Help with distraction?

Hello forum friends,

About 6 months ago an older man at our parish began an informal Rosary Group after morning mass and I began to join with them.

However the older man has health issues, and another guy takes the lead in his absence. The issue is I find this guy very distracting not only during the rosary but just in general. I’ve been going elsewhere for my Rosary when he’s leading it…. But I feel guilty, since I know the Rosary is stronger when said in group. I’d swear he says prayer for “our” sinners and not “us” sinners as a small example of why I went elsewhere.

any thoughts or advice? I almost always say my Rosary in front of Jesus in the tabernacle. So my elsewhere is in vestibule of church or a nearby chapel.

thanks for your help!

 

If it is too weird I would suggest continuing to pray alone until things change.

 

I rarely join these groups for similar reasons. I was at a funeral recently and the priest was saying a decade of the rosary during the burial. All of us accept one chap were answering in unison. This one loud person was about 5 seconds behind everyone else and we all including the priest would look at him to catch up. He didn't of course!

To answer your question, perhaps as the previous person has suggested, pray alone.
It's important when praying in a group to have the group's intention in mind. I sometimes find the rosary is just rattled off with no one knowing what the intention is.

 

That one person was forcing their will on the group praying, likely thinking everyone was praying too fast. Thinking that if they prayed louder and slower than everyone else they would be teaching everyone a lesson on how prayer should be.

 

Maybe another group? It would be no good going back to the group if it was a pain.

I much prefer the rosary on my own. Groups pray too quick.

 

Thank

 

Thanks everyone for the thoughts! Hearing your support for my decision to pray o my own is very helpful. I very easily get worked up in my head about what is charitable with this sort of issue which of course is another distraction!

I especially appreciated the comments on imposing will/controlling the prayer group because that was definitely happening as well.

I can put my catholic guilt aside and have a peaceful Rosary on my own at my own pace with a clear conscience now.

 

I know I'm late to the discussion, but one will usually find distractions in a prayer group setting no matter the format. For instance, when I'm able to go to the Wednesday morning Holy Mass at a local parish, a Rosary is prayed afterwards, and I'll join in. There's a prayer added on at the end, that Geralyn and I also add to the Rosary which we pray together each evening; however, the Wednesday morning version is different. As a result, I'll briefly go silent at that point, so as not to distract or throw any one off.

I hope a simple act of charity goes a long way.

 

This reminds me of St Therese of Liseaux who said that the rattling of one of the nuns rosary beads used to drive her nuts. This makes me smile for it seems such a small thing but I can see how it might be so.

 

https://spiritdaily.com/blog/mystics/padre-pio-offered-his-life-to-avoid-a-cataclysm

Padre Pio prayed 36 rosaries a day, and offered his life to avert a universal cataclysm.

[Translated from “The Gospel of Padre Pio” a series of three articles running once a week in the Italian magazine Oggi, based on interviews with Padre Carmelo, who when young was the spiritual child of Padre Pio, and later in life became his Superior at the Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo. The articles were published beginning April 28, 1999, and were written by Gisella Pagano and Matilde Amorosi]:

Padre Carmelo recalled that one night, with two other Friars, he entered the cell of his spiritual father in order to wish him good night. They found him ready for bed, with a little cap on his head, tied with two loops around his neck, and with white half-gloves covering his wounded hands.

To his visitors he explained: “I must pray two and a half rosaries before going to sleep.” And in response to the question of Padre Carmelo as to how many he had said during the day he replied: “To my Superior I must tell the truth: I have said thirty four. I am able to recite so many because when I hear confessions and the penitents are going to need time, first I make them tell their sins, and then I permit them to speak about any others they might have. And while listening to them I say the rosary. But this, thirty six in one day, is not for you. It is enough for you to pray fewer, but it is necessary to pray, to pray.”

[Padre Carmelo was eventually transferred, but during the last years of Padre Pio’s life, often visited him]

The cruel reality, that of a man very ill and morally crushed, was evident during the visits of Padre Pio’s ex-superior.

Upon this holy friar, he recounted, was imposed the praying of only one rosary per day, according to the conventual rules, an absurd chastisement, very painful for one who normally prayed thirty six daily, passing the night in prayer. Moreover, he was forced to limit his confessions, to rest more, and to eat more; the pretense being for his physical well-being. But they never took into account the transcendental dimensions into which he had soared in the last years of his life, thereby indirectly putting into doubt his very sanctity.

“In my memory my spiritual Father is similar to the figures of the Old Testament at the end of their days, a new Moses, leading not only one group of people, but a whole multitude of peoples disseminated throughout the globe. I kneeled before him to kiss his hand and to give him a filial embrace.

He returned the embrace and smiled without speaking. His confrere Padre Mariano ask him, “Do you recognize who this is?”. The holy Friar looked at him with a stare as if he were coming out from a state of ecstasy with the Lord, and spoke: “Yes, I recognize him.”

Then he said this, word for word: “My son, I offer my life to the Lord in order to avert a universal cataclysm“.

https://rosarymakersoa.org/st-padre-pio/

 

I am not trying to disagree with anything said here, it's simply the perspective I have on this.

I have unfortunately found myself involved in the Sunday rosary before mass here at our parish. "Unfortunately" because I too prefer praying at home, alone. It's also in another language and they say "abandon," then they ask me to recite the litany so I spend more time trying not to trip over my doubles while being loud enough for the semi-deaf people. The whole thing is anything but prayerful for me.
What helps me through is remembering the scene St. Thérèse describes of their group rosary and that one nun clanging her rosary about and then I remember of St. Paul telling us to bear with one another. And so I try.

Again, I don't mean to imply my way is a better way, by no means! It's simply how I've come to look at my situation.

 

it takes about 15 minutes to say a rosary - 36 rosaries is therefore 9 hours of solid prayer of the rosary each day.
Basically Padre Pio prayed unceasingly (1Thessalonians 5v17).

 

So in his lifetime Padre Pio would have said around one million Rosaries.

 

I would say that yes Padre Pio was in the State of Spiritual Marriage, the Seventh and Highest Stage of Prayer what the Easterners call Divinisation or unceasing prayer. But this means 24/7 prayer so the rosary would have only been part of this.

 

Yes, even when he slept (only a few hours) he was in intimate prayer.

 

That is one reason why dreams can be so interesting. That they are often born of prayer.

 

I have never been able to say a rosary alone in 15 min. I get too involved in contemplating the mystery being said. The only time I’ve been able to pray a rosary in 15 min is when I’m saying it in a group or with a recording but then I’m too concerned with staying “up” with the group so I do prefer to say mine alone.

I have no idea how Padre Pio was able to say a rosary while listening to someone else talking.

 

25minutes?

 

I find it difficult to meditate. I do try and am always mindful of the mysteries of the day, but generally I fix my mind on God and Our Lady and try to say the prayers meaningfully. Occasionally I’ve had insights into the mysteries but generally I find meditation a distraction in itself.

I know what it’s like to be irritated or just put off by others. In my old parish there was a person who sniffed loudly during Adoration. Many’s the time I wanted to hand him a tissue. There was a woman at daily Mass who made the responses loudly and hissed the letter ‘s’. I think one of the benefits of the Old Rite is that you can spend more of it in silent prayer without having to do something or say something. I love silence!

I say the rosary once a week with a local lady who was, until a couple of years ago, agoraphobic. We used to be joined by a third but she said the Hail Mary oddly and it grated. She ends with ‘Now and at the hour of all death’. I once asked her if she meant to say this and why. Her answer was vague. I gather it’s deliberate but don’t understand why. Our new pp is wonderful and is promoting Adoration and rosary and this lady comes along and still she says ‘all death’. It’s very odd but usually there are enough people that it’s not too distracting.

I expect I annoy people too.