How often and why shall we pray the rosary?

[TimothyH]

First, let’s review by what ‘much’ means. It’s excess right? What determines excess? Isn’t it when it starts interfering with other equally important obligations and taking up too much of the time that was supposed to be allocated to them?

Prayer can easily fall under that when you decide that you’d rather pray for 5 hours instead of getting a job or on the other hand, need a really huge break for the sake of your mental health.

How do we then reconcile the fact that Jesus teaches us in the parable of the persistent widow to pray constantly without growing tired?

Then he told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. (Luke 18:1)

And how do we reconcile Paul’s teaching to the Corinthians and Ephesians that they should pray without ever stopping with the obligations of our life?

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

We are clearly commanded by God to pray constantly. God would not command us to do that which is impossible, would he?

If we think of prayer only as praying the rosary or kneeling and speaking with God, then we cannot reconcile God’s call to constant prayer with the demands of life.

The Messalians tried to pray constantly to the exclusion of all other activity and were condemned by the Church. Many in the early Church struggled to reconcile the call to pray constantly with Paul’s teaching that one who does not work should not eat. Some tried to pray in shifts and others tried to pay people to pray for them while they worked and slept. None of that worked.

Christians eventually realized that what was preventing them from reconciling the call to constant prayer with the demands of life was that their definition of prayer was wrong. Life had to be integrated with prayer, and once that was tried, they soon found out that our daily activities could become prayer.

Prayer for most people is an activity which we do, dividing up our day into times for prayer and times for work - so much for Martha and so much for Mary. To pray constantly however, prayer must not be an act but a state. It is a state of perpetual calm, and it starts with recollection of God - simply remembering God, that he exists, that he loves us, and that he is not far off in heaven but right inside of us. Remembering God, turning our mind toward God frequently throughout the day, practiced with perseverence and endurance, eventually becomes constant recollection of God where his presence never leaves, where we feel his presence constantly.

This isn’t some mystical experience reserved only for monks, but a very reachable “State” for every single one of us. I am nobody, but I have felt it myself. Years ago, before I was a Christian, I heard a man in a restuarant say to another man, “Im in a constant state of prayer.” The other man replied, that it is not possible. I understand what he meant now, that if we turn our minds toward God frequently throughout the day and utter a small prayer, our work and our entire life become one big prayer.

The OP asks, how often shall we pray the rosary? I say, as often as we need to, but that is not the only form of prayer. If the rosary is our definition of prayer, then we cannot meet Christ’s call to pray without ceasing.

-Tim-

 

[figs]

First, let’s review by what ‘much’ means. It’s excess right? What determines excess? Isn’t it when it starts interfering with other equally important obligations and taking up too much of the time that was supposed to be allocated to them?

Prayer can easily fall under that when you decide that you’d rather pray for 5 hours instead of getting a job or on the other hand, need a really huge break for the sake of your mental health.

My country’s history under religious Spanish rule is pretty much proof of how prayer can be ‘too much’.

LOL! So only religious sources are welcome here? Last time I checked, even the armchair historians we have on board look to history to validate and invalidate things in apologetics.

My country has a history of religious oppression. Even the most devout Catholics will not deny how much atrocity Spain committed here in the Church’s name. Clerical abuse. Manipulation of the masses. Marx would have a field day if he ever visited my country 300 years ago. You being British only makes you more ignorant of how religion itself can be distorted to cause harm and enable tyranny. That has been my point. I have provided sources to prove it. You refuse to read them. Therefore, the best conclusion here is that you are intellectually dishonest and are talking with your head in the sand.

You keep wanting to tell me about your country. That had nothing to do with the “fact” you claimed about praying too much. THAT, the praying too much, was all that I questioned. I asked for a thological resourse, yes, because it is a question on theology, period.
Now, if you want to go on feeling like you have “won” the argument by bringing up stuff regarding YOUR country, fine but let’s stick to the question, please.

Provide a credible source that proves your statement is indeed a fact, as you claim.

You claim you can pray too much, I asked how much is too much and where did you find proof it was a fact. Please don’t go off on some kind of patriotic tyrade, just stick to the question

 

[fishergal]

As far as I know, The rosary isn’t a mandatory prayer. So to answer your question of how often— it depends on the individual.

However I do find that as I pray it more often and regularly, it brings me closer to Jesus.

Now, “why” should we pray it— to bring us closer to Jesus through Mary and meditation on his life and to pray for the souls In purgatory.

We need to not only pray for ourselves, but for the forgiveness of sinners and for those who have passed away.

 

[TrueLight]

TrueLight:

Tim and NYCatholic, good points.

However, I want to say the question was not “Should we pray the Rosary to the exclusion of all other types of prayers or to the exclusion or neglect of our daily duties.”

We are speaking of one particular devotion.

I do pray the Rosary, but I prefer contemplation. That’s when I feel closer to my Lord. But that’s me.

Everyone has a type of prayer/devotion that really works for them.

I do agree that we should pray without ceasing and our whole day can be a prayer even if we’re scrubbing pots or chanting Compline.

 

[bcprincess]

This is part one of a four part post I did some time ago on talking to my Father and for me it sums up praying…

In any relationship there are different situations each person is in and this leads to different kinds of conversations.

This is just as true of my relationship with my Heavenly Father and Jesus the Lover of My Soul because their Holy Spirit lives within me giving me constant access to communion and fellowship with them.

Sometimes we want to simply spend time together and enjoy each others company because we love each other.

Sometimes it is time to seek help and advice. This in itself can take many forms and cover many areas, some of which are long term and some not so.

The one truly constant focus of prayer is to get to know God better and seeking to develop the Fruit of the Spirit and thus become more Christ like.

This kind of prayer and fellowship can act as a filter through which we pass all our decisions and choices.

This is the hub - the central focus of our lives. Everything else, including other kinds of prayer must revolve around this.

(If anyone who want to read the other parts you can find them here:-
bloodcoveredprincess.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Prayer?updated-max=2011-11-25T02:27:00-08:00&max-results=20&start=20&by-date=false

You need to scroll down to find them)

 

[figs]

This is part one of a four part post I did some time ago on talking to my Father and for me it sums up praying…

In any relationship there are different situations each person is in and this leads to different kinds of conversations.

This is just as true of my relationship with my Heavenly Father and Jesus the Lover of My Soul because their Holy Spirit lives within me giving me constant access to communion and fellowship with them.

Sometimes we want to simply spend time together and enjoy each others company because we love each other.

Sometimes it is time to seek help and advice. This in itself can take many forms and cover many areas, some of which are long term and some not so.

The one truly constant focus of prayer is to get to know God better and seeking to develop the Fruit of the Spirit and thus become more Christ like.

This kind of prayer and fellowship can act as a filter through which we pass all our decisions and choices.

This is the hub - the central focus of our lives. Everything else, including other kinds of prayer must revolve around this.

(If anyone who want to read the other parts you can find them here:-
bloodcoveredprincess.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Prayer?updated-max=2011-11-25T02:27:00-08:00&max-results=20&start=20&by-date=false

You need to scroll down to find them)

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing that I work on this form of prayer (cough) obviously still in the early developmental stages but I will get there

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Provide a credible source that proves your statement is indeed a fact, as you claim.

You can’t get more credible than historical fact. The fact that an entire nation was under oppression because the clergy distorted concepts of prayer (as well as religion in general) in order to keep the people under their big Euro-centric feet is more than enough proof that one can distort prayer devotions like the Rosary into a huge-time eater. Don’t blame me if you’d rather embrace sweet-sounding ignorance than blunt truth.

 

[figs]

You can’t get more credible than historical fact. The fact that an entire nation was under oppression because the clergy distorted concepts of prayer (as well as religion in general) in order to keep the people under their big Euro-centric feet is more than enough proof that one can distort prayer devotions like the Rosary into a huge-time eater. **Don’t blame me **if you’d rather embrace sweet-sounding ignorance than blunt truth.

blame you? LOL no, no worries.
When it comes down to 2000 years+ teachings/ writtings of the church v. LostWonder’s opinion, I know where I place my trust.

God bless

 

[Padraig1972]

I am not sure what to say after reading the development in this thread. What i am left with is a bad-bitter taste in my mouth.
The hostility to the rosary and the devotion of praying it suprises me.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

blame you? LOL no, no worries.
When it comes down to 2000 years+ teachings/ writtings of the church v. LostWonder’s opinion, I know where I place my trust.

A sign of an ignorant religious is one who dismisses fact as opinion. Are you done proving what enabled the triumph of the secularist cause?

Oh and FYI, among those 2000 years, you’ll find apologetic admissions and acknowledgement of clerical abuses and the damage they have done to religion via their distortion. Just ask JP2.

 

[CatholicFireman]

I am not sure what to say after reading the development in this thread. What i am left with is a bad-bitter taste in my mouth.
The hostility to the rosary and the devotion of praying it suprises me.

I was thinking the same thing. Very sad.

 

[TimothyH]

How often should we pray the rosary? My answer is that we should pray it constantly.

The moment our feet hit the floor when we wake up in the morning we should sign ourselves and say, “God, come to my assistance. Lord make haste to help me.” followed by a Glory Be.

We should say one Hail Mary as we head to the kitchen to get coffee and one Our Father as we wait for it to brew and take the first sip.

Entering the shower should remind us of the cleansing of our baptism and be sorrowful that we have not lived up to our baptismal promises. We should then say, “Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in need of thy mercy. Amen.”

We should use holy water before we leave the front door and say, “Mother Mary, guide me this day toward your son and keep me from sinning just as you were sinless” and then pray a Hail Mary as we head to the car.

We should say one Hail Mary throughout our day whenever we hear a siren or see someone upset or having a hard time. And we should say Hail Mary’s for our loved ones from time to time throughout the day.

We should pray an Our Father before lunch, and then again after.

If anything bad happens to us during the day or if we are tempted we should say, “Most gracious advocate, turn thine eyes of mercy toward me and show unto me the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”

When we get home we should thank God with profound gratitude that we have arrived home safe and taking a moment to stand still and bow our head, we should say, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen.”

And before we go to bed we should pray this prayer and then close our eyes and rest so that we can pray again tomorrow.

I wish I could pray the rosary like that. I’d be half way to heaven already.

-Tim-

 

[the_phoenix]

“How often and why shall we pray the rosary?”

Our Lady of Fatima requested that we pray the Rosary every day.

…

 

[figs]

How often should we pray the rosary? My answer is that we should pray it constantly.

The moment our feet hit the floor when we wake up in the morning we should sign ourselves and say, “God, come to my assistance. Lord make haste to help me.” followed by a Glory Be.

We should say one Hail Mary as we head to the kitchen to get coffee and one Our Father as we wait for it to brew and take the first sip.

Entering the shower should remind us of the cleansing of our baptism and be sorrowful that we have not lived up to our baptismal promises. We should then say, “Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in need of thy mercy. Amen.”

We should use holy water before we leave the front door and say, “Mother Mary, guide me this day toward your son and keep me from sinning just as you were sinless” and then pray a Hail Mary as we head to the car.

We should say one Hail Mary throughout our day whenever we hear a siren or see someone upset or having a hard time. And we should say Hail Mary’s for our loved ones from time to time throughout the day.

We should pray an Our Father before lunch, and then again after.

If anything bad happens to us during the day or if we are tempted we should say, “Most gracious advocate, turn thine eyes of mercy toward me and show unto me the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”

When we get home we should thank God with profound gratitude that we have arrived home safe and taking a moment to stand still and bow our head, we should say, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen.”

And before we go to bed we should pray this prayer and then close our eyes and rest so that we can pray again tomorrow.

I wish I could pray the rosary like that. I’d be half way to heaven already.

-Tim-

I couldn’t agree more, after all we are Church Militant!

 

[GaryTaylor]

How often should you pray the Rosary? Its really up to you. Its recommened you should pray 5-decades daily.

I pray 5-15, and it flucuates, I do the 5 always and have a very long time.

As to why, My reasons are a bit more personal but there are many. One which I find most important is the contemplation on the Mysterys of the Gospel. When you pray the Rosary you contemplate on the Gospel. Thus you walk closer to Christ Crucified by daily meditation and contemplation.

I understand busy, but this is 15-minutes for 5-decades. One must realize prayer is crucial to Salvation. Pray is talking and conversating with God and the Blessed Mother.

So a daily prayer life without a doubt is a great indication of a Soul on the way to Salvation through Christ.

The path to Christ through the Blessed Mother is assured. All Grace came through Mary by the Holy Spirit and the Incarnation, the Word became Flesh in Jesus Christ the Son of God through Mary and “All Generations will call Her Blessed”. The Blessed Mother is the neck, the gate of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and All Grace came though Mary just it did with God through the Holy Spirit. Mary is the New Ark of the Covenant. Thus all Grace comes though Mary as God so willed it to be.

And of course there is what the Church, Popes, Saints and Mystics have said for hundreds of years. There resides a unanimous reverberating affirmative for centurys.

 

[GaryTaylor]

“Would you like me to tell you a ‘secret’? It is simple, and after all, is no secret: ‘Pray, pray much. Say the Rosary everyday.’” -Pope John Paul II

“Spread the Rosary, the prayer so dear to the Virgin and so esteemed by popes; by it the faithful can best fulfill the command of Christ: ’ Ask and it shall be given; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.’ (Mt. 7:7). The Rosary puts all who have trust in it into communication with Our Lady.” -Pope Paul VI

“The Rosary, as is known to all, is in fact a very excellent means of prayer and meditation in the form of a mystical crown in which the prayers Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father are intertwined with meditation on the greatest mysteries of our Faith and which presents to the mind, like many pictures, the drama of the Incarnation of our Lord and the Redemption.” -Pope John XXIII

“If you recite the Family Rosary, all united, you shall taste peace; you shall have in your homes concord of souls. Hearing the Christian home resound with the praised of the Queen of Heaven (is) a simple fact in appearance, but extraordinarily received by God, such as to enrapture the Angels, which from Heaven see and hear! The Rosary recited in common gathers the parents with their children, piously joins them with those absent, with the deceased, draws all there, close to the Virgin, who, as Mother, will be in the midst of her children. We esteem the Rosary to be the most suitable and efficacious means to obtain the help of God. The flowers of the Rosary never perish.” -Pope Pius XII

“The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin… It not only serves admirably to overcome the enemies of God and of religion, but it is also a stimulus and an encouragement to the practice of the evangelical virtues, which it develops and cultivates in our souls. Above all, it nourishes our Catholic Faith…If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the Rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors.” -Pope Pius XI

“The Rosary elevates minds to the truths reveled by God and shows us Heaven opened. The Virgin Mary Herself has insistently recommended this manner of praying. All Graces are conceded to us by God through the hands of Mary.” - Pope Pius XI

“Nevertheless, if men in our century, with its derisive pride, reject the holy Rosary, there is an innumerable multitude of holy men of every age and every condition who have always held it dear. They have recited it with great devotion, and in every moment they have used it as a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight, to preserve the integrity of life, to acquire virtue more easily, and, in a word, to attain real peace among men.” -Pope Pius XI

“From it (the Rosary) the young will draw fresh energy with which to control the rebellious tendencies to evil and to preserve intact the stainless purity of the soul. Also in it, the old will again find repose, relief , and peace from their anxious cares. And to all those who suffer in any way, especially the dying, may it bring comfort and increase the hope of eternal Happiness.” -Pope Pius XI

“The prayer of the Rosary is perfect because of the praises it offers, the lessons it teaches, the graces it obtains, and the victories it achieves.” - Pope Benedict XV

“St. Dominic knew well that, while on the one hand Mary is all powerful with Her divine Son, who grants all graces to mankind through Her, on the other hand, She is by nature so good and so merciful that, inclined to aid spontaneously those who suffer, She is absolutely incapable of refusing Her help to those who invoke Her. The Church is in the habit of greeting the Virgin as ‘Mother of Grace’ and ‘Mother of Mercy,’ and so She has always shown Herself, especially when we have recourse to Her by means of the Holy Rosary.” -Pope Benedict XV

" The Rosary is the most beautiful and the richest of all prayers to the Mediatrix of all grace; it is the prayer that touches most the heart of the Mother of God. Say it each day." -Pope St. Pius X

" The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings. There is no more excellent way of praying." -Pope Leo XIII

“Among all the devotions approved by the Church, none has been so favored by so many miracles as the Rosary devotion.” - Pope Pius IX

“Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.” -Pope Pius IX

Plenty of good reason why just through these few Popes. It a journey into the Mystical aspect of the Church which is bottomless. You could start reading today and still be hard at it this time next year, and not close to finished. And thats without even starting to read the Saints works.

Peace

 

[figs]

How often and why shall we pray the rosary?

I think Blessed John Paul II says it very well;

Pope John Paul II - Reign 1978-2005
“Yet the Rosary clearly belongs to the kind of veneration of the Mother of God described by the Council: a devotion directed to the Christological center of the Christian faith, in such a way that when the Mother is honored, the Son … is duly known, loved and glorified,”
“If properly revitalized, the Rosary is an aid and certainly not a hindrance to ecumenism!”
“The Rosary … represents a most effective means of fostering among the faithful that commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery”

“Would you like me to tell you a ‘secret’? It is simple, and after all, is no secret: ‘Pray, pray much. Say the Rosary everyday.’”

I pray the Rosay at least once a day with other prayers throughout the day. If it means I set the alarm an hour earlier in the morning, so be it.
I will always do my best to find time for God, without Him I do not breathe

 

[bcprincess]

I am not sure what to say after reading the development in this thread. What i am left with is a bad-bitter taste in my mouth.
The hostility to the rosary and the devotion of praying it suprises me.

I find it sad that there is hostility to any kind of devotion to God, but on a brighter side the majority of the people posting have not been hostile, far from it :compcoff:

 

[InJesusItrust]

I pray all four of the mysteries and the divine chaplet twice.

I pray one chaplet in the morning, followed by the joyful and luminous. Then in the night one chaplet and the sorrowful and glorious. I also fast on water and bread each Friday. I kind of believe the Medjugorje Apparitions might possibly be real. In Akita Mary said that people who devote themselves to her would be scorned and opposed in the Church itself! At any rate I see nothing wrong with praying the rosary and fasting as recommended. I fast for those in purgatory and for the conversion of unbelievers.

 

[paperwight66]

I pray all four of the mysteries .

I.

Four ? Did you mean to say five?