Matthew 26:39-44; James 1:22-25
So, we hear how much of a call we have when praying the rosary. We hear that it should keep us in a state of growth and push us to dive more deeply into our faith. A rosary is not supposed to be a load of useless prayers that we repeat time after time. It is supposed to serve as a call to you to dive deeper into your spiritual life and it is supposed to serve as a tool to let you see the Lord’s life and reflect on yours and how you need to change or improve your life to grow deeper. It is supposed to be a tool for you to break open the scriptures a bit more and dive into His word in order to live out his Word joyfully, gloriously, sorrowfully and luminously.
When we mindlessly say these prayers without meditating on the mysteries and reflecting on how the examples laid out for us can help us improve our spiritual lives and physical lives is doing the rosary an injustice. The key to being able to properly say the rosary is not focusing on the amount of ties you have to say the Hail Mary, but b meditating on the mysteries of the rosary. Not alone how it is influencing you or effecting you but putting yourself into the moment and time that this was happening. Pondering your reaction to these events.
The call to repetitive prayer was set before us by the Lord and through the scriptures. For instance the Lord in the garden when he repeats his prayer three times.
“And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41 Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words.” Matthew 26:39-44
Also, so many times in the psalms we repeat the same phrases, these prayers and the prayers of the rosary, when said without any devotion or desire to understand more, then those prayers are said in vain. So when we mindlessly pray the rosary without actually meditating on what the mysteries mean or how we can improve our spiritual lives set by the examples that Jesus and Mary left us then we are doing ourselves an injustice. We are called in James 1:22-25 “That we are to meditate in some way in order to preserve the gift of salvation.” We are called to this repetitive prayer so that we can meditate through the gift of the scriptures, that show us the example of Mary and Jesus, so that we can hold onto and strive for the gift of Salvation that was gained for us through Jesus’ death on the cross.
