If you’re like me, then you struggle quite a bit to say the Most Holy Rosary with devotion and regularity. With that problem in mind, and continuing from my last blog The Secret of the Rosary (Part 1), I would like to offer some of St. Louis de Montfort’s words of encouragement in perseverance. So without further ado, here’s what St. Louis has to say.
“Being human, we easily become tired and slipshod – but the devil makes these difficulties worse when we are saying the Rosary. Before we even begin he makes us feel bored, distracted or exhausted – and when we have started praying he oppresses us from all sides. And when, after much difficulty and many distractions, we have finished, he whispers to us: ‘What you have just said is worthless. It's useless for you to say the Rosary. You had better get on with other things. It's only a waste of time to pray without paying attention to what you're saying; half an hour's meditation or some spiritual reading would be much better. Tomorrow when you're not feeling so sluggish you'll pray better; don't finish your Rosary until tomorrow.’ By tricks of this kind the devil gets us to give up the Rosary altogether or else hardly say it at all, and we keep putting it off or else change to some other devotion.”
“Always remember that the best Rosary is the one with the most merit, and there is more merit in praying when it is hard than when it is easy. Prayer is all the harder when it is (naturally speaking) distasteful to the soul and is filled with those annoying little ants and flies running about in your imagination, against your will, and scarcely allowing you the time to enjoy a little peace and appreciate the beauty of what you are saying.”
“Even if you suffer from dryness of soul, boredom and interior discouragement, never give up even the least little bit of your Rosary – for this would be a sure sign of pride and faithlessness. On the contrary, like a real champion of Jesus and Mary, you should say your Our Fathers and Hail Mary’s quite drily if you have to, without seeing, hearing or feeling any consolation whatsoever, and concentrating as best you can on the mysteries.”
But don’t let this become an excuse to not concentrate when you’re feeling lazy because as St. Louis says, “the Rosary said without meditating on the sacred mysteries of our salvation would be almost like a body without a soul: excellent matter but without the form which is meditation – this latter being that which sets it apart from all other devotions.”
And he also says, “You ought not to look for candy or jam to eat with your daily bread, as children do – but you should even say your Rosary more slowly sometimes when you particularly find it hard to say. Do this to imitate Our Lord more perfectly in His agony in the garden: ‘Being in an agony, He prayed the longer,’ so that what was said of Our Lord (when He was in His agony of prayer) may be said of you too: He prayed even longer.”
And he also says, “You ought not to look for candy or jam to eat with your daily bread, as children do – but you should even say your Rosary more slowly sometimes when you particularly find it hard to say. Do this to imitate Our Lord more perfectly in His agony in the garden: ‘Being in an agony, He prayed the longer,’ so that what was said of Our Lord (when He was in His agony of prayer) may be said of you too: He prayed even longer.”
And maybe sometimes we think, for whatever reason, we don’t need to say the Rosary but it was our Blessed Mother herself at Fatima who told us that Jesus wants the world to come to Him through a devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And this makes sense when you think about how He revealed himself 2000 years ago – being born of Mary: He uses Mary to come to us – and as imitators of Him – we use Mary to come to Him.
St. Louis says “If priests and religious have an obligation to meditate on the great truths of our holy religion in order to live up to their vocation worthily, the same obligation, then, is just as much incumbent upon the laity – because of the fact that every day they meet with spiritual dangers which might make them lose their souls. Therefore they should arm themselves with the frequent meditation on the life, virtues and sufferings of Our Blessed Lord – which are so beautifully contained in the fifteen mysteries of the Holy Rosary.”
Lastly, I’d like to leave you with this bit of awesomeness, “Somebody who says his Rosary alone only gains the merit of one Rosary, but if he says it together with thirty other people he gains the merit of thirty Rosaries. This is the law of public prayer. How profitable, how advantageous this is!”
Lastly, I’d like to leave you with this bit of awesomeness, “Somebody who says his Rosary alone only gains the merit of one Rosary, but if he says it together with thirty other people he gains the merit of thirty Rosaries. This is the law of public prayer. How profitable, how advantageous this is!”
So do what Pier Giorgio would do and take your Rosary everywhere you go, say it daily, and when you can, invite your friends and family to say the Rosary with you!
P.S. – With your next Rosary remember to ask for the whole world to come to Jesus through a devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and ask that those like me, who struggle to keep up with a devotion to the Rosary, be given the great grace to persevere in this holy devotion. St. Louis de Montfort, pray for us! Bl. Pier Giorgio, pray for us! “Verso l’alto!”
Written by:
Jesse Badinghaus
Written by:
Jesse Badinghaus
