The Open Constant

One word occurs to me again and again lately. That word is "consistency." Typically, I turn that word outside of myself, wishing that others be more consistent. Consistent in doing what they say they will do, for their own sake and for others. After all, if there is one thing the Catholic Church brings to the table, it's consistency. Serious consistency.

But in truth, that word "consistency" has hung around my mind not because of anyone else's failings in that regard, but mine. I need to be more consistent. In prayer.

I have written in an open manner about the forms and conditions of prayer, especially as I see prayer in a variety of modes and moods, to varying purposes, etc. But this is OpenCatholic - not merely to be open to otherness, but to be open about what is Catholic. Being open to otherness, to new ideas - to what makes all children of God vitally real and important - is perhaps at the pointy end of the Catholic stick. But the stick itself is being Catholic. Being open about being Catholic.

And being Catholic means prayer. Lots of it, and in form. And that form is, first and foremost, the Rosary. I would say that in terms of importance (meaning efficacy) the Rosary is second only to the Eucharistic celebration in its importance. At this point, I would be comfortable suggesting that, for a Catholic, life without the Rosary would be a kind of living hell, being cut off from a vital and real form of communion with the universal Church.

So, I will certainly continue to write about what I see as vital in the world about me, in people's practices, but I need to be more consistent in what I do, as a Catholic. I need to pray the Rosary. I need that flow in my blood as surely as I need food and air.