Why I Pray the Rosary

Before getting started with this post, no, not all Catholics pray the rosary. In my opinion, this doesn’t make a person “more” or “less” of a Catholic. It simply means it is not a form of prayer they appreciate. There is nothing wrong with that.

I first began to pray the rosary regularly back in 2012. At the time, not only was I not in full communion with the Church, I had no interest in being Catholic whatsoever. Even as a Protestant, I felt closer to Jesus while praying the rosary. Something about moving the beads through my fingers while praying Hail Marys and through the mysteries created an intimacy with God I could only experience with a rosary in my hands.

While I believe there isn’t a wrong way to pray the rosary, I still do this differently than many people. Regardless if I was in the sand at the beach or sitting at my desk, I always have a Bible open, reading Scripture that corresponds with each mystery. Also, following the Our Father of each decade, I still pray my own petitions to Jesus from the heart. At times, one of these prayers will be short, only taking around 30 seconds or so. At other times, I might spend up to five minutes praying to Jesus before starting the next decade. It all depends on what is in my heart at the moment. 

As a Protestant, I had more than one well-intentioned Catholic tell me what I was doing was wrong. The Rosary was a gift from Mary for those of the Catholic Church. As a Catholic, I still regularly hear from my Protestant friends that what I’m doing is wrong and that Catholics shouldn’t worship anyone other than God. The thing is, in all of my years praying the rosary, I’ve never worshipped Mary. To me, and maybe Catholics will say I’m wrong, I’m spending time with Jesus. His mother just happens to be involved.

I have a five-year-old daughter, lil v. Her mom and I are no longer married. Still, any time the three of us are together, eating dinner, at ballet or gymnastics, even taking a quick walk through the park, I feel closer to my daughter. It has nothing to do with spending time with her mom. It’s simply time I spend with my daughter. Her mom just also happens to be part of the experience. For me, praying the rosary is no different. It’s one of my favorite ways of spending time with Jesus. Mary just happens to be a part of the occasion. 

If you don’t know much about praying the rosary, there are 15 promises from Mary for those who pray the rosary devoutly. Just look at some of you Protestants reading along. Some of you are already getting worked up. 

I have spent some time the last few days contemplating exactly why I pray the rosary as much as I do. As of sitting down and writing this, I am currently 17 days into a commitment of praying the rosary twice a day for three weeks. No, this isn’t a Catholic ritual. I just wanted to develop a more authentic prayer life. I needed to grow closer to Jesus while finishing up a book I have been writing. Here are three of the most important reasons why I regularly pray the rosary.

Praying the Rosary is Spiritual Defense

I do the best that I can to strap on the whole armor of God every day. Still, there are plenty of areas where I lack or fail altogether. During moments of weakness, I find the strength I’m lacking through praying the rosary. 

These moments of weakness will generally happen when I either have a lot going on or am very tired. As a writer, it’s not unusual for me to work 12, 13, even 14 hours a day for two or three consecutive weeks. While writing may not be physically demanding work, it can be mentally exhausting, especially writing fiction. It’s during times like this when I can be a sucker for temptation and sin.

For me, the 30 - 40 minutes I spend praying the rosary is just as effective as taking a nap for a few hours. Spending time with Jesus leads to me finding energy I didn’t know I had. This is more along the lines of preparing for spiritual warfare for me than just a quick coffee break. The rosary doesn’t just give me energy. It regenerates my soul.

I’m a Bible nerd. I’m all for what the Bible tells us about the armor of God. I’m not saying the armor St. Paul describes isn’t enough for me. I’m saying that there are too many times when I fail to use it properly. The rosary will always provide additional protection for me against the enemy.

Intimacy with Jesus

I’d like to say I have a healthy overall prayer life. I pray within the first half-hour or so of waking up and before going to sleep at night. I pray while walking my dog. Almost every day comes to an end with writing an entry in my prayer journal. I spend an hour at the adoration chapel a few times a week. I don’t bring this up as an attempt to sound more godly than others. If anything, I don’t pray enough, and even when I do pray, I’ll be the first to admit that I spend too much time praying for things in my own life instead of the situations and circumstances of others.

Still, as much time as I spend praying, something happens in my heart with a rosary in my hand. It’s like a connection to Jesus I only have through the rosary. The words of my prayers following each decade, when it’s just me emptying my heart to Jesus, have an authenticity and intimacy about them that I have no idea of how to produce. It just happens.

It is like layers of my heart are peeled back with a rosary in my hand, exposing more of who I am to God. This is something I experienced praying the rosary both as a Catholic and a Protestant. Even during the few seasons of life when I have walked away from the Church since converting, crying out to Jesus through the rosary just seems natural for me when things seem the most difficult. It’s the most sincere time of prayer I have ever experienced in my life. 

Praying the Rosary Requires Commitment

I’ll be honest. Commitment has been an issue for me since my teens. I’m not talking about relationship issues. I mean a commitment to anything that takes time in my schedule. I worked in the sports writing industry for over four years, where covering breaking news was a must if you wanted to make money. It was difficult to schedule anything and keep to it. Ask my daughter’s mom, she’ll tell you all about it.

I’m not one of the people who are content praying the rosary once or twice a week. I’m not saying this is wrong. I just could never stick to that. Regardless of the day or time I picked for the weekly commitment, I would have created a thousand reasons while I didn’t have time.

That being said, when I first started praying the rosary regularly back in 2012, I couldn’t get enough of how close this time brought me to Jesus. I’m a sucker for instant gratification. I had to have more. So praying the rosary was one of the first things I committed to every day other than reading the Bible.

Even now, when my schedule begins to get out of control, one of the first things I make sure there is time for is praying the rosary. Sometimes, this means it is one of the first things I do every morning. At other times, this time of prayer is one of the last things I do every night. Regardless of when I can make the time, I have learned the hard way that I'm simply not myself when I go a day without praying the rosary. As a result, it has become my favorite time of the day.