Some evenings, especially
when I’m tired or have had a glass of wine with dinner, it’s a struggle. The
mind wanders and several Hail Mary’s
pass in a blur, or I realise that I’ve lost my place in the Lord’s Prayer – what comes next? Did I
remember to say the Glory Be for the
previous decade (- and did I remember to add the Fatima prayer?). Did I say the
‘correct’ mystery for this particular evening?
And then I start to move down the slippery slope...Is there really any
value in praying the rosary, isn’t it just meaningless repetition? Have I begun
to treat it as a sort of magic rite? Am I doing it for the wrong reason -
because I want a return from the effort – rather than doing it to praise and
glorify the Creator, honour His mother and meditate on His birth, life, death and
resurrection?
And then there are the rare
evenings when the beads slip through the fingers. The prayers come easily and
naturally, following each other with precision and perfect timing. More
importantly, the words are rich with meaning, repetition stimulates rather than
dulls, new insights blossom, emotions surge and ebb. The end, when it comes,
always surprises, the sense of participating in something important and
wonderful, tinged with a sense of loss.
But mostly there are the
regular evenings, which fall somewhere between these two extremes. And that’s
where I find reference materials most useful; particularly, different ways to
pray the Rosary.
For travelling, there is
the Rosary card produced by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a fold-out stiff
card with all the prayers, the mysteries, scriptural quotations and
instructions. 
For regular use, I prefer a small, simple booklet that supports each prayer. I have about a dozen books and booklets that I cycle through to vary my approach, but I find that I use two particular small booklets for the great majority of the time. (I must admit that books with lengthy dissertations or explorations of the Rosary have a wonderfully calming effect - I’m soon asleep).
The first is ‘A Way to Pray
the Rosary’ by Sister Mary Francis of the Poor Clares (McCrimmon Publishing,
0855976489). This is my favourite selection of scriptural quotations to
accompany the individual Hail Marys. Appropriate, crisp, complete,
indispensible.
The second is ‘Praying the
Rosary with the Saints’ by Nick Donnelly (CTS, 9781860822582). Here, the 200 or
so quotations are selected from 50 great saints, ranging from Saint Patrick to
Blessed Mother Teresa, from the Curé of Ars to the founder of Opus Dei.
Thought-provoking, meaty, humbling, pithy - even amusing!
Here are four of my favourites, one from each mystery:
JOYFUL - ‘Let us love God
my brothers, let us love God. But let it be with the strength of our arms and
the sweat of our brow.’ Vincent de Paul.
LIGHT – ‘He will use you to
accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love
than in your weakness.’ Mother Teresa.
SORROWFUL – ‘Lord, where
are Your friends? They have left You. This running away has been going on for
twenty centuries.’ Josemaria Escriva.GLORIOUS – ‘Though I die, as die I certainly shall, nevertheless I shall not for ever die, for I shall rise again.’ John Henry Newman.
From time to time I use
other forms of Rosary prayer; meditation, dramatization, icons, praise,
thanksgiving, reconciliation etc to support the decades of the Hail Mary.
If you haven’t tried it,
why not try it? And stick with it. You’ll find that it’s habit-forming (in the
nicest possible way!).
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