A rose by any other name...

...or three reasons I love the rosary:

1. A rosary is 20 minutes of meditation on the life of Christ. Reciting it daily steeps you in the Gospel as you focus on the meditation for each decade. It keeps Him very much alive in your imagination. There is nothing better to fill your head with than the life of Christ--the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Incarnation...
   
   
2. 20 minutes of prayer a day is not too shabby. Of course, it has nothing on my friends in Africa who spend entire 24-hour days in prayer, but for a lazy, self-indulgent American it isn't bad. The discipline of taking the time to recite a rosary is only one of it's many charms.
   
   
3. God rewards the treasure seeker. I say one rosary each day for my husband and then sit back and watch as it bears fruit. You have to remember how weak and silly I am--how well God understands my smallness--that He allows me to catch tiny glimpses of His grace at work when I do what I ought to do. I am fully aware that I am petty and immature in my faith; He has to reward me instantaneously in order to keep my attention. I am no Mother Theresa that He will trust me with a dark night of the soul or any dryness in prayer. I pray for mostly selfish reasons and God holds my little hannie because I am not steady enough to walk on my own. I can't expound upon the work He is doing in my husband's soul without betraying the bonds of matrimony. I can only tell you I am so very well rewarded for my efforts I would be foolish to ever stop. 

On that note, let me conclude this too brief praise of a lovely Christian prayer tradition and take a moment to request a prayer from you. Would you be kind enough to pray for me that I persevere in prayer? I am only wise enough to know I am a foolish woman. I could so easily fall out of the habit of prayer, and I could use all the help I can get.


Click here for a link on how to pray the Rosary...