The ‘Silence’ of the Rosary’s Vocal Prayers

As I pray the Rosary, my fingers are fingering and my voice is voicing, and oftentimes I’m walking while I pray. It can be a “busy” sight, but more frequently than not, behind the “chatter” of the Hail Marys and Our Fathers, I have an interior silence, a clean mental slate upon which I can create vivid, biblical scenes of the gospel and meditate on their mysteries.

Throughout the day, I’m often bombarded with thoughts about my job, about my family, about my marriage, about health issues, about my household’s personal finances, about my obnoxiously high electric bill that just won’t quit — these things tend to clutter my mental real estate.

Once I mastered the vocal prayers of the Rosary (it doesn’t take long), I was able to use the rhythm of the words and the feel of my fingers gliding across the beads to sweep away the distractions, and instead focus my concentration on the mysteries.

I like how the Rosary’s vocal prayers foster an environment that allows the meditations to take root. It promotes peace and calm. The sound of the words are drowned out by the precious silence they create. To the one who prays it, that silence is golden.

The Rosary: Beads on a String, Not Genie in a Bottle

Does praying the Rosary guarantee instant “yes” answers to our supplications? Not at all.

God is not our Genie whose job is to grant all our wishes. If that’s what He did, He would not be the God of love. As all parents know, to love a child is not to grant the child’s every request; it is to provide for the child and do what is ultimately best for the child, who is often short-sighted and self-centered. Doing what’s best may even mean allowing the child experience a kind of “suffering” now in order to achieve a positive result later.

It’s a mistake to think that asking Mary to intercede for us is a way to apply leverage against God, so that He really “feels the pressure” and finally buckles, submitting to our will.

Keep in mind that, as our holy Mother, Mary is not going to bring our supplication to her Son if it arises from selfishness, greed, pride, or any other shady motive. She will pray only for that which is good for us, because, more than any other creature, her will is united with her Son’s. She knows how to best pray for us.

Prayer “works.” The prayer of the righteous is heard and answered. Somehow, especially when we pray in union with others, God hears and acts in love. To be honest, I don’t know how all the mechanics of it work. I just know that it does, and that we’re supposed to pray for each other, even though God knows all our needs before we do.

However intercessory prayer works, we can know that Mary’s is most effective because she is the closest to her own Son. Consequently, she helps to lead us to her Son, as well.

Although I’m reluctant to assign specific personal events to divine intervention (in order not to be presumptuous or fall into the sin of superstition), I’ll relate a quick story here about how I believe the sincere praying of the Rosary brought about a remarkable outcome for me:

I was working full time for a non-Catholic (and anti-Catholic) church doing what I loved, but the more I came to understand Catholicism, the more I was drawn to it and knew I needed to find a different job. Although I had a good number of interviews, I had a terrible time finding a job that paid sufficiently with the benefits I needed for my family. We were going thousands of dollars deeper in debt, renting a shabby mobile home, having a rough time. I came to accept my circumstances. I knew we needed help, but I knew there was only so much I could do — or knew to do. I had a certain peace about it, leaving it in God’s hands, but naturally it was still unsettling at the same time.

In October of 2002, Pope John Paul II published his encyclical on the Rosary (click “Downloads” tab on this site), which subsequently “turned me on” to the Rosary. He explained it so well. I learned how to pray it, but I only prayed it irregularly. When I finally started praying it every day on the way to work — praying sincerely and seeking the face of the Lord — it was just a matter of a few short weeks when everything changed.

I found a job that was just 12 minutes away from home (as opposed to 55 minutes), and it paid a couple thousand dollars per year more. I received severance pay which, along with retirement money I had accumulated, paid off all of my mounting credit card debt. Through my wife’s connections, we were able to move into a very nice, spacious mobile home, and we also had enough money to buy some nicer furniture.

Within a couple or three month’s time, our entire situation was reversed — seemingly miraculously!

After some other bumps in the road, I found yet another, better job since then.

I understand that the God who gives is the same God who takes away. Financial reward can be a divine blessing, but not necessarily. We should be faithful in the good times and the bad.

But when I look back at this story in my life, I do believe our Mother Mary showed mercy back then and prayed for us, and “things happened.”

With shame, I admit I have not kept these things in my heart without fail, but I keep coming back to the Rosary, praying the humblest prayer: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”

Driving While Indoctrinated

I find it helpful to pray the Rosary on my drive to work in the mornings. And now I have found a way to do it more safely.

Instead of fingering the rosary with just one hand on the wheel, I don’t use the beads at all while driving; rather, I follow the prayer by joining Greg and Jennifer Willits of Rosary Army on CD. I burned their free, downloadable MP3s to CDs (two sets of mysteries per CD), and I can listen and participate in the prayer.

You can find these MP3 files in their podcast archives, but here are the links (left-click to listen; right-click to download):

1. Joyful Mysteries
2. Luminous Mysteries
3. Sorrowful Mysteries
4. Glorious Mysteries

What I find especially helpful is that Greg and Jennifer have recorded a Scriptural Rosary. This means that between every Hail Mary, they read a verse or two of Scripture concerning the current mystery. Not only does that help indoctrinate the listener with Scripture, it helps keep a driver focused.

While driving, it’s easy to lose focus during a string of ten Hail Marys, because we do have to pay attention to the road. It’s common to even forget which mystery we’re on when we’re “distracted” by driving. (Why do I think this post will never be endorsed by the Department of Transportation?)

With this Scriptural Rosary, your attention is always brought back to the truths of Scripture, on which this prayer is based.

Not All Repetitions Are “Vain”

Hank Hanegraaff is the voice of the Bible Answer Man radio broadcast. He always has something interesting to say, and always comes up with pithy, well-formulated quips and explanations in defense of the Christian faith.

But sometimes he is the Wrong-Answer Man.

I was listening to him as I drove home from work today, and he was broadcasting his audio book, The Prayer of Jesus, in commemoration of the national day of prayer. His book is based on the Lord’s Prayer as found in the Sermon on the Mount.

He quotes the scripture about not praying in “vain repetitions,” implying that repetitious use of the Lord’s Prayer defeats its power and purpose. “You can put away your prayer beads,” he says, which would certainly include the Rosary, because you can’t “wear God down” through repetition; God knows what you need even before you ask Him.

Hanegraaff then addresses an anticipated objection: Why should we pray at all if God already knows what we need?

Good objection! I thought, if one follows Hanegraaff’s logic.

The answer he gave was that we are mistaken if we believe supplication (or, asking God for stuff) is the only form and purpose of prayer. His answer here is correct, for prayer is also a means of thanksgiving, meditation and contemplation, and intercession for others.

My question, however, is: Who says that the intent of a repeated prayer must be to “wear God down” as you beg Him for stuff?

The Rosary, for example, includes repetitions of the Hail Mary and the Lord’s Prayer (the “Our Father”), but anyone who knows how to pray it understands that the purpose of the Rosary is to meditate on the mysteries of the gospel — to meditate on Jesus! It is not to wear Him down in order to get what you want.

These “mysteries” include:

1. The Annuncation of Our Lord
2. The Visitation
3. The Nativity of Jesus
4. The Presentation in the Temple
5. The Finding in the Temple
6. The Baptism in the Jordan
7. The Wedding at Cana
8. The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God
9. The Transfiguration
10. The Institution of the Eucharist
11. The Agony in the Garden
12. The Scourging at the Pillar
13. The Crowning with Thorns
14. The Carrying of the Cross
15. The Crucifixion and Death
16. The Resurrection of Our Lord
17. The Ascension into Heaven
18. The Decent of the Holy Spirit
19. The Assumption of Mary
20. The Coronation of Mary

With the exception of the last two mysteries, Hanegraaff would commend our meditation on all of these. They are a summary of the story of Jesus. Recited prayerfully, they are a mental and spiritual review of the gospel, seen through His mother Mary’s eyes. It brings to mind the great events of Christ’s ministry. You might call it “spiritual muscle-building,” for reciting the Rosary is an ancient spiritual exercise indeed.

I suppose one could argue that the Psalmist should not have repeated the phrase “His love endures forever” 26 times in 26 short verses (Psalm 136). “God already knows His mercy endures forever,” one might say. “He doesn’t need you to tell Him that 26 times in rapid succession! That’s ‘vain repetition’!”

But prayer, as Hanegraaff already understands and has taught, is not so much about changing God as it is about changing you, the pray-er.

So go ahead — get out your “prayer beads” — because sometimes repetition is the best teacher.

A Chain of Events

The first time I arrived early for Mass and witnessed a large group of parishioners reciting the prayers of the Rosary in unison, it struck me as almost haunting. Everyone was kneeling, thumbing their beads, and vocalizing ready-made prayers in a collective monotone voice that echoed throughout the church.

I wasn’t used to that at all. It sounded almost pagan . . . whatever “pagan” sounds like.

But it all makes sense when you realize what’s really happening. The Rosary prayers are not to be empty-headed recitals — but quite the opposite! They are to be prayed with a full head of gospel meditations! The one who is praying should (ideally) have his mind focused on one of the “mysteries” (i.e., revealed truths) of Christianity.

Thursdays, for example — like today — are typically set aside to meditate on the “luminous mysteries,” which are events from Jesus’ earthly ministry. They include:

1. The Baptism in the Jordan
2. The Wedding at Cana
3. The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God
4. The Transfiguration
5. The Institution of the Eucharist

In other words, during the first set of the “Hail Mary” prayers, which an outside spectator may mistake as dull and vain, the pray-er in reality is heart-deep in meditation on Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan.

He may be pondering the importance of baptism, and how it is the normal entry gate to salvation through Jesus Christ; he may be imagining how John the Baptizer must have felt baptizing the Lord; he may be “listening” to John’s words, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”; he could be placing himself at the scene, so to speak, to witness the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus as a dove, and listening to the words of the Father, whose words resounded from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”; he might be piecing together this baptism, which was done as our example, with the “born again” conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus — found just two chapters later in the Gospel of John.

With just ten “Hail Marys” per mystery, time flies by quickly. I’ve caught myself going much more slowly when I notice I’m near the end. Oftentimes, the only way you know it’s time to go to the next set (unless you want to continue that meditation) is when your fingers and thumb encounter the larger, “separator” bead. Then it’s time for the next set — that is, if you’re ready to move along.

The reason the vocalized prayers sound either hurried or “dreary” to some is that the one who’s praying is focused on the meditations and not on making colorful voice inflections. With practice, the combination of vocal prayer and meditative prayer has a way of harnessing your full attention.

Imagine the benefits of daily recitation of the Rosary. It’s a prayerful rehearsal of the whole gospel story. Impure thoughts of any brand are replaced by the scenes of salvation history, revealed to us by Scripture and the Tradition of the Church.

What better way to purify your mind on a daily basis?