I have lately been thinking about my prayer life or rather the lack thereof. I have always been ready to start a new prayer routine or devotion and quickly puttered out or shelved the project due to the busyness of my life. I am a mom of three boys, four and under, so it always felt easy to make an excuse for why I could never hit my stride in my prayer life. There are always diapers to be changed, meals to be made, and unintelligible screams to be addressed.
Yet I always found time to fall into a screen scroll, or veg out on a movie, or make time for a project I have been dying to complete. So in the midst of this cycle of prayer commitment and burn out the Holy Spirit began to raise the question, “Where lies your treasure?”. Why can I find the time for these menial pastimes but not for Christ?
Then a convicting thought arose, if my child had been diagnosed with cancer or some other horrific tragedy struck, I would not only carve out time to say the rosary, I would say all four! Is not my soul on the line and the souls of my children and husband? Isn't the cancer of sin more deadly? The conclusion was simple: no more excuses, eternity is on the line!
It was time to pick up my spiritual battering ram, AKA the Holy Rosary.
Here are my 3 main tips for success.
Put the burden of faithfulness on the Lord.
- I know that I am a mere sinner so when I pray I beg the Lord to help me pray tomorrow. It's so important to stay present and proximate in prayer and so instead of worrying about how I'm going to stay faithful until death, I simply thank the Lord for bringing me to prayer and beg that tomorrow he will supply me with the grace to return.
Keep it corporeal
- I always grab a physical rosary which can be hard to find sometimes if you live with little thieves. So I am not picky. I have even resorted to using my children's Chews Life Rosary toys. This may seem trivial as we indeed have 10 fingers but I find that the physical tether is very helpful for my wandering mind.
Don't let feelings lead
- I actually don't enjoy saying the rosary. This may be blasphemous to some but for those who internally groan when it's time to say the rosary or feel a sense of relief after it's done, I am here to say do it anyway and offer these feelings to Christ. The spiritual life is taking up the cross or in other words death of the self. Christ was not feeling thrilled about the passion, if you recall the scenes in the Garden of Gethsemane. Setting aside 15-20 minutes to offer to Christ is probably not going to feel amazing, especially when starting out.
Christ is waiting for us to knock at the door of his heart and Mary, his humble handmaiden is waiting to carry you there. Let’s not wait for tragedy to cry out to Christ, for the battle is already waging and to stand idly by is to aid the enemy. Take courage and call upon Our Lady Help of Christians, she longs to show you the way.
By Marie Gomez
You can view our entire Rosary Collection here