I have searched this forum for what guidance others can offer on how to pray the Holy Rosary. Working backwards in time i give links to the threads i have found. I have also quoted parts of those posts within the threads that particularly resonated for me. Please go to the end of this post to get to the question that i would be grateful for help on. ive-written-an-ebook on-the-rosary You might have heard at Fatima how Our Lady taught the children there how to pray the rosary. The kids were speeding through it at a million miles an hour. In fact instead of saying the whole prayers they were simply saying (the words) 'Our Father' and 'Hail Mary' without reciting the whole prayers. This so they could get back to the serious buisness of dancing and playing But Our Lady set them straight that the rosary should be said very slowly and meditaively enuniciating each word and phrase slowly AND WITH GREAT MEANING. Coupled with this we should be meditating on the mysteries. Think of it like an acapeelo choir we are doing several things at the same time. The vocal part saying it slowly, the meditive part thinking on the mysteries, the physical part of moving the roasry beads and the contemplative part of simply looking at God and listening to Him talking in our hearts. The rosary is special in Contemplative Prayer in that we have a kind of open line to the Queen of Heaven and Our Lady uses it to speak to us. It may take a while but Our Lady will speak though it may take us, ubstructed as we are with the clutter of the world to hear her. At the end of the day we shall be judged on love. padraig, Feb 15, 2011 #3 Pasted from <http://motheofgod.com/threads/on-the-rosary.2088/#post-12379> prayer-as-a-habit For me the important aspect of praying the Rosary is to contemplate each of the mysteries of the Rosary & try to understand the spiritual significance of each mystery. I try to observe what is going on in each mystery and look at how our Lady and Jesus behave/respond and ask for God's grace to behave like them! For me it is a joy to do this but of course I also do it out of habit and sometimes not that well depending on whether I am tired or not. For me the Rosary is a compendium and a summary of the Gospels - the greatest prayer I have learnt. The Rosary prayer is powerful because we pray it from the mind and from the heart and this invloves both the intellect and the will that is our higher faculties and so the Rosary is both an illuminative and transfromative prayer. It could only have come from Heaven! I think even in heaven I will think of the wonderful mysteries of our salvation as I just love thinking about the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful & Glorious mysteries of our beautiful faith - even the titles of the mysteries fits in with the very nature of our lives - we have joyful and glorious moments interjected with sorrows and moments of inspiration too. For me the Rosary reflects the rythms of life and I could not live without it. At times I have said three whole Rosaries in a day but have learnt to slow down and think more carefully over the mysteries and the words I am saying - it is actually quality of the prayer not the quantity that matters. One our Father or one Haily Mary said slowly, reverendly and thoughtfully is really powerful. As I mentioned in a previous thread the Rosary is actually a victory prayer as we remember Christ's incarnation and triumph over sin, death and evil [and so the devil hates it]. The Rosary is a chain that unites us to heaven and also a chain that binds satan. The Hail Mary itself contains the most wonderful of words that bring joy to the soul & praise to our lips for the beauty of God in creating us in His image & likeness and sending his Son Jesus Christ to be our redeemer through the womb of the most beautiful of all of God's creation, Mary of Nazareth, Theotokos and Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Ave Maria Immaculate Heart of Mary my Refuge - Sacred Heart of Jesus my Salvation. garabandal, Jul 12, 2010 #4 Pasted from <http://motheofgod.com/threads/prayer-as-a-habit.1698/#post-9466> the-rosary-in-your-life I think the great sign that prayer is working right, not just the rosary, but any prayer is when it implants a hunger in the heart to pray more, so that we actually look forward to it and in the end have a really deep hunger and need for it, the same of course going for the Mass, the Eucharist, Confession and so on. We will only have this hunger when it has been Spiritually nourishing us. So , if this hunger arises within us we are led on from maybe saying one rosary a day to saying two, them maybe three and so on...It is a bit like a plant , a little seed in our heart and grows into a mighty tree. This, I believe is Mary's intention in asking us, at so many apparitions to say the rosary, so that it may grow and spread its branches within us. As Saint Augustine, I think once said, those who love ful;fill all laws. So that those who love the rosary fulfill all technical aspects of the rosary, all its , 'Laws'. When I started to say the rosary I just said it at night before goingto sleep. But I started to love the peace and joy it gave so much I started to sday it morning times too. Then I ended up carry it in my pocket and saying it pretty well every chance I got. Pasted from <http://motheofgod.com/threads/the-rosary-in-your-life.1002/#post-5291> Finally the very best thread found is the last and oldest. on-the-most-holy-rosary I won't quote any posts from this last thread for they are all wonderful. I am at start of my journey of praying the rosary. I find myself unable to mediate on each of the mysteries. Thanks to that last thread i now have something to read on to help meditate on the sorrowful mysteries. My question . Where can i find meditations for the other mysteries.
Hi Jerry, In answer to your question, I have found meditations on all of the mysteries bar the last two glorious ones in the bible. I hope this helps. God Bless BC
I hope also at some stage to be able to read the relevant parts of the new testament for each mystery and meditate on them. But i'm not at that stage yet. i need help meditating. Perhaps an example will help. I found this on the internet which allows me to offer an example of what i'm searching for when i say i'm searching for meditations on the mysteries. " Let's look at an example. Today's closing prayer from the Liturgy of Hours reads as follows: Lord our God, help us to prepare for the coming of Christ Your Son. May He find us waiting, eager in joyful prayer. This seems like a simple little prayer, and on the surface it is...just five short lines appropriate to the themes of the Advent season. But when we stop for a few minutes to reflect on these words, we recognize the extent of their wisdom. “Lord our God...” Isn't it a miracle that we can even talk to God? Think about Him for a moment. He is all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-holy, yet He still allows us to address Him. He is so far above us, present everywhere and seeing everything, yet He stoops to hear the smallest of our prayers. He is our Lord and our God, but He wants a personal, intimate relationship with each and every one of us. Now that's amazing! “...help us to prepare for the coming of Christ Your Son.” These eleven words pack a huge punch of meaning. First, we learn that we are not alone in our Advent preparations. God helps us. He gives us the graces we need to prepare our hearts for the coming of His Son. It's good to remember this during the busyness of the Christmas season when we feel overwhelmed with a thousand things to do and very little time in which to do them. We can ask God to help us prepare, and He will...as long as we respond with openness and cooperation. These two lines also tell us what Advent is all about, preparing for the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus came among us as a tiny Baby on that first Christmas, but He also comes to us every day, every moment, in our prayers, in our daily activities, and through the people around us. Are we prepared to recognize and accept Him? He comes to us in Holy Communion, too, in a most intimate and profound way. Are we properly disposed to receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity? How about at the moment of our death when we meet Christ the Judge? Are we ready to stand before Him? It wouldn't hurt us either to take a few moments to reflect on Jesus Christ as the Son of God, equal to the Father, God from all eternity, and the Father's living Word. “May He find us waiting, eager in joyful prayer.” Our final two lines instruct us in the attitude we are to assume during the Advent season (and throughout our lives): waiting, eager, and in joyful prayer. Waiting suggestions recollection of God and a consciousness that something important is about to happen. It also speaks of patience and perseverance, of openness to the future, and of trust in the God Who comes to us. This waiting is not to be mournful or boring, however. It is to be eager. We're preparing for the wonderful event of Christ's coming, so why wouldn't we be like excited little children, ready to greet Him at the moment of His arrival? And while we're waiting, we're to spend our time in joyful prayer...not dull, weak, inattentive recitation but loving, trusting, intimate communication that strengthens our relationship with the Blessed Trinity. This little meditation has merely scratched the surface of our model prayer, but the more we spend time spend reflecting on our “everyday” prayers, both memorized and written, the more we will recognize their depths, appreciate their beauty and complexity, and, through them, grow ever closer to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Pasted from <http://thecatholicscholar.blogspot.co.uk/2010_11_01_archive.html> Amy Troolin was able to give me a meditation on that short prayer . She is saying (quite rightly) that if we pray well we should be generating these types of meditations ourselves. Not me at the moment. If i had not read her meditation. I would still be saying that prayer and all I would have in my head would be the words of the prayer.
Lord our God, help us to prepare for the coming of Christ Your Son. May He find us waiting, eager in joyful prayer. I LOVE this little prayer! What a great way to end the joyful mysteries during the Advent season! Before I read all this I was just going to offer the experience of leading the rosary for others, but your post really does make the thoughts complete. I will still share what I was going to though: I am sure many of you have experienced this too...the parishiners who lead the rosary like they are in a race to see how far ahead of the congregation they can get with each passing Hail Mary. When you make a pilgrimage or two you learn quickly from someone there that this is not the way to pray the rosary. We have been praying the rosary before every Mass since the onset of Advent in our church, and I must say that when these speed-racers lead it, I get annoyed. I know this is very wrong to let it bother me, but I can't help it. I want to stand up and say, "Don't you FEEL what you are saying?" Of course the best way to handle this is to pray for them and then to be the one to lead the rosary next time, right? To lead by example. Last week was my week to do that, and I think one of the best ways for me to reflect on what I am doing is to lead others. Now, out of respect for the people who are used to running the "race", I don't go overly slow, but I am sure to pray each part with meaning and this encourages them to do the same. Also, I found some nice meditation verbiage that makes sense and actually pertains to the mysteries, to say between the decades. It seems that some of the pamphlets I've read have very obscure little meditations that simply do not mean anything to me. Some rosary reciters skip these altogether, and others just read them off like they are reading the latest stock ticker. I have a nice booklet that has simple meditations...it may have been written for youth, I don't know, but I like it. After I finished last week, the lady in charge came up to me and asked me if I would be willing to lead again sometime...to stay "on the list" even after Christmas. I was flattered, I guess I did ok. I think if I am a leader again during the Christmas season, I would like to say the above little prayer at the very end of the rosary (and all of the ending prayers)...what a nice finish.
Here is that rosary booklet I like best...I guess it's not for children specifically, but it is simple enough for young teens to understand. I ordered them for my religion class. http://www.catholiccompany.com/pray...y+the+Rosary&gclid=CNvSg-nfm7QCFegWMgodriwApw
I have been surprised at the paucity of responses. Perhaps i didn't realize that i may be asking a class of undergraduates how to do the sum 2+2. No matter. Today i decided to do another search on the internet. (I had begun an initial search and then abandoned it - inspired to ask this forum.) As i began a trawl though the search, i had another inspiration: search with a subtraction /exclusion of -.com. How strange then that this site got through the net. The 'verbiage' level of the meditations are at the low end of what i am looking for. But the site has had the lovely idea of offering users of the site the opportunity to post their own meditations. I copy a couple of the meditations to allow you to decide if these speak to you, and the site is worth visiting. 1st Joyful Mystery - The Annunciation Mary's humility is at the heart of the meditations on the Annunciation. Because Mary humbled herself God exalted her by choosing her to be the Mother of His Son. If you are to make progress in your spiritual life and your relationship with those you love, you must learn to imitate Mary's humility. Pasted from <http://www.how-to-pray-the-rosary-everyday.com/meditations-on-the-rosary.html> 2nd Joyful Mystery - The Visitation In this mystery Mary sets the example of neighborly love. Immediately after the angel told Mary she would be the Mother of Jesus, she went to help her cousin who was also expecting a baby. Mary's response to this great news was to disregard her own needs and share her joy with Elizabeth. You too must share your blessings and joys with those you love. You can start by sharing the Rosary with them. Pasted from <http://www.how-to-pray-the-rosary-everyday.com/meditations-on-the-rosary.html>
Hi Jerry, The Lord works in marvelous ways. Over the years when I pray the rosary I have been lead to meditate on specific writtings and I have a beautiful book which gives a meditation with each hail mary and I often used to pray with this book. However when my time is short and many other committments prevent me from saying the rosary with the specific meditations, I have found that with a sincere heart the Lord gives you marvellous insights as you pray each Hail mary. For example when praying at times I find it helpful to place myself there at the actual mystery, so if I am praying the third glorious Mystery I place myself in the upper room with the apostles and our Lady, and in my mind I am kneeling with them and praying with them as they await the coming of the Holy Spirit and then half way through the mystery the Holy Spirit has come upon each of them and they are filled with Gods graces and gifts and I see them humbly adore God the Holy Spirit and imagine thier tears their joy their strength. Then I ask the Holy Spirit to fill me the way he has filled the apostles and I recall my confirmation, I see the Holy spirit work in the petitions that I have offered that specific rosary for , I also am normally filled with confidence and calm even though the outward appearence and the reality of my life is far different then the way I feel while in the prayer. At other times I meditate back and forth between what happened in the mystery and what that means for my life for instance the second joyful mystery, I think of Our Lady and her travelling to Elizabeths house to do the work of a servant and how humble and joyful Mary is helping her cousin and how I am called to serve others to put myself out and be joyful, to do the work of a servant and to carry Jesus inside of me as I do this. To be mindful of His presence within me and to constantly consider others and their crosses. At others times the Lord allows me to see or feel in a little way what he felt, and to offer this to the Father in communion with Jesus. And again at different times the Lord allows me to see how little and pathetic I am and while meditating on the mysteries I offer it in sorrow for my sins and those of the world I beg for pardon and cover myself. I hide under the mantle of our Lady or I place myself as a rug on the hard rocks of the dolorous way of the cross so our Lords feet are not further injured. In the sorrowful mysteries I often envisage myself as a worm, knowing how sinful I am and I can not stand there at the foot of the cross with all the saints, as I am not worthy, I feel so ashamed; so I see myself as this little worm crawling up the cross to place myself between a splinter and our lords feet so I may stop one of the little pains of Our Lord. With the Mysteries of light I recall Our Lords teachings from His Baptism through to the institution of the Blessed scarament. I see our Lady's loving care for us, in our most smallest distresses she is there asking her son to turn our water into wine. She hears our smallest plea and reads our hearts as she is the most loving and caring of all mothers. I realise through the rosary how precious we are to God and I pray that everyone will be enlightened. So I say let the Lord lead for He will give you the disposition and the ways he wants you to meditate. St Padra Pio says 'Say to the Lord "do you want more love from me ? I have no more . Give me more that I may offer it to you" Have no fear The Lord will accept this offering' God Bless Carolyn
Hi Jerry, What helped me tremendously was reading the writings of Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich. She was given many visions of the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and her books are the result of her being interviewed or rather dictating what she had seen. They are completely fascinating and will really make you ponder. It is like being a fly on a wall or an observer in the lives of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary https://tanbooks.benedictpress.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage/product_id/38/keywords/virgin+mary/ The first 4 joyful mysteries are covered in this book as well as Mary's assumption and coronation. I got the book on Amazon, but they seem to have an updated version there now. The link above is the cover of the book I have. The entire work seems to be available online however at the link below. The beginning is about the lives of Mary's parents, which is very interesting too. However, you can look at the chapter titles to see which ones are most relevant to the mysteries. http://www.ecatholic2000.com/anne/lom.shtml The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ http://www.amazon.com/Dolorous-Passion-Lord-Jesus-Christ/dp/0895552108/ref=pd_sim_b_3 As you might expect, this gives insight into all the sorrowful mysteries and I believe the resurrection too (haven't finished it to tell you for sure). It was the book used for Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ movie. Emmerich also wrote 2 books about the life of Jesus...basically every day of his ministry. I'm sure the luminous mysteries and finding of Jesus in the temple are covered here. Emmerich's writings may not be totally true, but I believe they are far more accurate than inaccurate...and they will give you much to ponder and meditate on regardless. Like another poster, I put myself in the mysteries. Sometimes I'm in the audience for the sermon on the mount, sometimes I'm at the foot of the cross or with the holy women...sometimes I'm hammering the nail in His hands or pushing Him as he carries his cross, etc. That is what works for me. I wouldn't worry about not being at the "stage" of the person who wrote that blog you reference. Being at that stage will happen for you over time as you pray more. But just focus on prayer and not stages.
Jerry, here is my favorite booklet for meditation on the rosary: http://www.familyland.org/flstore/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=12329 There are 10 portraits for each mystery including the Luminous Mysteries as well as a Divine Mercy Chaplet with the Stations of the Cross.
Jerry, I would also suggest really drinking in what others say here on the forum..especially those who have had significant mystical experiences. Also listening to EWTN radio (hopefully you get it where you live) is another great source to deepen your faith. Mother Angelica is great to listen to. even her shows replayed from the 90's sound like they could have been recorded today. I do believe she is saint and is going through the final purge here on earth before passing directly into heaven. The radio shows are great, and just this morning the Women of Grace show had a few men on about praying the rosary. Just drinking in what holy and spiritual people have to say will help you on your journey to the further "stages".
I thank all of you who posted an answer to my question. But I would like to especially thank PotatoSack for offering up the online source of Venerable Catherine Emmerich's book. For all the horrible things on the internet it is great to find good things on the internet.
