The Rosary
This section is divided into this home page, a page on the prayers of the Rosary, and a page for each set of Mysteries:
Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious.
In 2008, I made a Lenten vow to pray a decade of the Rosary each day on my way home from work in an effort to become more prayerful in my life. The plan included having a short conversation with God when the decade was completed. I started small (a decade is one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and one Glory Be) because I was afraid that attempting to say the entire Rosary would be too large of a step and thus too easy to neglect. I found myself continuing this practice through the rest of the school year and then again at the beginning of the next school year.
It was some time during the 2008-2009 school year that I was encouraged by my mother to say the entire Rosary. While I did well with this practice for most of the rest of that school year, I did not restart the practice at the beginning of the next school year. It wouldn't be until Lent of 2010 that I would start the practice again.
In 2013, I started carpooling to and from work. The time from when I left my fellow carpooler’s house to when I arrived at my house was not enough to say an entire Rosary, and so I stopped saying the prayers. Again, it was my mother who encouraged me to return to the practice, but to use the shorter prayers in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. This is what I do on days that I carpool. I return to the Rosary on days when we do not carpool.
Despite being such a universal way of praying, I have found that there are several differing views on which prayers to use as well as which days focus on which set of Mysteries. I am presenting the order that I use as well as some of reflections about each Mystery. Accompanying my thoughts on the Mysteries are pictures of the stained glass windows from my church, St. Mary’s Star of the Sea. These are pictures that I took, so please excuse the quality. Also, while my church has windows for nearly every Mystery, there are three (the Proclamation, Scourging, and Crowning) which do not have windows specifically devoted to them. For these, I put windows that approximated or were similar to the Mystery. The Scourging and Crowning thus share the same window.
While I hope that my reflections on these Mysteries would bring more people into the Church, I am not a theologian, nor do my writings necessarily represent the official teachings of the Church. I cannot claim that kind of authority, and my ideas should not be equated with that level of power. I write them here for people to have a better understanding of me and my views of my faith. Still, if they convert you to the service (or to a deeper service) of the Lord, who am I to argue?
Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious.
In 2008, I made a Lenten vow to pray a decade of the Rosary each day on my way home from work in an effort to become more prayerful in my life. The plan included having a short conversation with God when the decade was completed. I started small (a decade is one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and one Glory Be) because I was afraid that attempting to say the entire Rosary would be too large of a step and thus too easy to neglect. I found myself continuing this practice through the rest of the school year and then again at the beginning of the next school year.
It was some time during the 2008-2009 school year that I was encouraged by my mother to say the entire Rosary. While I did well with this practice for most of the rest of that school year, I did not restart the practice at the beginning of the next school year. It wouldn't be until Lent of 2010 that I would start the practice again.
In 2013, I started carpooling to and from work. The time from when I left my fellow carpooler’s house to when I arrived at my house was not enough to say an entire Rosary, and so I stopped saying the prayers. Again, it was my mother who encouraged me to return to the practice, but to use the shorter prayers in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. This is what I do on days that I carpool. I return to the Rosary on days when we do not carpool.
Despite being such a universal way of praying, I have found that there are several differing views on which prayers to use as well as which days focus on which set of Mysteries. I am presenting the order that I use as well as some of reflections about each Mystery. Accompanying my thoughts on the Mysteries are pictures of the stained glass windows from my church, St. Mary’s Star of the Sea. These are pictures that I took, so please excuse the quality. Also, while my church has windows for nearly every Mystery, there are three (the Proclamation, Scourging, and Crowning) which do not have windows specifically devoted to them. For these, I put windows that approximated or were similar to the Mystery. The Scourging and Crowning thus share the same window.
While I hope that my reflections on these Mysteries would bring more people into the Church, I am not a theologian, nor do my writings necessarily represent the official teachings of the Church. I cannot claim that kind of authority, and my ideas should not be equated with that level of power. I write them here for people to have a better understanding of me and my views of my faith. Still, if they convert you to the service (or to a deeper service) of the Lord, who am I to argue?
