Hello Rosary lovers! In this post I will share with you how I pray the Rosary online. This is my favourite and most common way of praying the Rosary.

Why Pray the Rosary Online?

Why? Because firstly it’s fast. There is no faster way to pray the Rosary. You search the internet for a prerecorded Rosary, and then you hit play and listen. It’s super simple and fast.

Secondly, because it aids meditation. Since someone else is reciting the Hail Marys for you, you can think about the mystery or bring to God in your heart what you wish to.

Thirdly, it’s accessible if you have a mobile phone. You don’t need a computer to pray the Rosary online. You simply need a phone with internet access, and away you go. Or if you only have a computer in reach, then use that. Sometimes I do that.

Fourthly, you can access internet pictures of the mysteries as you listen to someone reciting the mysteries and the prayers. This greatly aids meditation on the mysteries, which is an essential element of praying the Rosary.

Fifth, because praying the Rosary yourself with your own lips and in your own mind all the time is very tiring, especially if you pray more than one Rosary daily. Try keeping that up for years on end…! You are blessed truly if you can manage that!

So there’s lots of good reasons to pray the Rosary online. I warmly encourage it.

Isn’t this cheating?

Not at all. Some of us seem to have the idea that using an online prerecording of the Rosary to pray is not authentic prayer, and that we should be praying the Rosary ourselves with our own mouths or forming the words in our own minds.

I don’t think this is the case. I’ve done a lot of reading into this from the Church’s official documents, and I can find nothing that teaches this.

In fact, it is always better to pray the Rosary with others, so the very best way to pray the Rosary is in a Church or in a home-meeting with other Catholics. This is what brings the most indulgences. 

During these occasions, you aren’t reciting all the words anyway because one person says half of the prayers and the rest of the people say the other half in response.

So are they all only praying half a prayer each? Does this mean they aren’t doing the prayers properly?

Of course not 🙂 This is perfectly legitimate. 

And it’s equally legitimate to simply listen to someone pray a prayer in your presence, so long as you try to follow along in the silence of your heart.

So why not use a prerecording of the Rosary? It’s someone else praying, but if you are devoutly listening, then presumably it counts as real prayer.

In fact, this is what we ALL do at EVERY Mass! The priest at the front is the one who says most of the prayers, where we merely listen. But merely listening devoutly to one Mass brings enough blessings to cancel all sins and bring an incredible store of heavenly riches.

Just by listening to Mass! You don’t even have to partake of the Eucharist to get these many blessings.

So why should it be different when praying the Rosary? It is enough to devoutly listen to the Rosary being recited in your presence. This IS prayer.

My own Method

Here’s what I do. I go to a podcast of a prerecorded Rosary. I love this one. Or I go to a YouTube video of a prerecorded Rosary, like here.

I get out my Rosary, and I hit play on the online recording.

When the first mystery is being announced, I do an online search for the mystery under ‘images’. Up come a load of relevant images, and I look at them as the Our Father and the Hail Marys are recited.

It’s also a great idea to look briefly at one or a few pictures of the mystery. Then you can lie back and just let the prayers wash over you, with the mystery/image fresh in your mind.

Repeat for the other mysteries.

I tell you, you can get through so many rosaries doing this. It’s the coolest Rosary hack in the world 😉 😉 😉

Let me know what you think of it, especially if you decide to try it.

An aid to contemplation

Another beautiful benefit of this method is that as the Hail Marys are being recited, you can seek stillness within, you can seek the Holy Spirit within you and find rest in his glorious presence. 

This is a form of contemplation, and so the Rosary then becomes a means by which you can find inner stillness and silence. Simply resting in the presence of God. In my experience, it’s harder to do this if I am the one personally praying all the prayers with my lips or in my mind.

God bless you, Rosary lovers!