Pray the rosary with your children.   If you explain clearly what the rosary is about, your children will embrace it with wonder. 

Where did the rosary come from ?  It is believed that Mary gave the rosary to St. Dominic as a response to the Albigensian heresy.  During this initial devotion, it is believed that 100,000 heretics returned to the Catholic Faith.  Many other miracles have been attributed to rosary prayer.

Click the Rosary image at left for instructions.  The link will take you to the "how-to" page of the Rosary Center of the Dominican Fathers, headquarters of the Confraternity of the Rosary.  Extra spiritual benefits may be obtained with enrollment in the Confraternity of the Rosary. 

 

For more detailed information and for Scripture passages, visit A Scriptural Rosary.  The easiest explanation is found at the Rosary Center, however the more detailed information and Scripture passages included at A Scriptural Rosary is invaluable.  Providing the Scripture passages as recitation of the mysteries is a good way to teach your children the story of the mysteries through the rosary.  In order to know the fullness of the Rosary meditations, it is important to know the story, told in Scripture, about the meditations...........so do use the Scripture passages frequently with children to let them have these mental images while they pray.

I have explained to my own children that the rosary is a good way to pray with total focus on God.  As we pray the Rosary, the possibility of distraction becomes far more remote and we can love God with our whole selves.  I believe that if you pray the rosary, you will find out what I mean.

 

A Note on Repetitive Prayer:  Catholics are sometimes criticized for participating in repetitive prayer.  We hear the words of Christ from the Gospel of St. Matthew 6:7, "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard with their many words."  We also hear the words of God through His Apostle St. John in Reveleation 4:8: "The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: ' Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!' ”  The key difference between the two passages is that Christ condemned repetition that is vain, not from the heart, only speaking a certain number of words to gain favor.  This is not what the Rosary is about.  The repetition of the Rosary is like that of the angels in heaven singing "holy holy holy" where the heart is focused totally on God as the prayer is said.  Mental and vocal prayer are distinct from each other and the heart and mind become focused on God as the voice speaks the words of Scripture about the Mother He made for Himself.