My kids are bored with the Rosary. Help!

[JDI]

Greetings to my Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I have a problem that I’m hoping to get a few suggestions on. For as long as we;ve been parents, we have always stressed the “family Rosary” every evening just before we send the youngest ones to bed.

We have 5 children on earth (one in Heaven) with the youngest being 3 yrs old and quite a distraction in and of herself. My oldest kids, aged 15 and 13, have started to act disinterested and generally bored whenever we pray the Rosary as a family.

My daughter (15 yrs old) told me that she is finding the prayers repetitious and boring. I have told her that the repetitious part is to help us in our meditation of the mysteries. The boring part cannot be helped. You get out of the Rosary what you put into it.

My son (13 yrs. old) will usually drift off to sleep or not say the prayers out loud.

I’ve implimented the Evening Prayers of the Divine Office and sometimes substitute the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy on Fridays to help to make things a little different but it doesn’t seem to help. Is it a teenage thing? Outside of acting out the mysteries (fat chance) I am not sure what else to do? Any ideas for when prayers become a chore and not a pleasant thing?

 

[kage_ar]

What about a Scriptural Rosary? I like the one that you can download/listen to at www.rosaryarmy.com

Maybe making some rosaries would help?

Maybe learn the Rosary in a different language?

catholicaudio.blogspot.com/2007/09/rosary-in-spanish-and-latin.html

EWTN broadcasts “The Rosary Is A Place” you can listen online, here is the schedule:

ewtn.com/radio/schedule.htm

During Lent, watching “The Passion of the Christ” while praying the sorrowful mysteries is powerful.

Lastly, the Rosary is an optional devotion. It is not for everyone.

Are your teens involved in youth group?

 

[dulcissima]

Have your older kids read The Secret of the Rosary?

 

[withwind]

Adults can find praying rosary boring…young adults can even find it hard to pray “that long”. What your kids have is normal.

I didn’t pray the Rosary until I am in 30’s. Before that, my mother asked me to pray only 1 decade a day and that was way too long for me already. Thankfully, I listened to her.

I think you can think about some creativity when praying the rosary:

• ask them to take turn to lead for each decade.
• light candle and pass it around.
• get a flower (a rose perhaps) and pass around on each Hail Mary.
• explain to them the meaning of the Hail Mary, Our Father and Glory Be in some simple ways.

I am wondering how long have your kids been praying the Rosary with you? You might take it easy on them - start with one decade for a a few months and increase number of decades down the road.

You can also check out some books that I found here:
search.catholiccompany.com/catholic/book%20rosary%20for%20children

 

[dhgray]

between each Hail Mary, have them say a name of a person they want to pray for adn an intention…“For Robert who is stressing about his test, Hail Mary …”

 

[JDI]

Thank you for your reply to my post. Your ideas are all very good. We used to play a tape of a Scriptural Rosary for our kids when they were all very young which was taped using kids voices for the prayers.

My eldest daughter (15 years old) is a member of a youth group that is Opus Dei based, made up of university and college students mainly and she meets with them pretty much every Saturday morning.

Unfortunately, she goes to a “Catholic” high school (all girls) where the signals are pretty mixed and her school friends are nominal Catholics at best, and are into all the trendy teen things like the “Twilight” books and movie as well as other worldly things. I cannot shelter her too much. She needs to be able to filter out those things harmful to her soul, with our guidance of course.

My son (13 years old) has just very recently joined our parish youth group (not 100% sure how spiritual it is yet) and is an altar server. His “Catholic” grade school is like most others. Big on the self-esteem and sex education disguised as religion, and thin on the spiritual side. He also pals around with friends who are nominal Catholics at best.

I know the Rosary is not for everybody, but I am so hopeful that this devotion will take root in their hearts so they can then pass it along to their children, if God sees fit. I’ll just have to continue to pray for them. Thank you.

 

[Salonika]

JDI:

Greetings to my Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I have a problem that I’m hoping to get a few suggestions on. For as long as we;ve been parents, we have always stressed the “family Rosary” every evening just before we send the youngest ones to bed.

…

I’ve implimented the Evening Prayers of the Divine Office and sometimes substitute the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy on Fridays to help to make things a little different but it doesn’t seem to help. Is it a teenage thing? Outside of acting out the mysteries (fat chance) I am not sure what else to do? Any ideas for when prayers become a chore and not a pleasant thing?

As well as any other factors, there may be a personality factor operating here.

Different people have a different tolerance levels for doing things the same way or in very similar ways all or most of the time.

For some to say their prayers in the same way every time is most meaningful for them and brings them closer to God. For others it is total boredom and makes it harder for them to feel God’s presence. Luckily most people are somewhere on this continuum not at either end.

Hope some of the suggestions of other posters help.

 

[JDI]

between each Hail Mary, have them say a name of a person they want to pray for adn an intention…“For Robert who is stressing about his test, Hail Mary …”

Excellent idea, however we always state our prayer intentions before we start. We always ask them to contribute an intention too. We have 4 children who participate (our youngest is 3 as was stated earlier), so they each lead a decade with my wife and I doing the last decade. I’ll definitely look into the suggested book link that withwind suggested. Please pray for us as we struggle against many odds to raise our children in the Faith. God Bless. Pax vobis. JDI

 

[withwind]

I know the Rosary is not for everybody, but I am so hopeful that this devotion will take root in their hearts so they can then pass it along to their children, if God sees fit. I’ll just have to continue to pray for them. Thank you.

Even when they fall asleep or feel bored, the devotion can still root in their heart in some way. Years and years later, the image of my grandma praying the rosary every afternoon comes back to my mind and it helps me with the devotion; yet, she didn’t ask me to pray with her back then. I always ran around the neighborhood.

 

[JDI]

Even when they fall asleep or feel bored, the devotion can still root in their heart in some way. Years and years later, the image of my grandma praying the rosary every afternoon comes back to my mind and it helps me with the devotion; yet, she didn’t ask me to pray with her back then. I always ran around the neighborhood.

I have just ordered the book suggested in your reply! It looks like a winner. Thank you so very much!

At times when they have been tired and have drifted off, I’ve told them beforehand that their guardian angels will finish their Rosary for them. I hope they will remember that in years to come.

I also remember my grandmother sitting by the front door praying her Rosary every day by herself. I was also “running around the neighbourhood” in a different way and getting into trouble as a result. I am sure that those Rosaries prayed for me by her incrementally brought me back to the Church I all but abandoned in my teens. Funny what images stay in your mind so many years later. God Bless and thank you so much. JDI

 

[maryjk]

There is a coloring book out, that I saw at a church store. It was broken down into 5 sections so the little ones could color pictures of the Mysteries or of the people they were praying for. You wouldn’t need the coloring book, just big pieces of paper.

For the older ones, I like the ideas that kage-ar had. My son is learning German in school. So the next step is learning the rosary in German. We also use the Scriptural Rosary. He still doesn’t pray all the prayers out loud, but he is quiet and keeps track with his rosary. There is also a way to pray a scriptural rosary by adding a line to the Hail Mary. I can’t find it on line right now. But it goes something like this
The Glorious Mysteries…
Fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Who resurrected from the dead.
Holy Mary, Mother of God.
(There is a different line for each Hail Mary.)

It takes some time to get used to, but might encourage the older ones.

 

[withwind]

I have just ordered the book suggested in your reply! It looks like a winner. Thank you so very much!

I am glad you found the link/books useful.

At times when they have been tired and have drifted off, I’ve told them beforehand that their guardian angels will finish their Rosary for them. I hope they will remember that in years to come.

I heard about this 2 years ago and indeed, it could help one to think of his Guardian Angel more and how dedicated the G.A to our lives and souls.

I also remember my grandmother sitting by the front door praying her Rosary every day by herself. I was also “running around the neighbourhood” in a different way and getting into trouble as a result. I am sure that those Rosaries prayed for me by her incrementally brought me back to the Church I all but abandoned in my teens. Funny what images stay in your mind so many years later. God Bless and thank you so much. JDI

Isn’t that a great blessing from grandmas to us!

 

[i_have_no_names]

Greetings to my Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I have a problem that I’m hoping to get a few suggestions on. For as long as we;ve been parents, we have always stressed the “family Rosary” every evening just before we send the youngest ones to bed.

We have 5 children on earth (one in Heaven) with the youngest being 3 yrs old and quite a distraction in and of herself. My oldest kids, aged 15 and 13, have started to act disinterested and generally bored whenever we pray the Rosary as a family.

My daughter (15 yrs old) told me that she is finding the prayers repetitious and boring. I have told her that the repetitious part is to help us in our meditation of the mysteries. The boring part cannot be helped. You get out of the Rosary what you put into it.

My son (13 yrs. old) will usually drift off to sleep or not say the prayers out loud.

I’ve implimented the Evening Prayers of the Divine Office and sometimes substitute the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy on Fridays to help to make things a little different but it doesn’t seem to help. Is it a teenage thing? Outside of acting out the mysteries (fat chance) I am not sure what else to do? Any ideas for when prayers become a chore and not a pleasant thing?

They may be embarrassed to pray out loud with you. We used to pray the rosary as a family sometimes when I was little, then we stopped and now that I’m older, some of my family have started up again on Sunday evenings, but I guess I’m too proud to join in (I’m working on it. I do not like praying out loud.)

I also fully agree with kage_ar’s suggestion of praying in another language. I was bored with the rosary in English, then I discovered a podcast where it was prayed in Latin… I loved it.

So my suggestions:

• give them time, and
• show them the rosary in Latin

 

[leonie]

Excellent idea, however we always state our prayer intentions before we start. We always ask them to contribute an intention too. We have 4 children who participate (our youngest is 3 as was stated earlier), so they each lead a decade with my wife and I doing the last decade. I’ll definitely look into the suggested book link that withwind suggested. Please pray for us as we struggle against many odds to raise our children in the Faith. God Bless. Pax vobis. JDI

My kids still like to do their intentions before each Hail Mary.

How about doing a deeper reflection/meditation and praying more slowly, but only doing a decade of the rosary? I think if you incorporate a story with each meditation, it might help them both to be more engaged and also to learn to connect the mysteries with their own lives.

For example, when praying the Annunciation, I might tell how I was meditating on this mystery once and I was feeling a little bored with it–what new inspiration could I learn? I asked the Blessed Mother and I was inspired to realize that all her little “yesses” of every day gave her the strength to give her the fiat. Then, I thought about all the things that I could say “yes” to even though it gets tedious. For example, I get tired of getting drinks for my little guys all the time. But, I can say a “yes” to getting them cups of water–doing it promptly and with a smile.

At this point, in a group, after giving a personal example, I would ask the kids what they could say “yes” to.

Then we would pray slowly the decade. It’s praying in a deeper way. Some nights you can just go through the whole rosary, too.

 

[raindr0ps]

Is it a teenage thing?

most likely.

Maybe you could start a rosary group with your teens and their youth group friends? You know, get together, pray a rosary, have a discussion about the mysteries, learn the rosary, it’s history, and how to say it in Swahili or something. Afterwords they could hang out or something. Maybe once a month you could have a pizza party/movie night thrown in to make it more appealing.