Confusion When Praying the Rosary

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What should I be meditating on while praying the rosary when reciting the Lord’s Prayer between the 5 decades and in the beginning before the Faith, Hope and Charity Hail Marys? I have guides that I use for each individual Hail Mary. All of them are silent on a suggested contemplation for the Our Fathers. Should my contemplation for the 6 Lord’s Prayers be on God, the Catechism message of the prayer itself, or something else.
 
There is no right or wrong way/things to meditate upon when praying a private devotion such as the rosary. Whatever enlivens your faith is perfectly fine since such devotions ought to help us keep our baptismal vows. The suggestions you made would be excellent, IMHO. 🙂
 
For the Our Fathers, I really just try to focus on the meaning of the words, and every so often - not audibly, but in my mind - I’ll say “Lord, help increase my faith”.
 
I will either consider just a transition (Mary walking all the way to Bethelhem) or a part of the Our Father, like forgive us… as we forgive.
 
The Lord’s Prayer was given to us by Our Lord himself, to teach us how to pray. You might meditate on that while you pray. Imagine Jesus beside you, praying with you to the Father.

You could also meditate on one of the five lines in the Our Father prayer for each of the five decades (or maybe a virtue/gift related to each one?)
  1. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; (glorifying God)
  2. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven; (submission to his will)
  3. Give us this day our daily bread; (dependence on God; devotion to the Blessed Sacrament)
  4. Forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; (forgiveness)
    5 Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (repentence)
 
I have yet to master how to verbally talk and deeply meditate at the same time. I generally consider myself pretty adept at multitasking (I’m a teacher) but the Rosary is a curve ball even for me.

It’s a private devotion so there is no official rulebook for how to do it. If a pious person or a Pope or a canonized saint or an archangel from Heaven tells you what to do, it is ultimately nonetheless subjective (subjective as in: experiential to the individual person). If what you are doing is sanctifying you, then it is a good devotion. If what you are doing isn’t sanctifying you, then it isn’t. St Bernard of Clairveaux saw a vision of his monks in prayer, with angels standing behind them recording what they were praying. Some of the angels stood still and wrote nothing at all (for those monks that were pretending to pray), some wrote in water (for those that recited prayers without love or care), others wrote in ink, others wrote in silver, and others wrote in gold.

I like the apps available that can accompany the Rosary and the accompanying sacred art. Moments of spontaneous love & reverence, called ejaculations, can sometimes go with the Rosary, i.e. “My Lord!”, “My God!”, “My All”. etc. St Liguori said that these were a very good sign of growing in grace. They’re the moral opposite of profane outbursts.

The Lord’s Prayer is very dense in meaning and thinking of the words themselves should be sufficient. Everything that essentially needs to be prayed is contained within it. Thanksgiving. Intercession. Petition. Protection.

There are many good books available for insight on praying the Rosary or other devotions. Our Lady has gone from Lourdes (having the Rosary draped on her arm) to Fatima (physically clinging the Rosary with her hands). She is very desperate for her children to develop a deep prayer life.
 
I was taught that the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of the Rosary was because that was the first prayer Christ taught his disciples. The Three Hail Mary’s are a petition for the increase of faith, hope and charity in the world; and the “Glory be” wraps up the sequence, as Mary magnifies the glory of the Lord…
 
Magdalen2013 said:
I was taught that the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of the Rosary was because that was the first prayer Christ taught his disciples. The Three Hail Mary’s are a petition for the increase of faith, hope and charity in the world; and the “Glory be” wraps up the sequence, as Mary magnifies the glory of the Lord…
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The idea that the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father) is at the beginning for the reason you stated is not historically accurate, still, starting the rosary with an Our Father and three Hail Marys does draw our attention to the three cardinal virtues and our need of them. 🙂

The original rosary consisted of praying 150 Hail Mary’s by those who could not recite the 150 Psalms of the Divine Office. It was a way for lay people, who didn’t know how to read or write their own languages, let alone the Latin recited by religious, to join in the daily prayer life of the Church. It gained popularity after Our Lady’s vision to St. Dominic to use the rosary to fight heresies of his day, and it was quite effective. The Our Fathers were a later addition between the decades–when isn’t exactly known–along with other prayers, such as the Glory be. Although most believe the rosary’s main form was set by St. Dominic’s time. After the visions of Fatima, other prayers were added at the end of each decade. The Irish have a sweet expression for such added prayers. They call them “embroideries.” 🙂
 
when I say the Our Father I concentrate on the words I am saying. This is the prayer Jesus used to teach us how to pray so I think it is important to be paying attention to what we are saying.
 
Try to just make yourself closer to God. One way is to slow down and concentrate on each word and/or sentence. It is very hard sometimes not to drift off in thought and when I pray , I sometimes can go too fast for myself even though it might sound as if I am going slow.
 
Della said:
The idea that the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father) is at the beginning for the reason you stated is not historically accurate, still, starting the rosary with an Our Father and three Hail Marys does draw our attention to the three cardinal virtues and our need of them. 🙂

The original rosary consisted of praying 150 Hail Mary’s by those who could not recite the 150 Psalms of the Divine Office. It was a way for lay people, who didn’t know how to read or write their own languages, let alone the Latin recited by religious, to join in the daily prayer life of the Church. It gained popularity after Our Lady’s vision to St. Dominic to use the rosary to fight heresies of his day, and it was quite effective. The Our Fathers were a later addition between the decades–when isn’t exactly known–along with other prayers, such as the Glory be. Although most believe the rosary’s main form was set by St. Dominic’s time. After the visions of Fatima, other prayers were added at the end of each decade. The Irish have a sweet expression for such added prayers. They call them “embroideries.” 🙂
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Another interesting bit of history is that the original Hail Mary consisted of only the Scriptural phrases - the words of Gabriel to Mary and those of St. Elizabeth ('Blessed art thou among women 'etc. )

The second half (‘Holy Mary’ etc.) only dates from the 16th Century Council of Trent.
So the original rosary , including in St. Dominic’s time, was only half the length of the one we use now.
 
When I say the Rosary,I mediated on each mystery of the decade I,am saying,then I say the ten Hail Mary,s.
 
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