"The reason why we get tired of saying the rosary so much, is because we think about it so little. We don't treat it exactly as it if were a prayer-wheel, but we treat it very much as if it were a prayer wheel; we don't really want to say it, we want to get it said. And of course that can't be the right was to go about it." -
The Laymen and His Conscience
11 comments:
This is a fault I accuse myself of. I follow a daily bible reading plan, and I don't have much trouble observing it. But when I have tried to pray the Rosary daily, for any lenght of time, I have failed miserably.
I'm in the failure camp, too, Javier. I have found myself praying the Jesus Prayer during the day with much more "success."
Yeah, I am with you guys also. I am very good about praying the Liturgy of the Hours twice a day. I also read the Mass readings everyday, but when it comes to the Rosary I also fail! Though when I do pray the Rosary, I prefer the Scriptural Rosary to the more traditional form.
This is being highly educational for me: I didn't know there existed a Jesus Prayer, nor a Scriptural Rosary.
I have a linguistic question: in my previous comment I wrote 'this is being'. Is it a natural english structure?. Or is it spanglish?. (I certainly had a spanish verbal structure in my mind when I wrote it). What I meant was 'this is turning out to be', or plain 'this is'.
Javier: It is primarily a prayer that the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches have practiced for about 1700 years, although I think it has grown a bit to other parts of the world now and to other denominations. I first became aware of it by seeing the two hour documentary Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer. It was based on the book of the same name. Both are wonderful. I just finished the book for the second time and I've seen the documentary about 7-8 times now.
Here is a link with a little information provided by St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary from their web site, which is right around the corner from where I live in New York.
If you Google "Jesus prayer" you will find a lot of information on it. Hope this helps.
For about the past year I have developed a great interest in the Church of the East.
Russ
http://www.svots.edu/saying-jesus-prayer
Javier, to answer your question about your previous post, it would sound more natural:
"This is highly educational for me:" At least you know two languages, that's better than me!
Russ, great information, thank you!.
I had never heard of that Prayer before.
I googled and found the documentary (only one hour long, though). I'm gonna watch it.
Thanks.
Thank you rolf!.
I like to think I'm reasonably good at this, but it is hard to keep my native tongue from creeping in.
Hi Javier: Yes, that is the TV version. Not sure if you can get the full-length documentary now, a new one anyway. I'm sure you will enjoy it. I like how the prayer and the monastic life is linked. The orthodox priest involved is Rev. John McGuckin, who will be giving a talk at St. Vladimir's next month that I am looking forward to hearing. I'm also looking forward to your comments about the documentary. It's really fascinating.
Hi Russ,
I watched the documentary once. I will probably have to watch it two or three times, as there is a lot in it. It is fascinating. During their trip they are following a spiritual thread, the Jesus Prayer, that spans not only two continents, but very different spiritual traditions. The monastery in Egypt is probably Coptic Orthodox. And they parted ways with the rest of the Church in 451 AD. Still, they keep holding on to that thread.
And of course, then there are the greeks, romanians, and russians. All of them with an appreciation for mysticism that we seem to have lost in the West. A certain awe for the Transcendent.
The documentary made me think of a russian movie I had watched, about a monastic community in the Artic during the time of the Soviet Union. And I had to go and check: the very first words spoken in that movie are the Jesus Prayer. (By the way, it is a very good movie).
Ostrov
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