The Benefits of Repetitive Prayer

Someone in the group brought up the Rosary, and then the discussion inevitably came around to the folly of praying with "vain repetition."  I stayed out of it for awhile, then pointed out that the Rosary is a form of meditative prayer, that the repetitions are actually an aid to meditation on some of the central events of the Gospel.  Austin Farrer, an Anglican, said "If I had been asked two dozen years ago for an example of what Christ forbade when he said 'Use not vain repetitions,' I should very likely have referred to the fingering of beads.  But now if I wished to name a special sort of private devotion most likely to be of general profit, prayer on the beads is what I should name.  Since my previous opinion was based on ignorance and my present opinion is based on experience, I am not ashamed of changing my mind" (Lord I Believe, p. 80).

Anyway, the Rosary is not the only form of repetitive prayer in use among Christian believers.  The Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner") is prayed repetitively in Eastern Orthodoxy, and the early desert monks used a variety of short prayers in the same way.  If repetition, in itself, is objectionable, then Psalm 136 should be eliminated from Scripture, with its seemingly monotonous refrain, "for his steadfast love endures forever." 

So what, exactly, was Jesus warning against?  "When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words" (Matthew 6:7).  They heap up empty phrases because they think God will be more likely to listen, that the more words they use the more spiritual capital they have in the bank.  They're trying to twist God's arm by bombarding Him with lots of words.  They think they're earning God's favor by "heaping up empty phrases."

But there are other reasons for saying the same prayer over and over.  How many repetitions does it take for the Jesus Prayer to become the cry of our hearts?  Is once enough?  What if our attention wasn't fully engaged the first time?  Is it then valid to repeat the prayer a second time?  And if so, might we go on to do so several more times, seeking to engage our hearts more fully each time?  If this is what we're doing, we're not seeking to twist God's arm with many words, we're seeking to move our own hearts into conformity with the prayer.  I suggested something along these lines in the study group mentioned above, and the man who, at the beginning, was most strongly opposed to repetitive prayer, exclaimed "so the repetition is for us, not for God!"  That realization changed everything for him.

That's the point of repetitive prayer as it has been practiced throughout the centuries in Christian spirituality.  Repetitive prayer forms us in the direction of the words we're praying, even as our attention ebbs and flows.  "Whatever you do repeatedly has the power to shape you, has the power to make you over into a different person -- even if you're not totally 'engaged' in every minute" (Paul Bosch, quoted by Kathleen Norris in Acedia and Me, p. 188).  We do the best we can at the moment, and God uses our prayers to form us into His image.