One of the greatest ways to enter into the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ is to pray the Rosary. However, praying the Rosary well can be difficult for several reasons. Three of the most common are:

Time constraints. The Rosary is a long prayer and requires setting aside a block of time (for me, that is no less than one-half hour) and busy schedules need to be adjusted to accommodate it.

Distraction. This is one of the three plagues of prayer — discouragement and dryness or aridity, being the other two. Maintaining our attention during a long prayer can be especially difficult.

Repetition. Some people find the repetition of the decades to be either monotonous and somewhat boring or so comforting they are lulled to sleep.

But remember, next to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Rosary is the most efficacious of all prayers. It has the capacity to take us to contemplative prayer and to a mystical experience of the mysteries of Christ’s life. Our Lady of Fatima tells us that praying the Rosary can bring peace to the world and Padre Pio told us the Rosary itself is a weapon against the wiles and tactics of the evil one. All of the great saints exhort us to pray the Rosary. Many have written books about it. Blessed John Paul II gave us one of his most beautiful apostolic letters on it. Clearly, praying the Rosary should not be a prayer option. It should be a prayer standard!

So — do we fall victim to the difficulties we may encounter as we pray the Rosary or do we mount a defense against them? We take the latter course of action knowing that God will meet our meager generosity of heart with His boundless generosity of love.

Here are some strategies I personally employ to aid me in praying the Rosary well and to overcome the three difficulties outlined above:

I plan to pray the Rosary and even schedule it if necessary. I have a very busy schedule and I don’t want to rush my time of prayer, including the beautiful prayer of the Rosary. Since I have resolved to pray the Rosary every day, I plan to pray it and I plan where I will pray it — in Church before the Blessed Sacrament, at home in my “prayer chair,” in the car or airplane, for example.

Distraction. Everyone experiences distraction in prayer, even the most proficient of all pray-ers. It is one of the tactics the evil one uses to entice us away from prayer altogether and the time we have set aside for it. Therefore, we have to be prepared for distraction. I like to use a variety of aids to help me maintain my attention and a prayerful disposition of heart. Some of the “weapons” I use to combat distraction are:

* Good Rosary meditation tapes

* Sacred Scripture

* Holy literature

* Religious music

I change the manner of speech with which I pray the Rosary. We can all “get lost” as we pray a long prayer and find our minds have drifted far away from the discipline at hand. To help me maintain a prayerful attitude of heart while praying the Rosary, I change the manner of speech I am using.

One way I do this is by altering the cadence I am using. I will slow down, pausing frequently to consider the words I am saying and the mystery they are revealing. I may stay there a bit to reflect, enter in, or beg God to take me more deeply into the mystery at hand. I ask Him to imbue the innermost confines of my heart with this moment in the life of our Savior, or the words Gabriel spoke to Mary. At other times, I will speed up the cadence, not to “get through” the Rosary, but to express the spiritual delight of it.

Another way I change my manner of speech is by changing from praying the Rosary silently to praying it out loud — especially if I have drifted or am getting lulled by it. If I pray it out loud, I like to change the tone I use throughout the recitation — softer, louder, less emphasis on a word, more emphasis — especially in light of the mystery being prayed. I often find that I move from meditation to contemplation to thanksgiving, to praise, back to meditation, back to contemplation. The Holy Spirit moves us along the continuum and prays through us.

The Rosary is a journey into the life of Christ and an excellent means through which the life of Christ enters into us. By praying it daily, we will find that our facility to pray it well grows, our experience of it will heighten, and the mysteries it presents will become our own. May daily recitation of this prayer be among your holy resolutions throughout this new year.

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