The Rosary As You’ve Never Known It

I’ve always been a reluctant rosary person. I understand the value of the rosary. I can give intellectual assent to its importance. But I just find it boring. I’ve tried, I’ve prayed and I’ve given up with some regularity. I’ve regretted this struggle because I want to like the rosary, but I just don’t.

My appreciation for the rosary took a giant leap forward when I listened to The Rosary Project: A Celebration of Prayer and Song by Chris Padgett. The audio presentation (2 CDs) contains all four sets of mysteries, intertwined with original songs by Padgett. Nothing boring here! In fact, each set of mysteries took on new meaning as I listened to the songs, which illuminate various events commemorated in the prayers. Short scripture meditations along with the music focused my attention and touched my heart.

Padgett prays along with a group of young people. If it is possible to hear love, that’s what I heard in their prayers. I’ve tried hard to understand the rosary, but The Rosary Project helped me to love the rosary. And by focusing my attention on events in the life of Christ, it helped me love him a little more. Here’s a little sample of this recording:

Have you ever struggled with this devotion? How have you learned to love the rosary? What helped turn that light on in your mind and heart?

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Featured Photo: Chris Padgett composing at the piano.

Louise Paré has spent the last 37 years in Catholic publishing and is currently the Director of Product Development for Servant Books. She works from her home in Michigan, where she is an avid Detroit Tigers fan. blog comments powered by

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More Men Praying The Rosary

I recently came across this article by David Olson of the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise (click here to read or hear audio report). It mirrors a trend I’ve seen over the last three-four years. Here’s how it starts:

David Calvillo used to think praying the rosary was for “old ladies and funerals.”

Then he went to a Catholic men’s retreat in 2008, where for the first time he felt the rosary’s spiritual power as he prayed it with 79 other men.

Calvillo, 49, is now on a crusade to convince Catholics that “real men pray the rosary,” the name he gave a nonprofit he founded last year.

The rosary, a cycle of prayers said while worshippers finger a string of beads, is not gender-specific. Yet many men say they have always associated the rosary with women, especially older females.

There’s no way to know whether the number of men praying the rosary is increasing, but nearly 9,000 people have indicated they like “Real Men Pray the Rosary” on the group’s Facebook page. (Note: The article was published in June. Its Facebook “likes” now number more than 15,000. “Real Men Pray the Rosary” also has a Web site and blog.)

The increase in men praying the Rosary is great news, although it is odd that men should ever think the Rosary is a woman’s prayer. In school, it was taught as an important aspect of Catholic prayer life and priests and religious never, in my experience, emphasize it to girls over boys, women over men.

There are several ways in which praying the Rosary is encouraged: At an adoration hour, with your family, and after daily Mass to name a few. If your parish does not have an active group praying the Rosary and promulgating it, perhaps that is a project to take on in consultation with your pastor.

Unlike other prayers, the Rosary, with its devotion to different mysteries of the Gospel, has a certain draw and power. As the article states, the prayers are the same, but they can take on a different meaning each day as you meditate on the meaning of each mystery. It’s one reason the Rosary has a special place in the hearts of many — and many more, particularly men, are discovering that now.

Groups such as Real Men Pray The Rosary are sprouting up to encourage men to pray the Rosary.

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