Thursday, August 14, 2014

It's Not Enough to Just Say the Holy Rosary

Part of my vacation reading has been a second time around with St Louis de Montfort's The Secrets of The Rosary.  I found this little gem, so old it's pages yellowed and crumbling, buried at the back of a shelf in a religious gift shop. I swore the saint was talking to me and had probably observed how badly I pray the Rosary.  

This past Lent I made it my resolve to fully contemplate each Gospel mystery and to conquer all distractions so that each Rosary I prayed would truly form a crown of glory on the heads of Jesus and Mary. I employ the prayers and meditations offered by de Montfort and I highly recommend them to anyone who ever struggles praying Our Lady's Psalter. 

This passage sadly described me until recently. 

"It is really pathetic to see how most people say the Holy Rosary - they say it astonishingly fast and do not properly pronounce the words at all.  We could not expect anyone, even the most unimportant person to think that a slipshod address of this kind was a compliment and yet we expect Jesus and Mary to be pleased with it!  Small wonder that the most sacred prayers of our religion seem to bear no fruit and that, even after saying thousands of Rosaries, we are still no better than we were before!" 

To be perfectly honest, this description is what makes it preferable for me to pray the Rosary alone rather than in a group. But de Montfort discourages this practice as well whenever possible.  

"There are several ways of praying The Holy Rosary but that which gives Almighty God the greatest glory, does the most for our souls and which the devil fears more than any other is that of saying or chanting the Rosary in two groups."

He goes on to say that our minds tend to be more alert in groups and that when prayed in common, everyone benefits even when some do not pray as well as others.  He also says that when we pray the Rosary in common - say, in a group of 30 people - we reap the benefits of 30 Rosaries and not just a single one. 

Further, he makes the case that in times of public tragedy and suffering the Church has always advocated public group prayer. 

This is why our bishops need to wake up already when it comes to what's happening in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, the Ukraine and even Oklahoma with the threat of a Black mass looming.  

Another common fault cited by the saint is that we fail to name an intention. 

He begs us to begin our Rosary by invoking the Holy Ghost, naming our intentions and then saying the following:

" I unite myself with all the saints in Heaven, and with all the just on Earth; I unite myself with Thee my Jesus in order to praise Thy Mother worthily and to praise Thee in her and by her. I renounce all the distractions that may come to me while I am saying this Rosary."

More to come including short meditations for each Gospel mystery. 

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