October May Be the ‘Month of the Rosary’…But Truly It Needs to Be Prayed All 12 Months

Although praying the Rosary is mainly highlighted by Catholics during two specific months out of the year – May (the month of Mary) and October (the month of the Rosary with October 7 being the feast day of “Our Lady of the Rosary”) – the Rosary should actually be a yearlong practice. Praying the Rosary on a regular basis will strengthen your relationship with Our Lord and His mother, and it has been proved to be beneficial for even non-Catholic Christians and for children. If you are not already making the Rosary a part of you and your family’s consistent prayer routine, consider this October to be the first month out of 12 that will involve devoting yourself to this frequent occurrence of personal reflection on the life of Christ and the role of Mary in salvation.

Many non-Catholics are either confused by why Catholics pray the Rosary or are sometimes even defiantly against the practice, arguing that it is unbiblical. Actually, the Rosary is a Scripture-based prayer. It begins with the Apostles’ Creed, which summarizes our faith by naming Biblical facts from everything from the Holy Spirit to Pontius Pilate. The Rosary prayer continues with the Our Father, which is of course verbatim from Jesus’s own lips, and then recites the Hail Mary, which takes more than half of its words straight from Scripture regarding the angel’s words announcing Christ’s birth and Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary:

• ^“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel…came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:26-28)
• “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!  And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:41-43)

Another hesitation by some as to why they don’t want to pray the Rosary is their erroneous belief that Catholics are praying to Mary instead of going straight to Jesus. That can’t be further from the truth. Besides praying straight to God when we begin each decade of the Rosary by reciting the Our Father, each of the 10 Hail Mary prayers (thus the term “decade”) ends with the request of Mary to “pray for us sinners.” We are simply asking for Mary’s intercession with her Son which is referred to as an intercessory prayer – praying to God on behalf of others. That’s exactly what we do each time we ask a friend or family member to pray for us because we are worried about what is going on in our life, such as battling an illness. However, with the Rosary we are getting extra special intercession since no one is closer to Jesus than our Blessed Mother. You really think Jesus won’t listen to his mom’s request?! 

The Rosary is made up of twenty “mysteries” – that is, significant events or moments in the life of Jesus and Mary, which are found in the Bible. As we say the Rosary, we try to keep our meditation on the mysteries, thinking deeply about the life of Christ and seeing moments in His life through the eyes of His mother. This not only helps us – and our kids who pray the Rosary with us – to grow in our love of Jesus, but it provides some historical knowledge. Pope Saint John Paul II referred to the Rosary as a “compendium of the Gospel.” It can prove to be a substantial catechetical resource for teaching the Faith.

You can click on each of the following 20 hyperlinks to see how each of the mysteries, which are grouped into four series, recalls an event from Scripture:

Joyful Mysteries

1. The Annunciation of the Lord to Mary
2. The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth
3. The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
4. The Presentation of Our Lord
5. Finding Jesus in the Temple

Sorrowful Mysteries

1. The Agony of Jesus in the Garden
2. The Scourging at the Pillar
3. Jesus Is Crowned with Thorns
4. Jesus Carries the Cross
5. The Crucifixion of our Lord
   

Glorious Mysteries

1. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
2. The Ascension of Jesus to Heaven
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit
4. The Assumption of Mary into Heaven
5. Mary Is Crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth
   

Luminous Mysteries

1. The Baptism in the Jordan
2. The Wedding at Cana
3. The Proclamation of the Kingdom
4. The Transfiguration
5. The Institution of the Eucharist
   

Besides the benefits of the Rosary providing a peaceful, meditative way to grow spiritually while also enhancing you and your children’s understanding of key aspects of the life of Jesus by way of its structured reflection on the mysteries, the Rosary also can foster a sense of belonging and unity. It is often prayed with communal recitation in parishes and other gatherings of the faithful, connecting strangers through this rich tradition. 

As for family unity, there should be a regular time for parents to pray the Rosary with their children. (To go along with this, all Catholic kids should own their own set of Rosary beads; here is a video explaining how one uses beads to pray the Rosary.) Praying the Rosary as a family is certainly being counter-cultural in today’s society. “None of my friends’ parents make their kids pray the Rosary!” is probably the truest statement your child ever will scream at you when you tell them to put down the video game controller and pick up the beads. 

Being realistic, praying the Rosary daily with kids – although amazing – might be a bit much to ask. But it is not beyond reason to set up a consistent pattern of your family praying the Rosary together, whether it’s one chosen night weekly or your family’s rule that you will pray the Rosary together in the car when taking any road trip that is going to last an hour or longer. At a good pace, it only takes 17 minutes to pray five decades. You can promise the kids on the road trip they can go back to fighting in the car with their siblings or put their earbuds back in after the 17-minute timeout for family prayer. 

To further counter any potential whining from family members about pausing what they’re doing for a mere 17 minutes to focus on Christ, remind them that the night Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying about His crucifixion to come that next day, he exasperatingly asked of those who loved Him but fell asleep, “Could you not spend an hour!?” Today, we are the disciples who love Jesus, but if He were to ask us this same question, could we honestly say that of course we could stay awake at least one hour and devote the time to praying with Jesus? 

If the average parents today were asked to spend an hour driving their children to and from their piano or swimming lessons, these parents would willingly agree to do so. If the average teenagers today were asked to devote an entire weekend binge-watching a Netflix series…or an entire evening scrolling Instagram reels or YouTube videos…there would be no hesitation to spend all that time on their screens. And yet, when was that last time this same average person spent as little as 17 minutes to pray the Rosary? 

Sit down with your children if they whine about having to pray the Rosary and see if you can get them to agree that Jesus Christ deserves at least some of our time on a regular basis. After all, His other titles include the Savior of the World, the Alpha and Omega, and the Head Over All Things. Wouldn’t you agree that those titles make Him a little more important than the latest pop star or soccer star, with whom your kid would have no problem spending considerable time?

The Rosary holds major importance as a means of growing both spiritually and in theological knowledge. It can be a peaceful, calming way to develop your deeper relationship with Christ and His mother. But don’t take my word for it…take the word of a Saint:

“The Rosary is the most beautiful and the most rich in graces of all prayers; it is the prayer that touches most the Heart of the Mother of God, and if you wish peace to reign in your homes, recite the family Rosary.” (Saint Pope Pius X)