Why Should *I* Pray The Rosary?

Almost every Catholic in the world has prayed it, if not heard of it.

However, the great majority of us think that the Rosary is downright boring. We usually make the excuse that we don't have time to put away our iWhateverthenewestversionis, turn off Beyonce and sit in silence for 20 minutes of prayer.

Ugh. Lame. Stab me with a feather. How many times a day do we spend a half hour or more on buzzfeed learning about how our whole lives relate to a cleverly constructed set of GIFs (guilty as charged, sometimes...) 

But guys! Mary has been pleading with us for centuries to pray this incredibly simple prayer, sometimes with tears in her eyes! She has appeared more times in the last few hundred years than in any other time in history, and every single time she has begged for us to turn to her by praying the Rosary.

Why? Why is Mary asking you to pray it? For that matter, why should *I* pray the Rosary?

- Because we're in the middle of a war! The reason that Mary has encouraged the saying of the Rosary is because of the fact that our times, frankly, suck. As Fr. Michael Gaitley, champion of Marian consecration and author of 33 Days to Morning Glory beautifully puts it, "Satan doesn't want us to enter into the power of the mysteries of the life of Christ. He wants us to stay complacent, lukewarm, and lazy. He wants us to be satisfied with mediocrity...Why is it so hard sometimes to break away and pray? It's because prayer is a battle." Every Hail Mary we say in the Rosary can be described as a bullet to the very heart of the Devil. He simply can't take the complete perfectness of the prayer, and will do anything to make us do everything other than pray it. So basically, praying the Rosary is a big TAKE THAT in Satan's face. 

- Because the Rosary is the way peace will take hold in the hearts of everyone, everywhere. (Soon-to-be-Saint) John Paul II said in his incredible letter concerning the rosary, "The Rosary is by its nature a prayer for peace, since it consists in the contemplation of Christ, the Prince of Peace, the one who is 'our peace' (Eph. 2:14)" Once we have the peace of Christ in our hearts that comes from a loving devotion to Mary through the Rosary, we can spread that peace to our families, and from there to the whole world. John Paul goes on to say,

"The Holy Rosary, by age-old tradition, has shown itself particularly effective as a prayer which brings the family together. Individual family members, in turning their eyes towards Jesus, also regain the ability to look one another in the eye, to communicate, to show solidarity, to forgive one another and to see their covenant of love renewed in the Spirit of God.

Many of the problems facing contemporary families, especially in economically developed societies, result from their increasing difficulty in communicating. Families seldom manage to come together, and the rare occasions when they do are often taken up with watching television. To return to the recitation of the family Rosary means filling daily life with very different images, images of the mystery of salvation: the image of the Redeemer, the image of his most Blessed Mother. The family that recites the Rosary together reproduces something of the atmosphere of the household of Nazareth: its members place Jesus at the center, they share his joys and sorrows, they place their needs and their plans in his hands, they draw from him the hope and the strength to go on."

I don't think I need to elaborate any further...right?

- Because through it, we can time travel! But it's way cooler than having a TARDIS. Pope John Paul also wrote about this: "[Christ's] Paschal mystery (his passion, death and resurrection) is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen at once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past. The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that Christ is --all that he did and suffered for all men-- participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all. the event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life." DUDE. So, in case you didn't understand that: Jesus, when he died, destroyed death forever. Forever. Something that occurs forever always has to be going on, so he destroyed death even up to this very day. When we pray and contemplate the Paschal mystery of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection, we are transported through faith and love to the very feet of Christ on the cross. Fr. Michael writes that through the Rosary, "we have real contact with him there (on the cross.) We can truly receive, here and now, the fountain of love and mercy that gushes forth from Jesus' pierced side."

- Because it will teach us how to pray. The actual praying of the Rosary does not mean that we must concentrate on the words that we say, and that we're saying it wrong if we wander into other realms of thought. Many people think this (even I did), and this discourages everyone. However, praying the Rosary much easier and more beautiful than that. "When we pray the Rosary, the goal is not so much to reflect on the words of the Hail Mary prayer itself." Fr. Michael writes. (I'm telling you, read his book, it will change your life) "Rather, the Hail Marys are meant to be a kind of 'background music' that helps us enter into contemplation of the mysteries. This background music is like the gentle hand of a mother on our shoulders, standing behind us, getting us to look at Jesus, contemplate his face, and love him through his mother's eyes, mind, and heart." When we pray the rosary, we can go beyond our own selfish lives, and learn to actually care for the needs of others. JPII says that, "our heart can embrace in the decades of the Rosary all the events that make up the lives of individuals, families, nations, the Church, and all mankind. Our personal concerns and those of our neighbor, especially those who are closest to us, who are dearest to us. Thus the simple prayer of the Rosary marks the rhythm of human life."

- Because we gain a loving mother in Mary. Remember how we are transported through time to the foot of the cross when we pray? Well, we are also transported to Mary's side, and she takes us under her mantle and forms us to be more like her son. When we pray the Rosary, and meditate on the Mysteries of Christ's life, she is guiding us with the same care that she took with Christ. She loves us as her children, and that means she wants to hear our every need and worry. "To pray to Rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and his Mother," JPII writes. So basically, Mary wants to love us, and she wants us to take her as our mother; praying the Rosary is our way of taking her as our mother. 

- and finally, Because countless miracles have occurred to those who have prayed it and encouraged devotion to Mary, including:

• The time when a house where German Jesuits who prayed the rosary every day lived was spared from being destroyed by the Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima
• When the Muslims greatly outnumbered the Christian army at the Battle of Lepanto, Pope Pius V asked the whole European continent to pray the rosary. As a result, the Christians defeated the Turks with a great victory
• When Father Patrick Peyton was suffering from tuberculosis, his sister prayed the rosary and he was healed. He went on to be a pioneer of the New Media as a means to spread the Faith [he is perhaps best known for coining the phrase, "The family that prays together, stays together."])

“Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.” Blessed Pope Pius IX

“One day, through the Rosary and the Scapular, Our Lady will save the world.” Saint Dominic

“When the Holy Rosary is said well, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious than any other prayer.” Saint Louis de Montfort

“When you say your Rosary, the angels rejoice, the Blessed Trinity delights in it, my Son finds joy in it too, and I myself am happier than you can possibly guess. After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, there is nothing in the Church that I love as much as the Rosary.” Our Lady to Blessed Alan de la Roche

By the way..."'All generations will call me blessed' The Church rightly honors the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of 'Mother of God,' to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. This very special devotion differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration." The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 971.