Our Lady of the Rosar

You shall love the Lord, your God,

with all your heart,

with all your being,

with all your strength,

and with all your mind,

and your neighbor as yourself.”  

(Lk 10:27)

Learning to pray by rote is important. Repetition allows the substance of the prayer to seep slowly into our psyches and souls, and repetitive prayer like the rosary teaches us that we do not have always to be conscious of every word we speak to God, but we do have to be faithful. 

Just as parents repeat maxims to their children to help them understand their deepest values, so we pray to God in a way that lets God know we have not forgotten or ignored his importance in our lives. We may not always know what we are saying, but we want God to know we are faithful even when we can't find the words to express our commitment to the Gospel. Memorizing the command of Jesus to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, helps us never to forget that what might seem impossible to us is possible for God when we let God show us the way.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, one of the most dramatic and effective preachers of the twentieth century and now a candidate for canonization, one wrote:

"The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men (and women); it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description." (History of Rosary)

It does not matter if we are blind, simple or old as long as we keep praying as best we can, and the rosary is a wonderful way to do this.

Today, say a decade of the rosary with an open spirit.

What are your best experiences of repetitive prayer?