Rosary Meditations
for the Journey

The Rosary

Many have professed the rosary to be our most powerful spiritual weapon. Praying the rosary cannot help turning our minds and hearts toward God and his great love for us. There are many promises connected with the rosary; however, there is no magic linked with it. It’s not simply saying the prayers that infuses it with power. It’s meditating on the lives of Jesus and Mary—it’s meditateing on the gospel with Jesus and Mary—that infuses us with grace.

We need to focus on the meditations even more than the prayers. This focus is certainly more important than adding additional prayers to the rosary. Obviously, I’m not saying additional prayers are a bad thing; I am only saying we need to focus on the main thing: meditating as deeply as possible on the mysteries.

Meditation

“Meditation is above all a quest. The mind seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking. The required attentiveness is difficult to sustain. We are usually helped by books, and Christians do not want for them: the Sacred Scriptures, particularly the Gospels, holy icons, liturgical texts of the day or season, writings of the spiritual fathers, works of spirituality, the great book of creation, and that of history the page on which the ‘today’ of God is written” (CCC 2705).
The Rosary is primarily meditation on the life of Jesus and Mary. This meditation is most productive the deeper it penetrates the mysteries. Brief readings on these mysteries, especially in applying them to our lives, can help us indeed dive ever deeper into these mysteries. We dive deeper into each mystery in particular and more deeply into the mystery of God and his love in general.

Our Readings & Meditations

We offer a general reading on each mystery in “The Mystery” section. You may choose between a brief and long version. Afterwards, in the “Going Deeper” section, we offer your choice of at least three meditations for each mystery. There are also at least three “Meditation Starters,” if you would prefer praying with one of these instead. While both “The Mystery” texts and the “Going Deeper” meditations are read prayerfully, the brief reflection and discussion with the Lord typically follows the “Going Deeper” meditation. Again, this is normally kept brief as there are five mysteries to cover in each set of mysteries. After the rosary, we do recommend spending some additional time with one of the mysteries followed by quiet contemplation.

Creative Flexibility

A huge historical advantage of the rosary has been its simplicity. You didn’t need to bring a hefty prayer book along with you; the rosary didn’t even require that you be literate. All you needed was a rosary. Or your ten fingers could do in a pinch. As times have changed, most folks are literate and could easily view a prayer book on their ever-handy cell phone. And so, it seems timely to place a greater emphasis on deeper meditation using such aids as this one.
Meditating on these readings as described will certainly extend the time required to pray the rosary. You could spend the typical 20 minutes on a single mystery, if you chose. That could be a very good variation. If you keep your brief reflection and discussion with the Lord after each meditation truly brief, it shouldn’t take that much extra time. Some folks recover time by saying fewer Hail Marys—sometimes only one per mystery. I call this a “beadless” rosary (no prayer counting). Our emphasis is on meditating on the mysteries; we encourage you to adapt the rosary according to your needs and available time.

How to Say the Rosary

This book will walk you through saying the rosary. You won’t need to jump around to find prayers in this book; everything you need is all together and in order in each section. However, this book does assume you know the Sign of the Cross, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be. You will find only their titles followed by an ellipsis mark (…) where you need to pray them.
There are 5 choices you will need to make when praying the rosary with this book:

1. Choose the intentions for your rosary; the conversion of sinners (including ourselves) is often at the top of the list.
2. Choose which of the four sets of mysteries you will pray. The Joyful Mysteries are normally recited on Mondays and Saturdays; the Luminous Mysteries on Thursdays; the Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesdays and Fridays; and the Glorious Mysteries on Wednesdays and Sundays. You certainly are not bound to this.
3. Choose either the brief or long version of the Mystery prose to prayerfully read.
4. Choose how many Hail Marys you will say after the reading on the mystery. While 10 is certainly the norm, you may choose fewer as you are focusing on the provided meditations. You may even choose to say only one.
5. Choose a meditation or meditation starter from the “Going Deeper” section. These you will briefly reflect on and discuss with the Lord.

Additional Prayers

This book also contains additional prayers beyond the reflections, meditations, and other prayers connected with the Rosary. There are prayers for before and after mass. There are also the Paladin prayers, my personal prayers and personal versions of common prayers. I hope you find them valuable.

As always, I encourage meditation, contemplation, and otherwise “diving deeper” over written prayers; however, there is certainly a place for written prayers. I particularly encourage praying the Morning Offering and The Examination of Conscience daily. Please don’t hesitate to expand on what’s before you, adding your own spontaneous reflections, thoughts, and praise.

Blessed Mother, please join me in praying the Holy Rosary. Let us pray for the following intentions…

The Sign of the Cross…

Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

Our Father…

May I grow in Faith, ever trusting more fully: Hail Mary…

May I grow in Hope, ever seeking and persevering: Hail Mary…

May I grow in Love, ever giving more generously: Hail Mary…

Glory be…