Exploring the Mysteries of the Rosary

Friday, Sep. 12, 2025

“The greatest method of praying is to pray the rosary. It is a method filled with holy simplicity yet profound power.” 

So said Saint Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists and a Doctor of the Church. He is only one of a multitude of saints who promote the rosary as an excellent way to pray.

I, however, struggle with praying the rosary. Certainly, I can recite the Our Father and Hail Mary prayers without difficulty, but the very repetitiveness sends my thoughts wandering to worldly things even as my lips repeat the prayers.

Nevertheless, I keep trying, and recently found a way to keep my mind better fixed on the mysteries of the rosary as I repeat the prayers for each set. This method comes from the “Rosary in a Year” podcast, which I wrote about in January.

The podcast, with Father Mark-Mary Ames, CFR, explores each mystery of the rosary in depth and in different ways – not only lecture but lectio divina and visio divina as well. 

Part of my problem with the rosary is that since childhood I’ve had this image of the Virgin Mother as a spotless ivory statue on a pedestal, which is how she’s often portrayed. The statues and artwork I grew up with showed a slender young woman, almost always blonde, who was nothing but submissive and who never showed any hint of emotion except perhaps a single tear rolling down a flawless cheek – not someone who could relate to my tempestuous self if I tried to take my trials and tribulations to her in prayer.

As I’ve grown older and delved deeper into the faith I’ve changed my perception of Mary, but I still struggle against the image ingrained from my youth, so having Fr. Mark-Mary expound on Our Mother has helped me see her as a human being who must have struggled with life in many of the same ways I do, even though she was sinless and possessed perfect faith.

At the Annunciation, for example, Fr. Mark Mary points out that Mary is troubled and questions the angel. The Bible tells us this, but I tend to overlook her very human response, because of course she, the perfect one, said yes. However, the podcast points out that Mary had a choice, using a poignant selection from St. Bernard of Clairvaux: “The price of our salvation is being offered you. If you consent, we shall immediately be set free. … Doleful Adam and his unhappy offspring, exiled from Paradise, implore you, kind Virgin, to give this answer …”

St. Bernard goes on to ask, “Why do you delay? Why be afraid? … This is not the moment for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. …”

The podcast also gave me a visual image that helped me see Mary in a relatable way. Among the paintings provided for visio divina is “The Annunciation” by Henry Ossawa Tanner. Unlike the artwork that I grew up with, which invariably showed Our Lady as a confident blonde noblewoman in sumptuous surroundings, Tanner’s painting shows dark-haired teenager in a modest room whose body language reflects uncertainty. To me, this image is closer than any other I’ve ever seen to how the Bible describes Mary: a poor young Jewish woman, probably barely out of childhood, who needed the angel’s reassurance to not be afraid.

Having all of these thoughts and images to choose from when I pray the first Joyful Mystery of the rosary helps keep my thoughts focused. Fr. Mark Mary says that the Virgin Mother is a model for us, and encourages us to “pray for perfect faith, perfect trust, perfect confidence” such as Our Mother showed. Toward this end, I’ve made a daily prayer from some words by St. Bernard, which he addressed to Mary but which I address to myself. He said that Jesus was knocking at the door, and urges, “Get up, run, open! Get up by faith, run by prayer, open by consent!”

Amen.