The rosary is truly a transformative prayer. When it is prayed with love, attention, and in a contemplative manner, it opens the mind and heart more fully to the mystery and beauty of God. Gradually it quiets the incessant inner chatter, enabling us to listen more attentively to God’s presence in the depths of the soul. In this way, the rosary leads us into interior silence and stillness, where, together with Mary, we can gaze lovingly on the Lord.
However, to experience the depths of such a marvelous prayer, we must give it not only some time, but most especially space within our spiritual lives. If the rosary is viewed merely as something I must do, or simply should do, and is therefore prayed only as an obligation to be fulfilled, then I will, of course, be unable to drink deeply from its richness. The problem, then, is not with the rosary itself, but with my lack of receptivity to it.
If we truly desire to deepen our love for the rosary and enter more fully into its richness, we must pray it as it was intended to be prayed: in a contemplative manner. When the rosary is prayed slowly and prayerfully, and when we allow ourselves the time and interior space to linger, whether over a particular mystery, the presence of Jesus or Mary, or even silence itself, we give the rosary the opportunity, in a certain sense, to breathe its life more fully into us.
And what is the life of the rosary? It is Jesus Christ Himself, contemplated in union with His holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. It would be impossible to overestimate how sacred, how beautiful and how necessary this encounter is for the life of the soul, an encounter that is often bypassed when the rosary is reduced to something merely to be checked off our spiritual to-do list.
Perhaps the greatest and most important advice one could give regarding the rosary is this: slow down. The rosary is an invitation to sit quietly with Our Lady and allow her to turn our hearts more deeply toward her Son. It is here, in the school of Mary, that the mysteries of God begin to open themselves more fully to us, both in mind and in heart, thus forming the whole person in the mystery of Christ. When we approach the rosary in this way, whether we pray four decades or four rosaries, prayer soon begins to deepen in the soul.
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For more on praying the rosary in a contemplative way, see the book The Contemplative Rosary with St. John Paul II and St. Teresa of Avila by Dan Burke and Connie Rossini
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