to form Christian communites, they created some solutins to the problem. Some communites prayed in shifts, with some monks praying while others slept and worked. Some prayed and paid other people to pray for them while they worked and slept. Some, such as the Messalianists, even tried to repeat as many prayers as possible to the exclusion of any labor whatsoever.

The only solution was a radical integration of prayer and work, and even an integration of prayer and sleep. Basil the Great wrote,

***While our hands are occupied, we can with our tounge praise God with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, when this is possible … if not, we can at least in our heart than God who has endowed our hands with the capacity to work … finally we shall ask God that the work of our hands may be guided toward their object, in order that they may be acceptable to God. ***

This is really the first step in integrating prayer and ordinary life. Origen wrote about uniting deed with prayer and prayer with deeds as the only way to fulfill Christ’s command to pray constantly. In this way, Origen wrote, “The entire life of a Christian, taken as a whole, is a single great prayer, and what we normally call prayer, is really only a small part of that.”

I think St. Benedict was able to bring the idea to maturity, and to this day a Benedictine Monk’s entire life is one big prayer. Saying the Liturgy of the Hours or kneeling and speaking with God is only the visible part of prayer. Washing dishes and doing laundry can be prayer, if it is done with an interior disposition of service to others and gratitude to God. Even sleep, if we do it to rest so that we can work hard and pray tomorrow, becomes prayer. And this view of prayer is not confined to Benedictine Monks. Opus Dei teaches ordinary life as a means to holiness and unity with God.

The interior disposition is key. One can always turn inward and find God. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. St. Therese of Avila understood this and said that we don’t have to try to find God in the heavens because he is close by, right inside of us. We can pray to the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us anywhere and at any time. We can recite the Jesus prayer in our thoughts any time. We can say the words of the tax collector in the temple, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” in the silence of our heart while at line at the grocery store.

I think we have a narrow view of what prayer really is. Kneeling and praying is only a small part of a prayerful life.

-Tim-

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

It’s very good for quieting the mind of a lot of unwanted angst. Someone should do a test for any provable therapeutic benefits, I mean over the years you keep hearing the same stories from folks that make that devotion.

That really depends on the person. Some people are calmed by praying.
Others by listening to heavy metal soundtracks whilst beating the crud out of a 2D sprite.

Either way, people pray the Rosary for more than therapeutic reasons and there are probably more than a handful of religious who think it should go beyond that.

 

[newyorkcatholic]

Tim: good points. We should sanctify our work.

But that still leaves the question, which I think has been answered but some are resisting: if you have obligations that are piling up and you are spending time saying the rosary or in adoration instead of addressing those obligations, you need to stop.

I am my family’s provider, and if I was so devoted to the rosary and the office that I missed obligations and risked getting fired, I would be seriously sinning.

But you suggested the solution: I should sanctify my work, dedicate my work to the Lord.

So we can’t pray too much, but certain types of prayer can be done excessively, yes. That’s a main reason we need spiritual directors.

Besides taking us from our obligations, we can also become spiritually prideful through excessive prayer or mortification.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

I think we have a narrow view of what prayer really is. Kneeling and praying is only a small part of a prayerful life.

One prays too much when the motivations more or less reduce religion into a less than admirable cause. In country’s like mine, poor people pray for prosperity all the time. And yet, they’re still gambling, still drinking, and are not even doing anything to improve the quality of their work.

 

[TimothyH]

Tim: good points. We should sanctify our work.

But that still leaves the question, which I think has been answered but some are resisting: if you have obligations that are piling up and you are spending time saying the rosary or in adoration instead of addressing those obligations, you need to stop.

I am my family’s provider, and if I was so devoted to the rosary and the office that I missed obligations and risked getting fired, I would be seriously sinning.

But you suggested the solution: I should sanctify my work, dedicate my work to the Lord.

So we can’t pray too much, but certain types of prayer can be done excessively, yes. That’s a main reason we need spiritual directors.

Besides taking us from our obligations, we can also become spiritually prideful through excessive prayer or mortification.

I sometimes go to adoration late at night, and have found myself too tired to work effectively the next day. This is unfair to my employer, and as he is paying me to work it is really stealing from him. So, yea, I see what you are saying. I have experienced it myself.

But I think in terms of prayer, it is more than just a dedication of work to God. Work can integrate with prayer, and can actually become prayer to the point that what we commonly think of as prayer - saying the rosary and the office - is only a small and visible part of our life of prayer.

Work, sleep, changing a diaper or typing a document for a customer, can all be prayer in the interior of our heart. There need not be a mutual exclusion, and it need not be visible to everyone, though if we sucessfully integrate prayer with ordinary life then we will be unable to hide it.

How does a monk pray? In the way he lives!
When does he pray? Always!
Where does he pray? Everywhere!

This is from the Rule of St. Benedict, but it is not just for monks. There are many good books on the subject.

-Tim-

 

[TimothyH]

One prays too much when the motivations more or less reduce religion into a less than admirable cause. In country’s like mine, poor people pray for prosperity all the time. And yet, they’re still gambling, still drinking, and are not even doing anything to improve the quality of their work.

Is that really praying too much, or praying the wrong way or with the wrong motivation?

-Tim-

 

[figs]

A clear indicator of religiously-motivated intellectual dishonesty is refusal to look up sources when they’ve already been provided. Thanks for demonstrating why atheists look down on us with an equally idiotic lack of seriousness.

books.google.com.ph/books/about/History_of_the_Filipino_people.html?id=VTwMAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noli_Me_Tangere_%28novel%29

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Filibusterismo

google.com.ph/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=si%20tandang%20basio%20macunat&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEAQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipilipinas.org%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DSi_Tandang_Basio_Macunat&ei=u851T8bPFMqOmQXFhpDpDw&usg=AFQjCNEZZXQsrTQtOD0Ic-sFczibQybZHg&cad=rja

Doesn’t answer my question - how much is too much for one to pray?

It’s a link to a history book and a novel. proves nothing, but thanks anyway.

I thought you would have understood since this is a Catholic forum, that I was hoping you could back up a statement of not needing to pray with a Church source, a Papal document, early father writtings, the Bible, or perhaps the CCC.
As a Catholic this is the common goround and language to speak. Your country’s history books aren’t relivent to someone whho lives in the UK

 

[figs]

Many in the Church have struggled with this very question. Is there such a thing as praying too much?

Paul told the Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing.” He repeated this call to constant prayer to the Ephesians as well, and told the Corinthains to “Persevere in prayer.” Christ himself even tells us to pray always.

Then he told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. (Luke 18:1)

If this is a command from Christ, then there really can’t be such a thing as praying too much. But the question is, how to we satisfy the command to pray contstantly and still work and take care of our families and sleep?

The earliest Christians wrestled with this question, and when the earliest monks went into the desert to form Christian communites, they created some solutins to the problem. Some communites prayed in shifts, with some monks praying while others slept and worked. Some prayed and paid other people to pray for them while they worked and slept. Some, such as the Messalianists, even tried to repeat as many prayers as possible to the exclusion of any labor whatsoever.

The only solution was a radical integration of prayer and work, and even an integration of prayer and sleep. Basil the Great wrote,

***While our hands are occupied, we can with our tounge praise God with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, when this is possible … if not, we can at least in our heart than God who has endowed our hands with the capacity to work … finally we shall ask God that the work of our hands may be guided toward their object, in order that they may be acceptable to God. ***

This is really the first step in integrating prayer and ordinary life. Origen wrote about uniting deed with prayer and prayer with deeds as the only way to fulfill Christ’s command to pray constantly. In this way, Origen wrote, “The entire life of a Christian, taken as a whole, is a single great prayer, and what we normally call prayer, is really only a small part of that.”

I think St. Benedict was able to bring the idea to maturity, and to this day a Benedictine Monk’s entire life is one big prayer. Saying the Liturgy of the Hours or kneeling and speaking with God is only the visible part of prayer. Washing dishes and doing laundry can be prayer, if it is done with an interior disposition of service to others and gratitude to God. Even sleep, if we do it to rest so that we can work hard and pray tomorrow, becomes prayer. And this view of prayer is not confined to Benedictine Monks. Opus Dei teaches ordinary life as a means to holiness and unity with God.

The interior disposition is key. One can always turn inward and find God. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. St. Therese of Avila understood this and said that we don’t have to try to find God in the heavens because he is close by, right inside of us. We can pray to the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us anywhere and at any time. We can recite the Jesus prayer in our thoughts any time. We can say the words of the tax collector in the temple, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” in the silence of our heart while at line at the grocery store.

I think we have a narrow view of what prayer really is. Kneeling and praying is only a small part of a prayerful life.

-Tim-

Thank you Tim and I agree , especially with your last sentence

 

[newyorkcatholic]

How does a monk pray? In the way he lives!
When does he pray? Always!
Where does he pray? Everywhere!

This is from the Rule of St. Benedict, but it is not just for monks. There are many good books on the subject.

-Tim-

That’s awesome.

 

[bcprincess]

I have to say I never gotten into bed at night and thought to myself “Hey, I wish I had prayed less today!”

If it is possible to pray to much, I don’t think I have every had the pleasure of meeting anyone who came close to following into that trap.

I dont ever remember getting into bed and thinking “Hey my kid talked to me far too much today” either and if I enjoy listening to my kids that much God the perfect Father surely enjoys it all the more.

:heaven: :byzsoc:

 

[Evan]

I dont ever remember getting into bed and thinking “Hey my kid talked to me far too much today” either and if I enjoy listening to my kids that much God the perfect Father surely enjoys it all the more.

:heaven: :byzsoc:

Apparently not the male parent of a teenage daughter, soon to be married.

 

[bcprincess]

Apparently not the male parent of a teenage daughter, soon to be married.

No, female parent married 2 girlies off already and only my boy left to go and as he is not yet 16 I have a while before I need to fight the girlies off with a baseball bat to stop me having the empty nest.

Sadly I am bound to loose the fight because he looks far too much like his dad and so demand will be high:shrug:

(Got the problem sorted though… I have been praying for his future spouse since he was 10 years old, so before we even meet I have a vested interest in her )

 

[Marian_Man]

How often and why shall we pray the rosary?

It is good to say at least five decades of the Most Holy Rosary daily. This is actually a very easy thing to do if you split it into a decade each. It only takes me 20-30 minutes—depending on which prayers I use at the opening and conclusion—to say a chaplet of the rosary. Currently I have been favouring the Dominican method which accounts for the 20-odd minutes. If I were to cut the opening and conclusion—including the Salve Regina— it would take me slightly less than twenty minutes I’m sure.

If you’re taking five minutes five times throughout your day I’m positive that you can say a chaplet. It is not hard in the least. In fact it is recommended by Saint Louis to do this, to split your rosary throughout the day.

Why should we pray the rosary?

1. To all those who shall pray my Rosary devoutly, I promise my special protection and great graces.
2. Those who shall persevere in the recitation of my Rosary will receive some special grace.
3. The Rosary will be a very powerful armor against hell; it will destroy vice, deliver from sin and dispel heresy.
4. The rosary will make virtue and good works flourish, and will obtain for souls the most abundant divine mercies. It will draw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. Those who trust themselves to me through the Rosary will not perish.
6. Whoever recites my Rosary devoutly reflecting on the mysteries, shall never be overwhelmed by misfortune. He will not experience the anger of God nor will he perish by an unprovided death. The sinner will be converted; the just will persevere in grace and merit eternal life.
7. Those truly devoted to my Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite my Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces and will share in the merits of the blessed.
9. I will deliver promptly from purgatory souls devoted to my Rosary.
10. True children of my Rosary will enjoy great glory in heaven.
11. What you shall ask through my Rosary you shall obtain.
12. To those who propagate my Rosary I promise aid in all their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Son that all the members of the Rosary Confraternity shall have as their intercessors, in life and in death, the entire celestial court.
14. Those who recite my Rosary faithfully are my beloved children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion to my Rosary is a special sign of predestination

Can we pray too much?

No we cannot. What we have to understand is that there are different ways to pray. Our very lives should be a prayer. Our every action—if performed in conformity with God’s Will—is a prayer. Prayer does not have to be solely confined to the sublime chanting of the Divine Office by the Religious. It does not have to be confined to a half-hour’s mediation on waking and before reclining to sleep. Not does it have to be confined to Our Lady’s Psalter.

Paying your bills or sweeping the floor can be just as prayerful. Remember the widow who gave two-mites compared to the much given by the richer men. It wasn’t much of an offering but it was wholly accepted because of the soul that gave it.

So we can never pray too much.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Is that really praying too much, or praying the wrong way or with the wrong motivation?

First, let’s review by what ‘much’ means. It’s excess right? What determines excess? Isn’t it when it starts interfering with other equally important obligations and taking up too much of the time that was supposed to be allocated to them?

Prayer can easily fall under that when you decide that you’d rather pray for 5 hours instead of getting a job or on the other hand, need a really huge break for the sake of your mental health.

Doesn’t answer my question - how much is too much for one to pray?

My country’s history under religious Spanish rule is pretty much proof of how prayer can be ‘too much’.

It’s a link to a history book and a novel. proves nothing, but thanks anyway.

I thought you would have understood since this is a Catholic forum, that I was hoping you could back up a statement of not needing to pray with a Church source, a Papal document, early father writtings, the Bible, or perhaps the CCC.
As a Catholic this is the common goround and language to speak. Your country’s history books aren’t relivent to someone whho lives in the UK

LOL! So only religious sources are welcome here? Last time I checked, even the armchair historians we have on board look to history to validate and invalidate things in apologetics.

My country has a history of religious oppression. Even the most devout Catholics will not deny how much atrocity Spain committed here in the Church’s name. Clerical abuse. Manipulation of the masses. Marx would have a field day if he ever visited my country 300 years ago. You being British only makes you more ignorant of how religion itself can be distorted to cause harm and enable tyranny. That has been my point. I have provided sources to prove it. You refuse to read them. Therefore, the best conclusion here is that you are intellectually dishonest and are talking with your head in the sand.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Apparently not the male parent of a teenage daughter, soon to be married.

Nor apparently the son of a family digging deep into the whole New Age positive thinking movement (translated: no negative ranting and whining allowed) OR friends with people who can’t stand people who ‘whine and complain’ too much.