Hello there my dear Rosary lovers! In this post I would like to share with you a great way to pray the Catholic holy Rosary. I would love to hear what you think of this in the comments or via email. (You can find my email in the About Matthew page.)
Different Rosaries
OK, so there are different ways to pray the Rosary. The Rosary is a devotion, not a dogma. It is not commanded of any Catholic, and no Catholic has to pray it.
Because the Rosary is a devotion, there have always been different ways of praying it. In fact, there isn’t even one Rosary. There are a few different Rosaries in the Catholic Church.
There is the Rosary of St Joseph. There is the Rosary of St Bridget. There is the 7 Sorrows Rosary. And then there is the Dominican Rosary. There are probably others too, that I don’t know about. Perhaps you do and you can share them with me!
The most famous one is the Dominican Rosary. This is the Rosary that is associated with St Dominic, and it is by far the most popular Rosary in the Catholic Church. It is so popular and so honoured, in fact, that it is referred to by all sorts of special names.
For instance, the Dominican Rosary is called ‘the most holy Rosary’. Mary refers in her apparitions at Fatima to this Rosary also, calling it her Rosary.
Different Ways of Praying the Rosary
As there are different Rosaries in the Church, so there are different ways of praying the most holy Rosary.
Some Catholics pray the Rosary and focus mainly on saying the Hail Marys and the prayers properly. They perhaps seek to lose themselves in Mary and in Christ.
Other Catholics find that they focus mainly on the mysteries of the Rosary.
Many Catholics only pray the Rosary when together with other Catholics, like at Church. (This is a good and common way to get a plenary indulgence).
Many Catholics pray the Rosary on their own.
Some Catholics pray the Rosary aloud, whereas others find they can pray it in their minds.
Some use pictures, others use their imagination.
Some use a physical set of Rosary beads. Others use their fingers or some other counting method.
And so on. In theory, the methods of praying the Rosary could be as endless as there are individuals in the world. I imagine no two Catholics pray the Rosary in exactly the same way.
For instance, one very simple difference I’ve noticed is that some Catholics pray the Our Fathers by adding ‘Amen’ at the end. But other Catholics do not add the ‘Amen’ at the end of the Our Father.
My Favourite Method of Praying the Rosary
I have tried praying the Catholic holy Rosary in lots of different ways. I’ve been praying it for a few years now, and have prayed it hundreds and hundreds of times, perhaps thousands of times.
In this post, I wish to show you my own method of praying the Rosary and why I find it such an incredible blessing. Using this method, I sometimes feel like I could spend all day praying the Rosary and it is unquestionably my favourite way – and the easiest way – to pray it.
1. First of all, I lie down on my bed and get comfortable. There is nothing wrong with this and I would far rather be comfortable to pray than uncomfortable and distracted.
2. Next, I get my mobile phone. I head over to my podcasts and I find this one here. I love this one because it gets right to it, and because it changes the background music weekly, which I think is a really attractive feature.
3. I then open up my internet browser, and type in the title of the mystery I wish to meditate on. I then click ‘Images’ in the Search browser, and up come hundreds of images of the mystery.
4. I then hit play on the podcast, and the person begins to recite the Rosary. As they announce the first mystery, I go to the browser and begin looking at the pictures of the mystery under consideration. I flick through them, I click on them, I zoom in, or I just look at one or a few all at once. It varies.
The person on the podcast recites the Our Father and the 10 Hail Marys whilst I do this.
If my eyes get tired, or I feel I’ve seen enough images, I close my phone and just listen.
5. Then the second mystery is announced. I immediately go to the Internet browser, type in the next mystery, and up come a whole load of other images. Off we go again.
And that’s it!!
Why I love this method of praying the Rosary
Looking at all these pictures is one of the most awesome ways to meditate on the mysteries. We are so fortunate to live in a day and age where this is possible, at the touch of a button on a device that lives in my pocket.
If we are honest, we spend far too much time on our phones often doing things that are pretty pointless or mind-numbing. Social media comes to mind. (I have totally quit social media and what freedom this has given me!)
How wonderful to use your phone to pray the Rosary! In a sense, you can ‘redeem’ the time spent on your phone by using it to pray 🙂
Using this method of praying the Rosary, I often get through 2 Rosaries at a time (10 mysteries) in a single sitting. I could NEVER do this if I were the one personally reciting everything, it would be FAR too tiring.
I find the background music very relaxing and conducive to a spirit of prayer.
Like I said, this method is so beautiful and satisfying that I often feel I could take a little break and come back for more. Someday I may use this method to pray through the entire Rosary (all 20 mysteries) twice or more a day. Who knows.
It’s enough for me at this time of my life to be praying 1 entire Rosary a day, that is, 4 rosaries. All the mysteries, all 20 decades, once per day. This is enough for now. But maybe I will increase this later in life.
I’m so glad to be back praying 4 rosaries a day. It is the meat and drink of my life, not just my devotional life.
The blessings and graces I have received from praying 4 rosaries a day I cannot ever begin to describe. I find it more profitable spiritually than reading Scripture for 30 minutes a day, and that’s saying something.
I highly recommend praying more rosaries daily than just one. One is great, but more than one is presumably better for the soul.
Of course, we need to do what works with our lives and with our own devotion to God. Some of us may not even feel that the Rosary is for us, and that’s absolutely fine. You can become a great saint without the Rosary 🙂
But in my experience, the Rosary makes trying to become a saint easier. And I think many saints have thought this way also.
Using the method I describe in this post, it is very easy, very enjoyable and very relaxing to pray a number of rosaries daily.
I recommend you try it. Remember, we are truly praying if we are trying to pay attention to the words other people are reciting. We don’t have to personally recite the words ourselves.
It is enough simply to read the words of prayers in our minds, or to listen to someone else pray a prayer. All of this is absolutely fine, so far as I am aware, and I’ve tried to look carefully into this issue.
In fact, every Mass we attend, we mostly pray by just listening! It is the priest at the front who says most of the things to God on behalf of us all. When he is praying, are we praying also? Of course we are! We are praying by focusing on his words.
It’s the same idea here in this method I present to you. Lie back and just enjoy 🙂
God bless you, and hopefully I’ll see you on the other side someday.
Mary, ever-Virgin, help us poor sinners.