The Rosary: The Best Prayer for Men

October 21, 2014

Devotion to Our Lady may not seem an intuitive thing for some Catholic men. Growing up, I’d occasionally catch my father as he finished praying the Rosary early on Saturday mornings (begun in peace when the rest of us were asleep), or notice he’d left his handsome set of beads lying out on a coffee table. I had the blessing of his example. Other men know their fathers have placed a Rosary in their locker at work (try and find a Catholic firefighter who doesn’t have either a Rosary or a saint’s medal) or even just keep one in their pocket, where from time to time they’ll pause and touch the beads. But for those men who haven’t “seen” or “heard,” how do we make sense of the Rosary as a manly devotion?

1. The Rosary is covert. A fierce point of intimidation of being a man of faith in our culture is the fear that we will amount to being hypocrites (and we know how much Jesus loved that…). In the face of our own weakness, we want to be authentic about who we are, what we’re capable of, and what we believe. Rather than broadcasting or projecting a false image of ourselves as mighty saints, men prefer to keep things on the down low. The problem is this principle of authenticity—which is truly noble—can be our undoing. When we’re not grounded in something solid, we’ll drift away. We’re not all called to some kind of grandiose witness, like martyrdom or preaching, but we do need to be faithful. The Rosary offers a structured program for building up the foundation of faith in our souls in secret, so that when the storms come our hearts will be strong enough to be true.

2. The Rosary arms us for spiritual warfare. The fact of the matter is that spiritual life is war (cf.CCC 2725). St. Paul puts it this way, “For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). To contend in the battle, we must put on the armor of Light (Rom. 13:12)! Dominican friars wear the Rosary on the left side, the side which bore the sword for knights of old. In the battle of the spiritual life, prayer is the only weapon, and it must be used. Frequently. Unceasingly. Devotion to the Rosary reclaimed the life of the 19th-century Italian lawyer Bartolo Longo (who had become entrapped in the world of the occult and often dreamt of taking his own life), and without a doubt, devotion to the Rosary will help us overcome the evils which plague us. The temptations and cycles of sin of the 21st century do not own us, for the Rosary narrates the greatest conquest of all time: the victory of life and light over sin and death.

3. The Rosary sanctifies our contemplative side. Like fixing things around the house, solving crises at work or otherwise designing and building, men love to muse over problems. I’ve heard it said before that during time set aside for prayer people should clear their minds, so that they can be totally focused on God. That seems unnatural to me. It’s been my experience that God wants us to set before Him the mess and mud of our lives, not hide it from Him. This is the very glory of Christianity—the Incarnational principle—that God would condescend to our world and sanctify it, lift it up to Him. The mysteries of the Rosary lead us to think and reflect on the stuff of our lives, while simultaneously giving us an opportunity to hand our struggles over to the Lord. When we reflect on the mysteries of the Rosary, we join our lives to Christ’s. By praying the Rosary, God pierces the hardened shell of our hearts and opens up a place for Him. He will speak to us, to the problems of our own lives, through the Rosary.

4. Jesus says so. Ever since second-grade religion class, Jesus is usually the right answer. Without getting all theological, we can simply say: men should pray the Rosary because He told us to. From the Cross Jesus tells St. John, “Behold your Mother!” (Jn. 19:27). That command to “behold” is not St. John’s alone—it’s ours, too. To behold, to take in, to bask in, to be attentive to, to delight in: this is the command. Through Mary’s intercession at the Cross and in the Rosary, Jesus arranges that the treasury of graces associated with His Immaculate Mother may be opened to us and poured out on us. But we’re left to seek her, to behold her.

This post originally appeared at Dominicana. It is reprinted with permission.

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Br. Patrick Mary Briscoe, O.P.

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  1. Connor Rutter says

    You often mention that we men should pray the Rosary, but I don’t think you have published an article on how to actually pray the rosary (not that I’ve seen anyway). Perhaps more men would pray it if they new how?

  2. Mike Ford says

    Every one of these is true. The Rosary is inspired by God, indeed. I challenge anyone who doesn’t pray it every day to do so and put your heart into it. If you pray it daily and don’t simply go through the motions, it will change your prayer life, change your inner life as a result and then change your outer world as a result of that. There is a sequence to thriving in life that is built into spiritual law and the Rosary unlocks it.

  3. C B Freyre says

    For beginners or if you want to pray hands-free (like I do, it frees my hands for driving or housework) there are rosary podcasts on iTunes. Even though it’s only 20mins I had struggled to make it a daily practice, now I can work it into my day more easily. I like the Rosary Army “RosaryCast.”

  4. Rob says

    The most helpful thing for me in praying the Rosary are 1) learn the prayers and sets of mysteries well enough you can recall them freely and at any time of day and, 2) JUST DO IT. Trust me, the more effort you put into the Rosary the more you’ll get out of it. I’ve found the Rosary to be an extremely interactive prayer, and it seems almost every time I pray it I get some new insight or pebble of wisdom to carry with me. Find a way to pray it which works best for you then make a daily commitment to it. And don’t forget to offer your intentions to our Blessed Mother!

  5. Greg Biltz says

    Although twice your age I love your mind. Your reflections resonate. check out mysteriesoftherosary.org I think it complements your approach. I would love to add your reflections to that site.

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