The Loveliness of Rosaries

Our family enjoys praying the Rosary, especially during hard times. During Philip’s recent trip the Afghanistan, at the request of the children, we prayed the Rosary frequently. It’s comforting to take the time at the end of a busy day and pray and think about the lives of Mary and Jesus.

Praying the rosary requires the children to be quiet and still for at least 20 minutes. We’re lucky because our children do enjoy the rosary, but I think that comes in part from including them with their own special rosaries and having them actively participate. We try to make it a special time to be looked forward to, not something done out of obligation.

We know the basics of praying the rosary, but we don’t alway remember all the Mysteries, and we frequently confuse the Apostle’s Creed with the Nicene Creed. Nobody but me knows the Hail Holy Queen. To help us, we use the book “The Holy Rosary.” It’s written for children, so it’s very easy to understand. Each mystery has a brief (one paragraph) reading to help us to follow the example of Mary in relationship with her life with Jesus. Boo likes to announce each mystery and Pumpkin Girl likes to do the reading aloud.

We have quite the family collection of Rosaries. This one is mine, it was a gift from Philip and it has its own box. Both my Rosary and its box are from the Vatican Library Collection.

Philip’s rosary was a gift from me and I made it! He also has a Ranger Rosary, which like Michelle’s husband, he often keeps in the pocket of his ACU’s. He tells me that he always has one in his bag, too. I made his Ranger Rosary, too.

Boo’s Rosary was a First Communion present and…you’ve guessed it, was made by me! It has his initials and the date of his First Communion engraved on the crucifix.

Pumpkin’s Rosary was a gift from my parents and they bought it at the Vatican. Our family has a special connection to rainbows and when my parents found this rosary with beads in the colors of the rainbow, they knew that it should go to Pumpkin.

Even Bip has his own rosary. Yep, I made this one, too. Wooden beads strung on the same parachute chord that the Ranger Rosary is made from make this one practically indestructible. Bip likes to have his own rosary while we pray. It helps him feel like part of the team, as Philip would say. To help keep him busy and relatively quiet, he also has a small collection of laminated holy cards. He likes to look through them and sort them.

The meditative prayer that is the rosary is restorative and calming. However, I’ll be honest-it’s easy, at least for me, to let my mind wander. To help me focus when I’m praying the rosary alone, I like to listen to Praying the Rosary with St. Therese de Lisieux.

We’ve all heard the expression “The family that prays together stays together.” I’ve also heard of several families that say that their days go better when they are praying the rosary regularly. No doubt about it, there is nothing more lovely than the rosary.

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