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by Saint Louis Marie Grignion De Montfort
How to say the Rosary worthily
It is not so much the
length of a prayer as the fervour with which it is said which pleases
God and touches his heart. A single Hail Mary said properly is worth
more than a hundred and fifty said badly.
Attention
In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions
by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must
also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of
the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of wilful distractions
during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would
make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin.
How can we expect God to listen to us if we ourselves do not pay attention
to what we are saying?
Of course, you cannot say your Rosary without having a few involuntary
distractions; it is even difficult to say a Hail Mary without your imagination
troubling you a little, for it is never still; but you can say it without
voluntary distractions, and you must take all sorts of precautions to
lessen involuntary distractions and to control your imagination.
To do this, put yourself in the presence of God and imagine that God
and his Blessed Mother are watching you, and that your guardian angel
is at your right hand, taking your Hail Marys, if they are well said,
and using them like roses to make crowns for Jesus and Mary. But remember
that at your left hand is the devil, ready to pounce on every Hail Mary
that comes his way and to write it down in his book of death, if they
are not said with attention, devotion, and reverence. Above all, do
not fail to offer up each decade in honour of one of the mysteries,
and try to form a picture in your mind of Jesus and Mary in connection
with that mystery.
Distractions
When the Rosary is well said, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and
is more meritorious for the soul than any other prayer. But it is also
the hardest prayer to say well and to persevere in, owing especially
to the distractions which almost inevitably attend the constant repetition
of the same words.
When we say the Little Office of Our Lady, or the Seven Penitential
Psalms, or any prayers other than the Rosary, the variety of words and
expressions keeps us alert, prevents our imagination from wandering,
and so makes it easier for us to say them well. On the contrary, because
of the constant repetition of the Our Father and Hail Mary in the same
unvarying form, it is difficult, while saying the Rosary, not to become
wearied and inclined to sleep, or to turn to other prayers that are
more refreshing and less tedious. This shows that one needs much greater
devotion to persevere in saying the Rosary than in saying any other
prayer, even the psalter of David.
Our imagination, which is hardly still a minute, makes our task harder,
and then of course there is the devil who never tires of trying to distract
us and keep us from praying. To what ends does not the evil one go against
us while we are engaged in saying our Rosary against him.
Being human, we easily become tired and slipshod, but the devil makes
these difficulties worse when we are saying the Rosary. Before we even
begin, he makes us feel bored, distracted, or exhausted; and when we
have started praying, he oppresses us from all sides, and when after
much difficulty and many distractions, we have finished, he whispers
to us, "What you have just said is worthless. It is useless for you
to say the Rosary. You had better get on with other things. It is only
a waste of time to pray without paying attention to what you are saying;
half-an-hour's meditation or some spiritual reading would be much better.
Tomorrow, when you are not feeling so sluggish, you'll pray better;
leave the rest of your Rosary till then." By tricks of this kind the
devil gets us to give up the Rosary altogether or to say it less often,
and we keep putting it off or change to some other devotion.
Dear friend of the Rosary Confraternity, do not listen to the devil,
but be of good heart, even if your imagination has been bothering you
throughout your Rosary, filling your mind with all kinds of distracting
thoughts, so long as you tried your best to get rid of them as soon
as you noticed them. Always remember that the best Rosary is the one
with the most merit, and there is more merit in praying when it is hard
than when it is easy. Prayer is all the harder when it is, naturally
speaking, distasteful to the soul and is filled with those annoying
little ants and flies running about in your imagination, against your
will, and scarcely allowing you the time to enjoy a little peace and
appreciate the beauty of what you are saying.
Even if you have to fight distractions all through your whole Rosary,
be sure to fight well, arms in hand: that is to say, do not stop saying
your Rosary even if it is difficult to say and you have no sensible
devotion. It is a terrible battle, but one that is profitable to the
faithful soul. If you put down your arms, that is, if you give up the
Rosary, you will be admitting defeat and then the devil, having got
what he wanted, will leave you in peace, and on the day of judgment
will taunt you because of your faithlessness and lack of courage. He
who is faithful in rejecting the smallest distractions when he says
even the smallest prayer, will also be faithful in great things. Nothing
is more certain, since the Holy Spirit has told us so.
How
to say the Rosary
After you have invoked the Holy Spirit, in order to say your Rosary
well, place yourself for a moment in the presence of God and make the
offering of the decades.
Before beginning a decade, pause for a moment or two, depending on how
much time you have, and contemplate the mystery that you are about to
honour in that decade. Always be sure to ask, by this mystery and through
the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, for one of the virtues that
shines forth most in this mystery or one of which you are in particular
need.
Take great care to avoid the two pitfalls that most people fall into
during the Rosary. The first is the danger of not asking for any graces
at all, so that if some good people were asked their Rosary intention
they would not know what to say. So, whenever you say your Rosary, be
sure to ask for some special grace or virtue, or strength to overcome
some sin.
The second fault commonly committed in saying the Rosary is to have
no intention other than that of getting it over with as quickly as possible.
This is because so many look upon the Rosary as a burden, which weighs
heavily upon them when it has not been said, especially when we have
promised to say it regularly or have been told to say it as a penance
more or less against our will.
I would like to add that the Rosary ought to be
said reverently, that is to say, it ought to be said as much as possible,
kneeling, with hands joined, clasping the rosary. However, if you are
ill, you can, of course, say it in bed; or if one is travelling it can
be said while walking; if, on account of some infirmity, you cannot
kneel you can say it standing or sitting. You can even say it while
working if your duties do not allow you to leave your job, for work
with one's hands is not always incompatible with vocal prayer.
I agree that, since the soul has its limitations and can only do so
much, when we are concentrating on manual work we are less attentive
to the activities of the spirit, such as prayer. But when we cannot
do otherwise, this kind of prayer is not without its value in our Lady's
eyes, and she rewards our good- will more than our exterior actions.
I advise you to divide up your Rosary into three parts and to say each
group of five decades at different times of the day. This is much better
than saying the whole fifteen decades at once.
If you cannot find the time to say five decades all together, say a
decade here and a decade there; you will thus be able, in spite of your
work and the calls upon your time, to complete the whole Rosary before
going to bed.
Of all the ways of saying the holy Rosary, the
most glorious to God, most salutary to our souls, and the most terrible
to the devil is that of saying or chanting the Rosary publicly in two
choirs.
Our Lord expressly recommended this practice to his apostles and disciples,
and promised that whenever there would be at least two or three gathered
in his name he would be there in the midst of them. What a wonderful
thing to have Jesus Christ in our midst! And all we have to do to have
him with us is to come together to say the Rosary.
This way of praying is of the greatest benefit to us:
1) because our minds are usually more alert during public prayer than
when we pray alone;
2) when we pray in common, the prayer of each one belongs to the whole
group and make all together but one prayer, so that if one person is
not praying well, someone else in the same gathering who is praying
better makes up for his deficiency.
3) One who says his Rosary alone only gains the merit of one Rosary;
but if he says it with thirty other people he gains the merit of thirty
Rosaries. This is the law of public prayer. How profitable, how advantageous
this is!
Finally, when the Rosary is said in common, it is far more formidable
to the devil, because in this public prayer it is an army that is attacking
him. He can often overcome the prayer of an individual, but if it is
joined to that of others, the devil has much more trouble in getting
the best of it. It is easy to break a single stick; but if you join
it to others to make a bundle, it cannot be broken.
Faith, humility, confidence
The Rosary should be said with faith, for our Blessed Lord said, "Believe
that you will receive and it will be granted." If you believe that you
will receive what you ask from God, he will grant your petitions. He
will say to you, "As you have believed, so be it done to you." "If anyone
needs wisdom, let him ask God with faith, and without hesitating, and
- through his Rosary - it will be given him."
Thirdly, we must pray with humility, like the publican; he was kneeling
on the ground, on two knees, not on one knee as proud and worldly people
do, or one knee on the bench. He was at the back of the church and not
in the sanctuary as the Pharisee was; his eyes were cast down, for he
dared not look up to heaven; he did not hold his head up and look about
him like the Pharisee; he beat his breast, confessing himself a sinner
and asking for forgiveness: "Be merciful to me, a sinner," and not like
the Pharisee who boasted of his good works, who despised others in their
prayers.
Even if you suffer from dryness of soul, distaste for prayer and interior
discouragement, never give up the least part of your Rosary; this would
be a sign of pride and infidelity; but like a brave champion of Jesus
and Mary, say your Our Fathers and Hail Marys in your dryness, without
seeing, feeling, or appreciating, and concentrating as best you can
on the mysteries. You ought not to look for sweets or jam to eat with
your daily bread, as children do; but to imitate Jesus more perfectly
in his agony you could say your Rosary more slowly sometimes when you
find it particularly hard to say: "Being in agony, he prayed the longer,"
so that what was said of our Lord when he was in his agony of prayer
may be said of you: he prayed all the longer.
Pray with great confidence, with confidence based on the goodness and
infinite generosity of God and on the promises of Jesus Christ. God
is the spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts
of those who pray.
We please our Lord when we ask him for graces, and if we do not ask
he makes a loving complaint, "Until now you have not asked anything....
Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door
will be opened to you."
Furthermore, to give us more confidence in praying to him, he has bound
himself by a promise: that his eternal Father would grant everything
we ask in his name.
Perseverance
As a fifth point, I must add perseverance and prayer. Only he who perseveres
in asking, seeking, and knocking, will receive, will find and will enter.
It is not enough to ask God for certain graces for a month, a year,
ten or twenty years; we must never tire of asking. We must keep on asking
until the very moment of death, and even in this prayer, which shows
our confidence in God, we must join the thought of death to that of
perseverance and say, "Although he should kill me, I will trust in him,"
will trust him to give me what I ask.
God's munificence, on the other hand, is shown by his making us seek
and ask, over a long period of time, for the graces which he wishes
to bestow, and the more precious the grace, the longer he takes to grant
it:
1) in order to increase the grace still more;
2 in order that the recipient may more deeply appreciate it;
3) in order that the one who receives it may guard against losing it;
for people do not appreciate very much what they obtain quickly and
at little cost.
Finally, my dear brothers and sisters, the daily
Rosary has so many enemies that I look upon the grace of persevering
in it until death as one of the greatest favours God can give us. Persevere
in it and your fidelity will be rewarded with the wonderful crown which
is prepared for you in heaven: "Be faithful until death and I will give
you the crown of life."
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