Prayers are NOT only the everyday duty, but a necessary MEANS to counter ...

 ... a "cesspool" of HERESIES, and of FALSE OPINIONS ... 

Old heresies never die. They just keep coming back in different disguises ... and the militant Church has PRAYERS to counter these incursions. 

Besides being a religion of forgiveness, of peace, of brotherhood ... Catholicism is also a "militant religion"! The Church fights errors, vices, pride, and barbarians. First she invites the reformation of the "inner city" against our personal passions ...  ...  then, to join the fight towards the liberation (thus the salvation) of man ... from "the enemies". THIS IS not A NEW "THING".

WHO IS THE ADVERSARY? THE APOSTATE IS ... ... This denomination is vague, yet quite simple  ... it can include: 1.   the LUKEWARM catholic 2.   the INDIFFERENT christian 3.   the OBJECTIVE apostate ... from this monster- form of organized combat ... there is no truce, no mercy ... it is a "trench war".

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LEX ORANDI, LEX CREDENDI.

The above "famous" adage (Vth century) is attributed to Pope Celestin I ... and used by many other popes since then ... it means that: "the way we pray, determines the way we believe ... 

see LEX 

God rules the world, yet prayer governs God.

St John Chysostome

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is "the chief act of divine worship, the apex and the core of the Christian religion."

Pius XII in the Encyclical: Mediator Dei.

We pray with saints, not to them. Saints led holy lives and are close to God in heaven ...  Saint Monica prayed for twenty years for her son to be converted. Finally her prayers were answered in a way she never dreamed of ...

 

Therefore I say unto you, all things, whatsoever you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive; and they shall come unto you.

St Mark Ch: XI, 24

The Rosary is easily "integrated into the mass" through the "natural flow" of the Blessed Mother towards her Infant Jesus ... She serves her Son with humility at the Nativity ... then 33 years later, she recovers the Body at the foot of the Cross —Redemption ... to see Him upon His Resurrection (three days hence)  and re-directed by the angel: ... "who shall roll back the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And looking they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe ... be not afraid; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, Who was crucified: He is risen, He is not here ... go tell His disciples ... in Galilee: there you shall see Him ... " In the Table herewith we find the Joyful third bruise of the Nativity, the Sorrowful fifth wound of the Gift of OLJC's life (Redemption) which coincides with the first transubstantiation ... and the Glorious first scar that will be adored as —the Resurrection, at the second consecration. The Rosary, the Mass and the Liturgical year, all three do blend the sequence of three Very Important dogmas of the Christian Faith ... culminating in the Revelation of the Holy Trinity. The "small" Messiah of the Nativity becomes the Master of life (eternal) and of death (corporal).

... Mk. 16, 3-7

The "Good-thief" has been forgotten ... who CTODAY— would think of praying him as a saint ??? ... it takes less time than courage to become a saint ... the good thieve has the courage of humility, of the sincere confession ... when God finds humility into one soul, it seems that He will NOT hesitate to flood such a soul with a "torrent of graces"

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Man was denied access to Paradise when he committed the "original sin" ... it can be said that the "COLLECTIVE original sin" can be understood (most dramatically) through revolutions. The one that stands out within history, is the "French Revolution" of 1789 A.D. The "real" first revolution is the sin of Adam and Eve, man's will to be done, versus God's will. Since then, man wants a "revolutionary messiah". The first man to confess God's all mighty power is St Dismas (the good thief) who preceded ALL saints into the newly re-opened (after 4,000 years) Paradise ... even before the disciples, having gone three (3) years to the school of OLJC ... whose teachings lead to Redemption. 

 

When the insolence of man "obstinately" rejects God, God tells man at last: "thy will be done," and the final scourge is unloosed, the scourge not of war, of famine or pestilence ... but the scourge of man. And when man is delivered over to man, then you may know what the anger of God is like!

Louis Veuillot (1813-1883)

PRAYER from the Latin "precari" ... to plead, to beg, to ask earnestly ... an act of the virtue of religion which consists in asking proper gifts or graces from God ... not intended to instruct or direct God what to do, but to appeal ... in conformity with His will ...

THE ROSARY ... unlike the Moslem prayer beads and the mantras of Buddhism, are prayers meant to occupy our whole being, body and soul, in meditating on the truths of the Faith ... simply to repeat prayers is NOT the vain repetition condemned by Christ ... The heathens used to address their gods by a series of titles, with the superstitious idea that the prayer would not be heard 

 

Prayer of QUIET ... Church's distinction between private Vs official expressions ... all prayers offered officially or liturgically (in public or in secret) as when a priest recites the Divine Office outside of choir ... or of contemplatives within a monastery ...

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ATTENTION in prayer is of the very essence ... to be wholly diverted or distracted necessarily terminates the prayer ... yet vocal prayers differ from mental ... rosary is vocal, mass is mental ... the rosary can be said "in traffic situation", the mass requires the absence of all frivolous sensitivities ... 

 

With me, prayer is an uplifting of the heart; a glance towards heaven a cry of gratitude and love, uttered equally in sorrow and in joy. In a word, it is something noble, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites it to God.

'How wonderful is the power of prayer! It is like unto a queen, who, having free access to the king, obtains whatsoever she asks. In order to secure a hearing there is no need to recite set prayers composed for the occasion ... Apart from the Divine Office, which in spite of my unworthiness is a daily joy, I have not the courage to look through books for beautiful prayer. Sometimes when I am in such a state of spiritual dryness that not a single good thought occurs to me, I say very slowly the "Our Father" or the "Hail Mary," and these prayers suffice to take me out of myself, and wonderfully refresh me.' 

Saint Theresa of Lisieux

 

He has re-built the temple in three (3) days ... OLJC did NOT mean the "stone temple" ... He meant the "spiritual inner city". From the corporal death to the glorious eternal life in 3 days, this is what the liturgy teaches (over one year), this is what the rosary teaches (over 3 chaplets) and this is what the Holy Sacrifice of the mass teaches (over the most divine act of divine worship). 

 

The priest of today can "only" imitate OLJC (on the Calvary) in inviting the sinner into the Churches ... like the medical doctor does the patient into the hospital ... sinners have no problem to identify themselves to good thieves and to understand the beginning of the conversion: "Forgive them, for they know NOT what they are doing" ... then the good-thief will compare the "accused" and say that: "OLJC is not like us (ie: thieves) ... thus starting his own (personal) conversion on the way to become a saint ...

 

Patience is the virtue that liberates the creature, while establishing us kings of our soul. It is the virtue of men of wisdom, it is also the virtue that builds strength. Patience delighted Salomon: "A patient man is worth more than a man of valor; the disciplined heart, overwhelms the military conqueror of the city. (Prov. 16,32)  The subduing of an external enemy  cannot be compared to the control of one's inner city ... "as soon as we command ourselves to suffer, we become absolute masters over our body".