Don’t Fight It, Pray It
Posted by Danielle Bean in Faith on Friday, March 06, 2009 11:00 AM
I have many memories of praying family Rosaries as a child.
Once, after reading the story of Fatima, my sister and I retreated to the bedroom we shared and knelt beside our beds with beads in hand. Eager for the excitement and glory a Marian apparition would bring us, we determined to pray the Rosary until Mary appeared to us.
Surely, we thought, Mary would be unable to resist such an expression of piety! And yet somehow she did.
Years later found me, a sullen teenager, grousing on the couch where my parents forced me to endure 20 minutes of meditative prayer on a regular basis.
These days, though, I’m the mean mom enforcing family prayer time and I fear my kids turning into the grumpy teens.
But can we avoid it? And what about those days when I’m is the one who feels grouchy and tired? How do we respond to Mary’s call to make praying the Rosary a habit—a real habit—and not just something we do on special occasions?
Here’s some help:
1. Read up on the promises. Mary promised 15 things (through St. Dominic and Blessed Alan) to those who pray the Rosary. Reading through the list is sure to inspire you to make a greater effort. Who wouldn’t want any one of those things for themselves and their family? But praying the Rosary earns you all 15? Score!
2. Schedule it. It seems a pretty basic idea, but it took me years before I actually did it. I find it really helpful, especially during Lent when I want to be sure not to miss a day, to set a time for praying the Rosary. We aim for 7:00 every night. That way, it’s not a surprise to anyone, I work dinner, bedtime stories, and baths around that time, and if I am ever in danger of forgetting, the kids are sure to remind me. Especially the younger ones are really big on enforcing “the rules.”
3. Be prepared. I have some laminated Rosary prints for the little kids to browse through and I got a bunch of these cheap but very nice Rosary booklets to keep older kids focused. I also recommend keeping a basket of Rosaries in your car or van. That way, on days when you are on the road, you can make good use of the travel time and get your family prayer time in. No excuses!
How about you? What are your struggles and how do you manage praying the Rosary as a family?
Print Blog
Email a FriendPost a Comment
By submitting this form, you give Faith And Family Magazine permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.
