Hello there Rosary lovers. In this post we will explore praying the Rosary on the toilet. Let’s prepare ourselves for a tremendous scholarly piece of sophisticated writ.
Or not.
This may indeed seem like the oddest topic to write about in the whole world, but why not?
The religion of Catholicism excludes God from no aspect of life: not sex, and not going to the toilet.
The theology of the holy Incarnation of our blessed Lord means that Christ has taken on the WHOLE of our humanity, and has redeemed it. I suppose, going to the toilet can in fact be a redemptive event!
I’ve written a post elsewhere on the brown scapular, swimming and sex; you may wish to check it out. We truly think of everything on this site.
All jokes aside, we are supposed to include God in EVERYTHING.
In fact, let this be a lesson for us when we sin. When we decide to sin against God, we cannot do it without bringing God INTO our sin. Because we are baptised, anytime we sin, we bring the Holy Spirit into our sin and we thus grieve the Spirit of God.
Christians are living Temples of the Holy Spirit. God dwells in us.
And this includes when we go to the toilet.
When you go to the toilet, God is with you 🙂
The saints went to the toilet
There is a humorous story about St Theresa of Avila. She was praying, but needed to visit the toilet. Whilst she was ‘in the act’, she kept praying. Apparently the Devil chided her saying, ‘That’s disgusting. What kind of Catholic are you, praying whilst doing that?’
To which she responded: ‘What comes out of my lips is for God, but what goes into here [pointing to the toilet] is for you!’
It’s a hilarious story, and who knows whether it is true or not. St Theresa was known for being quite a comedic and down-to-earth person.
Plus, part of being a saint is NOT TAKING YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY. You need to be authentically who you really are, and not take yourself too seriously. Both of these aspects are woefully overlooked today, but they are essential parts of becoming a saint.
Every saint who ever lived became a saint because they chose to be exactly the person they were, not anyone else. They wanted their authentic individuality to shine forth. Not someone else’s.
They also never took themselves too seriously.
A great example of this is found in one of my favourite films, ‘The Island’ (2006). It’s about a Russian Orthodox saintly man who has miraculous powers, but is a ‘holy fool’. He’s someone who likes to mess about and doesn’t take himself very seriously. It’s a great film, check it out.
We forget that even our blessed Lord and the holy Virgin Mary went to the toilet. We don’t seriously think that only St Joseph was the only person who used the toilet in that household, do we?
All the disciples used the toilet, and every saint who ever lived. ‘Needing to go’ is part of what it means to be human.
That said, how ought we to treat going to the toilet?
Precious prayer time
Well, why not pray? The toilet is a fabulous opportunity to pray.
In the Orthodox Christian tradition, many Christians and monastics pray the Jesus prayer constantly. So often, in fact, that they pray it whilst sleeping. It stands to reason that they continue to call upon the name of Jesus even when on the toilet.
Going to the toilet could be a beautiful oasis of precious moments for you to pray to God.
If you pray the Rosary daily, why not recite a decade whilst on the toilet?
This is especially the case for those of us who pray 3 or 4 rosaries daily. In order to fulfil this optional obligation we set ourselves, one good way to fulfil it is to use our time on the toilet throughout the day to pray a decade or two.
Often, I am so busy this is my only chance for a bit of peace. There are days I am so busy that I cannot for the life of me manage to find even 2 minutes to pray a decade of the Rosary. Until I visit the toilet.
I don’t take my rosary out and pray with it on the toilet, usually I just pray it with my fingers in this situation.
In all things, give glory to God!
The central point here is that we ought always to pray and not give up (Ephesians 6; Luke 18).
We ought to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). The Scriptures teach all of this. And this includes, obviously, when we are on the toilet.
So wherever we are, and whatever we are doing, let us always give glory to God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Paul teaches us to do this, and I think he includes being on the toilet as part of this.
Give glory to God for this! You are blessed 🙂
Rosary Lovers constantly promotes the glory of Mary and her Rosary. As such, we often direct readers to this gorgeous collection of long-lasting paracord rosaries.
God bless you greatly