10 Reasons the Rosary is a Great Prayer for School or Home

Why Pray the Rosary

1) Praying the Rosary is a chance to slow down, appreciate, find your anchor point and become aware of God’s love for you.  This is a particularly powerful prayer for individuals, families and communities during hard times. It is one way to build an integrative spirituality, where our soul is energised and well-directed.  The Rosary engages our senses and is excellent and engaging classroom prayer activity.

2) Praying the Rosary helps us move out of pain and shame and redirects us back to our noble mission, as neuroscience, virtue ethics and Dr Brene Brown suggests. As we aim to cultivate gospel values in our lives, the stories, emotions and experiences of the Rosary help us to understand the values more deeply, to soak up the feeling of their positive effects in our bodies and to change our minds, hearts and lives.

3) In a unique way, the Rosary engages several senses which have a centring effect on the person and the community. Holding the Rosary beads helps your mind to focus and keeps you on track through the ancient prayer. The beads keep our ‘monkey brains’ from running off track. The auditory experience of praying the Hail Mary in halves and listening to individuals read and pray throughout brings the group closer together.

4) The slow, meditative exhales of the Rosary cause us to stimulate the Vagas Nerve, shifting us out of ‘fight or flight’ and into ‘rest and digest’, or the parasympathetic nervous system.

5) The Scriptural Rosary with modern pictures is a powerful invitation to experience ‘Visio Divina’ and ‘Lectio Divina’ contemplation simultaneously by gazing at meaningful pictures and listening to one line at a time of the scriptural stories.

6) Meditating on Scripture stories invites us to get to know Jesus and His family as a close friend does through visualising ourselves within the stories as Ignatian spirituality suggests. The pattern allows us to slowly imagine the scenes, find deeper insights and listen to God speak to us. It is a doorway into experiencing and cultivating a two-way relationship with God.

7) The Holy Rosary is a meditation on important stories in Scripture and Church tradition that teach the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the life and love of Mary.  It is a safe way to align with the Church’s faith formation guidelines and to create a life-giving Catholic Ethos for people of all backgrounds and abilities.

8) The Rosary also connects us with the ancient and modern, global pilgrim church, with many of our religious congregations and with every person in God’s family. Even by just praying this reverently with your class, staff or family opens up a sacred way to be together and pay respect to the human dignity in each person.

9) The prayer experience itself is a gift from God so you can receive the love and peace of Jesus and Mary for your journey. More than just a rote learning exercise, the Rosary is an experience that lifts the heart and connects us with God in a sacred way.

10) God promises to forgive, refresh, free, help, defend, reform, instruct, humble and connect to us through the Rosary and any time we come to Him in prayer. The more we pray the Rosary, the more we will notice small and/or significant blessings or positive changes.

“When people love and recite the Rosary they find it makes them better.” – St. Anthony Mary Claret

 “There is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary.” – Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima

“The holy Rosary is a powerful weapon. Use it with confidence and you’ll be amazed at the results.”– St. Josemaria Escriva

“The Rosary is the most beautiful and the most rich in graces of all prayers; it is the prayer that touches most the Heart of the Mother of God…and if you wish peace to reign in your homes, recite the family Rosary.” – Pope Saint Pius X

“The Rosary is a prayer that always accompanies me; it is also the prayer of the ordinary people and the saints… it is a prayer from my heart.” – Pope Francis

“The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary.” – Saint Francis de Sales

 “The Rosary is a prayer both so humble and simple and a theologically rich in Biblical content. I beg you to pray it.” St. John Paul II