family prayer | Christmas Season | how to pray the rosary
During the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, prayer often loses the place of priority we place on it in the rest of the year. Our to-do lists bloom and we feel ever more the pinch of the shortness of time in the Advent and Christmas seasons. Families rush the Advent season to hasten in Christmas long before our calendars reach the 24th of December. Advent and Christmas, like the season of Lent, are profound moments in our Liturgical year where the first movement of our hearts should be toward our Lord, especially how we encounter Him through prayer.
Advent is a time to prepare to welcome Jesus by contemplating the power of one yes that can change the world. Mary’s one yes opened the door to the birth of our Savior and changed the course of humanity. The succession of powerful yesses that glorify God—Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Apostles and saints who have gone before us doing God’s will — give witness to the ways in which God wants to act in us and through us to bring his plans for us to life. We live in the light of God’s yes to us, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Even with Christmas day quickly approaching, there is still time, to take a breath, fix our gaze upon heaven, and move Jesus back to the top of our holiday preparations. Here are a few ways some of our Family Rosary friends incorporate prayer into their Advent and Christmas seasons.
David and Mercedes Rizzo
Our family incorporates prayer during Advent by focusing on visual and experiential aspects of the season. This method is important for us as a way to include our adult daughter, who has autism. However, this approach is excellent for younger children and people of all ages. We utilize prayer around our Advent wreaths and creche. We also visit a living nativity to remind us of the true meaning of this season. These prayer options present the birth of Jesus in an immediate, visual, and concrete way.
David and Mercedes Rizzo are the authors of Praying for Your Special Needs Child, Spiritually Able, and The Adaptive First Eucharist Preparation Kit.
Ivonne and Rick Hernandez 
We have set up around our home constant reminders to lift our hearts and minds to God, images, statues, rosaries, and a crucifix on the wall. This is our reality… that we need Him to accompany us in our daily living, in the big and the small. During Advent, we add one more reminder, a small Advent wreath on our coffee table. Some years we remember to light it often; others, we do not. Yet its presence, connecting us to the larger wreath at our parish, reminds us we belong to a Church that is always praying with us.
Ivonne and Rick Hernandez have been married for thirty years and have three sons. They live in Florida and are cofounders of Elisheba House.
Allison Gingras
My husband and I have prayed the St. Andrew Christmas Novena for years. The prayer is recited 15 times daily, either all at once or throughout the day, from November 30th through Christmas Eve. Although married for over thirty years, praying together can be a struggle. We both find it difficult to shake our Rosary routines—he likes to recite it on his morning commute, and I enjoy praying it while walking or at Adoration. Discovering devotions, like this novena, provides an opportunity to incorporate family prayer into our home. Our prayer intentions are offered as a special gift for our children.
Allison Gingras is an author, podcast host, speaker, and the Social Media and Digital Specialist for Family Rosary and CatholicMom.com
Emily Jaminet
During Advent, we live out the liturgical season at church and in our home. I believe in the importance of family prayer, gathering at the end of the day to talk and pray, and placing religious items around our house, such as our manger scene. We include our children in praying for and serving others and being involved in works of mercy in our parish. This year, I've seen great benefits in fasting from things that might distract me from God; as I'm offering up extra sweets or a snack, I can see great value in that tiny little sacrifice.
Emily Jaminet is the Executive Director of Sacred Heart Enthronement Network—WelcomeHisHeart.com, a podcast host and radio personality, and author of many books. You can read more of Emily’s work at EmilyJaminet.com and InspireTheFaith.com.
Tom Lyman
We incorporate a daily Jesse Tree ornament and scripture verse with the kids. We light the Advent Wreath together while singing a verse of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” and pray a Sunday Rosary. My wife and I do a prayer reflection and discussion each Sunday of Advent as a couple—after the kids are in bed. This year, I committed to praying the Office of Readings daily as part of my Advent personal prayer. It takes more time but is a beautiful deep dive into Isaiah and the patristic readings highlighting profound aspects of the coming of the Lord Jesus.
Tom Lyman is a husband, father of three, and Director of Family Rosary USA residing south of Boston, MA.
Father Patrick Peyton
Every night I would hear my mother call us to pray, and then my father would lead us in the Holy Rosary. To see a man who lived totally what he believed left an impression on me, even as a little child, that nothing could erase.
What love you could get for your little sacred home if you gave 10 minutes out of 24 long hours to your family...If families give Our Lady, 15 minutes a day by reciting the Rosary, I assure them that their homes will become, by God's grace, peaceful places.
That question, ‘Where does prayer fit in today?’, I’d say where does your heart fit in in your body? Where does the air fit in when you breathe? It’s an essential dimension in our very lives.
Venerable Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., devoted his priestly life to spreading the devotion to Mary and encouraging family prayer, especially the Rosary. Today, Father Peyton's messages that "The Family That Prays Together Stays Together" and "A World at Prayer is a World at Peace" are still well known around the world.
Please visit The World at Prayer Library for more prayer resources; including a free downloadable eBook — Father Peyton explains the Rosary with step-by-step instructions on how to pray the Rosary.