Disappointed by my first group Rosary

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The leader was a teenage boy and he read them without any intention. No one said the prayers in harmony. Everything was heartless and obligatory. I thought group Rosary would be a massive kick in the nuts for Satan but I’m not sure. How are we supposed to meditate on the mysteries?

I know for a fact I’m a filthy vulgar and judgmental person but i just wasn’t feeling it. Alone, i can focus, be intentional, and not have to posture myself.

It was in a chapel with pews. I may try the Young Adult Rosary group I know about because there are less people and we can sit in a circle which fosters togetherness.
 
Personally, I dislike group Rosaries, either someone does as you say, or they go to the other extreme and want to add too many additional prayers/readings.

I prefer the Rosary as a private devotion. Likewise, it was a young man running it, he may just need time to grow into the role! Maybe talk to him…or lead one yourself?
 
Any group rosary is better than no rosary at all! I’ve never had chance to do a whole one.
 
I have said my share of group Rosaries, and will continue to say them from time to time, but they are often an exercise in patience when other people pray too fast, pray too slow, say the wrong prayers or forget to say some of the usual prayers, etc. I remember one where a lady had her little children of about 3 or 4 trying to lead a decade of the Rosary, and while it was cute and it was also nice that the kids knew the prayers as well as they did, the wee kidlets did fumble and hesitate a lot on the prayers and I think the “decade” consisted of like 6 and a half Hail Marys instead of 10.

Just do the best you can, offer it up to God, and don’t expect the group rosary to be anything more than a fumbling bunch of God’s dopey human creatures trying to pray. Most rosaries are not going to be superhero Wonder Twin Power Activate moments. They’re going to be a bunch of tired, distracted people trying to get it together to plow through a rosary. Mother Mary treasures the prayers anyway. She’s wonderful like that.
 
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The nice thing about group prayer is that it gives us the opportunity to sit down and do what we’re supposed to do. But like a lot of group projects, it doesn’t always happen the way we wish it would happen if we were left to our own ideal situation. But sometimes, it’s bad to allow the perfect to get in the way of the good.

There will be many times in life when you’re going to be distracted, or when you’re going to be dissatisfied with your environment and your ability to concentrate, or the people who are with you. Focus on putting your own heart into things, even if you’re not thrilled with the leader. 🙂
Blessed Alan also relates that a nun who had always had a great devotion to the Rosary appeared after her death to one of her sisters in religion and said to her, “If I were able to return in my body to have the chance of saying just a single Hail Mary, even without great fervour, I would gladly go through the sufferings that I had during my last illness all over again, in order to gain the merit of this prayer” It is to be noted that she had been bedridden and suffered agonizing pains for several years before she died.
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I hope your future attempts at group prayer are more positive, though! Hugs!
 
I think a group rosary is excellent penance …but only for the reasons given above about how they can put a strain on your charity. 😁

I just can’t pray a prayer like the rosary with others.
 
I’ve heard a group rosary said in five minutes or so - about 4 seconds for a Glory Be, 6 seconds for a Hail Mary, and 9 seconds for an Our Father. It isn’t particularly prayerful!
 
Must have been an Irish person saying it. It’s a cliche that the Irish pray fast, and I thought I was a fast prayer, but there is some Irish guy on Youtube who had a recording of St. Bridget’s Prayers up where he went so fast that I had to go into the Youtube speed menu and slow it down to even be able to pray along. Usually I am turning the speed menu up because a lot of the people who pray go painfully slow for me.

I remember reading or hearing a joke somewhere (maybe on CAF?) that someone’s Irish ma or grandma would pray the rosary so fast, she nearly got rope burns on her fingers.
 
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I also find it challenging to keep count on my own and much, much worse with others. I was messing around online for work and didn’t intend to stumble upon this today, but I did, and it goes with our thread here. 😜

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Yes! An Irish nun and an English priest. The Irish nun set the pace with the “Hail Mary …” portion so fast it was like listening to an old tape recording on fast forward, and the English priest matched her pace on the “Holy Mary …” portion. They were so anxious to get it over and done with that there was actually a bit of an overlap, so the priest was already starting on “Holy” when the nun was just finishing “Jesus” and then the nun was starting the next Hail Mary while everyone else was on “Amen”. I’ve never heard it myself, but there are reportedly priests who can say an entire Mass in 10 minutes, but I guess a rosary in 5 isn’t that remarkable.
 
We say the rosary before mass. It is lead by one of the Deacons. I do prefer the family rosary at home though.
 
Sounds like opportunities abound to practice charity.

Personally I find group prayer, whether it be the rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, or the prayers of the Mass to be an outward sign of my inner self.

I’ve got so many voices in my head, some slow, some fast. Some too loud, some saying the wrong words.

But every now & then we hit that one note. & it’s a beautiful thing.

I imagine that’s what God hears when we butcher group prayer. Waiting for that one perfect note.
 
not sure if this helps but there is a plenary indulgence available for saying the rosary together in a church (provided you meet the standard 3 conditions as well)
 
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@Londoner
I have heard of people praying lots of Rosaries each day for their many children and always wondered how they managed it.

Now I know–they were Irish!
 
Drop out! Consider going before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and offering the Rosary over 30 minutes or even an hour.
 
I don’t think it’s so much “anxious to get it over with” as it is just a learned prayer style. The Rosary is a meditative prayer and some people get into the swing of it more by praying fast to create kind of a drone to meditate over. I myself find it harder to pray the Rosary if I am forced to go very slow because it just feels unnatural, like I’m on the “wrong speed”.

I also don’t think people necessarily realize they are praying fast, just like some people talk very fast and don’t realize they’re doing it until someone asks them to please slow down. We have one elderly man at a parish who always does his decade of the Rosary or the Divine Mercy really fast, especially compared with some of the others who pray very slow. It’s a huge contrast but each person seems to have their own pace that they always pray at. This older man is at almost every prayer group so I don’t think his intention is to disrespect the rosary, nor can he get done fast because some of the people who regularly pray one of the other four decades are about the slowest pray-ers ever.
 
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Okay, no problem.
Either find another group rosary or pray it on your own.
Myself, I concentrate better on my own, I can slow down if my mind wanders, or pause if I get an insight.

However, remember that Jesus did say that whenever two or more are gathered in His name, He is there among them. So, even if you didn’t feel it, you can be assured that grace was flowing 🙂
 
You reminded me of an elderly couple (both passed on now +) that used to pray the rosary together before Mass while I was setting up. He was hard of hearing, so they were both loud enough for me to hear all over the church. 😁 He would say his parts long and slow and drawn out “Hail Mary… full of grace… the Lord…” She would then do her part faster than any auctioneer I had ever heard, hardly taking a breath! “HolyMaryMotherofGod”. They were together for about 60+ years or so - they made things work. I guess just another model of finding your speed when someone else is in a different gear.
 
Could it have been in St Mary the Hidden Gem in Manchester? That parish pray the Rosary before the noon Mass in what seems to be about 3 minutes and 33 seconds. They were on the third decade before I managed to figure out it was the Rosary they were praying. 😒

OP. My parish has slowed down now but when I first came it was rushed like crazy and some were one sentence ahead and others were one sentence behind and the rest somewhere in between. They were praying in about 5-6 different languages at the same time and the level of “noise” was worse than in the dining hall in the school where I worked. I asked a very old and wise priest about this and he told me to go for a 20 minute walk and meditate on the mysteries and skip the Hail Mary´s if I can’t meditate at the same time. I was not to pray the Rosary in a group if it caused more stress than anything else. I still avoid praying the Rosary with a group as it just reminds me of stress.
 
It’s a prayer, not a performance. I think the group sounds fine.
 
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