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Rosary multitasking
I read Fr Lew’s article (October 2020) with great interest, especially as I have difficulty in saying the words of the rosary and meditating on the mysteries simultaneously. In fact I do not understand how anyone can do this. I can say the words and think about them, but how on earth can I meditate on the mysteries at the same time? This is impossible, at least it is for me. If I concentrate on the mysteries, then I am not thinking of what I am saying, and if I am not doing that, then what is the point, as I might just as well forget about the words and stick with the mysteries? The result is that I say the words and forget about the mysteries. Am I alone in being unable to spiritually multi-task? John Fryer Derbyshire Fr Lawrence Lew writes: The problem of spiritual multi-tasking is one I used to worry about, especially when I was a recent convert to Catholicism trying to learn to say the Rosary. I found it so complicated that I gave it up! Today I worry less about focusing on the words of the Hail Mary, since these are well known and need not be concentrated upon as such. Rather, as Chesterton says, each “Ave” is like a child saying again and again to his mother, “I love you.” And I like to think that the decade of Hail Marys indicates the recommended duration spent meditating on each mystery; they help us keep time rather than demand our attention, and nor should they distract us from the mysteries of salvation being contemplated. For as St Thomas Aquinas says, the aim of prayer is to stir us up to greater love and devotion towards God, and so long as our intention in praying is to contemplate the mysteries of his love for us in order to achieve this aim, then it matters little if we focus on or can even hear the words being said! Sister Lucia of Fatima, one of the three children who saw Our Lady of the Rosary, once said: “To pray the Rosary is something everybody can do, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, great and small.” It seems to me that one can over-intellectualise the Rosary when, instead, what matters is that we respond to Our Lady’s request with filial devotion and commit to saying the Rosary daily. In time, I’ve found, if we entrust ourselves to Mary and give her this time of prayer, she will lead us to contemplate the mysteries fruitfully.
