Page 89     

                                                                                                                                                                    `                                                                                   

Forty-Second Rose

With Attention

IN ORDER To pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most
excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with real concentration for God listens
more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of wilful distractions during
prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries fruitless and
would make us guilty of sin.
How can we expect God to listen to us if we ourselves do not pay attention to what we are saying?
How can we expect Him to be pleased if, while in the presence of His tremendous Majesty, we give in
to distractions just as children run after butterflies? People who do this forfeit Almighty God's
blessings which are then changed into curses because they have been praying disrespectfully.
"Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully."1
Of course, you cannot possibly say your Rosary without
having a few involuntary distractions and it is hard to say even one Hail Mary without your
imagination troubling you a little (for our imagination is, alas, never still). The one thing
you can do, however, is to say your Rosary without giving in to distractions deliberately and you
can take all sorts of precautions to lessen involuntary distractions and to control your
imagination.
With this in mind put yourself in the presence of God and imagine that Almighty God and His Blessed
Mother are watching you and that your guardian Angel is standing at your right hand, taking your
Hail Marys, if they are well said, and using them like roses to make crowns for Jesus and Mary. But
remember that at your left hand lurks the devil ready to pounce
upon every Hail Mary that comes his way and to write it down in his deadly note book. And be sure
that he will snatch every single one of your Hail Marys that you have not said attentively,
devoutly and with reverence.
Above all, do not forget to offer up each decade in honor of one of the mysteries and while you are
saying it try to form

1 Jeremias 28:10.

                                                                                                                                                                    `