The Battleground of The Rosary

Today the battle is for our attention. Companies compete for it. Our loved ones fight for it. The needy beg for it. Because whoever gains the attention of the person will gain his heart and mind.

Our attention is being sold at every turn. We live in a way that scatters the good intentions of our hearts. We are constantly distracted. We are disintegrated by a culture that has made a commodity of our attention.

This has hurt our spiritual life, because just as the human eye is able to focus only on one thing at a time, so it is with the human heart. And if prayer is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God - that is, giving Him our attention - who will help us to pray well? The Rosary is still our greatest weapon on the battlefield because, in some sense, the Rosary is the battleground.

For some, praying the Rosary has been easy. It has never been for me. Praying the Hail Marys always means mortifying my tendency to distraction. But this is also why I’m grateful for the Rosary. It has won for me many graces, but it’s also helped me over the years to discipline my heart and mind, enabling me to give my attention to God and to my neighbor.

This, I think, is today’s Battle of Lepanto. It’s not the Turks we’re fighting against. It’s against those who campaign for our attention. Nor are our adversaries assaulting us from across the way. They are in our own homes.

We may suffer some defeats on the battlefield of the Rosary. We may get distracted while praying it. We may even fall asleep from the exhausting fight. But if we are faithful to the Rosary, we will share in Our Lady’s victory over the assaults of the Evil One who, from the beginning, has been trying to distract us from God. +