I asked my priest this question once. I asked, I’m sure you have people that you have ask to be prayed for all the time, how to do you keep up? He looked at his watch and said, “Well, it’s not like I can say, ‘Nope, sorry, all prayed out!’” He said that there are people he hasn’t seen in years that he prays for every day because he made the intention that every time he prayed X, that it was for a specific intention. For example, you can pray once that all of your indulgences go towards the Holy Souls in Purgatory, with the understanding that when they are released that they will pray for you with the saints in heaven (a devotion recommended by my priest). Or you could offer up all of your rosaries for the intention of conversion of souls. You can also do a morning offering for specific intentions which makes every action you take a prayer in and of itself. I’ve made a prayer that at the offering of every mass I attend for the rest of my life, that I am offering up this mass along with everything I have, my will, my hopes and dreams, my fears and doubts, that I unite it with the offering of the mass for the sanctification of priests. I still make that offering at all masses, but sometimes, like First Friday, I add an intention, like for the reparation of sin against the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Here’s how I do my intentions for my rosary:
I first dedicate my entire rosary for a certain intention, after the Our Father, 3 Hail Marys and Glory Be, but before the first mystery of the rosary. The most common intention I pray is for the conversion of souls, especially those deceived by the lies of the Mormon church. Right now, however, I’m in the middle of a 54-day novena, so I offer up those intentions instead.
Then I dedicate the fourth decade to the holy souls in purgatory, especially relatives, friends and holy priests. I end the fourth decade with the
St. Gertrude Prayer for the holy souls.
The fifth decade I offer up to for the sanctity of priests, especially the FSSP priests, and unite my prayers to those of the
Confraternity of St. Peter. I then say the
prayer of the Confraternity of St. Peter at the end of that rosary.
On occasion, I’ll dedicate another decade to a particular intention, but mostly it’s just those three. I also sometimes throw an extra prayer at the end of a rosary in addition to my Memorare and Hail Holy Queen. Right now I’m rather fond of the Fatima Angel Prayer:
MOST Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.
I offer Thee the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity
of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world,
in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifference
by which He is offended. And through the infinite merit
of His Most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.
