Sean, great board, very thoughtful and informative. I especially like where you discuss the instructions for praying the rosary. It is so complicated, with many steps, involving a lot of cognitive load and effort. I suppose that it is effective as way of relieving stress, because it requires so much focus on soothing imagery that it would distract the user and prevent them from obsessing over daily difficulties and frustrations. Similarly, Islamic people use worry beads, which look very similar to rosary beads. I wonder what the history of these two religious practices is? Don't you think that its interesting that both religions have such a similar accessory? Probably because it has some real psychological benefit. It would be very interesting to find research into the ways that these devotions affect our brains. After a quick Google search, I found the following: "Bernardi, L., Sleight, P., Bandinelli, G., Cencetti, S., Fattorini, L., Wdowczyc Szulc, J., and Lagi, A. (2001). Effect of rosary prayer and yoga mantras on autonomic cardiovascular rhythms: comparative study. British Medical Journal, 323, pp. 22–29.
Summary: Praying the Catholic rosary (5 decades of the Hail Mary prayer) improves the psychological and possibly the physiological well-being of the partiicpants. Similarly beneficial effects are found for other forms of repetitive prayer as well, demonstrating that the effect is not limited to the rosary.
Commentary: For many years, the rosary was unique among Christian prayers in the West. In the East, the Jesus Prayer has been practiced since at least the 5th century. Lke the rosary, it is also an repetitive Christian prayer but differs from the rosary in that it is to be prayed continuously and automatically throughout the day, in keeping with Saint Paul's advice to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Today, the Rosary is no longer unique in the West, having been joined by the Divine Mercy Chaplet, usually attributed to Saint Faustina and popularized with the encouragement of Pope John Paul II. Nor is praying the rosary any longer limited to Roman Catholics: various Protestant or (or ecumenical) versions of the rosary have recently appeared.
The key point of Bernardi et al.'s article is that praying the rosary, the Jesus Prayer, and more recent repetitive Christian prayers is good for you. The benefits appear to arise most directly from the physiological side-effects of the physical act of reciting a repetitive prayer. But this insight does not necessarily diminish the meditative aspects of these prayers, since clearing the mind of the day's concerns and meditating upon the life of Jesus or one's own life in God can certainly be beneficial as well." http://www.marnica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49:effects-of-praying-the-rosary&catid=27:science-of-prayer&Itemid=78
Sean, great board, very thoughtful and informative. I especially like where you discuss the instructions for praying the rosary. It is so complicated, with many steps, involving a lot of cognitive load and effort. I suppose that it is effective as way of relieving stress, because it requires so much focus on soothing imagery that it would distract the user and prevent them from obsessing over daily difficulties and frustrations. Similarly, Islamic people use worry beads, which look very similar to rosary beads. I wonder what the history of these two religious practices is? Don't you think that its interesting that both religions have such a similar accessory? Probably because it has some real psychological benefit. It would be very interesting to find research into the ways that these devotions affect our brains. After a quick Google search, I found the following:
ReplyDelete"Bernardi, L., Sleight, P., Bandinelli, G., Cencetti, S., Fattorini, L., Wdowczyc Szulc, J., and Lagi, A. (2001). Effect of rosary prayer and yoga mantras on autonomic cardiovascular rhythms: comparative study. British Medical Journal, 323, pp. 22–29.
Summary: Praying the Catholic rosary (5 decades of the Hail Mary prayer) improves the psychological and possibly the physiological well-being of the partiicpants. Similarly beneficial effects are found for other forms of repetitive prayer as well, demonstrating that the effect is not limited to the rosary.
Commentary: For many years, the rosary was unique among Christian prayers in the West. In the East, the Jesus Prayer has been practiced since at least the 5th century. Lke the rosary, it is also an repetitive Christian prayer but differs from the rosary in that it is to be prayed continuously and automatically throughout the day, in keeping with Saint Paul's advice to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Today, the Rosary is no longer unique in the West, having been joined by the Divine Mercy Chaplet, usually attributed to Saint Faustina and popularized with the encouragement of Pope John Paul II. Nor is praying the rosary any longer limited to Roman Catholics: various Protestant or (or ecumenical) versions of the rosary have recently appeared.
The key point of Bernardi et al.'s article is that praying the rosary, the Jesus Prayer, and more recent repetitive Christian prayers is good for you. The benefits appear to arise most directly from the physiological side-effects of the physical act of reciting a repetitive prayer. But this insight does not necessarily diminish the meditative aspects of these prayers, since clearing the mind of the day's concerns and meditating upon the life of Jesus or one's own life in God can certainly be beneficial as well." http://www.marnica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49:effects-of-praying-the-rosary&catid=27:science-of-prayer&Itemid=78