It is true that when we pray the rosary, we often do not think about God. We can go on for hours without thinking about anything at all. We are simply here, praying. Perhaps that is just fine. When we pray the rosary, we celebrate that the Lord is truly with us and that we are in His presence. And when we are with someone, we do not need to think about them. As Simon Tugwell OP wrote, “I do not think about my friend when he is here beside me; I am too busy enjoying his presence. It is only when he is gone that I start to think about him. Thinking about God too easily leads us to treat Him as if He were away. But He is not away.”
So when we pray the rosary, we do not try to think about God. Instead, we rejoice in the angel's words spoken to each of us – “The Lord is with you.” We endlessly repeat the same words, with the overflowing vitality of God's children who relish that joyful message.
(Timothy Radcliffe OP, Sermon in Lourdes, October 1998)
