Sunday, October 14th 2018
Dear Parishioners,
October is the month of the Holy Rosary. In praying the Rosary, Mary leads us to reflect on the great events that bring us Gods saving grace. Below are 10 guidelines to help us pray the Rosary with devotion.
1. Less Is More It is not necessary to ramble through the whole Rosary. Sometimes it is better to say only one or two decades, and to say them right. This removes the pressure of struggling to make sure to complete the entire Rosary. We can place the emphasis on that the idea that quality is more important than quantity. We can set a certain time, or set a time on a timer, to pray the Rosary and not worry about completing the whole Rosary.
2. You Are Not Alone When we pray the Rosary, we should place ourselves in Gods presence and imagine that He (along with the Blessed Mother) is watching us and that our guardian angel is standing at our side. If we say the prayers well, our angel will use them to make crowns for Jesus and Mary. Thinking about this before beginning to pray helps us to realize that we are doing more than just repeating pious words!
3. Watch What You Say We are encouraged to pronounce each Our Father and Hail Mary clearly and without rushing. In doing so, we will better express our love for Mary and Jesus. When praying the Rosary, its easy to fall into the trap of mumbling and our rushing through the prayers. Remembering that the Our Father was handed down to us from Jesus and that most of the Hail Mary is taken directly from Scripture should help us to recall that the words do mean something!
4. Been There, Done That When we look at Marys life, we sometimes overlook her many struggles. Like us, Mary was forced to endure suffering and difficulties, often without a lot of explanation. Being the Mother of God didnt make her all-knowing. The Bible tells us that Mary experienced confusion and had to seek understanding through prayer. In the Rosary, we share with Mary her rejoicing, her sorrows and her triumphs as she walks the same path we have to walk.
But now she has completed the journey and comes to help us. When we pray the Rosary, we should remember that Mary understands our problems and confusion. By meditating on the events in her life and the life of her Son, we can obtain help for our daily struggles from someone who is now in a place where wed like to someday be!
5. Listen To The Word - Pope Saint John Paul II recommends that we supplement our Rosary meditations with Bible reading. After announcing the individual mystery, he encourages us to read an appropriate Bible passage. While this is not always possible, we can still mentally recall the details of an appropriate Bible story. Pope Saint John Paul II also suggests that we add a phrase that expresses the mystery we are praying after Holy Mary Mother of God such as visited by the angel Gabriel, upon whom the Holy Spirit descended, who stood at the cross.
6. Savor The Repetition Sometimes we may feel that praying the Rosary is just repeating a bunch of words. However, we might think of a husband telling his wife I love you or a mother comforting her child, Youre a good boy Youre a good girl. These words mean something different at each point in time that they are repeated. In the same way, each time we pray the Rosary, we are saying I love you to God, the Trinity, to Jesus and to Mary. With each successive bead (or decade) the meaning shifts as we contemplate a new aspect of Jesus or Marys love.
7. Do Whatever He Tells You Praying the Rosary should spur us on to ponder the message of each mystery and how we can live it in our daily life.
8. Think - The Rosary is more than a series of prayers to be recited. Rather, it is a series of thoughts to be dwelt on, to be turned over in the mind, to be applied in daily life. While we are saying the words of the prayers, we should be meditating upon the mysteries.
9. Grow In Virtue Mother Angelica discusses how to use the Rosary to grow in virtue:
If youre not making progress in one virtue, say your Rosary and meditate on that virtue as Our Lord practiced it. I cannot get over my faults and weaknesses if I dont substitute those faults and weaknesses for something of God. To change you need to admire someone other than yourself.
10. Ask Mary For Help Before beginning the Rosary, we should ask Our Blessed Mother to help us pray devoutly. Although the Rosary follows a simple pattern, it can be a very challenging prayer to master. Rest assured that many of the Saints struggled with it too. If you find it difficult to pray the Rosary, try out these tips and see what happens. It might take a little time, but eventually your persistence will pay off. The next time you pick up your rosary beads, imagine that youre holding Marys hand and taking a trip to visit Jesus. For when we pray the Rosary, thats exactly what happens!