The Catholic Meditation Practice Known as the Rosary

Meditation has never been more popular in the United States than it is at the present.  Approximately 14% of adult Americans have at least tried meditation as a practice – and for good reason.  The manifold physical, mental and emotional benefits that derive from regular meditation have been well documented by institutions such as Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale UCLA and the National Institute of Mental Health. These include reduction of stress and anxiety, improved concentration and attention, increased brain volume and reduced blood pressure, just to list a few.

Incredible health benefits

In terms of the benefits to the brain, meditation virtually works wonders.  It has been shown to prevent the loss of brain mass over time and to increase the production of telomerase, an enzyme that delays the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.  In these studies, just eight weeks of regular meditation increased brain matter in the areas associated with memory and learning.  Rather amazingly, it also has been shown to be as effective as anti-depressants in terms of reducing the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

When it comes to bodily health, meditation is also extremely effective at causing positive change.  It has been proven to alleviate symptoms of chronic ailments as diverse as hypertension and back pain.

Most interestingly, meditation has been shown to increase productivity in the workplace and in educational settings. One corporation found that supporting regular meditation by its employees resulted in a 120% increase in productivity. It is little wonder, therefore, that in 2018 52% of employers offered mindfulness training. On the academic side, the introduction of a meditation program in one school resulted in a 45% reduction in suspensions, and a recent study found that regular meditation led to a 16 point increase in GRE scores.

The Catholic view of meditation

While meditation clearly has many practical benefits, most do not know that it was invented as a discipline to increase spiritual awareness in various religious traditions.  In the current Western cultural understanding, meditation is almost exclusively linked with Buddhist and Hindu practices.  The fact that the vast majority of academic and medical research focuses on Eastern meditation does nothing to dispel this sense.  Yet, the fact remains that in the Christian, and specifically, the Catholic tradition, meditation has been considered a core spiritual practice virtually since the earliest days of the Church.  Certain saints, such as Ignatius, Theresa of Avila, and Augustine, who are not normally associated with meditation practices, believed that it was one of the only means by which to draw closer to God.

In the twentieth century, such Catholic luminaries as Thomas Merton and Hans Urs von Balthazar made compelling cases for the efficacy and orthodoxy of meditative practices.  Merton also explored the ways in which Catholics could learn from the meditative practices of Zen Buddhism.  Historian Arnold Toynbee went so far as to state that Christianity learning from Buddhism and Buddhism learning from Christianity would be the most significant of modern developments.  While his statement has not necessarily stood the test of time, it does belie the growing importance of meditation as a spiritual practice during the past fifty years.

Merton and his partner Johnston, who arguably studied in greater depth the meditative practices of Buddhism than almost any other Catholic clergy, found much to admire and emulate in the practices of this faith tradition. They also pointed out a fundamental difference in the aim of Catholic and Buddhist meditations. The Zen practice aims to reach a state of emptiness or nothingness, such that the individual can be filled with divine peace. The Catholic practice seeks very clearly to draw closer to God, albeit by emptying oneself in order that Christ may more wholly indwell in the individual.

So while there seems to be a contemporary sense that meditation is anathema to Catholicism, the truth is that it has been a central practice of the Church for more than 1500 years.  Yet while the spiritual benefits of meditation are not in dispute, it is unlikely that most Catholics have the time or wherewithal to engage in Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, the meditative practices of the early Church Fathers, or those of Theresa of Avila.  Yet there is a concise, incredibly powerful and easily accessible meditative practice that is readily available to all Catholics that has been recommended by saints and popes for the past five hundred years, and it may surprise you.

The Rosary.

The Rosary as meditation

The Rosary is the one form of Christian meditation that has been examined by medical researchers in order to understand its potential therapeutic value.  Remarkably, its recitation has been shown to have many of the same health benefits as certain yoga or mantra practices.  As a mindfulness meditation, it can be credibly postulated that the Rosary has many of the brain, health and practical benefits of other forms of meditation that have been studied for these effects.  Therefore, its recitation likely improves work productivity or academic performance and overall health.

For these reasons alone, the Rosary, which can be said in twenty minutes (that is, one set of the Mysteries) can be prayed while commuting to or from work, while walking, as is the practice of certain Catholic groups, or virtually anywhere else. It has the potential to turn time otherwise spent reading email or scrolling through messages into some of the most productive moments of the day in terms of one’s mental, emotion and physical health.  No app is needed, not even a set of beads; it is easy enough to count the decades on one’s fingers!

Spiritual health benefits

But beyond these important, yet fairly mundane, benefits of the Rosary is its potential to impact the spiritual health of the reciter.  It is a twenty minute meditation on the life of Christ that is sufficiently informed by even a passing familiarity with the Gospel accounts to yield tremendous benefits.  These have been propounded by numerous saints and promised by Our Lady herself.  Its recitation can give one new understanding of Christ’s love or His will for a person’s life.  It can uncover hidden imperfections in one’s character and draw the believer ever closer to God.

In an imperfect world in which many seek change, this one small act of prayer that is often relegated in the popular imagination to a few old ladies in dusty pews can have tremendous impact in that it has the potential to transform the life of the reciter in terms of revealing the very will of God. Simply put, its recitation will make an individual a better Catholic and a better person in every sense.

The world needs better people and better Catholics in mind, body and spirit for the task at hand of healing society and the globe, the challenges of which appear to grow with every passing day.  The Rosary is there as one of the simplest and yet most profound tools of meditation and of connection to God.  It is powerful, sublime and effective.  Try it and see.