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Our problem understanding how Padre Pio lived prayer from moment to moment is the following:
We are attached to the world, and we have a problem losing our attachment to sin. This is due to our fallen nature. As Catholics we are obliged to do battle against our fallen nature and to rise above it, which we can ONLY do by the grace of God, because it is not a naturally human act but rather it is a supernatural and spiritual act.
Padre Pio, while being human, developed his detachment to sin at an early age and lived that virtue throughout the rest of his life. He was unrelenting in this virtue. That one strength and power and virtue that he perfected is the secret to his great holiness. All his signal graces and prodigious faculties branch off from that foundation as a tree's many tributaries emerge from the trunk.
When we pray the Rosary, we generally have to stop doing everything else and focus on the Rosary. While this is not a bad habit or a poor plan, it is nonetheless the first step toward perfection, a step in the right direction, and a necessary one, a good thing, but it is not the end of the road. It is, rather, the beginning.
Once we have learned how to concentrate on the mysteries of the Rosary while reciting the words of the prayers, and experiencing our thoughts go from the actual words over to the mystery at hand, and back to the words, and over to the mystery, and back to the words, and so on, the demands of daily life also do not fail to interrupt us. Most of us have a very hard time finding 17 to 25 solid minutes that we can devote to the Rosary several times a day.
I have a friend who complained about this difficulty, and I told him what Fr. Gregorius Hesse said in one of his recordings, and as he likewise was wont to say when speaking to people, such as he did to me, that when he gets up in the morning he says his morning prayers immediately upon rising, then begins his preparations for the day. He begins his Rosary, and if possible carries his rosary beads, but for some things it's not possible to hold the beads all the time. For men who have to shave, as he did, he would say a decade while shaving, which requires the use of both hands, so he did that without holding his beads, as with brushing his teeth and washing his face and hands, which he would do while continuing his Rosary, and so on. While getting dressed he would continue to pray. While walking to the train or waiting for a bus, he would say another decade or two. By the time he was engaged in the work of the day he had already said one or more Rosaries that day. When you can't hold the beads you can keep track of which Hail Mary you're on by bending one finger on one hand for each prayer, or else, by saying "ONE - Hail Mary full of grace... at the hour of our death. Amen. TWO - Hail Mary full of grace...," etc., and count up to ten. Hearing yourself say the number before the beginning of the prayer is enough to keep track for 13 to 15 seconds.
Obviously, there are some things we have to do that require our complete and undivided attention and we cannot pray then, and such a time would be when a priest is saying Mass or hearing confessions or giving the sacraments such as Baptism or Extreme Unction. Likewise for the rest of us, while we are driving the car or if our job entails driving or operating machinery, or performing tasks that demand our complete attention, we cannot be thinking about our Rosary at the same time. If a student is attending a lecture or doing lab work or taking a test, he can't be also praying his Rosary. If a mother is following a recipe and trying to not make a mistake, that is not the time for the third mystery of her Rosary. But while waiting for water to boil, there is plenty of time for one decade!!
What about a security guard or an emergency worker? A sentry keeping watch has to pay attention to the object of his watch, but he can also think about his Rosary prayers at the same time. Perhaps he can hold his beads and finger them (for which there is an indulgence attached), but maybe he cannot, due to regulations, for example. And maybe when we drive a car or other vehicle, we are unable to also hold our rosary beads while we pray. But if you have a passenger, he can hold the rosary beads and lead the Rosary, and both of you get all the graces attached to the fingering of the beads during the Rosary. When 4 people pray the Rosary together, EACH PERSON gets the graces and indulgences for all 4 Rosaries -- a total of 4^2 Rosaries (four squared = 16).
Yesterday I passed an accident scene on the highway, where there were several emergency vehicles lined up behind the cars on the shoulder of the road, out of traffic. The first vehicles were the ones that had been involved in a minor collision, then behind those were the police cars and the officers talking to the accident victims. Behind those were the fire truck and the paramedics, and finally, at the very end of the row were several uniformed emergency workers standing around in a group, but they were not praying their Rosary! They were all holding cell phones, showing each other pictures and talking, and texting messages, perhaps to each other. There is a great example of how we humans in our fallen nature choose to take time that is available to us, and WASTE it doing things that probably are USELESS in regards to our salvation, and are most likely a DETERRENT to our salvation.
How about standing in line at the bank or at the grocery store, or sitting in the waiting room of a doctor's office or the hospital? How much time is wasted there? I have had to wait at the DMV (motor vehicles) for over an hour. That's long enough for 15 decades!
It seems to me that it's a matter of being in the HABIT or developing the habit of looking for a chance to return to prayer. We are saturated today with suggestions of thinking about entertainment, gossip about other people, watching TV, listening to talk radio, going to see a movie, watching a performance, or just watching people -- "people watching." At some point, what 'famous' people are doing becomes our main concern, and the object of our attention. Is that then not our god? When someone's fame is the overpowering draw of our thoughts, are we not giving our devotion to a false god?
When our hearts are turned instead to God, and we look for the next opportunity to return to our Rosary, we have to let go of our attachment to worldly concerns, and let go of our attachment to sin.
We have to put the inclination to be worldly aside, and turn our thoughts to God, at which point our prayer becomes true: "...Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..., Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."
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