Praying the Rosary to Resist Temptation

Praying the Rosary to Resist Temptation
A Day of Blessings, August 8, 2015
By Dcn Bob Bonomi

(Edited Photo)

I was doubly blessed today to participate in two prayer events where people took to the streets to ask God to help combat evil in the world.  The first was when several men, some with their families, gathered on Pioneer Hill in front of the Dallas Convention Center to pray the Rosary asking God to help us resist temptations and to grant us His Divine Mercy. These men came from Plano, Frisco, Arlington - even Norman, Oklahoma - in response to a call for prayer.
 

Afterward, on our way home we passed several prayer warriors outside the Plano Planned Parenthood facility who were praying for an end to abortion, healing for those who have been hurt by the culture of death, and a return to a culture that respects life.  We joined them in saying the Rosary while sign-bearers drew attention of passers-by.


I would like to share with you a series of special Scriptural mysteries which we used when we prayed today.  St. John Paul II once talked of how we could expand our prayers - to own our prayers, make them more personal - by reflecting on other scriptural passages as we prayed.  Reflecting on the five mysteries below may help you, too, to battle the temptations and evils in the world, and they recall the infinite mercy and forgiveness shows us whenever we fail in our attempts to be holy.


MYSTERIES FOR MERCY AGAINST TEMPTATION

1.    Jesus Cautions Against Temptation.
"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." (Matthew 26:41)

Dear Jesus.  You told us through St. Paul that no temptation comes to us but what is human. God is faithful and will not let us be tried beyond our strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that we may be able to bear it.  Strengthen us in our moments of temptation. (1 Cor 10:13)

2.    Jesus is tempted by the Devil
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. … When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time. (Luke 4:1-2, 13)

Dear Jesus, You allowed the devil to tempt You and You resisted him.  Send your Holy Spirit upon us so that we, too, may resist temptation.

3.    Jesus talks of the Father’s mercy
Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)
Dear Jesus, You instructed us to be merciful to others as the Father is merciful to us.  You forgave the sinful woman; you forgave the paralytic when his friends brought him to you, and you forgave many others who sought your mercy.  Help us to remember our own weaknesses whenever we see weakness in others, and to ask for mercy for them and for ourselves.

4.    Jesus teaches us the Lord’s prayer
 “This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.  If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. (Mt 6:9-15)

Dear Jesus, You taught us the perfect prayer.  Help us always to remember that we, too, have an obligation to pray to you unceasingly, and that you promised to forgive us as we forgive others.  Give us the strength and the courage to seek your forgiveness whenever we falter.

5.    The Infinite Love of God
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)

Dear Jesus, You came to save us and show us the way to salvation.  You do not condemn us in our weaknesses but to love us with infinite love.  Let us always remember that love whenever we stumble, for You are there to pick us up.  Thank you for Your love and Mercy.

May God bless you with the strength to withstand the evils of the world that you face every day of your life.  And should you fail in a moment of weakness, know that He still loves you and forgives you, if you only accept His merciful love.