Rosary of the Heart

Jesus once asked his disciples if they could not pray with him for one hour. Part of the spiritual struggle has always been to make time for God in our daily lives and to establish a consistent discipline of prayer.

The ancients didn't have modern clocks and watches to keep track of their prayer time, so they would count count beads or sometimes even pebbles being placed in a bowl, as they mentally or verbally recited prayers, or as they breathed, or in accordance with the rythm of their heart beat. Thus, they were able to set aside time for prayer and devotion to God.

One of the early Christian bishops, I believe it was St Augustine, once said that the first or primary language of God was silence; and the Psalmist says that we must be still and silent to know God. Jesus, even speaks of turning into the closet of the heart and shutting to door to worldly distractions and there praying to God in secret or in our secret place- the cave of the heart.

In 1 Kings 19.11-13, there is the story of God speaking to Elijah in the cave where he was hiding. "Go out and stand before me on the mountain," the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave."

Experiencing the word and presence of God does not come in the thunder and blast, nor earthquake and fire, but in the depths of the cave and in a still, quiet, voice. Do we take the time to enter our inner cave of the heart, our secret closet, to be still and enter the silence of God's presence? Although rituals, symbols and liturgies of worship and prayer can be wonderful aids in devotion and spiritual growth, the fuller experience of God comes when we go beyond these forms and words into silent attentiveness to God.

This is the way of quiet, wordless and formless prayer, where we simply rest and abide in His Presence. It is here, in the inner court of our bodily temple- St Paul says we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit- where we offer to the Lord the most basic and primal sacrifice and act of worship we can make- the beat of our heart and rythm of our breath. In Genesis 2, it says, "7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (neshemet ruach chayim- "the breath of the spirit of life" ); and man became a living soul." When we came forth from the womb, we took our first breath; and when we die, we will exhale, letting go of the breath of the spirit of life. Offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God can be no more real and fundamental than offering our pulsing blood and breath.

Silent attentiveness to God in rythm to our heart and breath, is our rosary- the Rosary of the Heart.