Rosary Help

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Sinner1

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I need help with the Rosary.

I just can’t concentrate. Every time I try to meditate on the mysteries, my mind just wanders and starts thinking about anything else. And when I do get back to thinking about the mystery, I just can’t meditate.

How do you meditate, for instance, on the Sorrowful Mysteries when Jesus is given a crown of thorns? What do you think about? How do you think about it?

Also, I find it hard to meditate while I’m praying “Hail Mary’s”. I just can’t get my mind to do two things at once.

Thanks for the help.
 
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Sinner1:
How do you meditate, for instance, on the Sorrowful Mysteries when Jesus is given a crown of thorns? What do you think about? How do you think about it?
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I think about His patience and His humility. I think about how He was reading the hearts of the people who placed the crown of thorns on His head and how He still loved them. I think about how the true crown of glory is the crown of thorns, not one of gold and jewels - the value of suffering over riches. I think about the thorns piercing His scalp and how much it must have bled because there are lots of blood vessels in the scalp. And the blood dripping into His eyes and His being unable to wipe it away because His hands were bound. And the pain. And the love.

It all starts with placing yourself in the scene of the mystery as an observer or a minor character and letting your imagination go with it. The Hail Marys are just running in the background while you pray the mysteries. Hope this helps.

Betsy
 
I usually pray aloud to keep my focus, and use the appropriate Scripture passages as a means for meditation on the mysteries. Of course, some mysteries like the Assumption aren’t contained in the New Testament. I find that with these if you just think about what they mean it is easy to focus on them.

Music helps too. I like Handel’s Xerxes.

-ACEGC
 
Oh, how well I understand what your saying. I had and still have the same problem but it lessing. I would tell you just to keep praying the rosary on a daily basis and in time you will “get It”. It just takes practice.
 
You may want to find a book that has pictures representing the Mysteries of the Rosary and focus on that while praying.

You may also want to add one little phrase during the Hail Mary to help you stay focused (this was recommend by Pope John Paul II), for example:

During first joyful mystery, The Annunciation:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, as the Holy Spirit overshadows you. Holy Mary, Mother of God…

The Visitation:

…as you visit your cousin Elizabeth…

The Birth of Jesus:

… as He comes into this world…

The Presentation:

… as you present your Son at the temple…

The Finding of the Boy Jesus:

… as you are reunited with Jesus at the Temple.

You can put whatever phrase is relevant to the mystery you are meditating upon and it keeps in in your mind while you pray.
 
When I need to focus on the Rosary, I use this little phamplet distributed by my church that has not only pictures to help me focus on the Mystery, but the Bible passage it relates to. As I say my Hail Marys, I look at the pictures and think about the all the good works our Lord Jesus Christ has done.

You can find phamplets online, or maybe even try and invest in a CD or tape with the recitation of the Rosary. I also find these very inspiring!

God Bless! 🙂
 
go to www.rosary-center.org

if you click on the how to button on the page, and then select the mystery you want to pray, they give you meditation points and a picture to focus on, i find it very helpful
 
Santa Cruz:
Oh, how well I understand what your saying. I had and still have the same problem but it lessing. I would tell you just to keep praying the rosary on a daily basis and in time you will “get It”. It just takes practice.
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Same here. Just keep doing it and don’t worry about it. It will come naturally with time.
 
When I was in college I used to say the rosary in spanish. It slowed me down a lot because I am not fluent, and I had to think of the words I was saying.
 
St. Ignatius of Loyola encouraged people to really make meditation come alive by inserting themselves into the Scriptural story. When praying on the Crowning of Thorns, you might try to imagine how painful it would be to feel the bramble tear your scalp, how humiliating it would be to see so many laugh and mock you as you are in such pain. It might remind you of when you hurt your head gardening or moving furniture; take time to recreate this exact experience, whatever comes to your mind. Stay with this image for awhile and feel yourself conformed to Jesus. Or you might mediate that you are one of the near bystanders, standing right next to Jesus, able to see every detail of every individual thorn, every drop of His blood, but unable and afraid to help. Take time to see these small details in your mind–each thorn, each drop, each second of the story. Don’t be afraid to think of it as if you were holding a camcorder; let God guide you in this mediatation and accept whatever tools come to you. The concept of a crowning might lead you to reflect on times you have sought a crown, sought to show off or put yourself forward, and of what you were feeling when you did these specific things. Feel your human weakness in these things and yet rejoice that the God Who created you gives you these grace-filled insights. You might find that you are lost in prayer and contemplation, so much so that you lose your place. Don’t worry about “finishing,” but give God your total attention in the images He gives you.
 
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Tonks40:
When I need to focus on the Rosary, I use this little phamplet distributed by my church that has not only pictures to help me focus on the Mystery, but the Bible passage it relates to. As I say my Hail Marys, I look at the pictures and think about the all the good works our Lord Jesus Christ has done.

You can find phamplets online, or maybe even try and invest in a CD or tape with the recitation of the Rosary. I also find these very inspiring!

God Bless! 🙂
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I do the same thing. It really helps me focus. You can find pamphlets at any Catholic book store.

Maggie
 
Good timing–I did the sorrowful mysteries last night. The part about the crowning with the thorns really got to me in my meditation. What I thought about was gentle Jesus, our rightful king, so meek and humble, and being utterly mocked by us sinners. The mocking of Him drew out such sad emotions in me and a desire to comfort Him. How could we DO that to Him!?? Are we humans capable of such utter evil? YES, we ARE. It’s very humbling and very sad. I had such a miserable reckoning within myself of how wounding sin is, to our gentle Lord, and how often He is still being mocked after all He has done for us out of love. The thought of how sinful we are so as to even mock Him to His face pains me and sets in me a desire to set it right to the extent that I can, with His help of course. It brought about a stronger desire to be obedient, and a humbling emotion when I considered how miserably sinful we are. I had tears on my cheek and was so thankful that God is merciful. I meditate what happened to Him as vividly as I can, and also have a few thoughts as to what I can do to apply this repugnance for sin, in daily life.
 
The most amazingly helpful thing for me was seeing Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ…Now, the sorrowful mysteries are so easy to see that it is painful (which is IMO, a good thing).
I really think that a combination of visuals with the words is an enormous help.
The Rosary Center pamphlets mentioned by others are excellent; there are others, but I prefer theirs.
The more of your senses are involved the deeper your understanding will be.
I think everyone has had problems with it to start with…The key is, don’t give up.
And sometimes, when the person/people/situations that you are praying for are weighing heavy in your mind, I think that it is fine just to go with that. That is what I have been doing with the Katrina tragedy…
 
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