Praying the Rosary Boring

Q: My mom wants us to pray the rosary every night as a family, but I think it is boring. It is just the same prayers over and over again, and it takes too long.

A: The rosary doesn’t have to be boring, even if “it is just the same prayers over and over again.” The rosary has a meditative quality that allows us to reflect on Jesus’ life, and forget about our own worries, fears, and anger. When praying the rosary try to meditate on the mystery you are presently on. For example, say you are on the first sorrowful mystery, The Agony in the Garden, meditate on Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knows that He is going to die. He knows He will be humiliated and tortured. He prays to His Father asking if there is another way. He is so stressed that He sweats blood, but in the end Jesus says, “not my will, but thine, be done.” (Lk. 22:42b) Even though he is so afraid that he sweats blood, he is still willing to die for our sake. Wow! Now, surely that’s not boring, and you could spend a few minutes meditating on that. As for the rosary taking too long, is taking twenty minutes to contemplate on the life of Jesus so hard? Is it so hard for you to take twenty minutes a day out of your 1,440 to pray the rosary?

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