Follow Up On Rote Prayer

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Pontifex' post='1430428' date='Dec 5 2007, 11:01 PM']I would say that rote prayer is better for the simple fact that you are consecrating time for God. Regardless of how much we feel is accomplished in prayer, the simple fact that we show up and give time to God is an expression of devotion. It may not be our best, but it is something. No prayer as an option is as a result of pride, in my opinion. i.e. It has to be up to my standards or nothing.
(My response is defining rote prayer as prayer that is just words without devotion)[/quote]

so if you, say, find yourself praying the rosary and realize that your mind kinda "checked out" for the 3rd & 4th mysteries, would that be considered rote prayer?

and how does rote prayer fit in with the Bible verse about not mindless babbling about prayer? (can't quite think of the verse)

[Theoketos]

Lil Red,

Your mind checking out, is it your imagination kicking into drive? If so, that is very good thing. This habit can lead to meditation and even contemplation! You just need to focus it. Look into finding an Ignatian retreat or read St. Ignatius Spiritual Exercises. (OOO Edit to add: [url="http://www.sacredspace.ie/"]http://www.sacredspace.ie/[/url] as a source for learning to use your imagination in prayer!!!)

Concerning rote prayer and "babbling like the pagans:" Matthew 6:7 reads, In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. "Their babbling probably means their reciting a long list of divine names, hoping that one of them will force a response from the deity." (NAB footnote) This verse, I think, is not so much focusing on the words babble so as to reference patterned prayer, but instead an attitude that one can force God's hand by calling upon his name, as if saying the Name of God, will give you power over them.

That is the opposite of prayers like the Rosary and Jesus Prayer and more like the Tibetan Prayer wheels. For certainly, the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not any way coercing God, nor does quantity matter to God. Instead it is the effort and contrite heart that pleases Him who is Love. So, even when you mind is not fully present on the words you are saying, in Christ and through Christ they are still efficacious, or effective, and thus should be prayed.

Here is a great article that covers rote prayer:

[url="http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/columns/markshea/sheavings/49.asp"]http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/colum...heavings/49.asp[/url]

The main thrust is in this paragraph.
[quote]Well, yes it should. But it does not follow that whatever pops into our heads or hearts is necessarily The Word of the Lord. Sometimes, for instance, our efforts at spontaneous, deeply personal prayer land us in something that looks a lot more like rote, shallowly personal prayer. As a cartoon I once saw showed, we can find ourselves hunched over, eyes clamped shut in earnest spiritual fervor, praying, "Oh Lord, I just really want to just really pray that you would just really touch me, Lord, in a special way right now and that you would just really take the words 'just' and 'really' out of my prayer vocabulary." Fervor does not always make for depth; depth makes for depth. And depth can, I believe, often be found, not by abolishing rote prayer (which is impossible since we like and need old and familiar things), but by learning deeper rote prayers.[/quote]

[Pontifex]

Even the greatest of saints struggled with the "Monkey of the Mind", as it has been called. No amount of distraction, or idleness in prayer should keep us from trying.

Again, I think that the simple consecration of time is beneficial even if it lacks devotion, or deep thoughts. In the same way that not every encounter with a friend is filled with meaningful dialogue or apparent benefits. Spending time with a friend in and of itself strengthens and sustains a relationship.

In Christ,

Fr. Pontifex