Your Own Rosary

[Maxply]

Hi. I pray the rosary on occasion, but I just find connecting the Hail Marys to the life of Jesus a bit rough.

Instead, I’m considering jotting down my own prayer for the individual decade beads, perhaps pertinent to the particular mystery.

Is this horrible? Or is there some greater rationale for praying Hail Marys there?

 

[MarieVeronica]

Hi Max I don’t know if it is ok for us to re-invent the Rosary (such as it is), but I don’t see why you can’t use your Rosary beads… to also pray in your own way. After all, Our Lord instructed St. Faustina to do that… when He gave her the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. He told her to use a regular Rosary, to pray it. But it didn’t replace the Rosary, itself.

I have a suggestion for you. When I first started to pray the Rosary, I too had a bit of difficulty, with contemplating on the life of Our Lord, during the repetition of the prayers. I solved the problem, by acquiring an inexpensive set of large pictures of each of the Mysteries. I set them up on a table, or chair… and view them… as I’m praying. This helps me to focus my poor little mind on the MYSTERY being prayed, rather than so much on the words.

Having said that, though… I try not to get too far away from the words. The Hail Mary (as with the Our Father) is extremely Scriptural.

You can find a set of the pictures of the Mystery’s of the Rosary at the Leaflet Missal Company… link below.

leafletonline.com/

Or, you can pray the Rosary online… this site has lovely pictures to pray along with… link below.

rosary-center.org/howto.htm

God bless you!

 

[beckycmarie]

Hi. I pray the rosary on occasion, but I just find connecting the Hail Marys to the life of Jesus a bit rough.

Instead, I’m considering jotting down my own prayer for the individual decade beads, perhaps pertinent to the particular mystery.

Is this horrible? Or is there some greater rationale for praying Hail Marys there?

Hi Max,

While saying the Hail Marys, are you meditating on the mysteries of each decade? That should help you connect your prayer to the life of Jesus.

This site, TheHolyRosary.org, has a really good introduction to each mystery to help with meditation. Just click the “Rosary Mysteries” link on the left side.

 

[water]

Hi Max,

While saying the Hail Marys, are you meditating on the mysteries of each decade? That should help you connect your prayer to the life of Jesus.

This site, TheHolyRosary.org, has a really good introduction to each mystery to help with meditation. Just click the “Rosary Mysteries” link on the left side.

I also recommend the book “The Secret of the Rosary” by Saint Louis de Montfort. You will pray the Rosary with a whole new meaning and powerful way after reading his book.

The Saint - who understood the devotion - will help us understand the devotion better.

 

[dilan]

The first time I prayed the Rosary I didn’t know the mysteries by heart, nor did I know which mysteries belonged to any given day. I just said the prayers wondering what could come out of it and even feeling it interrupted my prayer…

But from further experience I’d say; give it some time. For me it was a picture showing our Lord’s agony in Gethsemane that “opened up” the prayer. I closed my eyes, rested in the atmosphere of the picture and said the "Hail Mary"s while my fingers worked their way through the ten beads.

As time passed I found that I could liberate myself from any actual picture, and still remain in the atmosphere of the mysteries as I prayed.

Sometimes I’ll remember sentences from the Bible connected to the actual mystery, other times I am reminded of how this relates to life and actions in everyday life. Sometimes it even moves me to tears because it brings me so close to the mysteries it represents and because it reminds me of the profound love Christ showed us when He became man – for our sake - and lived and suffered – for our sake.

I never would have thought that as I began praying the Rosary. And this is of course only one of many ways it can be experienced. I’m just telling my story to illustrate the potential of this prayer in its original form. I’m so happy I persevered and stayed with it.

 

[kage_ar]

If you go to www.rosaryarmy.com, you can listen to or download for listening the Scriptural Rosary.

This is a simple spoken rosary with scripture read beteeen each Hail Mary, this really helps me to focus on the mystery.

 

[Maxply]

Thanks for the comments. What I’ve done has been to add a short line or two in each Hail Mary, such as:

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

. . . who suffered in the garden. (line for each mystery)

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

 

[water]

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

. . . who suffered in the garden. (line for each mystery)

I was wondering why this line is significant to you?
Thanks!

 

[Maxply]

It connects to the first of the Sorrowful Mysteries, the agony in the garden.

 

[water]

It connects to the first of the Sorrowful Mysteries, the agony in the garden.

Oh ok. I mentally meditate this part in my head while keeping the prayer in tact without adding anything of mine to it.

In my opinion, I wouldn’t change anything to the Rosary and call it my own. We pray:

Let us pray. O God, whose only-begotten Son, by his life, death, and resurrection, has purchased for use the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating upon these mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

[NewUlm1976_2000]

Hi. I pray the rosary on occasion, but I just find connecting the Hail Marys to the life of Jesus a bit rough.

Instead, I’m considering jotting down my own prayer for the individual decade beads, perhaps pertinent to the particular mystery.

Is this horrible? Or is there some greater rationale for praying Hail Marys there?

You can also get a CD and either play the CD or put it on a MP3 player. Check my signature for a good one to listen to.

 

[BroIgnatius]

Hi. I pray the rosary on occasion, but I just find connecting the Hail Marys to the life of Jesus a bit rough.

Instead, I’m considering jotting down my own prayer for the individual decade beads, perhaps pertinent to the particular mystery.

Is this horrible? Or is there some greater rationale for praying Hail Marys there?

Dear Max:

The Rosary is not a regulated prayer. The Church only regulates the prayer of the Mass and the prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. Devotional prayers, like the rosary, are personal, not liturgical, and thus can be prayed in any way you wish.

Since there is no Church rule on this, you can change whatever you wish. You can make it your own. In doing so you alter the rosary from its traditional form, but that is okay.

I might add, that the Fatima Prayer is an alteration of the rosary too. Obviously, it was not part of the traditional rosary since that addition did not exist until after the Fatima private revelation.

 

[Morwenna]

Hi Max,

Might this be of help to you? It’s a free Rosary program for your computer, with beautiful thematic artwork (and Scripture verses) to help you focus on the Mysteries:

virtualrosary.org/

One warning though: I don’t recommend using the PrayerCast module, as there is a lot of spam in it (some of it very … inappropriate, to say the least).

 

[LilyM]

Hi. I pray the rosary on occasion, but I just find connecting the Hail Marys to the life of Jesus a bit rough.

Instead, I’m considering jotting down my own prayer for the individual decade beads, perhaps pertinent to the particular mystery.

Is this horrible? Or is there some greater rationale for praying Hail Marys there?

Well, the idea is that you’re seeing the events of the lives of Jesus and Mary through her eyes. Perhaps imagine her present at all the events in each mystery (there’s nothing to say she wasn’t even in the Garden, for example) and address your Hail Marys to her asking her to help you understand that particular event better or something.