The Holy Rosary consists of ten Hail Marys for each mystery. But what do you actually think about while you're praying them?
For some of us, that's the difficult part of the Rosary. We know the prayers, but our minds wander. Or perhaps we've prayed the same mysteries so many times that we're struggling to enter into them in a fresh way.
Jennessa Terraccino explores the idea that the Church's different spiritual traditions give us different ways to meditate on the same mysteries. A Rosary for Every Heart uses four of the Church's great spiritual traditions to approach each mystery differently: Thomistic, Augustinian, Franciscan, and Ignatian.
Four spiritual styles for praying the Rosary
The Thomistic approach engages the intellect. If you're someone who wants to understand Scripture, theology, and what a mystery teaches us about God, this may come naturally.
The Augustinian approach turns inward, examining the heart and our personal relationship with God. In the book's meditation on the Annunciation, for example, Terraccino considers Mary's free “yes” to God and encourages us to ask Mary for the courage to accept God's will in our own lives.
The Franciscan approach draws us toward God through creation, beauty, simplicity, and the humanity of Christ. Someone praying this way might linger over the poverty of the stable at Bethlehem or picture Mary holding the newborn Christ.
The Ignatian approach uses the imagination to enter the Gospel scene. What would you have seen at the Crucifixion or heard at the wedding feast at Cana? What might it have been like to stand beside Mary at the empty tomb?
Same Rosary. Same mysteries. Four different doors into them.
Terraccino shares in her book that the Rosary isn't meant to be words we rush through while trying desperately not to get distracted. It is meditation on the life of Christ with Mary. Learning how God has made us to pray may help those familiar mysteries become new again.
A Rosary for Every Heart: Meditations in Four Spiritual Styles offers four reflections for every decade of the Rosary, along with Scripture and practical prayer takeaways to help you discover which approach speaks most naturally to your heart. Find your copy today at The Catholic Company!
