Agnos Theist, “Speaking from experience, I very much disagree.
As a kid, the rosary thought me how boring and pointless religion can be. And I know its not just me. My cousins & siblings tried to avoid it as well.
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I agree that many children do not understand because their parents do not understand. That is why parents are the most important part of this world, they form their children, and thus form the future.
I am the eldest of six children,
Me 18, Lauren 17, Gretchen 15, Hans 13, Ian 11, Emily 7
While sometimes we don’t want to say the rosary at night because we are tired, or because we were in the middle of doing something when our parents call us for rosary, we still pray. Through that we learn that no matter what else is going on in our life we cannot forget God, God is most important. Then during the rosary, we each take a turn leading a decade, and the child who is closest to First Holy Communion age leads the Apostle’s creed so that they can learn it well. When we introduce the decade, my parents require that we explain what the name means, so we would say for example:
The First Joyful mystery, the Assumption, Mary accepts God’s plan and becomes the mother of Jesus.
Every explanation is different, every person gives their individual idea of what they want to focus on, and if they are in error, my parents gently correct them. In this way it is a great lesson in the important aspects of Christ’s life. Sometimes we read from a little book that gives advice on what to focus on during each decade. That is useful, not only for learning a different perspective, but also it helps children learn how to read aloud.
We always kneel up during the rosary. It is hard sometimes, but my mom always reminds us to look at the crucifix and see that Christ suffered so greatly for us, surely we can kneel up for 20min.
The rosary is a lesson, a lesson for children, and it can be an equally important lesson to adults.
I have noticed as I have grown older that the rosary becomes a background, a supportive reminder so that I can think of other things and ask God. I know the rosary words so well, that when I am praying the Hail Marys, I am not always thinking about the words I am saying or even the mystery of the decade, but sometimes of an earlier decade that really hit me and that I suddenly realized something about. It is like listening to Gregorian Chant, you don’t need to know what they are saying, you don’t need to sing along, you don’t need to know the tune, all you need to know is that it is prayerful and then it leads your thoughts to God.
When I pray the rosary it is a reminder to me that my thoughts for those twenty minutes should be only of God. I should not think about school, or food, or anything else except God. He is my sole thought. And I think of him through Our Lady. She leads me to him as any mother leads her children to their father.
Someone in this thread said that they pray to the Father through the Son, well, I pray to the triune through Our Lady, asking her intercession.
If you notice, every prayer to Our Lady references no great deed of hers, but rather of her son. Even the mysteries of the rosary all have to do with Christ. My dad made a rule for my family saying that for every introduction to the decades, we must use the name Jesus. So the Annunciation would be the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she would be the Mother of Jesus. etc…
Sorry for rambling. I hope you understand.
May the Holy Ghost inspire my words so that they inspire you.
