Scripture | prayer | how to pray the rosary
The Rosary is a rich, centuries-old prayer tradition that involves our entire beings:
- With our hands, we make the Sign the Cross and finger the beads.
- With our minds, we meditate on the mysteries.
- With our hearts, we contemplate how we will follow the model of Christ and His mother, Mary.
- With our voices, we say the prayers.
Father Patrick Peyton has said of the Rosary,
While the prayer of the Rosary is so simple that a child can profit from it, there is no mind profound enough to exhaust the riches of the Rosary in meditation and contemplation.
Praying the Rosary is more than a simple recitation of the rote prayers we learned as children. It is a beautiful combination of vocal prayer, meditative prayer, and contemplative prayer. This robust form of prayer can be equally efficacious whether prayed individually, as a family, or in community. Often it is accompanied by music, adding yet another physical dimension as we listen to the melody or chant.
Through the Rosary, we journey through scripture, through the life of Christ. Each set of mysteries—the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious—contains five individual moments of meditation on the life of Jesus or his mother Mary. As we meditate on the scripture associated with each mystery, we are prompted to open our hearts to listen to God. As we slowly say the prayers we know so well, we can let the world around us disappear and contemplate God’s call to us. The soothing rhythm of comforting prayers and the feel of the beads in our hands draws us into deeper relationship with God, providing a sense of peace. We come to understand how he is calling us to follow the model of Christ or Mary more fully and deeply and to grow in the faith.
HOW TO PRAY THE SCRIPTURAL ROSARY
The scriptural Rosary is prayed in a variety of ways around the world. Whether you pray all four sets of mysteries, one set of mysteries, one decade, or one mystery, there is no “one” way. Each time we pick up and finger the beads, we are responding to God’s call to enter into a deeper relationship with him.
As we contemplate the mysteries, we embark on a peaceful and restorative journey through the life of Christ and his mother Mary. And as we meditate on each of the scripture passages for each of the mysteries, we experience the profound depths of this devotion. There are many books on the Rosary that can help you to experience the depth of this prayer and the many ways to meditate.
To learn more about the Living the Word Catholic Women’s Bible, visit AveMariaPress.com/living-the-word. Tune into the new Living the Word Bible Podcast with host Sarah Christmyer wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
