Today on the feast of our Lady of the Rosary, I want to speak a bit of what it means to meditate. The Gospel today reminds us that we should be storming heaven with our prayers. We have this amusing story about a friend who wakes his buddy up in the middle of the night. It says that even if your friend doesn’t help you because he is your friend, keep beating on the door, and eventually, he’ll get up to give you the bread, so you go away. We should have that attitude with our prayer life. We should be persistent. Not doubting that God will answer our prayers but continue to lift them up. That means focusing our minds and our lives on God’s will, on conforming ourselves to the life of Christ. So we focus our conscious brain on the mysteries of the rosary. We concentrate on the prayers, and we recall the trials, sorrows, joys, and thanksgiving of our own lives and place them before Mary for her guidance and intercession. We, as the Saints have constantly reminded us, go to Jesus through Mary. Our minds begin to try and make connections with each mystery. We begin to look and find ways that we have in some way lived out that experience in our own lives and in our own circumstances.
Our subconscious mind is always at work as well, even when we are awake. That’s why sometimes when we get intensely into prayer, we find ourselves lost. In the zone. This is when we become so much more attentive and receptive to the voice of God. It’s not that we have somehow lost awareness of the moment or gone on some sort of auto-pilot. We aren’t just going through the motions. It’s that our familiarity with the words has allowed us to go beyond just saying them, to simply resting in God’s arms. It’s in these moments that we have come to the place where our mind and heart have realized that God is going to give us what we need, and we can often feel God’s presence more fully. (I sometimes refer to these moments of serenity as golden moments. Moments in which I can only describe it as being enveloped in the light of God, in the peace of His word. I lose my place, forget what bead I’m on, and simply rest there. Time passes but I sometimes don’t notice, because I just don’t want to leave that moment.)
It’s kind of like learning to ride a bike. First, we had to learn to balance, how to move without falling, how to go forward, and eventually how to stop. Then, after a while, that became automatic. It wasn’t that the mechanics somehow disappeared or that we stopped thinking about it. It was that it became ingrained in us. Our muscle memory took over, and we no longer had to keep a conscious focus on it. The same with the prayers of the rosary. What began as a conscious effort to say prayers that we had been taught becomes an experience that allows our mind to be free to truly contemplate the mysteries of God.
The rosary, though, is different than the “mindfulness” meditation that you find taught by the Guru’s of the world and the new age movement. This is what makes this a uniquely Christian, even more, so a uniquely Catholic prayer. It’s more than just mental gymnastics or training your brain to be peaceful and calm. The difference is that in the rosary, someone is listening and responding to you. It is an opportunity to ask Mary for guidance and to reach out to God through her intercession. The rosary isn’t just a mental exercise. It’s an opportunity for God to mold and configure us to His Son by helping us to reflect on our own lives and struggles in light of the life of Christ.
Todays’ feast reminds us that there is an army of angels in Heaven that God uses to protect us. That even when faced with insurmountable odds, our prayers can change the course of battle. At the battle of Lepanto, there was seemingly no hope. An entire country joined together with the Pope to pray the rosary. The smaller army turned away the Ottoman fleet, shaping history as we know and preserving the Church in Rome. We shouldn’t be surprised that when the army of God, the multitude of angels, and Saints are mobilized that a victory is ensured. And just think, God is helping to fight a war for us, a war in our souls, a battle with eternal consequences. The rosary is our standard, our shield, our weapon. Let me close with this quote from Pope Pius the Eleventh:
“The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin . . . if you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors.” – Pope Pius XI
Jesus did everything necessary for our salvation on the cross. He has given us every tool, every grace necessary to become the person He created us to be. It’s up to us to use these gifts given to us through the Church to work with fear and trembling for our own salvation. (Philippians 2:12-13). The Rosary is just one of the many tools we have been given, but one of the most powerful ones we have at our disposal.
A homily for the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary: Thursday, October 7th, 2021.