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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
I have a routine of prayers I get through every day. Two are Rosaries, and all contain at least one Hail Mary. These prayers are my anchor, and I won’t lay my head down until they’ve all been said. Building Good Prayer Habits As a creature of habit, some prayers must be said before my feet hit the floor in the morning, and some are not said until I’m sitting in bed again. Those are my bookends. They’re not long, but they set up my day, then set it back down again.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
Dear Mom and Dad, For the longest time, I looked at praying the Rosary as a weekly chore, especially since we used to pray it together on Sunday evenings in my little bedroom. I remember kneeling in front of the twin bed with my hands holding the Rosary Grandma gave me for my first Holy Communion. The beads were that clear, crystal-looking type that seemed to have a rainbow of colors that reflected off them, changing depending on the light. I remember fidgeting with them as I continuously adjusted my position from kneeling upright to resting on my ankles until you noticed, Dad. You would promptly reposition me back upright. I remember my fingers moving from one bead to the next and opening my eyes to silently count how many beads were left of each decade, trying to determine how much longer it would take us to finish. When we prayed, I didn't realize I was spending time praying with our Blessed Mother.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
When I first started dating my wife, Anna, I quickly learned about her devotion to our Blessed Mother and her commitment to praying a daily Rosary. For some reason, praying the Rosary did not interest me. It seemed boring, and I felt that other forms of prayer were more fruitful. Don’t get me wrong, I loved our Blessed Mother and understood her role in the life of the Church. I often talked about her with others, and some would say I was Mary’s biggest fan. But a whole Rosary, five decades, was reserved for when I couldn’t fall asleep. In fact, during different seasons of my life, I kept a Rosary on my nightstand. As soon as I lay in bed, I would grab it, usually not making it to the end of the Creed, before waking up the next morning with the Rosary on my face.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
I’m so thrilled to be writing to you on this feast of Saint John Paul II. From the time I was born and up through college, Pope John Paul II was the only pope I knew. Looking back, he was the reason I started to have a love for the Rosary. Pope John Paul II’s last World Youth Day was in Toronto in 2002. As a thank-you to our parish for all the fundraising to go, I was inspired one day to write the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary into short scripts. I created a production where the young adults and youth at my parish performed each Mystery, and the audience would pray the decade’s prayers in between each one. It was a “Living Rosary,” and it was beautiful. All this came about because of attending World Youth Day. After World Youth Day, in October of the same year, Pope John Paul II released the Luminous Mysteries with the start of the Year of the Rosary. I fell in love with these new mysteries and inspiration struck! This time, my brother wrote music to go along with the scripts I wrote for the Luminous Mysteries. I cast a small group of young adults and high school students from across the diocese to take part in what I called a “prayformance.” It was an incredible experience as my cast, the audience, and I became completely immersed in the Rosary. I was the director and producer, and also played the woman who washes the feet of Jesus in the Third Luminous Mystery, “The Conversion of Sinners and the Proclamation of the Kingdom.”
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Family Rosary | The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands
On first Communion day, each student in our second-grade class at St. John’s Catholic School was gifted a Rosary: black-beaded ones for the boys, white-beaded ones for the girls. Fifty-four years later I still have that Rosary. The clear plastic case gave up the ghost recently but the Rosary — thanks to the handiwork of a local Rosary repair expert — is going strong. That Rosary followed me from one move after another through the years. For the most part, it remained in its case, coming out for special occasions, like retreats and Catholic women’s conferences. For the most part, it sat tucked away in my nightstand drawer, waiting to be called into action.
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The-Rosary-In-Our-Hands | family prayer
We are a family of six with no family living in the same state as us, which means we are a road-tripping family! Every year, we take at least two road trips, and sometimes more, depending on holiday schedules. Visiting extended family is a priority, and driving is the only way to keep it affordable. Each day we spend in the car traversing this beautiful country is not complete until we’ve prayed a Rosary. Life is hectic, and we don’t regularly pray a Rosary together as a family. But during road trips, we never miss. Once we’ve finished lunch, it’s Rosary time. Sometimes we leave after breakfast and sometimes we arrive before dinner, but we’re almost always eating lunch on the go. Having a designated time to pray rather than just hoping that we get to it has made it easy to remember and actually pray it. Since we’ve been so consistent with our Rosary schedule, at least half the time it’s my kids reminding me that it’s time for the Rosary!
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