Completely agreeing @unsafe that endlessly repeating the same words becomes meaningless. Also agree that Jesus offered the prayer as an example. Perhaps he didn't even use the exact same words each time he said it. This could explain the variance between the Matthew and Luke versions, no?
And here I sort of disagree. Praying the rosary is a pathway into a meditative/trance state, which is often a good place for a mind to rest and listen for the Spirit.
The Jim Cotter prayer from VU is a lovely one, I think. I close my Tuesday night group with it every week, just before I extinguish our candle. Strangely, though, despite saying it weekly for years, I haven't quite got it memorized, where I could trot out the traditional Lord's Prayer without thinking about it, even though I rarely hear it. The rev uses a variation of the prayer once a month, at least, maybe a little more frequently. I like the translation from Aramaic:
O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos/ you create all that moves in light.
Focus your light within us–make it useful: as the rays of a beacon show the way.
Create your reign of unity now–through our fiery hearts and willing hands.
Your one desire then acts with ours, as in all light, so in all forms.
Grant what we need each day in bread and insight:
subsistence for the call of growing life.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
as we release the strands we hold of others’ guilt.
Don’t let us enter forgetfulness
But free us from unripeness
From you is born all ruling will, the power and the life to do,
the song that beautifies all, from age to age it renews.
Truly–power to these statements–
may they be the source from which all my actions grow.
