When praying the rosary ,can you "think"each Hail Mary or you need to actually say it?

[Tamsulosin]

Sometimes my mouth gets dry and tired of taking and talking the prayers and I end up
going through them in my thoughts ,but without actually saying them.Is this a valid form?
I do not want to be viewed as lazy,but am I the only one with this problem?

 

[blackrobe]

I used to assume that saying vocal prayers mentally was fine, especially when praying alone. One day recently the question came up in discussion with a priest. The priest expressed the opinion that it only made sense for vocal prayer to be spoken, at least by moving the lips. I took that to heart and now when praying aloud seems unnecessary or inappropriate I pray silently but form the words with my mouth.

AMDG
jsa

 

[Dpoc41]

I cant see any problem with this. I sometimes play my rosary mp3 while im showering, and say it mentally. After all you are still offering up prayer and praise. The rosary confraternity do not make any mention of this. I would appreciate some advice on this. Thanks

 

[jpjd]

Thinking it is fine. The Rosary is a private devotion and there are no set “rules” attached to it. Countless numbers of people pray the rosary by thinking the prayers.

Remember, the point of any prayer is communication with God. Vocalization is not mandatory nor necessary for Him to hear our prayer. We only need to open our hearts to God.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Since the rosary is a private prayer one may say/meditate it in any manner which aids one in communicating with God. However, some of the blessings for saying the rosary, and commitments to say it, require that one at least mouth the words while meditating on the mysteries.

I tell my classes that the bottom line is “Pray as you can; not as you can’t.” [Since I can’t remember where I took that from it is no longer plagiarism. ]

Another good line is: “If you can pray well do so; if you can’t, pray poorly like the rest of us.”

The important this is to pray, and not get hung up on the details. I messed up half my prayer time this afternoon trying to get a candle to burn properly. Then I got smart and blew it out.

 

[Bob_Aliano]

Not to mention the distraction of several people mumbling the prayers quietly before Mass and not in unison. I find that closing my eyes and thinking about what I’m praying helps prevent my mind wandering too much.

 

[HAnne]

Not to mention the distraction of several people mumbling the prayers quietly before Mass and not in unison. I find that closing my eyes and thinking about what I’m praying helps prevent my mind wandering too much.

I’m eyes closed or eyes on the rosary when I pray it…minus the Hail Holy Queen and Rosary Prayer which I still don’t have memorized yet because I’ve only been a Catholic for 2 weeks and daily rosary praying for 1 week.

I took up the rosary with the intention of it helping me memorize many of the prayers. Turns out I just really liked the practice and discipline of it so I kept going!

(insert rosary praying smilie we don’t have)

 

[dconklin]

Not to mention the distraction of several people mumbling the prayers quietly before Mass and not in unison. I find that closing my eyes and thinking about what I’m praying helps prevent my mind wandering too much.

Right on Bob! For that matter, if the Rosary was to prayed out loud, why not every other prayer? Imagine the church during Confession hours. Do I also remember a lesson about not praying to be seen or heard? Jesus showed the guy sitting at the back of the temple as being the best example. With all that said, I say if you are alone in the house or the car, belt it out!

 

[newyorkcatholic]

Right on Bob! For that matter, if the Rosary was to prayed out loud, why not every other prayer? Imagine the church during Confession hours. Do I also remember a lesson about not praying to be seen or heard? Jesus showed the guy sitting at the back of the temple as being the best example. With all that said, I say if you are alone in the house or the car, belt it out!

You can pray the words very very softly, but I always still form the words with my mouth and slightest whisper at least.

I think this is very important, why? Because we can zip through mental thoughts of words way too fast. Actually saying the words keeps our discipline, slows us down.

When a cleric prays the office out of obligation, there is actually a rule (sorry I can’t recall the source, maybe it’s a traditional rule) that he at least form the words with his mouth. If you just read through it, like reading any text, you can zip through way too fast. Forcing yourself to say the words paces you.

So, I personally always do it. Besides, I don’t think it makes sense to just mentally pray the rosary only and then expect the indulgence from it, the promises, etc.

It’s so much easier that even though it’s a wonderful thing to meditate on the rosary even if you aren’t saying it, it’s not the same thing.

 

[blackrobe]

Right on Bob! For that matter, if the Rosary was to prayed out loud, why not every other prayer? Imagine the church during Confession hours. Do I also remember a lesson about not praying to be seen or heard? Jesus showed the guy sitting at the back of the temple as being the best example. With all that said, I say if you are alone in the house or the car, belt it out!

And yet public praying of the rosary aloud carries a plenary indulgence. The teaching and practice of the Church are seldom “either/or” but usually “both/and.”

AMDG
jsa

 

[Pregustator]

Sometimes my mouth gets dry and tired of taking and talking the prayers and I end up
going through them in my thoughts ,but without actually saying them.Is this a valid form?
I do not want to be viewed as lazy,but am I the only one with this problem?

There is no such thing as a “vaild” or “invalid” Rosary. The Rosary is not a mandated prayer, it is not liturgical, it is merely a private devotion. You cannot invalidate private prayer.

 

[puzzleannie]

Sometimes my mouth gets dry and tired of taking and talking the prayers and I end up
going through them in my thoughts ,but without actually saying them.Is this a valid form?

it is called mental prayer

 

[agent_grey]

No such thing as an invalid prayer.

and

The blessed virgin is not God and therefore can not read your thoughts. I would say that if you want the Blessed Virgin to pray with you it should probabley be vocal.

 

[frenchbeatle]

I find that when I say the prayers out loud, I’m focusing too much on saying them, and my meditation on the mystery suffers. I’m content to pray silently if I can more easily meditate on the mysteries.

 

[paperwight66]

The blessed virgin is not God and therefore can not read your thoughts. I would say that if you want the Blessed Virgin to pray with you it should probabley be vocal.

Ummm… this is where asking the prayers of Our Lady and, indeed, of any of the saints, becomes a little counter to how we understand things on earth.

You say that Our Lady can’t read our thoughts. and so we probably need to speak out loud to her.

But sharing some of God’s ‘abilities’ is precisely what we need to allow for when asking the prayers of the saints. Think about it, at any given moment, millions are asking her prayers. Do we really think that she ‘hears’ them if they are speaking out loud?. Just think of the babble of those millions of voices! It’s not as if they are all co-ordinated and saying the same thing at the same time. And many of them will be in a foreign language to that which she spoke on earth. She wouldn’t have understood English, that’s for sure! ( I won’t get into the subject of whether she understood Latin). But we take it for granted that now, somehow, she and the saints understand when we talk in our own language.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that Our Lady doesn’t hear our pleas for help. What I am trying to say is that communicating with the saints must be totally different from communicating with the lady next door at the garden gate… Of course the lady at the garden gate can’t read our thoughts and so we have to speak out loud - but does that apply to the saints? Surely not.

 

[Brooklyn]

No such thing as an invalid prayer.

and

The blessed virgin is not God and therefore can not read your thoughts. I would say that if you want the Blessed Virgin to pray with you it should probabley be vocal.

Who told you that the Blessed Virgin cannot read our thoughts? What about people who have had strokes, etc. who are physically unable to say vocal prayers? Does that mean their prayers don’t count? What about when you’re in a situation, such as in a public place, where it would be inappropriate to pray vocally? Those prayers don’t count? This makes no sense to me.

I often pray the scriptural rosary on my Ipod, and say the prayers mentally along with the person praying. Can you tell me that doesn’t count?

 

[PatriceA]

No such thing as an invalid prayer.

and

The blessed virgin is not God and therefore can not read your thoughts. I would say that if you want the Blessed Virgin to pray with you it should probabley be vocal.

So you don’t pray silently at all to Mary or any of the saints for intervention?

 

[peresieh]

We pray to the Holy Spirt who intercedes for us. We do not pray directly to Mary or the other saints. See Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2766 But Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically. As in every vocal prayer, it is through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God to pray to their Father. Jesus not only gives us the words of our filial prayer; at the same time he gives us the Spirit by whom these words become in us “spirit and life.” Even more, the proof and possibility of our filial prayer is that the Father “sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” Since our prayer sets forth our desires before God, it is again the Father, “he who searches the hearts of men,” who “knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” The prayer to Our Father is inserted into the mysterious mission of the Son and of the Spirit.

 

[Brooklyn]

We pray to the Holy Spirt who intercedes for us. We do not pray directly to Mary or the other saints. See Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2766 But Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically. As in every vocal prayer, it is through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God to pray to their Father. Jesus not only gives us the words of our filial prayer; at the same time he gives us the Spirit by whom these words become in us “spirit and life.” Even more, the proof and possibility of our filial prayer is that the Father “sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” Since our prayer sets forth our desires before God, it is again the Father, “he who searches the hearts of men,” who “knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” The prayer to Our Father is inserted into the mysterious mission of the Son and of the Spirit.

What???!!! Do you ever pray the Hail Mary? We pray directly to her in that prayer. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” Sounds pretty direct to me!! Every day at our local EF Mass, we pray directly to the saints and to the Blessed Mother before Mass. Just where to you attend Church?

 

[paperwight66]

What???!!! Do you ever pray the Hail Mary? We pray directly to her in that prayer. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” Sounds pretty direct to me!! Every day at our local EF Mass, we pray directly to the saints and to the Blessed Mother before Mass. Just where to you attend Church?

I think this is just a difference of how we understand words.

If you read the Hail Mary again, no, we are not praying to her in the sense in which we pray to God. We are greeting her, hailing her, acknowledging her special position in God’s plan, and asking her to pray for us.

Where do you read ‘praying to her’ present in the words of the Hail Mary?