A Spirituality of Liberation: The Rosary as a Means of Cultivating Simone Weil’s Attention

Drawing on Simone Weil's philosophy, the paper argues that praying the Rosary can cultivate the kind of deep, selfless attention that Weil considered central to moral and spiritual life. Weil's two-step philosophical method—reflection on personal experience—is applied to the Rosary, showing how the practice can serve as a spirituality of liberation. The work presents Weil as both a mystic and a radical, and contributes to progressive discourse in the philosophy of religion within the Roman Catholic tradition.

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Abstract

This paper explores the interpretation of the Rosary through the philosophical thoughts of Simone Weil, highlighting its potential as a means of cultivating Weil’s living philosophy of “attention,” and by so presenting a spirituality of liberation that attempts to present in whole the twofold image of Weil as both a mystic and a radical. Through Weil’s theory of attention and her two-step philosophical method, which involves reflection on several personal experiences formed through the Rosary, this paper presents a practical formulation of Weil’s moral and religious teaching on attention, especially highlighting the potential for a spirituality of liberation —contributing to the progressive discourse in the philosophy of religion within the Roman Catholic tradition.