Category: Prayer

12 min read

Prayer

Why the Rosary, Why Now?

Gretchen R. Crowe

March 2, 2020 7:12 am March 2, 2020

12 min read

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12 min read

It’s easy for Catholics to take the Rosary for granted. We tend to purchase them as souvenirs, or carry them around with us, or even wear them — but we…

It’s easy for Catholics to take the Rosary for granted. We tend to purchase them as souvenirs, or carry them around with us, or even wear them — but we forget the immense power that they have when we actually pray them. And that’s really too bad, because a devotion to the Rosary can be the answer to so many struggles in our 21st-century world.

Our society today faces growing secularism and the disappearance of faith from the public square. We find ourselves confronting a world awash in the spread of evil and terrorism, war and violence. We are plagued by broken families, abounding distractions and a general lack of drive for holiness.

But the Rosary can help. And we know this because Mary herself told us this 100 years ago in Fátima, Portugal, when she appeared six times to three shepherd children once a month from May to October 1917. She told them repeatedly: “Recite the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.”

We also know the great value of the Rosary because it has manifested its power time and time again in the lives of men and women of faith throughout history. This, of course, isn’t because the Rosary is magical; it’s because it brings us to Jesus. As the late Cardinal Francis E. George, archbishop of Chicago, said at the conclusion of the Year of the Rosary in 2003: The Rosary “brings us to the heart of the Gospel.” Here’s how.

Break through the Noise

In today’s typical lifestyle, it is easy to become distracted and overwhelmed by all of the “noise.” Technology is constantly demanding our attention. We sit in front of screens and, at the same time, look at smaller screens. We are drawn in by the lure of social-media alerts and use texting as a primary form of communication. We have developed an “always on” or “always available” mentality, and noise no longer knows any boundaries. A Nielson report issued in June 2016 said that Americans, on average, spend more than 10 hours a day looking at some type of screen. It’s easy for us to tell ourselves we’re being productive and that this abundance of “screen time” is necessary, but the reality is that all that noise is damaging to our relationship with God.

This is not just a 21st-century problem, although it has become more pronounced in recent decades. In 1973, Cardinal Albino Luciani — then-archbishop of Venice who would go on to become Pope John Paul I — gave a homily that identified a “crisis of prayer” in the world — adding that part of the reason was due to the fact that “noise has invaded our existence.”

If he thought that life was noisy in 1973, what would Papa Luciani think of 2017?

We also face an abundance of internal noise. We are distracted by interior barriers to prayer that often manifest themselves in the form of pride and self-centeredness. In all of these moments of difficulty, we can turn to the Rosary. The meditative quality of the devotion can help focus us and break through the external noise. At the same time, by praying this simple prayer frequently, faithfully and with humility, we can break down our internal barriers.

In his homily recounted in the book “Why the Rosary, Why Now?”, Cardinal Luciani gives a beautiful and passionate defense of the Rosary — one that is just as relevant in 2017 as it was in 1973.

A Deeper Devotion to the Church

One of the intellectual, spiritual and even media giants of the 20th century was Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. Archbishop Sheen also had a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother, and he dedicated a book to her called “The World’s First Love, Mary, Mother of God.”

Many of you are probably familiar with Father Patrick Peyton, known also as “the Rosary Priest.” He’s the one who coined the phrase, “The family that prays together, stays together.”

But he didn’t just make up the phrase one day; he had been educated and formed on the immense value of the Rosary from birth.

Father Patrick Peyton. CNS photo/Family Theater Productions

Father Peyton was so used to praying the family Rosary every night, for example, that when he left home for the first time to work and was staying with another Catholic family, he was shocked and distressed when they all went to bed without gathering to pray first.

“While I pretended to sleep, I prayed my own Rosary and felt the pangs of homesickness, the bitterness of being among people whose ways were different from my own, whose sense of values failed to measure up to what all my training and experience had told me was normal,” he wrote.

This was clearly a pivotal experience for Father Peyton — one in which he realized he couldn’t take the faith given to him by his family for granted. And this is why, when tragedy struck later in his life, as he was preparing for priesthood, Father Peyton was able to turn to Mary. Through his devotion to her, Father Peyton was miraculously healed from a debilitating disease. And in response, he dedicated his life to spreading devotion to Mary. As he said, “The merit and the glory of every action I would ever perform would be hers and hers alone.”

Father Peyton went on to form the Family Rosary Crusade, making use of radio, film, outdoor signage and more than 260 rallies on six continents to promote family prayer to millions of people.

The excerpt describing this chapter in Father Peyton’s life included in “Why the Rosary, Why Now?” comes from Father Peyton’s biography and chronicles his life-threatening illness and his remarkable recovery — as well as the devotion to Mary and the Rosary that did not forsake him.

An Increase in Christian Discipleship

I think it’s safe to say that each of us, somewhere along the path of life, has come across someone of deep prayer or faith whom we greatly admire and perhaps even envy. I know that I have. This kind of witness is a gift, and it’s a reminder to each of us that we are called to establish our own close, loving relationships with Jesus.

To do this, we must encounter — a word that, in the Pope Francis era, has become a bit of a buzzword, but which is no less vital — Him Encountering Christ means getting to know him intimately, fully and without reservation. It means emptying one’s self so that we may be filled instead with the Holy Spirit.

There are many ways to encounter Christ in our daily lives: through prayer, the sacraments and, of course, the Eucharist. But a less-trod path to encountering Jesus is by developing a relationship first with His mother. After all, it was she who knew Him best, having carried Him in her womb. Mary lived with her eyes fixed on her son, watching over Him and learning from Him. She treasured each moment she had with Him and, as St. Luke’s Gospel says, pondered each in her heart.

The beloved St. John Paul II wrote in Rosarium Virginis Mariae, an apostolic letter on the Rosary, that the devotion is “one of the traditional paths of Christian prayer directed to the contemplation of Christ’s face.” When we pray the Rosary, we meditate on different moments of Jesus’ life, all through the lens of His holy mother. This contemplation leads to a personal encounter, which sets us on the path to Christian discipleship.

There is a startling dearth of Christian discipleship in the world today, mostly because it is not easy to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him, as we are instructed to do. As Christian disciples, however, we are called to set aside ego, selfishness and pride, and to instead prioritize others. It’s a countercultural life, but one which Mary and the Rosary can help to achieve.

Brings Peace to the World

One of my favorite Scripture verses comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Christian community at Philippi in which he counsels them on everyday living: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7).

Toward the end of 2014, Bishop Doeme had a vision in which Jesus appeared to him and handed him a sword. But when he reached out to take it, the sword turned into a Rosary. Jesus then spoke saying “Boko Haram is gone” three times.

St. Padre Pio

“It was clear that with the Rosary we would be able to expel them,” the bishop said. While this is a remarkable testimony to the power of the Rosary when it comes to fighting evil, it’s not unique.

Many other stories and holy people outline the protections that the Rosary can give, from the Battle of Lepanto, which saved the Christian West from Ottoman invasion, to St. Padre Pio, who called the Rosary “the weapon against the evils of the world today.”

In the included text, written in September 1951, Venerable Pope Pius XII put forth that the Rosary is an antidote to the evils facing the world at the time, such as the nuclear age, communism and the Korean War.

We find ourselves in different, but no less difficult, situations today with almost perpetual war in the Middle East, terrorism at home and abroad, and the persecution of Christians around the globe.

Pope Pius’ words about evil are just as applicable now as they were almost 70 years ago, and the Rosary continues to be the weapon we have to fight it.

Combats Secularism

A recent study performed by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., indicated that 13 was the typical age at which people were leaving the Faith. When asked if they would ever consider returning to the Church, that number raised its ugly head again — with, this time, only 13 percent of young people responding in the affirmative.

Both statistics are disturbing, but they unfortunately present an accurate picture of where we stand today in terms of widespread faith in our culture. We are losing it. In its place, our society is facing a rapid spread of secularism. In an address to U.S. bishops in January 2012, Pope Benedict XVI warned of the pervasiveness of secularism in American society saying, “It is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and culture spheres.”

But Pope Benedict was hardly the first pope to speak out against secularism. Pope Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 to 1903, was plagued by politics and the drama of atheist humanism during his time as successor of Peter. In several portions of an astounding 11 encyclicals on the Rosary (Pope Leo was known as the “pope of the Rosary”) — one of which is included in “Why the Rosary, Why Now?” — Pope Leo spoke out about the dangers of a world without belief. His words were strong and prophetic and are just as relatable now as they were then. Pope Leo believed strongly in the power of the Rosary to fight these growing troubles — and he was right. Praying the Rosary can help our world rediscover faith.

photoshooter2015 / Shutterstock.com

Helps Us Become Saints

Each of us is called to sainthood, but this life, as we all know well, is not easy. It requires sacrifice, dedication, heroic virtue and, above all, a close relationship with Christ and a determination to follow his will, come what may. Yet even though it’s not easy, sanctity is what each of us is called to.

This universal call to holiness is expressed in the Second Vatican Council’s Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church) — which reminds us that we are called to “be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” When wanting to achieve holiness, where else is it better to look than to those men and women who have already done so — that is, the saints themselves.“The saints and blesseds of paradise remind us, as pilgrims on Earth, that prayer, above all, is our sustenance for each day so that we never lose sight of our eternal destiny,” St. John Paul said. “For many of them the Rosary … was the privileged instrument for their daily discourse with the Lord. The Rosary led them to an ever more profound intimacy with Christ and with the Blessed Virgin.”

Among the many saints with a devotion to the Rosary were Pope St. John XXIII, St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Zelie Martin, Blessed John Henry Newman, Pope St. John Paul II and St. Louis de Montfort. Through their example, we find inspiration for ourselves to pray the Rosary more often to draw closer in holiness through Mary and her Son.

Gretchen R. Crowe is editor-in-chief of Our Sunday Visitor and author/editor of “Why the Rosary, Why Now?” (OSV, $14.95).

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1 min read

Prayer

What Is The Memorare?

Father Ray Ryland

March 1, 2020 7:53 am March 1, 2020

1 min read

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1 min read

The Memorare is a prayer invoking the intercession of our Blessed Mother. Its origins may date from the 12th century, but we know it has been widely used since the…

The Memorare is a prayer invoking the intercession of our Blessed Mother. Its origins may date from the 12th century, but we know it has been widely used since the 17th century. It is appropriate for use at any time, but is especially appropriate during times of difficulty or distress:

“Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. Mother of the Word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.”

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9 min read

Prayer

Where Did the Rosary Originate?

D.D. Emmons

February 6, 2020 8:32 am February 6, 2020

9 min read

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9 min read

Except for the Our Father, no Catholic prayer or devotion may be more revered than the Rosary. Many say the Rosary daily, reciting this prayer not only in church but…

Except for the Our Father, no Catholic prayer or devotion may be more revered than the Rosary.

Many say the Rosary daily, reciting this prayer not only in church but during special times and places we set aside. Many keep the beads in their pocket, hang them in cars, put them on bedposts. They may be part of the essentials carried every day, such as keys, wallets or purses. When lost or misplaced, many may feel incomplete until the beads are found or a new set is in their possession. But when did this whole idea of counting beads while praying begin? Where did the Rosary originate?

For centuries long before Christ, the faithful said prayers in a repetitive manner and found different methods of keeping count, often by using rocks or pebbles. By at least the ninth century, monks were reciting all 150 psalms, at first every day, but later every week as part of their prayers and devotions. One way they kept track was to count out 150 pebbles and then place one pebble in a container or pouch as they said each psalm. People living near the monks wanted to mimic this devotion, but due to lack of education couldn’t memorize all the psalms. Printed copies, even if individuals could read, were not available as the printing press was centuries away. So Christians began to pray 50 or 150 Our Fathers (or Paternosters) each week instead of the psalms. In order to keep count of the Our Fathers, they often used string with knots in it instead of counting on rocks. Later the knots gave way to small pieces of wood and eventually to the use of beads.

St. Dominic

There has long been a tradition in the Church that St. Dominic de Guzman (1170-1221) is the source of the Rosary. In the 12th century, the Albigenses heresy was widespread in Europe, especially in southern France and Italy. The Albigenses denied the mystery of the Incarnation, rejected Church sacraments and condoned many secular activities considered evil by the Catholic faith. Among the efforts by the Church to combat this heresy was the organization of the mendicant orders, including one led by St. Dominic. The Dominicans, as they became known, tried to reverse the vile teachings of the Albigenses by roaming the countryside preaching against the heresy, trying to influence the fallen away back into the Church. Tradition has it that St. Dominic’s efforts were most effective following a visit from the Blessed Virgin Mary in the year 1214. Neither Dominic nor his order ever made this claim.

The legend spread from an alleged dream of Blessed Alan de la Roche in the 15th century, more than 250 years after Dominic died. De la Roche was a respected writer and theologian of his time (c. 1428-1478) and instrumental in spreading the Rosary devotion throughout the Western Church. In his dream, Mary gave Dominic the Rosary and instructed the saint to preach the Rosary as part of his effort to thwart heresy. According to de la Roche, Mary said to Dominic, “If you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter.” The Psalter refers to the Angelic Prayer, the Hail Mary. Among those who related this beautiful story is St. Louis Marie de Montfort in the book “God Alone: The Collected Writings of Saint Louis Marie de Montfort.”

While many Church scholars do not give credence to de la Roche’s story, numerous popes have advocated Dominic as indeed the source of the Rosary. In the 18th century, the Bollandists, a religious community that researches and verifies Church facts and historical allegations, questioned the role of Dominic in the Rosary story. The future Pope Benedict XIV (r. 1740-58), at the time a member of the Vatican Sacred Congregation of Rites, responded to the Bollandists: “You ask whether St. Dominic was really the illustrator of the Rosary, you declare yourselves perplexed and full of doubt upon the subject. But what account do you make of the decisions of so many sovereign pontiffs — of Leo X, of St. Pius V, of Gregory XIII, of Sixtus V, of Clement VIII, of Alexander VII, of Innocent XI, of Clement XI, of Innocent XIII, of Benedict XIII, and of many others who are all unanimous in declaring the Rosary to have been instituted by St. Dominic himself?” (Augusta T. Drane, “The History of St Dominic, Founder of the Friars Preachers,” Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1891, p. 136, and other sources.)

Rosary Evolution

Notwithstanding papal advocacy for Dominic’s role, there are divergent views regarding the evolution of this most beautiful of Marian devotions. Many scholars and theologians conclude that it is the outgrowth from the early monks saying the psalms, but some differ in regard to the identity of individuals contributing to the growth throughout the centuries. Despite the different views, there is widespread agreement on certain facts.

The Rosary includes six of Catholicism’s most familiar prayers: the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, the Fátima Prayer (“O My Jesus”) and the Hail Holy Queen. The inclusion of these prayers in the Rosary did not happen overnight but was a lengthy evolution down through the centuries. Originally, the Our Father was said 150 times as a replacement for the psalms, saying the prayer on each bead of the Rosary string. A Glory Be was normally part of the prayer. During the 11th century, St. Peter Damian (d. 1072) suggested praying 150 Angelic Salutations, the Hail Mary, as an alternative prayer to the Our Father. The Hail Mary at that time consisted of Gabriel’s angelic salutation to Mary, “Hail Mary full of Grace the Lord is with you” (see Lk 1:28-31), and the exchange between Mary and Elizabeth during the visitation, “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Lk 1:39-45). The name of Jesus (“blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus”) was included sometime later. In 1365, a Carthusian monk named Henry of Kalkar (1328-1408) divided the 150 Hail Marys into 15 groups of 10 beads each. He placed an Our Father between each group or decade (10 beads); the prayer was thus made up of 10 Hail Marys, repeated 15 times with an Our Father in between each set.

In the mid-15th century, another Carthusian monk, Dominic of Prussia (1382-1461), introduced a similar devotion that included 50 Hail Marys with 50 individual thoughts or phrases about Jesus and Mary. A different thought or phrase would accompany each Hail Mary.

Around 1480, the evolution continued when “an anonymous Dominican priest … retained the pattern of the decades that Henry of Kalkar suggested but focused them on fifteen episodes in the life and work of Mary and Jesus, not on fifty or one hundred and fifty of them. Instead of meditating on a Mystery for the space of a single Hail Mary, people could meditate more deeply for the time it took to recite ten Hail Marys devoutly; and instead of circling the Mystery by meditating on a myriad of details, they would approach the details by focusing on the heart of the Mystery itself.” (Kevin O. Johnson, “Rosary: Mysteries, Meditations and the Telling of the Beads,” Pangaeus Press, Dallas, 1997, p. 199). By now there were 15 groups of 10 beads, 15 decades. Each decade, instead of each bead, was accompanied by a meditation on the life of Christ and Mary.

Completion of the Hail Mary

By the first part of the 15th century the Hail Mary consisted of: “Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” The third part, known as the petition (“Pray for us Holy Mother of God…”) is traced back to the Council of Ephesus in 431. At that council, Church leaders officially defined Mary as not only the Mother of Jesus but as Theotokos (God-bearer, the Mother of God).

On the night this proclamation was made, the citizens of Ephesus marched through the town joyfully chanting, “Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners.” This petition, including the words “now and at the hour of our death” would become part of the prayer by the time Pope St. Pius V (r. 1566-72) issued the papal bull Consueverunt Romani Pontifices in 1569 encouraging the universal use of the Rosary.

Since Pope Pius V issued that document, only the Fátima Prayer has been added to the Rosary. The Fátima prayer, given to the Portuguese children during the Fátima apparition in 1908, is widely used, but it is not universal. The Rosary made up of 150 beads, promoted by Pope Pius V, is still subscribed to by the Church but is, of course, different than the popular Rosary with 50 beads that many of us carry in our pockets.

From the 16th century until the 21st century there were three sets of mysteries: the Joyful, the Glorious and the Sorrowful. But in 2001 Pope St. John Paul II added the Mysteries of Light. The intent was to include meditations on the time in Jesus’ life between His incarnation (a Joyful Mystery) and His passion (a Sorrowful Mystery).

We Catholics instinctively turn to the Rosary in times of crises and life’s sorrows, in the midst of personal and even public tragedies.

How many soldiers have repeated the Hail Mary over and over on the battlefield? In our darkest hour, even the hour of our death, we plead for the intercession, the blessing and comfort of the Blessed Mother using this 700-year-old devotion which ends, in part, “Turn then most gracious advocate thine eyes of mercy toward us …”

D.D. Emmons writes from Mount Joy, Pennsylvania.

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6 min read

Prayer

Hearing God Speak: Using the Daily Examen

Jim Manney

January 2, 2020 11:14 am January 2, 2020

6 min read

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6 min read

How can we hear God? Few questions are more important to answer than this one. We want to know God and what God wants of us. We want to hear…

How can we hear God? Few questions are more important to answer than this one. We want to know God and what God wants of us. We want to hear His voice. Most basically, we want a connection with God — a daily sense of His presence and loving care.

Catholic tradition points to at least four ways that we hear God. We encounter His presence in the natural world itself, which God created and pronounced “good” (Gn 1:31). We hear God’s voice in Scripture, “the word of God.” We also hear God speaking in the teaching of the Church.

In addition, God speaks to us in our experience. He is present in our daily lives: in our relationships, our work, our decisions and accomplishments, our dreams and disappointments. The prayer strategy known as the Daily Examen is a method for hearing the voice of God in our experience.

A Saintly Habit

The great saints, mystics and masters of prayer have long taught that cultivating a habit of prayerful reflection on our daily experience is a key to spiritual growth. The Daily Examen has been practiced by Christians since ancient times as a technique of doing precisely that. The Examen involves us in prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and to discern His direction for us.

One version of the Examen is the examination of conscience, which many Catholics practice as a way to prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. But the Daily Examen is useful for much more than just preparing for confession. It can help us see God’s hand at work in our whole experience.

St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), believed that the Examen is a gift that has come to us directly from God, and that God wants it to be shared as widely as possible. One of the few rules of prayer that Ignatius made for the Jesuit order was the requirement that Jesuits practice the Examen twice daily — at noon and at the end of the day. It’s a habit that Jesuits, and many other Christians, practice to this day.

How exactly is an Examen conducted? Christians have developed various versions, but one popular version, composed of five steps, is based on the Daily Examen that St. Ignatius practiced.

“Rummaging for God”

Father Dennis Hamm, S.J., a Scripture professor at Creighton University, Omaha, Neb., calls the Daily Examen “rummaging for God.” He likens it to “going through a drawer full of stuff, feeling around, looking for something that you are sure must be there.”

That’s an accurate description of what it’s like to pray the Daily Examen. We look back on the previous day, rummaging through the “stuff,” and finding God in it. We know He is there; we just have to look for Him.

Sometimes our prayer can become too formal and abstract. The Daily Examen helps us avoid that problem by keeping our feet on the ground. This reflective, Spirit-led review of the day grounds our prayer in concrete reality. Because we are God’s creatures living in a world that He loves and sustains, we can be assured that we can hear His voice in our lives in this world.

One final advantage to making a habit of the Daily Examen: We never run out of things to pray about.

Sometimes prayer gets dry. Sometimes we wonder what to say to God. The Examen eliminates these problems. As long as we have 24 hours to look back on, we’ll have hundreds of things to talk to God about — and to thank Him for.

How to Conduct a Daily Examen

This five-step Daily Examen is based on the one described by St. Ignatius Loyola in his “Spiritual Exercises,” perhaps the most influential book about prayer ever written.

Step 1. Become aware of God’s presence. Look back on the events of the day in the company of the Holy Spirit. The day may seem confusing to you — a blur, a jumble, a muddle. Ask God to bring clarity and understanding, to show you where He was at work in each situation.

Step 2. Review the day with gratitude. Gratitude is the foundation of our relationship with God. Walk through your day in the presence of God and note its joys and delights.

Focus on the day’s gifts. Look at the work you did, the people you interacted with. What did you receive from these people? What did you give them? Pay attention to small things — the food you ate, the sights you saw and other seemingly small pleasures. God is there in the details.

Step 3. Pay attention to your emotions. One of St. Ignatius’ great insights was that we can detect the presence of the Spirit of God in the movements of our emotions. Reflect on the feelings you experienced during the day.

Did you feel boredom? Elation? Resentment? Compassion? Anger? Confidence? What is God saying to you through these feelings?

In this reflection, God will most likely show you some ways that you fell short. Be sure to make note of these sins and faults. But look deeply for other implications as well.

Are you frustrated? If so, perhaps this means that God wants you consider a new direction in some area of your work.

Are you concerned about a friend? Perhaps He wants you to reach out to her in some way.

Step 4. Choose one feature of the day and pray about it. Ask the Holy Spirit to direct you to something during the day that God thinks is particularly important. It may involve a feeling, positive or negative. It may be a significant encounter with another person or a vivid moment of pleasure or peace. Or it may be something that seems rather insignificant.

Look at it. Pray about it. Allow the prayer that it provokes to arise spontaneously from your heart, whether it’s intercession, praise, repentance or whatever.

Step 5. Look toward tomorrow. Ask God to give you light for tomorrow’s challenges. Pay attention to the feelings that surface as you survey what’s coming up.

Are you doubtful? Cheerful? Apprehensive? Full of delighted anticipation? Allow these feelings to turn into prayer.

Seek God’s guidance. Ask Him for help and understanding. Pray for hope.

St. Ignatius encouraged people to talk to Jesus like a friend. End the Daily Examen with a conversation with Jesus.

Ask forgiveness for your sins. Ask for His protection and help. Ask for His wisdom, too, about the questions you have and the problems you face.

Do all this in the spirit of gratitude. Your life is a gift, and it is adorned with gifts from God.

Conclude with the Our Father.

Jim Manney writes from Michigan.

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3 min read

Prayer

What Is A Chaplet?

Father Francis Hoffman

December 27, 2019 7:51 am December 27, 2019

3 min read

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3 min read

A chaplet is a personal devotional prayer that can be prayed privately or in a group, out loud or silently, in a church or in an ordinary setting. It could…

A chaplet is a personal devotional prayer that can be prayed privately or in a group, out loud or silently, in a church or in an ordinary setting. It could be prayed on a plane, in a train, on a bike or a hike. It could even be sung with or without musical accompaniment, in Latin, Greek or in the vernacular. There are different types of chaplets, and the two most common are the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Typically, prayer beads (rosaries, chaplet bracelets) of different forms (wood, glass, metal, cloth, rope, nylon, even sea shells!) are used by the faithful to keep track of where they are in the prayer. Often these sacramental items are blessed and people carry them in their pocket or hang them off the rearview mirror over the dashboard in their car.

Rosaries and chaplet bracelets — if they are blessed — should be treated with care, even if they are not technically considered sacred. Sometimes people kiss their beads when they pull them out or put them back in their pocket, purse or pouch. Some rosaries even become galleries of saints over time as their owners attach medals of their favorite saints between each decade.

Children tend to be very fond of rosary beads and chaplet bracelets, and often receive them as gifts for their baptism, first Communion or confirmation. However, they are not toys, and children who use rosary beads as handcuffs on their little brothers should be corrected, gently but clearly.

A chaplet is a vocal prayer and can be prayed as a petition, or in adoration, or for motives of thanksgiving, or in reparation for personal sins or the sins of the nation. Typically, a chaplet follows a set sequence of prayers and then repeats those sequences, commonly known as “decades” of ten or seven repetitions. Typically, there are three, five, seven or nine “decades,” and again the most common is the Rosary, which consists of five decades of one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and the Glory Be.

By nature a chaplet is based on repetition, but if the person prays it with attention and devotion it does not have to be repetitious. Repetition does not suggest lack of originality, any more than Beethoven’s Fifth — which states, repeats, inverts and varies the theme — is considered to be repetitious or unoriginal.

Sometimes you hear people criticize devotions such as the Rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet for being simplistic and boring because the prayers are very common and repeated frequently. But there is nothing boring about a rose in full bloom, even though every petal in the blossom is just like the next.

Down through the ages popes have recommended that the faithful pray the Rosary — every day if possible. That’s what St. John Paul II did, as well as Mother Teresa and Padre Pio.

Since a Rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet is a personal devotional, it can always be accommodated to fit the need and the circumstances of the situation. Many have discovered that, while the Rosary is made up of simple prayers — the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be — these prayers are very powerful. After all, the Our Father (the Lord’s Prayer) was given to us by Jesus Christ himself; the Hail Mary by an archangel, St. Elizabeth and the Church; and the Glory Be is rooted in the Old Testament angelic praises from the Book of Daniel. It would be difficult to improve on those prayers!

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1 min read

Prayer

Do Non-Christians Pray Through Christ?

Father Ray Ryland

December 12, 2019 7:54 am December 12, 2019

1 min read

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Paul’s Letter to the Romans assures us that God has left no one without some knowledge of himself. “For what can be known about God is evident to them, because…

Paul’s Letter to the Romans assures us that God has left no one without some knowledge of himself. “For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made” (1:19-20).

Though all non-Christian religions contain error, they also have elements of God’s truth. Wherever God reveals His truth to any degree, He always reveals through His Son. “All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him” (Mt 11:27).

Whenever a non-Christian prays to God, whatever of truth he knows and whatever of true love for God he reveals, that person is in fact praying through the Jesus Christ he does not know. Whatever of God’s truth is in that person’s mind and attitude must be pleasing to God.

The Church teaches that persons who truly love and serve God as best they can know Him can be saved. But they are saved by the truth they profess, not the error which their religions have imparted to them.

That truth comes to them through God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore the Church has to proclaim that, ultimately, no one can be saved except through Jesus Christ.

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