Difficulties with the Rosary.

[UnityofTrinity]

Greeting all Catholic brothers and sisters.

I’m a recent convert into the Catholic Church, I’ve heard many wonderful things and the great power of the rosary. I’m a fan of contemplative prayers and truly want to start my devotion with the Virgin(to catch up with the old Protestant days).

But I’m having a hard time with the Rosary. The most troublesome is that I can’t meditate. I don’t know what to do. I have a booklet that contain meditation points, but when I try to use it, I stop feeling closer to God. Yet when I try to imagine the scene and so forth, I either will begin to wander my mind or having a hard time figure out the lesson and the theme of the mystery.

Really need help, thanks.

 

[JerryS]

I think it really helps to know the biblical mysteries as a foundation for contemplation. When I was first trying the rosary, I was helped by doing a Scriptural rosary. This is where a piece of Scripture related to the mystery is recited before each Hail Mary. There are several web-based Scriptural rosaries (e.g. www.rosaryarmy.com or do a web search). This really helps keep you focused on the mysteries and is a good way to learn them.

Once I had lots of Scriptural tidbits and knew the mysteries, my mind could wander more but stay grounded in Scripture and the mystery.

 

[Crumpy]

I’m going to assume that you say the rosary privately. I try to deal with the distractions by saying the rosary out loud, perhaps in a whisper or even more.

I find that it helps me focus my wandering thoughts. When I do this, I’m also concentrating on saying each word consciously, not in some daydream state.

I also have the problem that I always yawn during the Lord’s prayer. I don’t know why, but it seems to be some conditioned reflex in me. I’m trying to break that in the same way.

 

[ZDHayden]

I have the same problems as you, UnityofTrinity. I’ve found that St. Louis de Montfort has some excellent resources to help people pray the rosary more effectively. A scriptural rosary method, I think also helps if you enjoy Sacred Scripture. Those can be found at various places online and in various books. I found a combination of both at a site called purgatory.ca, but you have to sponsor a loved one who has passed and is presumably in purgatory in order to download the pdf files. Hope this helps! Also - start out small: one decade at a time maybe, then an entire set. With the method that I do (combining the Scriptural rosary with - I think - Method 1 of St. Louis de Montfort) increases the time to pray a single set (e.g. the Joyful Mysteries) by a factor of 2 - but it is worth it, especially after praying Lauds and going to Mass!

 

[achmafooma]

God bless you in your conversion! I am also a convert, and I also found the Rosary somewhat challenging at first! I found that ‘practice makes perfect’ … well, not perfect, but you get the idea ;-). Stick with it and keep trying.

I don’t know how long you have been trying, but initially I was very focused on what I was saying. The Hail Mary was pretty new to me, and the whole practice was new, so I was overly focused on what I was saying/thinking (which, admittedly, can get a bit boring because of the repetition). Over time, what I was saying became a kind of ‘autopilot’ and I found myself getting lost in a kind of mental prayer. I think this is kinda the point, but it won’t start to happen until you’ve been doing it for a while.

Personally, I try to let Our Lady take me wherever she wants in my Rosary prayers. I start from the proscribed meditations, but it doesn’t always stay on-topic. The important thing is that it’s honest, faithful, devout prayer.

I’m the first to admit, however, that my mind wanders too. Some days it comes easily, some days not so much. Also it will vary a lot person to person; some people have no problem diving into wonderful, devout prayer at the snap of a finger. Others suffer from ‘spiritual dryness’ and have a much harder time. God appreciates our trying even when we don’t do so well!

God knows and understands our limitations. You might consider starting small with just a decade or two, and if that’s all you can do before getting overly distracted that’s okay. As Crumpy mentioned, it can also help to say the prayers out-loud or at least mouth the words (if you’re not doing so already). I agree that makes it easier to focus, at least for me… not sure why, but it may help!

God bless you.

 

[jazzy_987]

I bought some rosary CDs and have them on my iPod, and I listen and pray along. Sometimes I watch youtube videos of the rosary as well.
I find it helpful when it comes to trying to concentrate, as well as meditating on the mysteries. But the Rosary is still difficult for me… although I love it…

 

[TheRealJuliane]

I’m going to assume that you say the rosary privately. I try to deal with the distractions by saying the rosary out loud, perhaps in a whisper or even more.

I find that it helps me focus my wandering thoughts. When I do this, I’m also concentrating on saying each word consciously, not in some daydream state.

I also have the problem that I always yawn during the Lord’s prayer. I don’t know why, but it seems to be some conditioned reflex in me. I’m trying to break that in the same way.

Same problem. I yawn a lot anyway, especially at certain times of the day. All it took was ONE yawn in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer and I had to yawn every time after that! I have tried a lot of things to get it to stop, the other day I found one that worked for me. It’s going to sound really odd, but as I was saying the prayer out loud, I was thinking and saying aloud in my head “YAWN YAWN YAWN YAWN” again and again. And I didn’t yawn!!! It’s worked every time since then. You might try it for yourself. One you break the habit you probably won’t do it again.

I think I am just a person who is sensitive to yawning. If anyone around me yawns, I ALWAYS catch it. But oddly enough, the dog’s yawning doesn’t make me yawn.

 

[Tamsulosin]

What I find difficult is to both think of what I am telling to the Virgin Mary and meditating on the mystery at the same time.My mind tackles one or the other. Cannot do both in unison.
On the other hand if I concentrate on the mystery I feel I am being disrespectful towards our Lady by talking to her but thinking on something else.
Tam.

 

[Taffy493]

I too am a convert to catholicism. I started praying the rosary 4 years ago, and have been a catholic for 3 years. The best start for me was to do a scriptural rosary, focusing on the scripture while reciting the decade. With it written in front of me, there were fewer distractions. I sometimes meditate on one key word at a time. Distractions can and do still come; and I simply offer up the thought and gently bring my mind back to the scripture. Also new thoughts and insights into the scripture can come, or questions to be answered by Bible research later. The same scripture can be kept fresh by also studying more scripture, listening to EWTN TV and radio, and those insights will come to mind while meditating. The readings at the mass also come to mind, and vise-versa, the meditations can help me understand the readings! After awhile, it is easier to meditate without the written scripture right there. And then when it happens to be very difficult to meditate because of problems that insist on coming to mind, then it really helps to get that scripture in front of you again. I found a book on the rosary with a simple list of scripture to use, one verse for each decade.

Taffy493

 

[River_Glorious]

I am a convert also and have never been faithful to praying the rosary. A week ago, I found a novena to Mary Undoer of Knots and the idea that Mary could undo the knots in my life intrigued me, so I have been praying that novena for the past six days. Then a couple of days ago I was watching Father Corapi on EWTN, and he said pray the rosary even if you don’t like to do it. I’ve never known Fr. Corapi to give bad advice so as soon as I’ve completed the nine-day novena, I’m going to start praying the rosary and maybe I will learn to like it.

 

[the_phoenix]

Same problem. I yawn a lot anyway, especially at certain times of the day. All it took was ONE yawn in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer and I had to yawn every time after that! I have tried a lot of things to get it to stop, the other day I found one that worked for me. It’s going to sound really odd, but as I was saying the prayer out loud, I was thinking and saying aloud in my head “YAWN YAWN YAWN YAWN” again and again. And I didn’t yawn!!! It’s worked every time since then. You might try it for yourself. One you break the habit you probably won’t do it again.

I think I am just a person who is sensitive to yawning. If anyone around me yawns, I ALWAYS catch it. But oddly enough, the dog’s yawning doesn’t make me yawn.

Help! I’ve caught the yawns!

:yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :yawn: :yawn:

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

:getholy:

Anyways, I’ll admit to getting distracted during the Rosary at times too …
seems like it’s as common as being human.

And there’s the story of a saint who met a peasant one day walking alongside the road. The saint challenged the peasant by offering him a free horse if only the peasant could say one whole “Our Father” without getting distracted. The peasant happily agreed:

“Our Father,
Who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name …
Um, how old did you say the horse was?”

 

[Victorious]

Don’t be discouraged by the fact that you’re not getting anything out of the Rosary on an emotional level. Don’t be misled by anyone who tells you that if it’s not joyful, it’s not sincere or worthwhile. Difficulties make us grow in fortitude; if we wait for prayer to become easy, we will never pray. The road to joy is paved with stones of drudgery.