Last Saturday I got involved in a conversations with some other moms about praying the rosary. A mom with four young children asked us if we ever prayed the rosary in the car. After I extolled the benefits of praying the rosary in the car while your young children are held captive in their car seats and can't really cause too much commotion, she told us that she had a priest tell her once that it is wrong to pray the rosary in the car and that she should never do it. That threw us all for a loop. I wish I knew why he said that.
One of the other moms went on to tell us that when they would go down to help the Missionary of Charity Sisters in their soup kitchen, they would pray the rosary while they were chopping vegetables and preparing the meals. The prayers would be interrupted once in a while for directions to be given and then the prayers would resume. Since no one was holding a rosary, she said that before each Hail Mary they would say "The 1st Choir of Angels" and do that up till the 10th so that they could keep track of where they were.
She also told us a story of a holy priest, right now at the beginning stages of the canonization process, who was reprimanded once by a few older women for praying his rosary too fast. He then turned to them and instructed them never again to tell him he was praying too fast. I think many of us have participated in rosaries that sounded more like an auction than a prayer, but what if the person who prays at lightning speed is far more recollected than those of us who pray slowly and instead think about our groceries?
I think the most important thing about praying the rosary is that we do it, especially with our family. If we continue to try to pray it every day even though our children are more interested in learning how to stand on their head while balancing the basket of tangled rosaries on their feet instead of reciting their prayers. If we continue to pray it every day even though the youngest screams through the whole thing and we have to shout to be hear. If we pray that all of our efforts, as inadequate as they are, will somehow gain us some graces - if not because of our recollected states at least because of our perseverance.
On this, the feast of Our Lady of Knock, let us honor our Blessed Mother by praying the family rosary.
God Bless!
Now, i'm so curious as to why it could possibly be wrong to pray the rosary in the car! Could the mom who quoted the priest shed any light on why he thoutht it was wrong?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, she was not able to tell us why he said that. She said he was so forceful about his statement that she didn't ask why, just listened to him.
ReplyDeleteI, too, wonder what could be wrong about praying the rosary in the car? Perhaps he thought we should be more recollected in praying the rosary.....never heard that one before. Thank you, Laura!
ReplyDeleteWe've prayed the Rosay in a car on a bus, on a train, with a fox in a box... sorry, got carried away.
ReplyDeleteThe only way I can see praying the Rosary in a car, while driving, would be... can't really think of one. I mean it's not like you are talking on a cell phone or anything.
Ah, maybe the Priest said it because the driver would be distracted while praying and wouldn't get a full compliment of graces? Not sure other than that.