Is it right to pray the rosary?

Answer 1

You should. When reciting the prayers that make up the rosary, which all come from scripture, we meditate upon the mysteries of Christ's life, death, and ministry. This helps us to better understand The Lord and to become closer to him. Check it out for yourself, if you like, by copying and pasting the link below into your address bar. You will find all the mysteries there as well as the scripture they come from.

http://www.theholyrosary.org/

There are also many way to meditate. You can concentrate on the picturing the scene in your mind, trying to visualize how it must have been for Mary to have this shining angel before her as she said her fateful 'yes'.

You could concentrate on how one of the people must have felt watching/praticipating in the mystery. For example, how must one of the crowd though and felt while watching Jesus struggle to carry the cross at the crucifixion? How about Mary? Jesus, himself? This will help you understand the people who took part in these events better and give you a better understanding of God.

Another approach would be to think on the mystery and wonder what lessons could be learned from it? Take for example Mary's 'yes'. The virtues here include humility, faith, obedience, compassion, and a great love for The Lord. You might also contemplate how best to implement these virtues into you're own life.

Or perhaps you would like to concentrate on how the mysteries reflect the needs of the people of today. The humiliation, pain, helplessness, and fear Jesus must have felt on the cross as he was dying are like how the poor and the sick feel now. You could contemplate what you may do to alleviate the suffering of those around you. Jesus has charged us with the task of caring for his poor and his sick. You might also dedicate that recitation of the rosary to the sick and dying and ask Jesus to comfort them and ease their pain and loneliness.

As you can see, the rosary has many good qualities and uses. If you pray it regularly, it will begin to effect you and your relationships with Jesus and those around you in ways you never could have dreamed of. Miracles can come of praying the rosary with a sincere heart.

Please do give it a try. == == You shouldn't. The rosary is just a pagan tradition that the Catholic church has taken on.

Buddhist have prayer beads that are similar to rosaries.

Jesus Christ said at Matthew 6:7,8-- "But when praying, do not say the same things over and over again, just as the people of the nations do, for they imagine they will get a hearing for their use of many words. So, do not make yourselves like them, for God YOUR Father knows what things YOU are needing before ever YOU ask him.

This is why Jesus gave us the model prayer at Matthew 6:9-15:-- "YOU must pray, then, this way: "'Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth. Give us today our bread for this day; and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the wicked one.' "For if YOU forgive men their trespasses, YOUR heavenly Father will also forgive YOU; whereas if YOU do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will YOUR Father forgive YOUR trespasses". (Look this scripture up in your Bible.)

This prayer was a model or outline for how each person should pray, not something to be recited over and over again. For example, my 'daily bread' might be finding a job, whereas you 'daily bread' might be paying for your child's medical bills.

This goes for 'Hail Mary's', 'Our Father's', 'Apostle's Creed' and any other prayers that aren't said from the heart.

Answer 2

The rosary is a private devotion and thus Catholics are not absolutely required to pray it. The rosary, however, is revered as one of the greatest of prayers and devotions as well as a safeguard against evil, and thus to not pray it is seen as exceptional. It is usually prayed daily, especially in a family setting if possible.

Answer 3

You pray the rosary in the month of October every day (usually in the morning or at night) you could pray any month any day, but you should try to in October.

Roman Catholic AnswerYou should pray the rosary every single day of your life. The rosary is a series of meditations on the life of Our Blessed Lord, and His Blessed Mother, it is a synopsis of the entire Gospel, and meditation on it is basis Christianity. The daily rosary has been urged by Our Blessed Mother, and a great number of popes right through the contemporary Popes. For an excellent overview of the need for the rosary, read about Fatima.

Answer 4

Certainly not, many Christians pray this Biblically based prayer.

from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Rosary. A devotional prayer, mental and vocal, honoring the blessed Mother of God. It is said on a string of beads made up of five sets each of one large and ten smaller beads, called decades. On the large beads, the Pater Noster is said; on the small ones, the Hail Mary. The usual devotion is the fifteen decades, on the joyous, sorrowful, or glorious aspects of Our Lord and Our Lady’s life. [Note: Pope John Paul II added another five decades, called the Luminous] It is the most popular of all non-liturgical Catholic devotions and has been highly recommended by many popes. This is the standard Rosary. There are other Rosaries also approved by the Church, notably of the Holy Trinity, Seven Dolors, Precious Blood, St. Bridget, St. Joseph, and the Rosary of the Lord.

from OSV’s Encyclopedia of Catholic History - Revised, by Matthew Bunson, D.Min, c 1995, 2004 by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., Huntington, Indiana

According to tradition, the Rosary was first made popular by St. Dominic (1170-1221), who sought the aid of Our Lady during travails and bloodshed of the Albigensian Crusade in southern France. As reported in the stories told in honor of the Feast of the Holy Rosary (October 7), [St.] Dominic was commanded to preach the Rosary among the heretics. The saint was thereafter its most ardent promoter, his special status noted by several popes, including Leo XIII, who, in an encyclical, Laetitia santae (“Commending Devotion to the Rosary”), on September 8, 1893, recognized as historical fact the role of the Dominicans in establishing the Rosary.

Instructions.

How to pray the rosary: First of all, one of the most important things that we must do as Christians is to pray, and beginning prayer is meditation. Realize that Christian meditation has absolutely nothing in common with Eastern meditation. That are completely different things and that fact that they are called by the same word is an unfortunate happenstance. Christian meditation is recalling and thinking about the truths of the faith. Meditation using Sacred Scripture (The Bible) is called Lectio Divinia.

The rosary is a series of prayers based on the Bible - the Our Father, and the Hail Mary (the Angelic Salutation from the Gospel of Luke). But the vocal prayer is like the background music, if you will, to the meditation of the mysteries of the faith, which is the heart of the rosary.

The rosary meditations are:

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Joyful (Monday and Saturday)

Annunciation of angel Gabriel to Mary

Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth

Nativity of our Blessed Savior

Presentation in the Temple

Finding in the Temple

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Luminous (Thursday)

Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan

Self manifestation of Jesus at the Miracle of Cana

Proclamation of the Kingdom of God

The Transfiguration on the Mount

The Institution of the Blessed Eucharist

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Sorrowful (Tuesday and Friday)

The Agony in the Garden

The Scouring at the Pillar

The Crowning with Thorns

The Carrying of the Cross

The Crucifixion

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Glorious (Wednesday and Sunday)

The Resurrection

The Ascension

The Descent of the Holy Spirit

The Assumption of the B.V.M.

The Crowning of the B.V.M. as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

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So we are praying by meditating on the mysteries of our Redemption. And this form of prayer was very ancient, but the form that we currently use was given by Our Blessed Mother to St. Dominic (who was founder of the Dominicans). As Catholics, we walk in our Savior's footsteps, and one of the ways in which we imitate Him is in His love and devotion to His mother.

.

So the rosary is important to us, as Catholic Christians, as fulfilling our Blessed Lord's command to pray always, as meditation on the events of His life, as a form of prayer that was given to us at the express wish of Our Blessed Mother, and as one of the forms of prayer, above most others that leads many saints to intimate union with God.

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Below is the form that I made up for my students in Sunday school (in the instructions below there is L for leader and R for response, that is if you have two or more people praying the rosary together; obviously, if you are saying it alone, you will be saying all the prayers):

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen CRUCIFIX

L. I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of Heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit

and born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into Hell. On the third day He rose again.

He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

R. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church,

the Communion of the Saints, the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen

Our Father (for the Pope). Three Hail Mary’s ( for increase of Faith, Hope, Charity) Glory be.

All. O my Jesus, forgive us our sins,

save us from the fires of Hell.

Lead all souls to Heaven,

especially those who have most need of Thy mercy. Amen

For each decade:

L. Our Father, who art in heaven, BIG BEAD

Hallowed be Thy Name,

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,

On Earth as it is in Heaven

R. Give us this day, our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us,

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

L. Hail Mary, full of grace, SMALL BEADS - 10 TIMES

The Lord is with thee,

Blessed are thou amongst women,

And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

R. Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

L. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. CHAIN

R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

L. O my Jesus...

R. forgive us our sins,

save us from the fires of Hell.

Lead all souls to Heaven,

especially those who have most need of Thy mercy. Amen

Final prayers:

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Our life,

our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we

cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do

we send up our sights, mourning and weeping

in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most

gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward

us; and after this our exile show unto us the

blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement,

O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!

L. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,

R. that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

All: O God, whose only-begotten Son, by His life,

death, and Resurrection, has purchased for us

the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech

Thee, that meditating on these Mysteries of

the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin

Mary, we may imitate what they contain, and

obtain what they promise, through the same

Christ our lord. Amen.