(If you are looking for the Rosary in a Month Challenge Printable, you can find it at the bottom of this post!)
Remember how I challenged myself to learn and pray the Rosary daily for the month of May? Are you wondering if I followed through?
The answer in short is YES! I’ve never been one to participate in a challenge, but the accountability of blogging has help me not only make but also keep this resolution.
At the beginning of May, I was a complete Rosary newbie. Ever since my conversion 5 years ago, I’ve felt drawn to this devotion, but I never quite felt up to the task. I’ve said the Rosary only a handful of times in the last 5 years. I knew I had to work on it slow and steady if I was going to follow through. I began the month not knowing any of the mysteries or when to say them, but by the end of the month, I’ve got the mysteries and prayers down pat.
Many of you commented that I would be blessed by my time in the Rosary. You were so right! I’d love to share with you what I learned as I committed to praying the Rosary daily.
Lessons from the Rosary:
It isn’t about Mary…
I always thought the Rosary was about Mary, but really it’s about Jesus. While we say a lot of Hail Marys as we work our way through the Rosary, the focus of our prayer is really on the life of the Word Incarnate. The Hail Marys are the background music that help us focus on the mysteries we ponder. We hold Mary’s hand asking her to help us contemplate the life of her Son. Which leads me to my 2nd discovery.
It isn’t about the words…
When I first heard people pray the Rosary out loud, I couldn’t believe how fast they said each prayer! It seemed to me these people were just trying to check “Rosary” off their Catholic daily task list, without really entering into the prayer.
When I made my first attempts at the Rosary after my conversion, I vowed I would really meditate on every word I said. I would start each decade with a minute reflection on the mystery and then turn my focus to slowly, thoughtfully, praying each Hail Mary. It was a monotonous and agonizing process! I knew I didn’t have an hour to devote to the Rosary everyday and I was bored out of my gourd, so I never pursued the devotion any further.
This May, I discovered that the words of the Hail Marys are really the backdrop for our contemplation of the mysteries. The Hail Marys become our helper as we pursue the more difficult prayer of contemplation. While we still shouldn’t zoom through each prayer just to get to the end, it is okay to pick up the pace to a steady tempo that keeps ourselves focused.
The perfect prayer for the highly distractable…
My prayer life has its ebb and flow. Lately, I’ve been struggling to focus completely on God during my time of prayer. The Rosary was the perfect cure for distraction. When my mind wanted to wander from contemplating Jesus, my mind turned to the words of the Hail Mary instead of to what I was going to serve for dinner. When my mind went to the Hail Marys, it was as if Mary gently took my hand and lovingly returned me to her Beloved Son.
It fits among my motherly tasks…
It is wonderful to take some time to sit and deeply enter into the Rosary, but it is also a perfect prayer to live as you move throughout your day. Most of my daily Rosaries were uttered in the quiet of the night when I was up with the baby or amidst my daily chores (cooking, folding laundry, etc.). The prayer’s simplicity lets us prayerfully offer our tasks to the Lord.
You don’t need to be fully awake…
Maybe that sounds like a cheap way of saying the Rosary, but I found I was fully capable of floating contemplatively over each mystery even when my mind was foggy. In fact, some of the gifts or insights I received during my prayer time were received when my body was barely awake.
You don’t have to say it all at once…
As mothers, little emergencies tend to interrupt our prayer time. Each decade is a perfect breaking point if you must put down the prayer for a time. I often said a decade or two at each nursing session or as I walked the baby up to his crib for nap time. It is simple to pick right up where you left off.
Contemplation=Illumination
I have to say I entered into the month of May a little skeptical that I would receive much from my Rosary challenge. I prefer prayerfully digging into scripture or reading the writings of a saint for growing closer to God. I was surprised that by the middle of May, God had given me several insights as I prayed the Rosary.
For one, I had never realized the parallel of Pentecost following the Ascension and the double portion of Elijah’s spirit falling on Elisha after Elijah was taken up in to heaven. I’ve read the Bible a lot and never gleaned that until I was immersed in pondering the Glorious Mysteries.
Secondly, I also became more aware of just how gruesome a Passion Our Lord endured. I was further convicted of how my sins had put Him through so much suffering, and filled with love for what He has done for me.
Will I keep saying a daily Rosary?
I’m definitely going to try! I know there will be times where it may be just a decade or two, and days when I skip altogether. BUT this will definitely be a prayer I pick up more regularly now.
I’ve read so many saints exhorting us to contemplate the life and Passion of Our Lord, but have really struggled with how to bring this exercise into my prayer time. The Rosary has shown me that I am fully capable of this and it provides the perfect format for doing so.
How can YOU start saying the Rosary?
The way I went about learning the Rosary was so simple. I went for slow and steady, which worked like a charm. If I can do it, so can YOU!
I printed out my own printable May Rosary Challenge and kept track of how I was doing. The printable shows the mysteries of the day so those of us who are new to this devotion can have a quick reference. Begin the month with one decade and add a new decade every week.
Because you may be interested in challenging yourself to learning the Rosary in a month that isn’t May, I created a new generic printable. I hope you will take up the challenge and be blessed!
Printable Rosary in a Month Challenge
