MANILA, Philippines -- Many years ago, my Mom gave me a beautiful gift – it was a rosary in a small box, with a cassette (yes, that’s how long ago it was!) recording of the rosary, sort of like a prayer companion.  It was presented very professionally, with background music and a little companion brochure with the prayers in case you wanted to read along. Someone laughed when I told them about it and said it was cheating because a person should be able to say the rosary on their own without being prompted.  I disagree, I think that most people need a bit of a kickstart to get things going, and rather than not to do important stuff at all, it’s valuable to have something that helps you get it done.  Having audio to guide you through the rosary is to me just like sitting in church and have someone in front of the microphone guiding the congregation through the rosary or some other prayer.  Many of my personal training clients or people who attend my classes say they know they should work out on their own but can’t manage it unless they come to a session.  Besides, in my opinion, if a prayer buddy is what helps you pray, then by all means!

 Well, I know for me, it feels good to say the rosary as often as possible, but with children and work and all the other things that occupy our day, finding quiet time to focus seems impossible.  And even if I still had that tape, a cassette player isn’t exactly convenient to bring around with you all the time.  I fully realize that if it’s truly a priority, we can make time for anything, so I intended to find a where and how I could fit it in – not to make it convenient but to make it work with everything else.  I didn’t want it to become forced or a chore, I wanted to look forward to my rosary time and enjoy it while it lasted.

 So since I never leave home without my mp3 player, I looked up “rosary” in the iTunes store and found one which was very basic and simple called, “Pray the Rosary” by Donald Crescenzo, M.D. and is divided into the Joyful Mysteries for Monday and Saturday, Luminous Mysteries for Thursday, Glorious Mysteries for Sunday and Wednesday and Sorrowful Mysteries for Tuesdays and Fridays.  You can find it at http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pray-the-rosary/id358045865.

 This is perfect for me because when I’m out on my regular walk or run, I always have my player with me.  At the end of a run, either during my cooldown walk or when I’m in the car on the way home where I ran, I switch from my high-intensity music to the rosary and it’s the best segue from my workout to the real world.  I regularly do visualization and meditation when I teach my yoga sessions and they’re awesome but for me, nothing signals my quiet time the way my rosary podcast does.  Even when I have trouble focusing, the still, somewhat fast-paced audio keeps me on track.  The best part is that it can be paused easily when I need to do something, and then I can come back to the exact spot where I left off.

I also found a couple of good ones for my phone — one is called “Rosary — Mysteries of the Holy Rosary” by Ryan MacCarthy and it’s a good instructive aid rather than a pray-along audio with gorgeous full-screen artwork.  The other is iRosary by Dave and Jackie Brown and doesn’t provide an audio but presents the prayers in very visible print and in the proper sequence so that you can pray them on your own, with gentle alert sounds to let you know when you’ve come to the end of a decade.

If you don’t have a mind-set against combining spirituality and technology and just see these as tools to help you accomplish what you want to do, like learning a language or organizing your day, check out all the other free and paid podcasts and phone/iPad apps available.

Fitness bulletin

Yoga for Kids sessions are scheduled for Fridays at 4 p.m. at Yoga+, the first Yoga Studio in Bonifacio Global City.  For inquiries and reservations, please call (632)238-2768 or text (63)917-808-3957, or check out their site at www.yogaplus.ph.