The Rosary Project · Explorer · 4 min read

I asked for your experience with the Rosary, especially from those who currently struggle and have struggled in the past with praying it daily. I received 189 responses. That's incredible.

It is our mission to lead people to Jesus through Mary. We believe the Rosary is the fastest and surest path. The saints agree. The surest path to failure is trying to pray a perfect Rosary. This was the pattern that emerged from the struggles shared:

• Treating every distraction as a personal failure
• Treating every "drifting" decade as proof of not being holy enough
• Treating the graces promised by the Rosary as earned only through flawless recitation
• Spending more time being frustrated with the lack of focus than time spent praying
• Connecting worthiness to quality of a prayer session
• Treating discouragement as a direct result of poor performance

If this resonates with you, I have good news: you are not alone. A vast majority of responses included some experience like this.

There's hope. As I continued to read those responses, another pattern emerged. Those who pray the Rosary in spite of past or present struggles share one thing in common:

• Permission to be bad at praying the Rosary, and pray anyways
• Permission to not know the prayers, and listen to it instead
• Permission to be distracted, and pray anyways
• Permission to doubt the merit of their prayers, and pray anyways
• Permission to pray a single decade because they can't get through a full Rosary
• Permission to not get through the entire Rosary, but still pray part of it

Permission is different from an excuse. This method does not excuse distraction, half-heartedness, or any other weakness that contributes to a poor prayer quality. Instead, it acknowledges the weakness and offers Jesus our "best effort."

"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."

2 Corinthians 12:9

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."

Isaiah 40:29

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Psalm 73:26

One gentleman wrote in comparing the Rosary to athletics. Do not expect to walk into a gym for the first time in your life and bench press 400 pounds. You have to study, you have to practice, you have to persevere for years and years if you expect to reach such a lofty goal. The Rosary is no different. Start with the bar.

Here is a summary of the recommendations I have for those who struggle with the Rosary:

• Give yourself permission to be bad at it
• Give yourself permission to start small (one Hail Mary or one decade a day)
• Reject the lie that poor prayer performance has no merit
• Treat the Rosary as a relationship with a God who is infinitely patient and merciful, a God who graciously accepts any offering however small, weak, or imperfect
• Treat the Rosary as practice
• Ask for the grace of humility to accept your own weaknesses, and surrender them
• Become a student of the Rosary with a teacher that gives no exams, no final grade, just endless grace. Study the mysteries, study the history, and immerse yourself in the Rosary

Pick one takeaway for the following week, and commit to that. If you fail, pick something smaller and try again. Keep doing that until something sticks, and let it grow from there.

Be assured of our prayers for all of you, and please share struggles and victories so we can all be encouraged by them.

To Jesus through Mary,
Jonathan

Adapted from Jonathan Conrad's Rosary Project email series, The Catholic Woodworker.

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