The Rosary is Supposed to be a Meditation

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The Rosary is supposed to be a meditation on the Word of God, not a mindless saying of words. It makes the Rosary what it should be to derive all its power – we need to better understand Catholic Meditation as taught by Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross

Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology, p. 318

Meditation is a reasoned application of the mind to some supernatural truth, in order to penetrate its meaning, love it, and carry it into practice with the assistance of grace.

Meditation is to turn your attention to God

·       To think about what He has said or done

·       In order to understand it

·       To love God for these things

·       To form firm convictions

·       That we will put into practice with the assistance of grace

There is three essential parts to meditation.

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 reflecting upon the Word of God and the forming of a resolution.

These two together, founded on the grace of God, are the transforming powers of meditation. On the first, the power of reflection Jordan Aumann writes: Numerous persons who live habitually in sin continue in that condition simply because they never reflect seriously upon the state of their souls. Some of them do not have malicious hearts, nor do they hate the things of God or their own salvation; they have simply given themselves entirely to purely natural activities and have neglected the things that are of importance to their soul. One of the greatest proofs that their sad condition is due not so much to malice as to the lack of reflection is the fact that when they…attend a retreat or mission, they may experience a complete conversion of life. With good reason does St. Teresa maintain that the practice of mental prayer is necessarily connected with growth in virtue. It is, therefore, a great help for salvation to cultivate the practice of daily meditation. Those who aspire to sanctity by giving themselves completely to the active life while neglecting the life of prayer may just as well forget about Christian perfection. Experience proves that there is absolutely nothing that can supply for the life of prayer, not even the daily reception of the Eucharist. There are many persons who receive Communion every day, yet their spiritual life is mediocre and lukewarm. The reason is none other than the lack of mental prayer, either because they omit it entirely or they practice it in a mechanical and routine fashion. We repeat that without prayer it is impossible to attain Christian perfection, no matter what our state of life or the occupation to which we dedicate ourselves. (Spiritual Theology, p. 323-324)

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The Second Transformational Power of Meditation is the 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)

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.

Like watching YouTube videos on exercise and never exercising. Your still fat and out of shape

It is the same with prayer and the practice of virtue which comes from having and practicing a resolution.

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A resolution is to choose some concrete and practical thing to remember 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 see Results we tend to 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. Therefore if we meditate every day and form a resolution we put into practice, over time one of two things will happen – we will change or we will quit doing meditation. But the fact is, no change can occur without reflection and a resolution. W/O a Resolution we will not change.

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Let’s practice

In Mark 8:35 Jesus called the people and 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 let us reflect on 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 offering up all of our crosses, big or small to him. 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 want to complain or run from some cross, instead I will say: “Jesus, I offer it up for love of you and for souls.”

Let that be our resolution for today.