Why Catholics Pray the Rosary?

The recitation of the rosary has been a time honored Marian devotion for centuries. During the pre-Vatican II days, the rosary was very popular since many congregants attending mass understood very little Latin and prayed the rosary instead. You can still see remnants of mature Catholics practicing the same.

Since Vatican II, the rosary, like many other devotional practices have generally fallen out of favor. Recently, the tide has been changing. Catholics are re-discovering this hidden jewel of the church. The Rosary itself has been enhanced to include scriptural meditations at each decade.

Personally, I love the rosary. Often, we don't have time for contemplative prayer. The rosary is a chance to really focus on and meditate on each aspect of God's redemptive plan for all humanity.

The Catholic Sun reported: Catholics have been praying the rosary for more than 800 years with confidence God will hear their prayers, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix, Arizona said. “With Mary His Mother, we gaze on the face of Christ, contemplating the mysteries of His life, those mysteries by which the world is redeemed,” he said.

“Such contemplative prayer helps us, like Mary, to love her Son,” the bishop said. “It deepens our desire to serve Him and to pray for the needs of His Body, the Church.”

While traditionally Catholics have believed the Blessed Mother gave the rosary to St. Dominic in the 13th century, Dominican Father James Thompson said the actual historical source isn’t clear.

What is clear is that the 150 Hail Marys of the 15-decade rosary correspond to the 150 psalms prayed by the Church, he said. “It’s a lay person’s way of participating in the prayer of the Church,” Fr. Thompson said. “You can look at it as a ready-made prayer service. You don’t even need to be literate, much less ordained or religious to do it.”

While the rosary has been an official prayer of the Church and the preferred devotion of many saints, “We cannot use anything we do not understand, especially when it comes to prayer,” Bishop Olmsted said.

Those who discover the contemplative, Christ-centered nature of the rosary will find it to be a great help in nurturing a lively friendship with Jesus,” he said. “They will also discover, if they persevere for a week or more, that the repetitiveness of the rosary’s Hail Marys is a real help in dealing with distractions,” the bishop said. “Repetition is the language of love: we never get tired of hearing ‘I love you.’”

This language of the rosary has transformed many Catholics in the Phoenix Diocese, lay and religious alike. Mary Fierros, a parishioner at St. Louis the King in Glendale and a member of the Legion of Mary, started praying the rosary 40 years ago. “I had breathing difficulties, so I promised Our Lady that if I were healed I’d pray the rosary every day,” she said. “I haven’t had trouble breathing since.”

“When one prays the rosary, one remembers the promises God made through his Angel Gabriel,” said Levi Vazquez, who heads up the rosary group with his wife Guillermina. Before the crucifixion, Mary was mother to Jesus, Vazquez said. After Jesus told John, “Behold your mother,” Mary was mother to all humanity.

“As her children, we must ask her for what we need,” Vazquez said. As with our biological mothers, he said Catholics could have an intimate relationship with Mary. “You have to have that personal encounter with her. She’ll give you little proofs, and you’ll come to know her more and more — though you’ll never know her completely,” Vazquez said.

If you had not prayed the rosary in a long time, or never had a chance to be acquinted with it, give it a try.