Catholics that do not pray the Rosary

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DaveEucharist

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I tried praying the Rosary but I just do not like it. It doesn’t work for me. Still, the Rosary has been and is recommended by Popes, etc. Actually, I don’t practice any private devotions. I’ve even tried the Divine Mercy chaplet and other chaplets but they still don’t work for me. I “pray/mediate” on walks to and from work, jogs, during weight lifting etc.

Any thoughts about Catholics that don’t pray the Rosary?
 
I don’t either, except once in a long while when others are saying it and I’m there and it would be awkward not to.
 
I personally don’t pray the Rosary at this point in time. I have before, and I highly recommend it. It is a great way to develop a prayer life, and that is the most important thing you can do.

Ask God to show which type of devotional suits you. Prayer is a transformative experience that over time allows you to grow into a more spiritual person.
 
I pray the Rosary every day and to me it gives so much peace. However,I can’t see the point in praying the Rosary “just because you are catholic”. If it does not give you anything praying kind of “forced” is not a prayer at all. But I am sure that God loves you anyway,and you can always turn to Our Blessed Virgin Mary and ask for Her help,with or without the Rosary.
 
Something I have done is just think of the mysteries for the rosary. if I can’t wrap my head around saying the rosary I could go through a set of the mysteries. My favorite are the luminous.
 
I usually devote to God about 2 hours or more a day. This consists of reading Holy Scripture, helping others, and praying the Rosary. It only takes about 20 minutes or less to say the Rosary.
Code: 
 The Rosary is second only to the Blessed Sacraments and the Mass in importance in regards to prayer in my life.

  It gives me great peace that I have a heavenly mother who cares for children and that one of her titles is  Queen of the Angels.   I ask Jesus Christ to send  Holy Angels to protect people,  to heal people, and to minister to needs totally inconcieveable to our human minds.  Then  I ask  Jesus Christ  to let His mother choose the Angels He sends.

   So the Rosary and our Blessed Mother figure second only to God in my prayer life.
Many Blessings.
BP
 
While I don’t want to force anyone to pray the Rosary, remember Our Lady of Fatima. The Rosary is, next to the Mass, our greatest weapon against the evil one and his angels - and Our Lady has made clear we’re in a particular heated battle (the evils of Russia are still out and about, who knows when they’ll be bottled up).

I’d give the Rosary a serious try before dismissing it - I didn’t like it much at first, but have changed over time with praying it. It can seem daunting, but you can finish it in 15 minutes or so - they taking longer is best so you can get the full benefit.

Just please don’t give up on it. 😦
 
As has been mentioned, you don’t have to pray the rosary at all. If you would like to give it another shot, please know that you do not have to say all five decades at one time.

comepraytherosary.org/ That’s an online site if you’d like to try praying along

with others. I find that very helpful when I’m a bit tired! There are audios you could download and pray along with while walking.
 
I pray the Rosary. With all honesty, I’m an “on and off again” Rosary prayer. Something keeps drawing me back. Last month, I started leading the Rosary before 11 AM Mass, and have been “on” ever since.

I’ve had people (non-Rosary prayers) recommend LOTH (Liturgy of the Hours). They say they get a lot out of praying the LOTH, more than the Rosary. You might consider it.
 
I really like praying the Rosary, but I prefer praying it either online at midnight with a Spanish Catholic website that prays the Rosary Live at 12 AM here in San Diego/Tijuana and/or I like praying the Rosary after Mass at my parish with a group of us who pray the Rosary together…
 
DaveEucharist said:
I tried praying the Rosary but I just do not like it. It doesn’t work for me. Still, the Rosary has been and is recommended by Popes, etc. Actually, I don’t practice any private devotions. I’ve even tried the Divine Mercy chaplet and other chaplets but they still don’t work for me. I “pray/mediate” on walks to and from work, jogs, during weight lifting etc.

Any thoughts about Catholics that don’t pray the Rosary?
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Have you gotten Kempis’ work, Imitation of Christ?

That might be something you would really like. But as long as you go to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of obligation and confess mortal sin, you’re good to go. You do not have to have a devotional life. It is recommended but not mandated.
 
I tend to get very distracted especially while dirving and many recommend to do it while doing so. I dont feel like talking with God and the Virgin Mary while distracted and later on I am normally too tired to prey the Rosary. Sometimes is a very pleasant practice when you feel “connected” but when you get distracted in some other business I think the praying purpose is lost.
 
I don’t pray the rosary. I pray to my Lord and Savior. He has always been there and always will to get me through this world and to forgive me. 👍
 
MaryIrene, Do you have any idea what the Rosary is? It is prayers to Our Father (6 times), praise to the Blessed Trinity (6 times, 8 if you count sign of the cross twice), prayers to Jesus specifically (5 times), greetings to Our Blessed Mother with the words of Holy Scripture (53 times) and asking for Mary to pray for us (53 times) all while meditating on the life of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (48 mysteries specifically related to Jesus with only 2 specifically related to His Mother). Mary leads us to Her Son, and the Rosary is a beautiful way she does this.

As an adult convert to the Catholic Faith, the Rosary was definitely something I had to work at. At first, I didn’t think “it did anything for me” either. But since it is given to us with promises of so many blessings, and is prayed by the greatest Catholics on earth, I didn’t want to miss out on whatever blessings might be had.

When I came into the Church, our parish had some Rosary pamphlets available. I took these with me on my 3-mile walks every day until had memorized the whole thing and could pray without checking my “cheat sheet”:D. It took a few months before I totally had it down. These were the months of just forging ahead, doing it because I believed it was a good thing but not really feeling it personally beneficial. But then the “payoff” came . . . now that I had memorized the format, I began to enter more and more into the mysteries and learned how to “pray them”. I cannot begin to tell you the blessings of insight and peace I have gained through praying a daily Rosary. I still pray it on my walks but sometimes while I’m driving. We always pray a family Rosary the first half hour of family car trips. The Rosary is a beautiful gift but you do have to invest some effort to realize the benefits. To me, all the effort has definitely been worth the blessings!

I really do not understand the mentality of “do I really need this” regarding devotions and prayers. These are gifts to us to help us on our way to Heaven. Maybe I need more help than most folks (which is the basic reason I became Catholic–I recognized the Catholic Church offers me the most help to Heaven!) I can’t imagine turning back such beautiful gifts given with such love.

em
 
DaveEucharist said:
I tried praying the Rosary but I just do not like it. It doesn’t work for me. Still, the Rosary has been and is recommended by Popes, etc. Actually, I don’t practice any private devotions. I’ve even tried the Divine Mercy chaplet and other chaplets but they still don’t work for me. I “pray/mediate” on walks to and from work, jogs, during weight lifting etc.

Any thoughts about Catholics that don’t pray the Rosary?
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Sometimes, I think Christ brings us closer to Him by piquing our curiosity. We may feel that something is not right for us, yet we can’t keep ourselves from returning to the subject and wondering about it.

That’s partly how I stopped being an atheist. Even though I rejected belief in any god, I couldn’t stop being interested in the subject. I think that’s because, deep down, God was repeating his invitation to me. I think that’s also true for most (all?) of the atheists who participate in CAF – God is keeping the door open, and they can’t resist talking about something that they’ve decided does not exist.

Anyway, it’s possible that you’re on your way to becoming a Catholic who prays the Rosary. If you feel called to do so, keep at it. Try reading some of the many books on the Rosary. It will eventually work for you.
 
DaveEucharist said:
I tried praying the Rosary but I just do not like it. It doesn’t work for me. Still, the Rosary has been and is recommended by Popes, etc. Actually, I don’t practice any private devotions. I’ve even tried the Divine Mercy chaplet and other chaplets but they still don’t work for me. I “pray/mediate” on walks to and from work, jogs, during weight lifting etc.

Any thoughts about Catholics that don’t pray the Rosary?
Click to expand...
Hi friend,

Boy can I relate to how you feel. I avoided praying the Rosary for 5 years after my confirmation. I would try to pray it but I just did not like. I couldn’t stand the repitition. And meditating while vocally saying Hail Mary’s over and over again. How the heck am I supposed to do this I used to think. This is ridiculous!

But I couldn’t quite let it go either. I knew of all the saints that recommended it and the popes too. There has to be something to this prayer, I would think.
Then I read about how St. Therese also had trouble praying the Rosary. She couldnt’ focus on the mysteries either. But she kept at it anyway.

Finally after my back surgery and recuperating at home, I just said–that’s it–I’m gonna do this. I read somewhere that even if we just shoot for trying to meditate on 4 of the Hail Mary’s that’s a good start. So that’s what I did.

I started out just trying to keep the name of the mystery in my mind during the first 2, 3 Hail Mary’s. That helped me to get used to thinking about something else while vocalizing the Hail Mary. Then I would proceed to repeat a short line pertaining to the mystery as JP II suggested—for example, during the Agony in the Garden, I might say—Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus–abandoned and alone…

Then I would try to put myself into the scene for a few prayers. I might picture myself walking up to Jesus as He is kneeling down in prayer and agony. I picture Him looking up at me forlornly and then I kneel down next to Him and keep Him company. After awhile, this became easier. I would get more ideas as to picturing the scene.

But it is a challenging prayer, there is no doubt about it. Even now after several years of praying it, there are days when I just can’t focus. But I try to do it anyway, because I believe there is power in it. Like the other poster said, there are rewards. It changes you over time.

I would say my relationship with and understanding of Mary increased through it as well. I had a hard time connecting with her in the beginning. I understood the need for her theologically but I just couldn’t quite connect. The Rosary changed all of that. Now I’m aware of her role in this battle.

Personally I believe it is so powerful because like St. Louis de Monfort says, we are being aided by a creature, and a woman at that. The devil hates women and especially Mary. And so by trusting in her intercession and praying through her, God really allows the grace to be poured out to us.

The entire spiritual life is one of pushing through our feelings and I had to push through my feelings about the rosary. It’s not a prayer, at least for me, that always makes me feel “spiritual”. It’s a committment, a way of life.

I like this quote from the book, Secret of the Rosary:

*This faith must be lively and informed by charity; in other words, to recite properly the Rosary, it is necessary to be in God’s grace, or at least in quest of it. This faith must be strong and constant, that is, one must not be looking for sensible devotion and spiritual consolation in the recitation of the Rosary; nor should one give it up because his mind is flooded with countless involuntary distractions or one experiences a strange distaste in the soul and an almost continual and oppressive fatigue in the body. Neither feeling, nor consolation, nor sighs, nor transports, nor the continual attention of the imagination are needed; faith and good intentions are quite enough. “Faith alone suffices.” [3] *

God Bless
 
I highly recommend you pray the Rosary

The Holy Rosary has changed my life.
 
If the Rosary is not your prayer, try The Imitation of Christ by Kempis.

Awesome. 👍
 
May I suggest a couple of things? First, try praying the rosary with someone else leading, such as a group at church. Mother Angelica and her nuns say the rosary twice a day on EWTN. The reason I say this is because while the leader is saying, 'Hail Mary, Full of Grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus…" you can be concentrating on the mystery. Then just say your part, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” Another thing that has been very helpful to me is that instead of just focusing on the mystery, I focus on the FRUIT of the mystery. For instance, when the mystery is the Resurrection, I focus on FAITH, which is the fruit of that mystery. I have a little booklet that I use called, “The Holy Rosary” and there is a little prayer that you can pray as you focus on each mystery/fruit of the mystery. The one for the Resurrection goes like this: “Jesus, you rose from the dead in triumph and remained 40 days with your disciples, instructing and encouraging them. Grant me the desire to always have faith in You, my Risen Lord. Amen.” I pray that on the first Hail Mary (usually while Mother Angelica is saying her part), then on subsequent Hail Marys I might pray something like this: “Mother Mary, pray that my faith in your Son will increase.” OR “Lord Jesus, grant my husband/son/cousin/friend an increase in faith.” Do you see how you can apply the fruit of the mystery to yourself or to anyone? You could even say something like, “Lord, let your Church on Earth grow in Faith.” Or “Mother, pray that the Holy Spirit will plant a seed of Faith in those souls who don’t know your Son.” I would really encourage you to look up the fruits of each mystery and try meditating like this. Praying the Rosary has done AMAZING things for me and for those whom I’ve prayed for. I prayed for someone and then several weeks later out of the blue this person told me about several things she had been doing that she suddenly realized were wrong, and she STOPPED doing them! I was just thinking, “PRAISE GOD” as she told me these things. That is just one example. Please don’t give up on the rosary. The devil wants us to give up on it because it is VERY POWERFUL against evil! I will promote the rosary until I die.
 
Veronica97 said:
May I suggest a couple of things? First, try praying the rosary with someone else leading, such as a group at church. Mother Angelica and her nuns say the rosary twice a day on EWTN. The reason I say this is because while the leader is saying, 'Hail Mary, Full of Grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus…" you can be concentrating on the mystery. Then just say your part, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” Another thing that has been very helpful to me is that instead of just focusing on the mystery, I focus on the FRUIT of the mystery. For instance, when the mystery is the Resurrection, I focus on FAITH, which is the fruit of that mystery. I have a little booklet that I use called, “The Holy Rosary” and there is a little prayer that you can pray as you focus on each mystery/fruit of the mystery. The one for the Resurrection goes like this: “Jesus, you rose from the dead in triumph and remained 40 days with your disciples, instructing and encouraging them. Grant me the desire to always have faith in You, my Risen Lord. Amen.” I pray that on the first Hail Mary (usually while Mother Angelica is saying her part), then on subsequent Hail Marys I might pray something like this: “Mother Mary, pray that my faith in your Son will increase.” OR “Lord Jesus, grant my husband/son/cousin/friend an increase in faith.” Do you see how you can apply the fruit of the mystery to yourself or to anyone? You could even say something like, “Lord, let your Church on Earth grow in Faith.” Or “Mother, pray that the Holy Spirit will plant a seed of Faith in those souls who don’t know your Son.” I would really encourage you to look up the fruits of each mystery and try meditating like this. Praying the Rosary has done AMAZING things for me and for those whom I’ve prayed for. I prayed for someone and then several weeks later out of the blue this person told me about several things she had been doing that she suddenly realized were wrong, and she STOPPED doing them! I was just thinking, “PRAISE GOD” as she told me these things. That is just one example. Please don’t give up on the rosary. The devil wants us to give up on it because it is VERY POWERFUL against evil! I will promote the rosary until I die.
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Amen!
 
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