Catholic Family Fun | pray the rosary | Ave Maria Press | Glorious Mysteries
I have mixed emotions about praying the Rosary with my family. As children growing up in a Catholic home, we were “forced” to pray the Rosary, and I always dreaded it. The Rosary seemed to last forever, and there were a million other things I would have rather been doing. Because of this, my prayer time was never fruitful. I recited words, but never actually prayed.
Today, rarely does a day go by that I don’t pray at least one decade of the Rosary. If I happen to be having a particularly sleepless night, I can get through more than one Rosary easily. My love and devotion to Mary have grown into an integral part of my faith, and I love having her as my spiritual mother.
Hence I was conflicted as a mother myself. Should I follow in my mother’s footsteps and mandate praying the Rosary, risking my girls resenting prayer time as I did? Or do I allow them to skip the Rosary and focus our family prayer time on shorter prayers?
The conclusion my husband and I came to many years ago was a compromise: we pray a single decade at a time as a family. In this way, my daughters have learned the powerful prayer, but I haven’t forced their attention span past their limits.
When I received my copy of The Family that Prays Together Stays Together, I knew it was perfect for my family. My daughters are 13, 11 (twins), and 9, and thanks to our routines, the prayers and cadence of the Rosary are familiar to them.
Day by Day Rosary
On Monday of our week with the Glorious Mysteries, we sat down on the couch after dinner. I read the introduction to the Glorious Mysteries and started the Our Father. My husband and kids echoed the return. Then I read the Scripture passage and reflection. We then went around in a circle taking turns leading the Hail Marys and the Glory Be. Since our family has six people, we each led two prayers (ten Hail Marys plus one Our Father and one Glory Be).
On Tuesday after dinner, we repeated our routine. My youngest daughter wanted to lead the prayer time, so she read the Scripture passage and reflection. I loved that she eagerly wanted to participate, but her reading cadence is much slower than mine, and it became more difficult for my other daughters to follow along with the reflection. This also lengthened our time, but not beyond what my kids could handle.
Wednesday nights are hectic in our home. We eat dinner early and the girls go to Faith Formation. In all the bustle, we forgot to do our prayer time together. In hindsight, praying together on the way to Faith Formation would have been perfect, but the book and the Rosary had completely slipped my mind.
After dinner on Thursday, we were back to our routine, and another daughter read from the book and led the decade. We decided to pray only the third Mystery (in the book shown as Wednesday’s prayer) instead of trying to squeeze in two to catch up. My desire was for this experience to remain positive and relatively brief for my family.
We prayed one decade each on Friday and Saturday too. This meant that we didn’t pray the entire Rosary together on Saturday as the book suggests. My other daughters took their turns leading on the final two nights.
Overall, this was a very positive experience for my family. With busy schedules and easily distracted kids, one decade a night is perfect for us. Some of the reflections seemed to connect with my girls more than others, but since they were taking ownership and helping lead, they stayed engaged and present. I’m looking forward to going through the other mysteries of the Rosary with my kids soon.
Save 20% off the cover price of The Family That Stays Together Prays Together when you purchase the book from the Holy Cross Family Ministries online store. Use coupon code CMROSARY at checkout. This offer expires on June 10, 2024.
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Copyright 2024 Maria Riley
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