Rosary Rules?

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There is a huge discussion going on in my house, and I was wondering if someone here could settle it.
Half of us think that if you don’t say all 5 decades of the rosary at once, then you get no graces from it, but the rest of us think that praying is praying, and if you split it up, God doesn’t really care. I mean, we like to say our rosary while we are driving, but allot of times, we only have enough time for half the rosary on the way there, and the other half on the way back. Some of my siblings, and my dad think that it is as if we weren’t praying at all, while my mom and the other half of us think that praying is praying.

Is there some kind of rule? Is there a special grace that you receive if you pray all five decades at once? Please someone help, and I need sources or they won’t believe me.

Thanks so much in advance!
 
The Rosary is a personal prayer. Grace can come even with a partial one (given time, circumstances, etc…). I listen nightly on my iPod and some nights I only get to the 3rd or 4th mystery and sometimes fall asleep or stop before I fall asleep. I do what I am able to do, so should you. Personal prayer does not have hard and fast rules, you have leeway.
 
One of the rare times I would agree with NewUlm.

Prayer is what you make of it. St. Therese of Liseaux said that she often fell asleep while praying. Others say our guardian angel will finish the prayer for us in these circumstances.
 
Margarite,

The mechanics of saying the Rosary is not what’s important. What’s important is that you’re praying, and we receive graces every time we pray. Don’t fret over whether or not you’re praying the rosary “right.”
 
Margarite said:
There is a huge discussion going on in my house, and I was wondering if someone here could settle it.
Half of us think that if you don’t say all 5 decades of the rosary at once, then you get no graces from it, but the rest of us think that praying is praying, and if you split it up, God doesn’t really care. I mean, we like to say our rosary while we are driving, but allot of times, we only have enough time for half the rosary on the way there, and the other half on the way back. Some of my siblings, and my dad think that it is as if we weren’t praying at all, while my mom and the other half of us think that praying is praying.

Is there some kind of rule? Is there a special grace that you receive if you pray all five decades at once? Please someone help, and I need sources or they won’t believe me.

Thanks so much in advance!
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check out st luis de montfort’s secret of the rosary for help.
two thoughts here- how blessed are you to have a family where this is the major argument in the house!?!
second thought or point- each prayer is a flower gathered and offered to christ and mary- so what if you don’t have the time to pluck the whole field? do what you can in love, and there is not any more that you can do.
a third point that just crossed my mind- it seems that the preple in your situation are too focused on getting rather than giving. they seem to want the graces from the rosary, but care little about the quality of the wilted roses that they are giving our Mother. one healthy rose is worth more than a dead boquet
 
Though I forget his name, I believe when one of the Popes was asked a similiar question, his response was “The worst Rosary is the one left unsaid.” I think that pretty much summarizes my thoughts on the question.
 
You see, I agree with you all, it is the other half of my family who doesn’t agree. I am the one who tells them that a prayer is a prayer, but they are just saying that they get the most graces if they say it all at once, and I say that it doesn’t matter, as long as it is said.

Once the rosary is begun, they drop the argument, and pray as well as usual, but it is just before or after that we discuss this.

Yes, I am thankful that my family has these discussions, but this is one that I want settled. If anyone could give me a citation of where it says that it doesn’t matter if the rosary is broken up, that would be most appreciated.

But please keep writing, it is helpful to have support.
 
try looking through pope jpII 's encyclical on the holy rosary- i don’t think that he goes into much detail on this topic, but i seem to remember him adressing it in one of the earlier paragraphs
 
glenaitken said:
try looking through pope jpII 's encyclical on the holy rosary- i don’t think that he goes into much detail on this topic, but i seem to remember him adressing it in one of the earlier paragraphs
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Thanks
 
Margarite said:
There is a huge discussion going on in my house, and I was wondering if someone here could settle it.
Half of us think that if you don’t say all 5 decades of the rosary at once, then you get no graces from it, but the rest of us think that praying is praying, and if you split it up, God doesn’t really care. I mean, we like to say our rosary while we are driving, but allot of times, we only have enough time for half the rosary on the way there, and the other half on the way back. Some of my siblings, and my dad think that it is as if we weren’t praying at all, while my mom and the other half of us think that praying is praying.

Is there some kind of rule? Is there a special grace that you receive if you pray all five decades at once? Please someone help, and I need sources or they won’t believe me.

Thanks so much in advance!
Click to expand...
There are no “rules” for the Rosary. I say mine alot differently than most people. My granmother prayes one decade each night until she has completed it. I have alos heard of children doing this.
 
I asked Fr. Serpa about meditation also, and he said you dont have to meditate on the mysteries given, if I wanted to think about Peter’s denial, of any of the other stories in the bible, that’s fine too…the rosary was an instrument to pray.
I got a CD of the ewtn desert nuns praying the rosary. It helps when I walk or in the car, but many times I just have to shut it off, because the cadence isn’t my own. I have to say the whole prayer, not wait until the leader finishes, or I can’t stay focused but it is a nice change once in a while. I feel whatever works for you, is great.
 
Margarite said:
if someone here could settle it.
Half of us think that if you don’t say all 5 decades of the rosary at once, then you get no graces from it!
Click to expand...
challenge them to provide a source for this claim.

it may be that there are certain indulgences attached to praying the rosary a certain way, but that does not mean there is NO grace except in reciting the full rosary in the traditional way. It is a private devotion, pray as you can. The grace comes from your attitude of prayer and devotion of this time to God, not from your slavish adherence to certain outward practices.
 
This question is why I sometimes dislike the novena’s etc. that attach time/day/month to them. It’s a way to pray, a disicpline, but some people feel that if they miss the ll:00 hour or miss a day, they screwed up the request to God or his saints. This was also addressed by priests on EWTN and this site and they said the prayers like the St Theresa prayer that has to said by 11 am every day for 5 days is illilcit. It might have been adapted that way, but our faith doesn’t put rules on having prayers answered.

I think the first Saturday’s etc. are devotions, you have to give of yourself, make time, etc. it shows reverence, but if you think of it as a magic trick, is it really?
I love St Joseph for instance, I say prayers and novenas to him, I hope he hears them, but I don’t think if I just prayed to him, it would be that different, the devotions just have me center on it more.
 
be very careful about the source for various “prescriptions” for prayer and for the scourge of scrupulosity in this regard. There are many prayer cards, folders, pamphlets, emails floating around out there which are superstitious or worse, heretical (and in the case of the ST Therese threat, illegal when sent through the US Mail because it contains a threat of harm. this one has been around for at least 30 years).
 
I get a lot of spam prayers, send this to 10 people and you’ll get money, any wish, you name it. Sometimes they are from people I would think would know better, but maybe there is that nagging, “what if they are true” feeling in back of it.
I also think the ones in the newspaper are weird. If ;published for so many days, and giving the paper $, this will make the prayer come true? I would rather leave prayer cards at church or other places but I wont pay a newspaper.
I almost ashamed to write this but when my mom didn’t like my husband 25 years ago (not now) she did the newspaper prayer and I remember her telling me that it would work, God would listen, etc. I told her if her intent was wrong, if she was wrong, God would never let a newspaper petition throw a roadblock to a wedding etc. She realizes how silly it was now, but so many people, scrupulous or just the type that like horoscopes, etc. will be lead by any promise they receive.
I do have my special prayers, but I try to ignore the many I get that promise worldy things if I’d only send this on to others.
 
Well, I did a search to find an answer to the exact same question asked by the OP. I had read earlier on these very boards that a rosary may in fact be divided up during the day (which seems really to be the only way I can get myself to do a daily rosary), except in the case of a particular indulgence or devotion (e.g. First Saturdays), in which case the entire rosary should be said in one ‘sitting’.

So, does anyone have an answer they can back up with any sources ?
 
There aren’t really any, it’s a devotion. If you start getting into a “proper way” then you are making it seem like a magic potion, said just right, will get me something. It’s how you feel, your intent, etc. I trust the many priests I’ve talked too, at church, EWTN and on this site. If they weren’t taught differently, it isn’t wrong to say it in pieces, when you don’t have time.

This was a nice sentiment from a rosary site:
Some people will tell you it is not proper to say a Rosary to help yourself get to sleep at night. This is a mistake. It is perfectly acceptable. What better way to fall asleep than with the words of these lovely prayers in your mind? Saint Bernadette, who had visions of Mary at Lourdes, actually recommended this practice and said “It’s like a little child going to sleep saying ‘Mama, Mama.’” There is also a lovely tradition that your guardian angel finishes the Rosary for you, after you fall asleep.

And from THIS site (catholic answers) this info on the history…it shows how it developed and how it is used to pray,show devotion and love of our mother Mary:

It’s commonly said that St. Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans), instituted the rosary. Not so. Certain parts of the rosary predated Dominic; others arose only after his death.

Centuries before Dominic, monks had begun to recite all 150 psalms on a regular basis. As time went on, it was felt that the lay brothers, known as the conversi, should have some form of prayer of their own. They were distinct from the choir monks, and a chief distinction was that they were illiterate. Since they couldn’t read the psalms, they couldn’t recite them with the monks. They needed an easily remembered prayer.

The prayer first chosen was the Our Father, and, depending on circumstances, it was said either fifty or a hundred times. These conversi used rosaries to keep count, and the rosaries were known then as Paternosters (“Our Fathers”).

In England there arose a craftsmen’s guild of some importance, the members of which made these rosaries. In London you can find a street, named Paternoster Row, which preserves the memory of the area where these craftsmen worked.

The rosaries that originally were used to count Our Fathers came to be used, during the twelfth century, to count Hail Marys—or, more properly, the first half of what we now call the Hail Mary. (The second half was added some time later.)

Both Catholics and non-Catholics, as they learn more about the rosary and make more frequent use of it, come to see how its meditations bring to mind the sweet fragrance not only of the Mother of God, but of Christ himself.
 
Someone in my family once said,

“One decade well said is better than 5 badly said.”
 
The question seems to be, not as much about rules strictly speaking, but whether it’s better or more proper to pray the Rosary continously or if splitting the decades up is unacceptable, in any way improper, less effective, or less pleasing to God or to Our Blessed Mother.

It might seem that it’s more proper to say the decades one after the other without any interruption, but according to St. Louis De Montfort, who’s writings on the Rosary and Consecration to Our Blessed Mother significantly influenced countless Catholics’, including Pope John Paul II’s, approach to Marian devotion, it’s actually better to split up 15 decades throughout the day, and even if you only have time to say 5 decades a day, then doing what you can, when you can is what matters.

St. Louis De Montfort writes in “The Secret of the Rosary”

"130. I advise you to divide up your Rosary into three parts and to say each group of five decades at different times of the day. This is much better than saying the whole fifteen decades at once.

If you cannot find the time to say five decades all together, say a decade here and a decade there; you will thus be able, in spite of your work and the calls upon your time, to complete the whole Rosary before going to bed."

Your Dad might be thinking of the Plenary Indulgence attached to the Rosary; for a Plenary Indulgence to be granted all of the ordinary conditions of a Plenary indulgence have to be met as well as, according to St. Loius De Montfort, at least five decades of the rosary be said continously and, ideally, in a group setting, such as a Church. However, if these conditions are not met, a partial indulgence may still be gained from saying the Rosary.

Besides indulgences, however, every time you pray you open yourself to recieve grace from God, especially when praying the Rosary. So while a Plenary Indulgence requires, among other conditions, continous recitation of at least five decades, splitting the decades up out of neccesity, is still an opportunity to grow closer to God through the Rosary and possibly gain partial indulgence and other graces. And the more graces you receive, the more able you’ll be to do God’s will. So if you can’t pray the decades continously, pray them when you can, it’s definitely much better than not praying them at all.

De Montfort’s “The Secret of the Rosary” is the best book on the Rosary
montfort.org.uk/Writings/Rosary.html
The best method of consecration to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary is St. Louis de Montfort’s Way of Total Consecration
fisheaters.com/totalconsecrationmontfort.html
And it’s a very good idea to join the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, especially if you often pray the Rosary.
 
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