An email: Hi Padraig, On your website, you spoke how you were taught the rosary (not like at school) - could you share how with me. I found your account very encouraging as I had previously bought my own rosary, I am not sure if I am doing it right, I find my attention wanders, I will need some pointers in this regard. I say it when I am walking the dog in the field. How has it changed your life? You can check me out at facebook (Bamboo.Buddha) look for the Kendo connections. Kind Regards Mark
Hi Mark, I am just on my way out to Mass, but will write a little now and fill in later. when I was growing up the way we said the rosary was very fast and kind of stcatto, like Irish dancing. I find all the places I have heard the roary said, no matter how holy and devout do this. There are I think two reasons for this; th3 first is that that is how folks have gtten used to say the rosary...at 90 miles and hour :wink: and also I think the speed of the rosary tends to go at the speed of the fastest person in the group..so if you have someone who is very, very fast a kind of Olympic Medal Rosary prayer the rest of the group tends to set of at the same pace .... rather like a fox and hounds. When I have led the rosary and tried to slow it down I have found it very difficult for by saying it slowly we are reproaching, implicitly those who are galloping along, which requires a steady nerve for folks don't like correction :lol: However, the thing is when you are saying it by yourself you are your own boss....cntd
But to say the rosary alone is different, you don't have to go at anyone else's pace only your own. You might have heard at Fatima how Our Lady taught the children there how to pray the rosary. The kids were speeding through it at a million miles an hour. In fact instead of saying the whole prayers they were simply saying (the words) 'Our Father' and 'Hail Mary' without reciting the whole prayers. This so they could get back to the serious buisness of dancing and playing But Our Lady set them straight that the rosary should be said very slowly and meditaively enuniciating each word and phrase slowly AND WITH GREAT MEANING. Here is an example of the speed and method: Coupled with this we should be meditating on the mysteries. Think of it like an acapeelo choir we are doing several things at the same time. The vocal part saying it slowly, the meditive part thinking on the mysteries, the physical part of moving the roasry beads and the contemplative part of simply looking at God and listening to Him talking in our hearts. The rosary is special in Contemplative Prayer in that we have a kind of open line to the Queen of Heaven and Our Lady uses it to speak to us. It may take a while but Our Lady will speak though it may take us, ubstructed as we are with the clutter of the world to hear her.
The last part of your question is so interesting: How has it changed your life? Well intitially great joy and peace..like dropping in a lake of light. It helped me relate properly and lovingly with the world and those round me, it taught me to pray, to love scripture and the sacraments, to learn contemplative prayer, to love, to deepen faith, hope and charity, to fear sin....and a whole host of kinda supernatural mystical gifts such as ecsasy , rapture, prophecy, visions and so on. But we should not pray for the mystical extras for they are extras and God for His own reason doesn't give the miraculous out whole sale. The important thing..the only important thing is that we grow in love. As to where I am now, thanks to the rosary, I will use the words of St Gemma Galgani I was just reading this morning: 'Imagine that you see a light of immense splendour, that pentrates everything, surrounds everything, enlightens everything and at the same time gives life and animation to all, so that whatever exists has its being from is light and it lives. Imagine a fiery frunace, greater than the universe that burns everything without consuming anything, that illuminates and strengthens and those that are pentrated by its flames are happiest and desire more ardently to be consumed. Then I see our souls in God.' “as yet we see things dimly, reflected in a mirror; but then, - face to face! As yet knowledge is incomplete; but then when we reach that blest abode it will be as full as God’s knowledge of us is now.” 1 Corinthians 13;12 But never doubt this , the path of prayer is the path of the Cross, the Wine Press of God's love.
Hi Padraig, thank you very much - I realise now I was missing the meditative part. Would you mind if we continued to correspond. I have not been to church in nearly or under 10yrs. However last year and this year have been what I can only described as one set back by one misfortune after another, but the point is all of this stress and uncertainty has in fact brought me back into thinking less materially (but not altogether) and I have found that the practice of the rosary helped in so many very subtle ways (it has just occured to me as I write this that I have not once thought of giving thanks, I must correct that from now on). I also found the Brigette Rosary I think it is about the number of wounds on Christ body, it is very long. I would value your opinion on this. I was and in many ways still very materialistic but I think that it more down to ingrained bad habits but after saying the Rosary - I am becoming drastically less so. I get an overwhelming sense of peace afterwards, that everything will be okay - its that constant reassurance I get that all will be okay. Padraig, on the matter of forgiveness, I can now very simply forgive everyone whatever it is they may have done, but how do you forget it - I can only forgive and momentarily forget. You spoke of sacrements when reciting the rosary. Padraig is there a proper way to prepare prior the actual rosary. Kind Regards Mark Well Mark, Everything happens for a reason; as St Paul promises , 'All things work unto the good for those who love God.' Which is my favourite promise in the Bible..and a very,very big one. I haven't prayed the Brigette Rosary although if you look uyp the Divne Mercy prayers they are very good: I don't think it is possible for anyone but God simply to forget the wrongs done; but with time the memories dim and healing takes place. Forgiveness is not only a one time only thing, I have found it has to be done over and over..I often times still find mylef grinding my teeth over things long ago from time to time.Winking smile Though now funny enough its not the big things test me, usually but the small ones. But with prayer over time there is more peace and forgiveness becomes easier. In terms of preparation, well I don't want to make things appear complicated by rhyming of a whole list. But each of us has a best part of the day, for some evening beofre sleep, for others first thing in the morning, so give the best part to God. Also its best not to be too sleepy at time. Other things can help, like candles, gentle music, incense sticks dark rooms, icons , pictures, statues, praying in groups ,special froms of the roasary, books and so on, its a case of horses for courses. Ina ddition if we are growing in prayer its natural that our prayer and prayer forms wil lchange and its good to be open to this and the need for change sometimes...
There are so benefits of the Rosary and of prayer generally that, as I said , its difficult to know where to start. But I'll tell you one I've been noticing a lot o iff just lately. I work in a fairly small space with a whole lot of people in an office. Now I've never done this beofre, in such a crowded environment, I've usually worked on my own. Its a woonderful place with lovely (on the whole people) but there quite a lot of friction (as you'd expect) from time to time. As a matter of fact in the large office upstairs I hear there has been more nor less open warfare from time to time. :shock: Anyhow in the normal course of events folks can say really nasty hurtful things to you, there can be nad gossip, snide comments and what not. The natural impulse is to hit back or at least to dwell on them , to brood on them and to say , 'The next time he/she says this or that I'll do this that or the other.........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr' :shock: But I think prayer has helped me in a number of ways in this. Firstly to forgive, to really forgive the person who does this, not by some magic charm but [partly to understand where the other person is coming from. They may have an unhappy marriage, they may be under considerable stress, they may have completely understood something you have said or done , they may have a real point in their complaints... :shock: :wink: But prayer takes you kind of above things it gives you a real perpective and distance from the infighting and so on. Another thing it does is to see there is a real, a very real spiritual warfare going on. If you listen carefully to your own line of thoughts you can see the devil is really trying hard to wind you and things up!!! He is putting thoughts in your mind recalling the insult or whatever, p[laying the incident over and over in your mind to try to make things worse...So with prayer we are spiritually armed to fight the devil....also we have the compassion and insight to see that the poor people who are going round in a real fury fighting others and back biting are I believe people who fail to pray..so there is no peace, no tolerance, no charity, no compassion or very very little. Worst of all there is no peace and they are just deeply, deeply unhappy and become play things of the devil. Even those who most call themselves by the proud name, 'Christian' ..and so I think we have a real compassion for such folks and an understanding of where they are coming from. So prayer brings peace. It certainly does. On the other hand not praying leads to unhappiness and infighting and such like.... and causes us to be open to be puppets of the devil, which is awful.
I sometimes think of the effects of a rubber band and as prayer grows so stongly grows the rubber band!! :lol: Thus for instance we may loose our peace but the rubber band pulls us back into peace ever more quickly. We may loose our joy but are submerged back into it .... Our faithmay rock but the rubber band strenghtens us and so on... But perhaps the most unusual effect is in that of the Cross. In the world the ideal is held out to us that we be young, wealthy, good looking, well loved and admired, popular , charismatic and so on... But I have found that prayer draws us to the Cross. Why is this ? Because nowhere, nowhere at all do we draw more closely to Christ than when we hang on the Cross, uffering, poor, forgotten, lonely, despised and rejected of men; it is then that we are drawn into the bosm of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Paradox of paradox it is there, in the wine press of God's love that we find joy.
Zechariah 9:9 The Coming of Zion’s King 9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Luke 19:28-44 [28] After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. [29] As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, [30] "Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. [31] If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.' " [32] Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. [33] As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" [34] They replied, "The Lord needs it." [35] They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. [36] As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. [37] When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: [38] "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" [39] Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" [40] "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.Luke 19:28-44 [28] After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. [29] As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, [30] "Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. [31] If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.' " [32] Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. [33] As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" [34] They replied, "The Lord needs it." [35] They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. [36] As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. [37] When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: [38] "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" [39] Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" [40] "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. Why did Jesus go to so much trouble to enter Jerusalem on a white donkey? To fulfill prophecy from scripture of course. But I think too it teaches us so much about prayer, with especial reference to times in our lives when times get rough and sacrifices are called for. For we, like the little white donkey grow through prayer to have strong backs to carry the Lord thorugh the periods in our lives when darkness and pain come. For prayer makes us strong and gives us backs able to carry the heaviest burdens.
