Praying the Rosary

Praying the Rosary in Common
One benefit and advantage of praying the rosary is that it
is a prayer that can be prayed in common: either as a family,
as a group or organization, or as a regular prayer in the
parish. In our parish of the Holy Family, the praying of
the rosary is done every morning before the 6:00 am Mass and every
afternoon before the 6:00 pm Mass. Some may be critical about
our praying the rosary in that it is a repetitious prayer that
is recited mechanically. But those who criticize our praying
the rosary do not see our heart and how much we put
our expression of love for God, in the same spirit as the
Blessed Mother's fiat, when we are praying the rosary.
Intentions and the state of the heart is what God sees.
People do not see this. And indeed, the praying of the rosary
involves many sincere and genuine intentions and a state of heart
that is purely for the love of God.

There is a practical reason why praying the rosary is very
advantageous and beneficial for a group or a community -
especially for a tightly-knitted relational network like
the family. With the repetitions of the Our Fathers, the
Hail Marys, the Glory Be's and the other additional prayers,
everyone who knows this prayer by heart and have memorized
them, will, in the praying of the rosary be able to participate
equally with the others: even though he or she is a child or
he or she is a senior adult. And even those who are challenged
in many ways (physically or mentally) can participate in the
praying of the rosary. The formulaic prayers of the rosary
is an advantage over the more spontaneous prayer which only
one individual or a leader may be able to pray and recite.
The rosary is special in a way because as long as anyone knows
the prayers, then praying it together calls down the Spirit
of God who, as it were, bonds together everyone who is
praying the rosary. "Whenever two or three are gathered,
there I am in the midst of them."

A Good Means of Understanding the Divine Mysteries
Praying the rosary lets us enter into the divine mysteries of
our faith: the joyful, sorrowful, glorious and luminous mysteries.
Many criticize us for our mechanical way of praying the rosary.
But many of them do not realize that this mechanical way of
praying the rosary is a kind of "mantra" that helps us get
into a meditative and contemplative state - thereby inviting
us to enter into the very mysteries of our faith - especially
as regards the life, ministry, suffering, death and resurrection
of our Lord Jesus. Without doing the "mantra" in the praying
of the rosary and its Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glory Be's,
then we will never enter into the very life of our Lord Himself
and understand the mystery of Life He gives us through His
Most Holy Spirit and through the intercession of His Blessed
Virgin Mother.

In praying the rosary, an understanding of the mysteries of
our faith helps us to understand life in general and gives
us the gift of wisdom to see from the point of view of God.
Without this understanding, we will be like robots and
mechanized systems incapable of deep reflection and insight.
We would go through the motions of everyday - rushing here
and there and earning a living to the point that we lose
out on the broader perspective from which we should operate -
the perspective of a life in God, a Christian life that
is seeking to be of service excellence to God and His
Church. We can only gain this broader perspective if
praying the rosary will be part of our spiritual regimen.
We need not be praying the rosary everyday especially if
our lifestyle of work truly makes it impossible to do so.
However, praying the rosary a few times a week will help
us gain the broader context of the Christian life we should
be basing our lives on. Praying the rosary is especially
helpful if we are very much stressed from the fast-paced
and hectic lifestyle we are living. The sooner we take
our rosary beads and start praying the rosary, we may
not notice it but our breathing deepens (instead of
the short ones and gasps we make in stressful moments)
and our body rhythms slow down. Our brain waves also
settle down and we become more relaxed. And the more
we get into praying the rosary, the more we shall enter
into a contemplative lifestyle and attitude that shall
help us see everything in proper perspective. And when
we are rooted in our center and focused on what is really
essential in life through a broadened perspective, then
we shall be able to remove all the clutter and noise
that tend to occupy our minds, our hearts, our very
being and tends to drain us of all the energy that
should have been wisely spent and conservatively utilized.

Praying the Rosary With the Church
A good way of praying the rosary is to pray together as
a family. Father Patrick Peyton always says, "the family
that prays together, stays together". This is indeed true.
Praying the rosary binds people close to one another as
the beads of the rosary are so closely linked and bound
to one another.

Another way of praying the rosary is with a group in your
parish. Or if you are not a member of a parish group and you
have a Bible study group or a prayer group, why not
introduce the praying of the rosary to the group?

And still another good practice of praying the rosary
is praying it during the feasts of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. The month of October also is the month of the
rosary. Praying the rosary everyday in October is also
a good practice.

A Good Spiritual Exercise
For Catholics who are not so much into this devotion
of praying the rosary, I suggest that you enter into
this devotion because it is a very good spiritual
exercise. It brings forth many spiritual fruits. And
for those Christians who may read this article and are
interested to know more about the rosary, there are
many other articles online which help you learn more
about the praying of the rosary. You can use the
search engines. As for the actual praying of the
rosary, there are also guides online. And you can
also order rosary beads for your personal use.
In Catholic Internet Mission, there is a link there
to Keepsake Rosaries. You can check out that link and see
the possibility of owning your own rosary.

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Dennis-Emmanuel Cabrera
December 25, 2004
Christmas Day

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