A Rosary Question

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I’ve been doing the Rosary for a couple weeks now. Have all the prayers memorized except the mysteries. I was wondering, when at home, as I’m saying the prayers should I have my eyes closed and how about when at Eucharistic Adoration? I think it helps my concentration on the mysteries if I’m looking at the picture for that mystery.

Thanks for your help!
 
Quaesitor said:
I’ve been doing the Rosary for a couple weeks now. Have all the prayers memorized except the mysteries. I was wondering, when at home, as I’m saying the prayers should I have my eyes closed and how about when at Eucharistic Adoration? I think it helps my concentration on the mysteries if I’m looking at the picture for that mystery.

Thanks for your help!
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Something that also helps is to remember the intention you are praying each decade or the whole rosay for.
 
Thank you for reminding me to pray the rosary. 🙂 God bless you.
 
I think you can focus on 1 of 3 things when saying the Rosary.

(1) The words of the Rosary.

(2) Mediate on the mystery which you’re on.

(3) Think about the intention you’re praying for (even if it’s yourself!).

When others are around I tend to close my eyes, but when alone I like having something to look at such as a picture or a crucifix 🙂

It’s wonderful that you pray such a powerful prayer every single day!
 
Reinforcing what others have said,

The catechism states that prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God. So, we pray with that as the goal. If you find that looking at a picture assists you in achieving that internal state better, than that is fine, in fact preferable for you. Some things are more effective for others and neither is ‘the right way’. It is the goal that is important, not the external practises. Another may prefer to keep their eyes closed because it works better for them.

2559 "Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God."2 But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or “out of the depths” of a humble and contrite heart?3 He who humbles himself will be exalted;4 humility is the foundation of prayer, Only when we humbly acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought,"5 are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. "Man is a beggar before God."6

In fact, following some habit/practise/routine/words thinking that those are the goal or have some power in and of themselves is dangerous. If you make same errors during the rosary in following it’s form but truly raise your mind and heart to God you’re doing it right. If you obsessively focus on ensuring you make no mistakes in the form (number of prayers, right mysteries for the day, no slurring etc.) thinking that’s what makes the Rosary effective you are bordering on superstition. Our words have no special power over God.

2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.

And again, the catechism stresses that it is not the words that are important, they are tools to assist us in achieving that interior disposition for raising our heart’s and mind to God.

2562 Where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.
 
I pray the rosary, but I haven’t been all that focused executing the form to precision. At first, I thought it was a bit crazy to contemplate the mysteries while I prayed the various prayers. But, as time goes on, it becomes easy to actually have a number of thoughts running in parallel.

I’ve gained such incredible insight into Christ as a result of praying the rosary. It’s an awesome devotion.

I’ll just state that I agree that the idea is to lift yourself up to God in prayer. One of the ways that I pray the rosary is to walk around my neighborhood as I pray the rosary. Sometimes, I’ll go on a 3 mile walk or so and do 20 decades in a single rosary. My intention is for the healing and conversion of those that live along my path - maybe those inside my path. Is this legit? I think so - and it has actually helped me to see that I can pray at all times, even when I’m walking around the grocery store and I see people that need prayers. I can pray for them while I continue to do my business.

One last thing: don’t think for a second that the enemy isn’t working to foul you up in your efforts to come closer to Christ. He’ll add all sorts of doubts, concerns, whatever - to get you to stop focusing on Christ.
 
The rosary is a prayer that leads you through the life of Christ. If your mind wanders a bit.let it then gently bring it back there is no set way.I started praying the rosary in January and I still don’t have it 100% down pat just remember if your heart and mind are in the right place God will know and the rest will fall into place. This might also help they have downloadable versions of all the mysteries WWW.rosaryarmy.com
 
Thanks everyone for your kind comments. Just one more question. Intentions? In all my reading I haven’t heard of this, it just talks about meditating on the mysteries. I know what intentions mean, like praying for my sick sister, or that the firefighters fighting fires in my state will be safe. But are you saying instead of meditating on the mysteries you meditate on the firefighters and their safety?

Thanks!
 
Same experience here! I have memorised all but the words to the mysteries.

Does anyone have a link to the words to the Mystery?
 
This will mean paying a small amount…: cts-online.org.uk/acatalog/info_D717.html CTS (Catholic Truth Society) is a brilliant organization - approved by Pope Benedict.

There aren’t (as far as I know) specific/official words for the mysteries. Though many cards and booklets will have a short reading from scripture (relating to the mystery you’re on) which should be read before you begin the decade.

Intentions - I always offer up my prayers for something or another, even if it simply be asking Our Blessed Mother to direct my prayers to where they are most needed (perhaps to those in Purgatory…). As I said previously, I think you can do these things when praying the Rosary:

(1) Mediate on the mysteries. So, for example, take the Nativity of Our Lord. You can think about what the stable would have been like, would Mary have been crying with relief, would the animals have smelt quite bad, what was it like when the shepherds came in from the fields, you can marvel at Christ’s humility… all these are suggestions for meditations.

(2) The intention. So what I generally do is offer my prayers up for somebody or something and then I sort of half think about the words I’m saying and half about the person I’m offering them for.

(3) Think about the words. Speak slowly and really think about the beauty of the prayer you’r uttering. Just say in your head or out loud before you start praying what you wish to offer up your prayers for.

On another note - to do with distractions - a professor in theology once told me that as long as you constantly try to remain focused and if your mind wanders you refocus = you are praying 🙂

Hope this helps!
ClemtheCatholic
 
Well, I do want to say that there is a wrong way to pray the rosary. I will admit that I made a significant error in my past when I decided to pray the rosary as fast as I could. I was getting the whole thing down to 5 minutes or so. It was bad - I had to repent - ok, so I get that.

Once I understood that I was creating a problem for my own prayer life, I stopped. Just putting it out there so that perhaps others might avoid the same misstep.
 
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