Pray the Rosary everyday:

[aziul]

Count me in! I pray the Holy Rosary every night before i go to sleep! I love the Rosary!

 

[Alex_D]

Count me in! I pray the Holy Rosary every night before i go to sleep! I love the Rosary!

I pray the rosary too before i go to a sleep

 

[AveSantaMaria]

Becuase no one wants to answer my question

And I repeat,

See: **Secret of the Rosary ** (by St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfrot) montfort.org.uk/Writings/Rosary.html roses Forty-One to Forty-Nine to answer your question. There is also another version of this book that gives additional help on how to meditate, (in an appendix) such as adding “Jesus crowned with thorns” or a relevant excerpt to the mystery to the Jesus in each Hail Mary and decade to remind oneself.

Third Sorrowful Mystery
e.g. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus crowned with thorns. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

For further advice on prayer (see the best explanation of the Our Father that I have ever seen) see St. Teresa of Avila’s
The Way of Perfection catholicfirst.com/TheFaith/CatholicClassics/StTeresa/way/wayofperfection.cfm
**
Interior Castle: **sacred-texts.com/chr/tic/index.htm

P.S. Polish Saint Maximilian Maria studied philosophy, theology, mathematics, and physics as a college student, before earning a doctorate in philosophy and a doctorate in theology in Rome, while suffering from tuberculosis. He became a priest, changed his name to Maria from Kolbe to venerate the Immaculate Heart of Mary, sheltered 2,000 Jews in his friary during the Holocaust, and when taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp offered to die in place of another man since that man had family and he did not as an abstinent fiar. During his time in the cell, he led the men in songs and prayer. Finally, after three weeks of dehydration and starvation, he was injected with carbolic acid and died. He is reported on the Jewish Virtual Library as Righteous Among the Nations. It shows that no matter how dire the situation God can continue to strengthen us. jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Kolbe.html.He founded Slaves of the Immaculata, www.consecration.com. More information: acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2005/09/st-maximilian-kolbe.html

St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort inspired both St. Maximilian Kolbe and His Holiness Pope John Paul II, they followed versions of True Devotion to Mary devoutly. His Holiness Pope John Paul II was also a Carmelite, the order reformed by St. Teresa de Avila (one of the only three female Doctors of the Catholic Church.) I deeply suspect that these saints know what they are talking about.

 

[Elixir]

I’ve been praying the Rosary daily for about 2 weeks and I find it a wonderful way to start the day. Every morning at 8:00 our local catholic radio station (WLCR) plays recordings of Archbishop Kurtz leading a group praying the Rosary each day and I pray with them.

If I’m too busy to pray along with the radio, then in the evening before bed I’ll pray a Rosary with bible readings for each mystery (from Ed Sri’s book “The New Scriptural Rosary”). It brings a wonderful sense of peace. Sometimes, because my wife is on night shift and my evenings are all my own I’ll pray a second set of mysteries.

I come from a Evangelical background but I never had a problem with the Rosary and always have found the physicality of the beads very comforting that helps relax the mind somehow to focus on the mysteries.

 

[mama2lovebugs]

Becuase no one wants to answer my question

I am still learning but I will try to answer your question from personal experience. At first when I prayed the rosary I would picture a still scene for each mystery, then gradually without prompting from myself it turned more into a “movie” scene, sometimes “interactive” sometimes not. My advice to you would just be to start praying, commit to it and see what happens. Let it come naturally.

 

[Alex_D]

Everyone is welcome to become a member of the Rosary Group on CAF. In order to promote the rosary and to gain world peace

69.43.207.164/group.php?groupid=50

 

[songofsunday]

Most of the time, I say the Rosary everyday. I have found that I feel more at peace and I have more control over why words and actions during the day, although I still fall and sin everyday. I have come to feel so dependent on saying the Rosary everyday and the times I have not said my Rosary, I actually feel like I have sinned.

 

[Alex_D]

Everyone is welcome to join in this group.

69.43.207.164/group.php?groupid=50

 

[nuntym]

Help for Praying the Rosary

Hi people! I’ve seen that there are people here who are having problems on how to pray the Rosary. For the past months I have been praying the Rosary, I found that the meditation part of the prayer is actually not that simple, and how I have been praying it now has changed significantly since I sporadically prayed the Rosary several years ago. In the hope of helping those having trouble praying this most powerful prayer (and in response to the signal grace that I received while I was praying the Rosary a few days ago), I will try to put into words my personal knowledge on this subject.

Please note that I do not intend to change how you pray the Rosary to how I do it. In fact, St. Louis Marie de Montfort in his The Admirable Secret of the Rosary invites people to pray in the way most suitable to them: “Choose whichever method pleases you and helps you the most: or you can make up one for yourself, as several holy people have done” (Paragraph 154).

Also and most importantly, if anyone finds any problem with what I posted, please notify me immediately so we can address it and notify the admin to edit this. It would be horrible if I teach anything wrong to those who really need help

The Body and Soul of the Rosary
As most who have read this thread already know, the Rosary (as all prayers are) is actually made of two prayers, the vocal prayer and the mental prayer. According to the website of the Rosary Confraternity, “The vocal prayers are sometimes called the BODY of the Rosary, while the mental prayer is its SOUL. While the lips are uttering the words of the Hail Marys, the mind dwells on [for example] our Lord’s Agony in the garden of Gethsemani. We are not meant to focus our attention on the Hail Marys. The ten Hail Marys function as a measuring device to determine the length of time to reflect on this incident in the passion of Jesus.” (source)

It is at the mental prayer where most people are having problems…including me. Who has not experienced seeing a movie running across your mind of the happenings of a mystery while saying Hail Mary’s, wondering what the heck are you doing there? Who has not experienced seeing the mysteries being played before your mind’s eye when suddenly you find yourself thinking where you are going for your next lunch?

To understand mental prayer, it is best to start with definitions, and when it comes to definitions the Catechism of the Catholic Church is the best place to start. According to the Catholic Catechism, “The Christian tradition comprises three major expressions of the life of prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer” (CCC, paragraph 2721). So mental prayer actually consists of meditation and contemplative prayer.

To cover all bases, we briefly touch on vocal prayer and contemplative prayer. “Vocal prayer, founded on the union of body and soul in human nature, associates the body with the interior prayer of the heart, following Christ’s example of praying to his Father and teaching the Our Father to his disciples” (CCC, paragraph 2722). So actually vocal prayer not only includes the verbal component of prayer but also all the bodily and other external manifestations, preparations, and rituals of prayer: the posture (whether kneeling or standing or sitting etc.), the sacramentals involved (the Rosary beads, the prayer book/s, the holy images), etc.

I must note, however, that in spite of the practice of uttering the words of prayer while focusing on the meditation, it is important to not slur the words being uttered, nor say them in a hurried, careless manner. As St. Louis Marie de Montfort says:

Dear friend of the Confraternity, I beg you to restrain your natural precipitation when saying your Rosary, and make some pauses in the middle of the Our Father and Hail Mary, and a smaller one after the words of the Our Father and Hail Mary which I have marked with a cross, as follows:

Our Father who art in heaven, + hallowed by thy name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done + on earth as it is in heaven. + Give us this day + our daily bread, + and forgive us our trespasses + as we forgive those who trespass against us, + and lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. Amen. +

Hail, Mary, full of grace, + the Lord is with thee, + blessed art thou among women, + and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. +

Holy Mary, Mother of God, + pray for us sinners, now + and at the hour of our death. Amen.

At first, you may find it difficult to make these pauses because of your bad habit of saying prayers in a hurry; but a decade said recollectedly in this way will be worth more than thousands of Rosaries said in a hurry, without pausing or reflecting.

(The Admirable Secret of the Rosary, paragraph 127)

(continued next post)

 

[nuntym]

(continuation of previous post)

Contemplative prayer, on the other hand, “is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in his mystery” (CCC, paragraph 2724) Contemplative prayer is the highest form of prayer possible. Through it, we become one in spirit with God. One cannot achieve it on his or her own; God alone can grant it. It is inherent in every well-said prayer, including and especially the Rosary, for every well said prayer is a prayer with Christ through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26), and in the heart of everyone who prays sincerely is a desire to please God, a desire to see God, a desire to be open to God’s grace, a desire for God’s love and mercy, a desire to be with God forever. Just keep these desires alive when praying the Rosary, and you will do fine. Who knows, you might experience the wonderful grace of full contemplative prayer. Two great short essays on this type of prayer (also called mental or interior prayer) can be found here and here. This type of prayer is also the topic in the great works of two of the greatest mystics of the Church, St. Teresa of Avila’s The Interior Castle and St. John of the Cross’ Dark Night of the Soul.

Note that contemplative prayer is NOT centering prayer, no matter what any of the latter’s proponents say. What centering prayer is and its dangers are excellently discussed here.

The Soul of the Rosary
We now come to the crux of the matter, meditation. "**Meditation *is a prayerful quest engaging thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. Its goal is to make our own in faith the subject considered, by confronting it with the reality of our own life." (CCC, paragraph 2723). You use all of your mental faculties to understand and live the mysteries of the subject. Now, my next statement may raise eyebrows, but the best statement I have ever read on how to do this actually comes from the Protestant book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Since I don’t actually have a copy of the book with me right now, I am paraphrasing from what I remember the book said. Warren said that Catholic meditation is very similar to the process one does when trying to solve a problem.

*(NOTE: Oh yes! Rick Warren was introducing Catholic prayer techniques to Protestants through this book. This fact actually angered many Protestant hardliners. An example can be found here. However this does not mean that the book is not problematic to Catholics—see here—and in no way whatsoever do I declare this book a recommended reading for Catholics.)

Try to remember how you solve problems, especially hard ones. Don’t you use all of your mental faculties—imagination, thought, emotions (especially your drive and desire to rid yourself of this problem so you can tackle the next one )—to solve them? Now, use that process, using the same disposition of the mind, heart, and soul, on meditating the mysteries to learn the Truth you need to know and live from them…with one major difference. Admit with your whole heart and soul to the Holy Mother and to the Lord Christ that, whatever technique you use, you cannot profit from any meditation unless the Holy Spirit brings to your soul the gift of discernment and meekness, and thus humbly ask for this grace that you may give glory to the Trinity.

Now this may already solve the problem of those who “just basically imagine the mystery playing itself out in your head like a movie,” like Koolerkev. Yes, it is good to relive the Mysteries of the Rosary that way, but this is hardly meditation. Once you have done this, you must then use that “movie,” with God’s help, to learn the Truth you need to learn and live.

(continued next post)

 

[nuntym]

(continuation of previous post)

Some Tips on Praying the Rosary

1. Whether you have problems praying the Rosary or not, read The Admirable Secret of the Rosary and Methods for Saying the Rosary by that great champion of the Rosary, St. Louis Marie de Montfort. I guarantee you will benefit from them.
2. “[W]henever you say your Rosary, be sure to ask for some special grace or virtue, or strength to overcome some sin” (The Admirable Secret of the Rosary, paragraph 126). Focusing on this grace or virtue while meditating the mysteries will be of great help. If you cannot think of any particular grace to ask, then ask the grace to honor the main purpose of praying the Rosary: “The purpose of the Rosary is to help keep in memory certain principal events or mysteries in the history of our salvation, and to thank and praise God for them” (source).
3. When praying the Rosary, there will always be distracting thoughts. Many prayer masters suggest to gently ignore these thoughts. However, one Catholic psychiatrist (his website is chastitysf.com) makes a different suggestion. I disagree with some of his views on how to live the Catholic life, but I have found this suggestion from him to be very helpful and I endorse it wholeheartedly. He says that these distracting thoughts could very well be your unconscious trying to tell you something with regard to what you are meditating. I post verbatim what he says on what to do:

Distractions During the Rosary

Our minds will always tend to wander when praying the Rosary. So, when you encounter distracting thoughts during the meditations, you can do several things:

• First, take a brief mental “time out” and do what you can to recognize the content of your “wanderings.”

• Then look at the distractions psychologically and seek to explain to yourself *why *they are happening just at that moment and *what *they are telling you about the current difficulties and challenges you face in your life.

• Then look into the mystery of the Rosary in which these distractions occur for guidance in addressing your current challenges.

• Finally, struggle back to the prayer.

(source)

He gives a personal example of this here. On the same page he elaborates on the psychology of distracting thoughts during prayer.

Personally, I have found it most beneficial to use this approach only for the most persistent, distracting, and disturbing thoughts, and just gently ignore the rest.

1. I strongly recommend to gather what St. Francis de Sales calls a spiritual bouquet of devotion:

I bade you gather a little bouquet of devotion, and what I mean is this. When walking in a beautiful garden most people are wont to gather a few flowers as they go, which they keep, and enjoy their scent during the day. So, when the mind explores some mystery in meditation, it is well to pick out one or more points that have specially arrested the attention, and are most likely to be helpful to you through the day, and this should be done at once before quitting the subject of your meditation.

(Introduction to the Devout Life, Chapter VII. The Conclusion and Spiritual Bouquet)

1. Lastly, live what you learned during the meditation of the Holy Rosary, especially the spiritual bouquet you have gathered. Not doing so, in my opinion, is insulting to the Blessed Virgin and her Son, and quite dangerous for our souls:

Above all things, my daughter, strive when your meditation is ended to retain the thoughts and resolutions you have made as your earnest practice throughout the day. This is the real fruit of meditation, without which it is apt to be unprofitable, if not actually harmful—inasmuch as to dwell upon virtues without practising them lends to puff us up with unrealities, until we begin to fancy ourselves all that we have meditated upon and resolved to be; which is all very well if our resolutions are earnest and substantial, but on the contrary hollow and dangerous if they are not put in practice. You must then diligently endeavour to carry out your resolutions, and seek for all opportunities, great or small.

(St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Chapter VIII. Some Useful Hints as to Meditation)