I like to think that the Rosary is part of my spiritual toolkit. The issue for me is how to pray it on my own. For me, it seems easier to recite with others. More a community prayer.
It really is helpful to have others, so a prayer companion, family members, a church group, but this is not always possible. Even in a community, and with the best of good intentions, distractions, tiredness, interruptions tend to intervene.
Nevertheless, Rosary is part of me. Let me relate why. I grew up in a parish dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. We lived in the age of the three children of Fatima, Portugal. Our pastor promoted family rosary, with May and October devotions, five 1st Saturdays of the month, Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament on the 1st Sunday of the month. Five decades each day at Marist Brothers School.
In my home, we started with just one decade, on the advice of our pastor. Later my brother and I graduated with my mother’s guidance to a second and then a third decade. One of our babysitters having joined a religious order, the Carmelites in Australia, we got to offer a special extra decade for her new life in the convent.
With our contemporaries in parishes and schools, wise mentors guided us in Rosary spirituality. If today we ask what is missing in our lives, we might think of those days. For me, if only I could regain all that was then so fruitful, but now more often than not, I am on my own.
If you are still with me reading this post, do keep reading while I share a solution that I have found to help sustain the Rosary on my own. When alone and I am reaching for the beads, there is a way I use to capture the sense of being in a group or community. I use secure internet.
There is YouTube, just go to the ‘search’ area and type in rosary. You will find numerous channels offering ‘virtual’ rosaries. Sort out your preference. Ads? You can skip them, or they are only at the beginning with no further intrusion.
Another internet way is through Spotify. At first, I had the free version with ads. Now I have a monthly subscription that is ad-free – enabling me to dispose of my collection of vinyls and turntable, but that is another story. On Spotify go to ‘search’ and have a look. In Spotify, I found The Complete Rosary presented by Robert Kochis.
As I listen to the prayers, meditations, spiritual songs, scriptures, and music, I finger the beads and join verbally in the various parts. Letting it all happen, I find it so supportive. It is the Rosary, I am part of it, and it is part of me – once more.
About the Rosary – HOW TO PRAY IT ON YOUR OWN! What say you?
