Making the Rosary a Meditation

The Rosary is supposed to be a meditation on the Word of God, not a mindless saying of words.

To make the Rosary what it should be – we need a better understanding of Catholic Meditation as taught by Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross.

Meditation is to turn your attention to God who dwells within you.

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Think about what He has said or done.

2.  So that we will desire God more and our sins less

3.  Make the choice to put what God said into practice

In this way, meditation engages all three powers of our soul: intellect, emotions and the will

An easy way to practice meditation is by the 3 R’s  

Read or listen to something from the Word of God found in Scripture, Tradition or the teaching of the Church.  

Reflect or think about what struck you

·       Try to understand what you read

·       Apply it to your life

·       Draw practical conclusions for yourself

·       Talk over all of this with Jesus in your mind and heart

Resolution  

·       Choose something practical and concrete to remember or to do today based on your meditation

·       Write down your resolution and keep it with you

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The two most powerful aspects of Meditation are thinking and forming a resolution

Let’s take the first – thinking. A big problem in the world is that people don’t think. We have become intellectually lazy. We tend to let our feelings take control rather than our intellect or thinking because it takes a lot of work to think and it’s hard to stay focused for an extended period of time.

That laziness gets worse, by the way, if we indulge in hours and hours of screen time dedicated to shows and sites and content designed precisely to help us avoid thinking. But daily meditation on the Word of God can help fix this

Now, some people are probably surprised – and a little challenged – at how intellectual some of these Rosary meditations are. But actually, the primary form of prayer is meditation, which means thinking about some truth about God – whether that truth is found in the Scripture, or in the lives of the saints, or in the Church’s teaching, or in your own life.

Meditation is simply the art of

1.  putting oneself in God’s presence and asking for His guidance

2.  then tackling some truth, trying to understand and appreciate it better

3.  and making the choice the resolution to live what God has told us, as well as whatever thanks, repentance, petition or praise your reflection prompts you to give

Even though it takes work, don’t give up on thinking in meditation. Exploring and reaching out for God with our minds isn’t an option – it’s ultimately why God gave us intelligence in the first place.

And like everything else, practice makes perfect.

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The Second essential part of Meditation is the Resolution

St Francis De Sales writes something striking about the importance of a resolution:

The most important thing of all is that you cling firmly to the resolutions you have taken in meditation so as to practice them carefully.  That is the great fruit of meditation, without which it is often not only useless but harmful.  Why so?  Because the virtues upon which we have meditated but not practiced sometimes puff us up so much in mind and heart that we think we are already what we are resolved to be which no doubt is the case if our resolutions are solid and ardent.  But when, on the contrary, they are not practiced, they are useless and dangerous.  (Introduction to the Devout Life, II Chap 8)

This is amazing, De Sales says that failing to form a resolution is not only a waste but is harmful because if we spend time thinking about a virtue but never practice it – we think we are virtuous when we are not – all we have done is think about it.

Imagine watching YouTube videos on exercise and never exercising. We’re still overweight and out of shape

If we don’t practice a resolution then we never change from being spiritual slobs to spiritual athletes    

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A resolution is to choose some concrete and practical thing flowing from our meditation to put into practice that day.

Examples of a resolution are:

·       Today I will listen more than I speak

·       I will not gossip today

·       I complain too much, therefore, today I will practice thanking God for everything.

·       I become anxious easily, so today I will replace that feeling of Anxiety with an Act of Trust in God. Every time I feel anxious I will say: Jesus I trust in you.

We want to see results and if we don’t, we tend to get discouraged and quit. The Result of our prayer is that over time we should change. But change does not come about magically and it does not come about by vague generalities. Change comes from the grace of God in combination with our honest reflection on the Word of God and our own life and then committing to a resolution, some concrete step that we will put into practice that day.

If we meditate every day and form a resolution that we put into practice, over time one of two things will happen

Either we will change and grow and become a saint

Or we will quit doing meditation.

But the fact is, no change can occur without reflection and a resolution.

W/O thinking and a Resolution we will not grow.

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Let’s practice

In Mark 8:35 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.’

During this decade think about the fact that suffering is part of the human condition. Jesus, however has done something marvelous. He took all human suffering upon himself, giving it meaning and purpose. By His Cross, Jesus turned suffering into the greatest means of saving souls.

Now He invites us to join Him in this rescue mission of saving souls by accepting and offering to him up all of our crosses, big or small. He accepts these acts of love and uses them to bring the grace of conversion to souls lost in the darkness of sin.

Honestly, I waste most of my suffering because I fail to offer it up. So today I make the resolution that whenever I experience something I did not choose, do not like, and cannot change, instead I will say: “Jesus, I offer it up for love of you and for souls.”

Let that be our resolution for today.