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One reason to think that it takes more than run-of-the-mill perceptiveness to discern what's going on inside other people is exhibited by what people who don't pray the Rosary say about those who do. I hear comments about "droning" and such. And, yeah, it sometimes seems like droning -- except for the occasional "speed pray-er" who sounds more like an auctioneer at a cattle auction.

But, well, one time when the "mystery" was the second one of the "sorrowful mysteries", namely the Scouring of our Lord at the Pillar, I was so, what shall I say, "affected," that it was all I could do to avoid pulling up my shirt to look for welts and lesions.

What you see is a tubby sexagenarian with his butt on the pew and his knees on the kneeling cushion. What you hear is, okay, "droning."

But what is invisible is that that old guy is throwing himself into the scourging, apologizing to the Lord because his sins made the scourging necessary for the salvation of the world, pleading that if somehow it were good or useful he might take some of the blows of the whips.

Things are not what they appear. The kiss of a sincere and loving husband is not all that different from that of a lying seducer -- in appearance.

And let's not forget grace in this! A Protestant should never forget that! Here are sinners, distracted, insincere, worldly. But they have at least hauled their sorry butts into what they take to be the presence of the Lord. They have made that minimal effort.

And do we not agree that God is on the sinner who makes the least sign of repentance like white on rice, like the father in the parable who runs to the son still afar off?

The son came home for food. But the Father met him with love.