Repetita Iuvant
I read on the blog of His Hermeneuticalness the very apposite suggestion to pray the rosary without being discouraged by the fact that one is easily distracted. Not only do I commend the attitude, but will also bore you with a couple of added personal reflections.
1. I have been praying the Rosary (five decades) every day for many years now. I will not tell you that I do not get distracted. But this I will tell you: that my desire to pray has greatly increased. It did not happen in one day. It's not that one starts praying the daily rosary and magically he feels different. It grows on one, little by little, imperceptibly but, with the years, evidently. Repetita iuvant.
2. My motivation in praying the Rosary are the well-known promises of the Blessed Virgin to those who pray the Rosary every day. In these years, they have been a great consolidation to me. I would consider them a perfectly valid reason to soldier on even if I were not to notice any spiritual advancement in the next – if God gives them to me – forty years.
3. The Church knows that we get distracted. If you think all those people praying the Rosary in Church before Mass never get distracted, think again. They cannot ask the group to please start the decade again, because they got distracted when they remembered they forgot to pay the gas bill. They soldier on, and try to do their best. This is how it has always worked.
4. Even the Liturgy takes account of distractions. The “The Lord be with you” parts at Mass are designed to gently regroup distracted minds on the Mass before crucial moments. Again, this is not a post-V II invention. It's a smart adaptation to the shortcomings of human nature.
5. In our very precise, technological age, we seem to think everything must be perfect. When we pray a Rosary, we may therefore think this rosary must be perfect, because every one of the countless machines around us do exactly the same. I doubt our ancestors thought in the same way. I rather think they accepted human imperfection in everything they did, and prayed the Rosary as humans always did and always will do: humanly.
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The wise Italian knows that il meglio e' nemico del bene, “better is the enemy of good”. Do not allow your quest for a better Rosary to deter you from praying it.
Pray the Rosary. Pray it as devoutly as you can.
But pray it anyway.
M
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Posted on November 18, 2014, in Traditional Catholicism. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
Mundabor's Blog 
Mundabor my friend,
I am a revert from a devilish life. By God’s grace I committed to praying the Rosary. I remember being in a Catholic bookstore and asking the Lady what I should read to brush up on my catechism which I lacked. She said pray the Rosary do not buy a book. Every great Saint I have read during my reversion prayed the Rosary. So I gave it a shot!
The Rosary is now like the Sun is to the Earth …….. My day revolves around …..did I pray the Rosary……. If I did not the Sun did not rise.
I sleep with the Rosary on my chest because I know it is only Mary that keeps me safe from the devil. I have my Rosary in my pocket and no it is not in a pretty case …….. I need to see those beads popping out of my pocket as I fumble through my day.
I have had the same wooden Rosary for 2+ years given to me by an FFI friar on his visit to an island in Southeast Asia. I have sown it back together many time and will continue to until I pass from this earth.
The Rosary is a gift from God. Sometime I consentrate for more than a couple seconds a day……… But as time goes on the Sun is brighter and graces keep coming even though………. I am distracted 99.9999999 % of the time
God Bless you Mundabor!!!
Dear Mundabor,
A rousing “Yes” and, “Amen!” A Delightful post. 🙂 🙂
Our dear Padre Pio once wrote: “Keep on running and don’t ever make up your mind to stop, for to stand still on the path is equivalent to retracing your steps. Run..so at the end we may say with the Apostle, ‘I have finished the race, I have kept the Faith.’ “(2Tim 4:7)
God Bless You always.
Thanks to you both.
I remember once reading reading that Padre Pio suggested to a faithful not to start the decade again if he gets distracted; I think the thinking was that he might be easily become discouraged in the end. His suggestion was to pray it to the end anyway.
I personally say extra decades or extra prayers on those days when I have been sub-par. But I never stop the rosary. I do think that the devil wants me to stop reciting it. No way.
M
Thank you for the good and wise advice.
Re seansdc’s posting: I could not have said it better. The Rosary works its influence on every part of my life despite all my failings. Well said and thank you.