When meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary for example the baptism of Jesus… Can one imagine the mystery of the baptism of Jesus like so during the rosary for example; Jesus approaching the waters for baptism or him speaking to John the Baptist before he got baptized ?
or does one actually have to just imagine the baptism of Christ?
Say I use three Hail Marys to imagine Jesus approaching John the Baptist for baptism and the rest for Him getting baptized.
Or say for example meditating on the wedding in Cana is there something specific I’m supposed to meditate on? Can I just imagine or meditate on what I want to concerning that? Or just any verses of scripture that’s given if I were to use like a pamphlet of how to pray the rosary?
When meditating on for example the Joyful Mysteries I’m I supposed to meditate on things that are joyful in those Mysteries? Like with Mary and Joseph finding Jesus in the temple am I not supposed to meditate on the sadness they might have felt when they lost Jesus and any possible happiness they felt when they found Him?
You can meditate on any aspect of a particular Mystery that you want. You can picture Jesus approaching John the Baptist. You can picture what maybe happened afterwards. The sky is the limit.
I just finished saying several Rosaries using a “scriptural rosary” booklet put out by the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic organization). A “scriptural rosary” is a meditation aid where there is a Bible verse or two for each Hail Mary so you can read the verses in between the Hail Marys and keep your mind on what you are doing. Usually the verses are from the New Testament story concerning the mystery. But this scriptural rosary had a lot of verses from the Old Testament that foreshadowed or somehow related to the mystery. So you could even do something like that. Or think about situations in modern life that might be like what the Blessed Mother experienced during each mystery. These sorts of variations help keep the Rosary from being boring if you say it every day or even say more than one Rosary a day as some of us do.
Prayer is experimental.
If it brings you closer to God and increases charity in your daily life then it is working.
If it doesn’t work, try a different method.
No two people are the same.
What works for you may not work for another.
Your best prayer style changes as you mature.
For the green it starts out like you wrote.
As you mature I hope you aren’t still being so regimented or “thoughtative”.
Its a stop start reality. Some days a “mature” method works, some days an old “baby” method works best. Wisdom is knowing the difference and when to stop flogging a dead horse simply as a discipline.
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