The Rosary as a Meditation

ONE

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 and derive all its power – we need to better understand Catholic Meditation as taught by Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross

Meditation is to

·       Turn your attention to God

·       To think about the Word of God or some timeless truth

·       Have a conversation with God in which you also listen to what He inspires within you  

·       Form a practical resolution

There is Four essential parts to meditation.

Read or listen or imagine 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 and apply it to your life

Conversation

As we speak the vocal prayers of the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be in the form of a chant, we pay attention to what Jesus and Mary want to share with us

Resolution  

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

TWO

Reflecting or think about the Word of God

Two things we are not very good at in our noisy, busy, overscheduled and overstimulated lives are thinking and having a conversation with God which involves both talking and listening. We’re good at talking but not listening.

First, most people are not bad people, they just never take the time to really think about the things of God and their lives and have a conversation with Him, listening to what he will say. And when they do – big things happen.

We need time to read or listen or imagine and remember the things God wants us to know and live and then apply them to our lives.

Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life?...So do not worry; do not say, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?"…Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Think about what you worry about. Are they things in the future and things out of your control?

I can neither know nor control the future. God knows the future and he guides all things. Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to think about what I can do and control today and do that and let God take care of the rest?

But we need to slow down and think about the timeless truth that God in His Providence will provide for all our needs, so we don’t have to worry.

THREE

Having a conversation with God and listen

We don’t want our prayer to be just an exercise of our thinking. Then it is no different than just that, thinking or study. Prayer is a personal relationship with God and a conversation with Him. 

As we think about this timeless truth that we cannot know or control the future, but God can guide and provide all we need, we begin to pray the Our Father, ten Hail Marys and the Glory Be. These are vocal prayers we are speaking to God and to Mary.

They in turn begin share with us, they inspire or prompt within us what they want us to know and do.

Time and time again, things I never thought about, things I never understood, problems I faced for which I had no solutions – somehow come to me while I am praying the Rosary.

That is because the Rosary is a real conversation with God. He is sharing things with us through His Word. We are thinking about them and talking with him through the vocal prayers of the decade and God is inspiring things within us.

That is a very loving conversation in which we are experiencing the love of God and loving him in return through conversation.

That is why an essential ingredient in meditation is this conversation because as Teresa of Avila wrote: Meditation consists not so much in thinking a great deal but in loving a great deal.

FOUR

Form a Resolution

St Francis De Sales on 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)

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

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.

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 then committing to a resolution, some concrete step that we will put into practice that day. But the fact is, without a Resolution we will not change.

FIVE

Let’s practice

Let’s go back to the passage we started with. Jesus said:

Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life?...So do not worry; do not say, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?"…Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In this decade let’s think about and identify what is our source of worry or anxiety. Are we worried about future things that almost never happen; or things over which we have no control; or have we taken on too much in life and are overwhelmed; or are we worried about things we have been procrastinating. What is the specific cause of worry?

Then ask God what He wants to tell you or show you

As you talk to God through the Our Father and Hail Mary’s listen to what he shares with you.

Then as we finish the Rosary make a practical resolution to put into practice something from your thinking and conversation with God.