Distractions come too easily when praying.
I remember reading in "The Life & Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmercich" where she had a vision of three women praying in a chapel. One woman was very distracted, and fully gave into entertaining her thoughts of the world. Above her head, Anne Catherine saw an angel turned to God, and writing in a book.
The second woman was immersed in prayer, with no distractions. Her angel had placed a crown of beautiful roses over her head.
A third woman was praying, and she was distracted repeatedly by worldly thoughts but she fought to overcome this, and each time she successfully focused again on her prayer. Because of this woman's persistence in overcoming her distractions, she had the most beautiful reward of all. Her angel had written in gold letters of the grace she had won and her crown was the most resplendent of all.
I was surprised that the woman who kept getting distracted, but was able to overcome it, was the one who was the most rewarded. I thought the woman who was totally immersed in prayer would be favoured most by God. But it makes sense that God also gives tremendous graces to those who continually struggle to place Him before the world, each time we are tempted to let our hearts and mind slip away from God.
Here are my favourite meditations for praying the rosary. For each bead there is a meditation, which really helps to keep the mind on the mystery. Just click on each mystery to find the individual meditations. Great pictures, too! These are from the booklet, Praying the Rosary Without Distractions
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3 comments:
Praying the Rosary without Distractions: a Dominican publication!
It's lucky for me there are crowns in fighting distractions, because they all come rushing at me, pell mell, as soon as I set out to pray. The little old lady whispering her Rosary. The guy three rows back smacking his dentures. The woman at the other end of the chapel breathing heavily. The page turner sitting up front. My own joints creaking. The awful thought that I forgot to turn off the oven. Each one is a jewel in the crown.
Those are pretty vivid descriptions! I can just picture them! We have a heavy breather too, in our little chapel. I'm always distracted about the possibility of having to perform CPR in case he codes right then and there!
when frank an di say the rosary, we do it together, and we do not stop for 1 second. this helps with no distractions. we set aside time and have no interruptions when we say the rosary. having a prayer partner really helps.
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