A question about praying the Rosary

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Hello.I just registered to this forum which seems interesting and I’m not sure if I should post my question here.I hope it does not seem absurd.It is about prayer.It is my first one and I hope that someone can answer it.My question is if a person who prays the Rosary everyday, for some reason does not pray it on a certain day (for example lets say that a person has prayed the Rosary on everyday of the week except Monday when stuff came up)should that person (using this example) pray two rosaries on Tuesday to compensate for the one that they did not say on Monday?.For anyone who has read this and/or is considering about answering this thank you very much for your time.
 
This is really a matter of your personal prayer life, and really no one can answer it for you. I have found that when I am trying to develop a new prayer discipline if I try to make up for days missed by adding on to the next day, I get so bogged down that I lose everything. For instance, I started saying the morning office, and if I missed a day, the next day I would say both that day and the day that I missed. Then if I missed two days- well, if I was missing a day because I felt too busy adding more made it feel impossible, so eventually I stopped praying the morning office altogether. Then I started again years later, and was not so strict with myself. Now it is a well established practice for me, and I can make up if I miss a day or two. It also helps that my children are grown up, and I have a little more flexibility in my day.

So the short answer is figure out what you can truly offer joyfully and fruitfully to God, and offer that.

Hope that helps.
 
I guess you could if you’d like. From the sounds of this, it is a self-imposed discipline, not some quota that you have to fulfill. Simply do whatever will be spiritually better. If you find yourself having difficulty thinking of enough stuff for the meditations, then just leave it for one a day, even when you forget, just so you don’t “run dry.”
 
If somehow 24 hours go by without your being aware, just say your rosary as soon thereafter as you are able. Saying the rosary at a particular time helps create an inner awareness, a clock that reminds us that we need to take a few minutes for our personal devotion.
 
You don’t have to pray the Rosary to be a good Catholic. Don’t get caught up in stuff, Go to Mass (I go daily), believe everything taught by the Church and don’t let scrupulosity become your issue.
 
sidetrack said:
Hello.I just registered to this forum which seems interesting and I’m not sure if I should post my question here.I hope it does not seem absurd.It is about prayer.It is my first one and I hope that someone can answer it.My question is if a person who prays the Rosary everyday, for some reason does not pray it on a certain day (for example lets say that a person has prayed the Rosary on everyday of the week except Monday when stuff came up)should that person (using this example) pray two rosaries on Tuesday to compensate for the one that they did not say on Monday?.For anyone who has read this and/or is considering about answering this thank you very much for your time.
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The Rosary is a private devotion. Nobody is required to pray it. If you do pray it is entirely up to you when and how often you pray it.
If you pray it daily but miss a day, so what. It does not mean anything bad will happen and nor does it mean you have to pray it twice to make it up. That is verging on superstition.
Even when you pray it if you make a mistake or forget part of it that also does not matter.
 
You honor Our Lord when you honor His Blessed Mother. The fact that you wonder if you have done something not quite right when you miss a day of meditating on the mysteries of Our Lord’s Life is pleasing to Our Lord, and quite frankly, as efficacious as if you prayed the Rosary. My advice is not to be too scrupulous about missing a day here or there…the events in life sometimes do get in our way. As an analogy, if you are walking home and you trip and fall, you get right up and begin walking home again, right?

The Rosary is a most beautiful prayer, and an important one. Pay no attention to those who may suggest that you are being either too pious, or not pious enough when it comes to matters as these. Our Lady intercedes for Her children at Her Son’s right hand.

God bless you.
 
There are two cases:
  • lay person prays the Rosary regularly: no obligation, missing for some reason is acceptable
  • someone made vow to pray the rosary every day, or deacon/priest get permission to pray the rosary instead of the office: the omission is sin, shall be confessed, but cannot be made on the following day to fulfill the obligation.
Naturally in both case God and the Blessed Virgin will be please by the secons rosary.
 
First, the rosary is one of the greatest devotions to have! There has been no other practice more highly praised by all the great Saints and Popes of our Holy Church.

Concerning your post, I would caution against tallying up missed rosaries and feeling obliged to catch up on them. I would see this as a snare of the devil to possibly overburden one with a feeling of guilt and a need to catch up what could possibly be a lot of rosaries and ultimately resulting in the end of saying it altogether. If you miss one and want to make up for it that’s good but caution is needed if you start accumulating a lot of lost rosaries and feel the need to make them up.

Similarly, if one realizes they’re at the end of a decade and their mind has been wondering the whole time they might feel a need to go back and re-pray that mystery - I would caution against that practice as well and instead just march forward with the rest of the rosary with new resolve to avoid deliberate distraction. I believe St. Louis deMontfort states this.
 
Back in the 60’s, in another area, I knew of a pastor whose previous assignment was rector of the seminary in the 50’s. He was greatly disturbed by the number of his former pupils who were leaving the priesthood. He felt that it was his failing; so was constantly traveling to try to bring one or another back. As a result his parish was falling apart.

I learned from that to repent what I messed up yesterday, pray for forgiveness, and confess it if appropriate, but to focus on today’s tasks today.
 
PattiDay said:
If somehow 24 hours go by without your being aware, just say your rosary as soon thereafter as you are able. Saying the rosary at a particular time helps create an inner awareness, a clock that reminds us that we need to take a few minutes for our personal devotion.
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Generally speaking when missing a personal prayer it is unadviseable to try to play ‘catch up’. Rather, know thyself; know we have limitations.
 
This may be a little off topic, but I have a Rosary that has seven mysteries, is this a different Rosary?
 
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