I have always loved the Rosary with a beating heart.

Under the
action, that I ask, of the Holy Spirit, let it be done today and here
the mixture and the knowledge of everything I lived, everything I
read, and everything I treasured in so many years that have eroded
so many rosary beads. The action of the Holy Spirit, in fact, I
already have it, in the form of the reflections and the wisdom of a
convent Franciscan that lives in Argentina and that for some time
ago is a friend of mine of the soul of my soul. Lets talk about the
Rosary; but either tigers eat me alive or I have to make it so that
each reader finds a way to enhance his prayer.
My friar I have kept almost everything that he writes me stays: <<Look,
Father, the Rosary is a path, but in my case, is the path>>. For him, the
Rosary is not a devotion, but can be a full path <<and become the center of
life>>. And he told me how Padre Po prays fifteen Rosaries daily (My
maximum is eight) He adds: <<When I speak of prayer, it must be
translated as Rosary (). I have no other source than the Holy Rosary>>,
and from the Rosary he develops his homilies, talks and retreats, despite
making a lectio of the Sacred Scripture of so many hours. It is a legitimate
central path for those whom the Holy Spirit wants to carry around. All the
spirituality can be drunk from Mary because there is no virtue that is not
whole in her Heart. Lets avoid squeamish complaints. The Rosary is a
prayer eminently centered on Jesus, and if you want proof and a symbol of
this, Saint John Paul II recalled that <<the center of the Hail Mary () is the
name of Jesus>> [1]. And Mary, like always, <<is not the center, but she is
in the center>>. That, for those who already lit that fire over there.

The good Rosary and the cheap Rosary

Oh the Rosary that no one believes. Oh the pseudo-Rosary of the parrots
We have to explain what is and what not the Rosary is.
The rosary is not in any way an exclusively vocal prayer. Those who pray the
Rosary by the easy procedure of praying Our Father and Hail Mary, and
every ten times enunciate without contemplating a mystery, they do not
pray the Rosary: they pretend. Praying four parts of the Rosary without
contemplating the mysteries is praying a very small part of the Rosary. You
can talk to Mary without talking to Mary just as there are so many that
commune without communing (they left their soul at home) Can anyone
believe that our Lady has insisted on the Rosary so much to do the same as
the parrots? Paul VI spoke of contemplation:
Without this (contemplation) the Rosary is a body without a soul and
its recitation runs the risk of becoming a mechanical repetition of
formulas , in violation of Jesus warning: When you pray, do not heap
up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be
heard for their many words (Mt 6,7). By its nature, the Rosary

demands a quite rhythm and a reflective backwater that favor the

individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lords life as seen
through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord, and to unveil his
unfathomable wealth.[2]
A body without a soul is a corpse. Many pray corpses!
I understand the Rosary in this way: Jesus and Mary that they wish our
contemplation, they fake a chance encounter in recitation. The real Rosary is
not the recitation Rosary but the contemplative one. Vocal prayer and
recitation is very holy: but the Rosary is not that. The Rosary is more a
mental than a vocal prayer; and so, rather than speaking, it is listening, and
you should know that hearing comes from auscultare, and doctors hit me if
what it is auscultated is not the heart. We, the Heart of Jesus and Marys
Heart. Or I am very dull, or he who begins to know these things rushes to
pray the Rosary, and if he already prays it, starts to pray it in a new way.
The Rosary is a school of contemplation. <<The Bible of the poor>>, of the
elderly that can not read, of those who never learned. << Examine the
Scriptures, because in them you think you have eternal life>> (Jn 5:39). In
the very Catechism we have it:
Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of
Christ, as in the lectio divina or the Rosary. This form of prayerful
reflection is of great value. [3]
Do you realize the ease of rigging the Rosary with Bible meditation?
Because something will have the water when it is blessed (Spanish saying)
And here is the answer to those who despise the Rosary for being repetitive.
The contemplation Rosary regrows love in each Hail Mary. Lovers continually
repeat one sentence: I love you, and for them it is not repeating. Here
are some memorable words of Lacordaire:
The rationalist person smiles by watching the rows of people
repeating the same words; the one who is enlightened by a better
light understands that love is just a word and that, although always
repeating it, never repeats enough times.[4]
Another thing is to move the epiglottis. And under my faith that there are
those who move it with alacrity. My friar writes me:
Rosaries (or strings of beads) have almost all religions to pray the
orthodox (for praying the Jesus prayer), Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, etc.
I have being in contact with all these people and I have seen how
they put much fervor as they pray their rosaries. But when you pray
the Holy Rosary of the Virgin Mary in a large number of Catholic
parishes, mamma mia! I do not know how they can pronounce so
many words per second
And he tells me:

Not long ago I read an article by a lady who told her experiences and
said that she prayed three rosaries a day one for her, one for her
husband and one for their children. The first one, in the norming, was
a fast rosary she said- a rosary that took her no more than then
minutes. The other at noon- was more reflective because it took
her fifteen minutes. And the night rosary, she prayed it with her
family watching TV. I was simply appalled when I read that string of
horrors!
Here it is the answer to those who dont pray the Rosary because their mind
wanders. Losing sight of the words of the Hail Mary to rise and contemplate
the life of Jesus and Mary is precisely the ideal of a Rosary. If the mind
wanders to more earthly things, the Virgin contemplates it smiling, and John
XXIII, from the sky, contemplates it repeating what he said: The worst
Rosary is the one that is not prayed
And if we are sinners? Never turn away from the medicine because of the
disease. Sinners have more reasons to pray it, and Holy Mary doesnt want
anything else. The Rosary is not a prize, it is a medicine. My friar Francisco,
who feels terribly sinful, says again:
In this fierce struggle of my soul against all hell, sometimes I feel
fainting () The enemy () doesnt accuse me of anything I would
not be fully aware of having committed. I made those sins and they
are very serious. Thats why I feel so desperate and tormented ().
Finally, there are some words of Saint Louse Marie Grignon of Monfort
for sinners and say like this: If you are faithful to pray the Saint
Rosary devoutly till death, despite the enormity of your sins, believe
me: Percipietis coronam immarcescibilem (1 Pe 5,4) you shall
receive a crown of glory that will never fade. Even if you ye were on
the brink, or you already had one foot in hell; though you had sold
your soul to the devil, even if you might become a hardened heretics
and stubborn as demons, sooner or later you will convert and you will
be saved, provided that (I repeat it and notice the words and terms of
my advice) you devoutly pray every day the Rosary until your death,
in order to know the truth and obtain contrition and forgiveness of
your sins. [5]
This holy sinner writes me too:
Sometimes I have fear of the personal account that I will have to give
and likewise I say to the Lord: with tears and sobs every day I am
heartily sorry for having offended you so much (). Thats why I like
so much the Holy Rosary, because when I meditate on the mysteries,
I delight in the beauty of each one of them and I miss my spiritual
ugliness. And sometimes, I stop to say a Hail Mary staring at the
image of the Virgin to savor well that prayer that I love. Sometimes I
have felt in the mouth honey flavor when I say that prayer

And how will I contemplate the mysteries?

With the contemplated Rosary, we will go from one discovery to another,
deepening in the life of Jesus and Mary and all that makes up our religion
and our life. It will be a breakthrough that will astonish us and, sometimes
experience speaks- you will seem to be in the center of happiness itself.
Sometimes, following the common rule of prayer, we will suffer aridity and
we wont see anything, but our loyalty will continue to pray until the good
Lord decides to return us a clear sky [*].
For contemplation, I think the most important principle is that of originality,
variation, not being tied to anything, imagination. It is worth stating at the
outset that the Popes ask that after announcing the mystery, a related Bible
verse is said, and it is our shame that that is done in almost any place. [6]
But also, it is quite often leaving a silence (enough) to contemplate between
the verse and the recitation; you can do a brief contemplation and dedicate,
in another moment, a few minutes of intense contemplation; the biblical
texts can be read, during the prayer or apart; so many booklets can also be
read as well as brochures that are on the mysteries; you can look for a song
or even compose it; poems about the mystery can also be recited. You can
double the Rosary time given that it is mental praying- and take for granted
the daily prayer before the Tabernacle; a theme can be chosen and turn the
meditation around it in each mystery. For example, by the liturgical season,
around a biblical passage that has impacted us, or around certain
circumstance that we are going through, etc. (especially recommended
method); it is very good being children and, for example, start the Rosary
announcing to the Virgin that we are going to celebrate that she is very
sweet, and therefore we will count each Hail Mary like candies (ridiculous?
for those that havent tried it); we can ask her that for each Hail Mary She
solves the hanger of someone that day, or take a soul from purgatory, or
convert a sinner. Im talking about childhood and imagination.
Multiple methods, as you can see. But the monastic tradition (since
Domingo el Cartujo to Alano de Rupe) has developed a method for when
we are advanced. It is about the clauses, and it is the best method that
expresses the mental prayer character of the Rosary and best displays its
ability to unite us, through Mary, with God. The clause is a phrase that one
adds, usually inventing at the time, to the Hail Mary, either at the beginning
of the prayer or after the name of Jesus, as: Hail Mary, Jesus, who in
becoming man was one like us, Jesus, who becomes man-God to repair
the sin of man against God,, Jesus, who became man-God so I treat
men better than I have done this morning with my partner, Jesus,
incarnate to understand the problems of men, and thus understand the
economic necessity of my friend Antonio, To the one that is Queen of the
world because she is the Mother of God, Hail Mary

Who tried it knows. My good friend says: I feel very blessed with clauses
and I use them to concentrate. Thats why () I have had a full-time mental
praying. And he adds:
Clauses must be different and specific. There can be no digressions. If
possible, they should be focused on some current situation. For
example, during Marys visit to her cousin Elizabeth, today, I
emphasized in specific situation where I had to climb a mountain and
I didnt do it, and in current situations in which I look pointed to climb
a mountain and I dont feel ready.
Different and punctual clauses means what I said before: imagination, that
is life, against the dull doze of the inexplicable Rosaries of those who only
recite, those who eat the shell and throw the fruit, those blind who handle
millions and treat them like cheap chump; of those that the Master would
say: This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from
me (Mc 7,6).
We prefer or not? giving glory to God in spirit and truth (Jn 4,23), and
thats why we want to do what Mary did, that treasured up all these things,
pondering them in her heart. (Lc 2,19); we want to beat our hear in unison
with Mary. We want to search the view of Mary; we die to get into her eyes.
We want, in the words of John Paul II, contemplate with Mary the face of
Christ [7], and I prefer to say combining these words with the elder ones
of Pablo VI [8] contemplating the face of Christ with the Heart of Mary
Saint Antonio-Mara Claret insisted that the image of the Immaculate Hear
must be the Virgin of the Rosary with the hear in the chest. And finally, how
many things are said in these words that we can conclude:
If the Gospel tells us that she ponders everything in her heart, it
means she composed her prayer with these events. Its like she prays
her rosary, a rosary without beads, returning always to what is
important in the life of his Son and her own life. Mary could not forget
the first major event in her life, which was the Annunciation, nor the
other joyful events, or those that were related with the passion and
resurrection of his Son. And that was her prayer.
If you pray the rosary, you pray like Mary, you are like an image of the
Mother of God. You imitate here in pondering the mysteries of the Son
and the Mother (cfr. Lc 2,19:51). She is the memory of the Church,
our memory about those events that should be for us something
alive. When you meditate them you enter in contact with those
mysteries, and thus they become en channels of grace for you. Fall in
love with the Rosary means fall in love with the Gospels, fall in love
with Mary as well as all the things that she kept and meditated in her
Heart (cfr. Lc 2,19), those who were the content of her life. [9]