G
GodsGadfly
Guest
“It’s interesting that the majority of the people who sympathise with the OP admit that they do not say the Rosary”
Not me. I never said any such thing, and I haven’t noticed anyone else who has made any such “admission.”
I practice a great many devotions. Although many experts in spirituality advise against it, I find my spiritual life nourished by balancing the various aspects of my Catholic faith, by knowing which devotions are more spiritually and psychologically helpful for different situations.
When I make my weekly Holy Hour at midnight, I start with that day’s Office of Readings and Vespers, if I haven’t said them yet. Throughout the hour, I say a Marian Rosary, a Divine Mercy Chaplet, a Jesus Rosary, a Moleben, Akathist and/or Paraklesis (with a reading from the Gospel), and close with Compline for the day. I also spend some time in interior silence, and I spend some time offering my petitions to Our Lord.
On Sundays, I try to say as many devotions as possible to make the Lord’s day holy.
On other days of the week, I try to say at least one formal prayer. C. S. Lewis says our greatest danger is not lust, but greed: we allow greed and ambitio nto take over our lives, so we don’t make enough time for God.
I always try to prioritize the Divine Office in my life. If I only give myself 15 minutes for prayer, and I have my breviary “handy,” I say the office. Definitely, when it comes to family prayer, our first stop is to say the Office together. After we’ve said the Office together, and read Scripture together, if we have time as a family to pray some more, then we say the Rosary,
Or, if it’s the middle of the night, and I’m walking the dog, then I say my Rosary.
This has nothing to do with minimizing the Rosary or minimizing the role of Our Lady. The impression was falsely created by the OP’s unfortunate emphasis in his title.
But many of the posts here point to the very problem the OP was getting at: the Phariseeical devotion to the Rosary that makes some Catholics so judgemental.
As a Latin Catholic with Byzantine ancestry and “leanings,” I have found great wealth in studying my Eastern heritage. I find my own spirituality somewhere in the middle. But I also know how deeply it hurts our Eastern brethren when Latin Rite Catholics “force” the Rosary on them–as was once done “officially” in the period known as “Latinization”, and as often happens in daily conversation.
Yet my words in this regard have been ignored. To some people, the Rosary is apparently the only way to be devoted to Mary. According to the pious quotations from saints above, anyone who does not honor Mary is going to Hell (this would seem to go against Catholic teaching regarding baptism by desire).
There are many ways to honor our Blessed Mother in our rich Catholic tradition, and it is not right to judge those who choose to honor her differently and accuse them of being Protestants in spirit.
The “Rosary” as we know it was officially defined in the 16th century but dates back to St. Dominic (1170-1221). One of the greatest Marian saints of all, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the composer of the Memorare, died 17 years before St. Dominic’s birth. There was no “rosary”–at least in the form we know it–when St. Bernard lived.
No one here is saying that one should not say the Rosary. The question is whether one puts the Rosary above other necessities in the spiritual life, or, more importantly, whether one uses the Rosary as a means of feeling superior over other Catholics, creating stumbling blocks for them.
On the topic of ecumenism: “Protestant” Fr. Frank Pavone has pointed to the insistence of Catholic pro-lifers on saying the Rosary as a cause of division in the Pro-Life movement, and he has suggested several times that Catholics start using the Divine Office at prayer vigils so we can pray in a way that is most authentically Catholic and more accessible to our Protestant brethren.
In public, when someone sees me with my rosary, their usual response is, “Is that some kind of good luck charm?” If I try to explain the Rosary, it goes over their heads . If they see me with a breviary, they say, “That’s an interesting looking Bible.” I say, “It’s actually not a Bible. It’s the Divine Office.” “What’s that?” “It’s an ancient Catholic prayer service based upon the Psalms.” I then go on to explain it, and it proves a fruitful moment of evangelization.
Not me. I never said any such thing, and I haven’t noticed anyone else who has made any such “admission.”
I practice a great many devotions. Although many experts in spirituality advise against it, I find my spiritual life nourished by balancing the various aspects of my Catholic faith, by knowing which devotions are more spiritually and psychologically helpful for different situations.
When I make my weekly Holy Hour at midnight, I start with that day’s Office of Readings and Vespers, if I haven’t said them yet. Throughout the hour, I say a Marian Rosary, a Divine Mercy Chaplet, a Jesus Rosary, a Moleben, Akathist and/or Paraklesis (with a reading from the Gospel), and close with Compline for the day. I also spend some time in interior silence, and I spend some time offering my petitions to Our Lord.
On Sundays, I try to say as many devotions as possible to make the Lord’s day holy.
On other days of the week, I try to say at least one formal prayer. C. S. Lewis says our greatest danger is not lust, but greed: we allow greed and ambitio nto take over our lives, so we don’t make enough time for God.
I always try to prioritize the Divine Office in my life. If I only give myself 15 minutes for prayer, and I have my breviary “handy,” I say the office. Definitely, when it comes to family prayer, our first stop is to say the Office together. After we’ve said the Office together, and read Scripture together, if we have time as a family to pray some more, then we say the Rosary,
Or, if it’s the middle of the night, and I’m walking the dog, then I say my Rosary.
This has nothing to do with minimizing the Rosary or minimizing the role of Our Lady. The impression was falsely created by the OP’s unfortunate emphasis in his title.
But many of the posts here point to the very problem the OP was getting at: the Phariseeical devotion to the Rosary that makes some Catholics so judgemental.
As a Latin Catholic with Byzantine ancestry and “leanings,” I have found great wealth in studying my Eastern heritage. I find my own spirituality somewhere in the middle. But I also know how deeply it hurts our Eastern brethren when Latin Rite Catholics “force” the Rosary on them–as was once done “officially” in the period known as “Latinization”, and as often happens in daily conversation.
Yet my words in this regard have been ignored. To some people, the Rosary is apparently the only way to be devoted to Mary. According to the pious quotations from saints above, anyone who does not honor Mary is going to Hell (this would seem to go against Catholic teaching regarding baptism by desire).
There are many ways to honor our Blessed Mother in our rich Catholic tradition, and it is not right to judge those who choose to honor her differently and accuse them of being Protestants in spirit.
The “Rosary” as we know it was officially defined in the 16th century but dates back to St. Dominic (1170-1221). One of the greatest Marian saints of all, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the composer of the Memorare, died 17 years before St. Dominic’s birth. There was no “rosary”–at least in the form we know it–when St. Bernard lived.
No one here is saying that one should not say the Rosary. The question is whether one puts the Rosary above other necessities in the spiritual life, or, more importantly, whether one uses the Rosary as a means of feeling superior over other Catholics, creating stumbling blocks for them.
On the topic of ecumenism: “Protestant” Fr. Frank Pavone has pointed to the insistence of Catholic pro-lifers on saying the Rosary as a cause of division in the Pro-Life movement, and he has suggested several times that Catholics start using the Divine Office at prayer vigils so we can pray in a way that is most authentically Catholic and more accessible to our Protestant brethren.
In public, when someone sees me with my rosary, their usual response is, “Is that some kind of good luck charm?” If I try to explain the Rosary, it goes over their heads . If they see me with a breviary, they say, “That’s an interesting looking Bible.” I say, “It’s actually not a Bible. It’s the Divine Office.” “What’s that?” “It’s an ancient Catholic prayer service based upon the Psalms.” I then go on to explain it, and it proves a fruitful moment of evangelization.
His promotion of the rosary and the prayers of the people who said it.
I think there are so many devout and well meaning Catholics who will focus so much of their time and energy into praying rosaries that they forget about the very beneficial and more ancient practices of meditation, Divine Office, and Lectio Divina.
