Monday, May 18, 2015

More for less ... ?

Escalators are wonderful things. I like the flat ones you can walk up better than the moving stairways. Part of the pleasure is, of course, that you just stand on them and they do all the work, while, if you do choose to walk you get twice the speed for the same amount of energy.

I was on one this afternoon and feeling energetic I started walking up, and as that special 'why-can't-life-be-like-this-all-the-time' feeling came over me, I suddenly found myself wondering about, of all things, my daily Rosary.

I think it must have been that thought about saving energy on the escalator which somehow led me to the make a connection with saving time on the Rosary.

The Rosary is meant to be, and can be, a deeply contemplative prayer which invites our complete attention, all our 'prayerfulness'.

We may say the Rosary while out walking but it is not a good idea to go for a walk to say the Rosary, at least, that's what I've found.

There are so many things to dissipate our attentiveness during a walk that our prayer inevitably suffers. I can't read a book and listen to music at the same time - one of them eventually becomes 'background noise' but then, your experience may be different.

4 comments:

  1. I agree.
    And I think we all know (and most of us are taught), to pray the rosary by meditating on the mysteries, and that is hard to do if there are distractions.
    I was taught to Kneel while saying the rosary, and when I was married, we'd say it when we were tired and I'd always sit or sometimes 'lay'.
    But I've only just gone back to kneeling, and now I feel more attentive to what I am saying, and I feel like I'm really 'praying'.

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  2. I have found that a booklet with a different bible verse for each Hail Mary to be a great way to stay focused on the rosary. If I go walking I tend to talk with God rather than try to meditate on his life.

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  3. I "discovered" your blog thanks to Adrienne and have been lurking for awhile but I wanted to comment on this post. I am in RCIA this year and have only recently started praying the rosary. I have read about how to pray the rosary and have come across comments from people who say that they pray the rosary while driving. It seems that both of these efforts would suffer if attempted simultaneously and it could even be dangerous! Thanks for the great blog!

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  4. Kelly, I pray the rosary driving the car all the time. I pray it walking to work and during any routine activities. Naturally the rosary suffers but it is better to pray (the rosary, or any other prayer) while driving than just e.g. to listen to the radio. However, it is not meant to be a prayer to accompany some other activity. It is better to stop and pray the rosary giving full attention. Can you see the 'trade-off that is happening'? Is it better to drive without praying or to pray while driving even though the prayer is not 100%.
    There is a joke about the two priests who wanted to know if they could smoke during prayers and so one went to the superior and asked if he could smoke while he was praying? The answer was no. The othe asked if he could pray while he was smoking? The answer was yes.

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