How Becoming a Mom Turned Me into a Rosary-Praying Woman

Shannon Whitmore reflects on the impact Mary and the Rosary have had on her prayer life as a mother.

The Rosary was never my favorite form of prayer. In fact, I used to complain about how repetitive it was. I really struggled to pray it, and I struggled with the fact that the Church held the Rosary in such high regard. It was obvious that the Rosary was a significant form of prayer in the lives of many Catholics, including many saints. If they all upheld the Rosary’s value, who was I to ignore it?

I clung to the fact that the Rosary was not a required form of prayer. You will not go to hell for neglecting to pray the Rosary. Missing a daily Rosary is not a mortal sin. I knew that I was not placing myself in the near occasion of sin by refusing to adopt the Rosary as one of my daily prayer forms. And yet I still wondered if I was missing something.

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Actually, I knew I was missing something. It wasn’t just that I didn’t like the Rosary. I also didn’t have an especially strong relationship with Mary. I just couldn’t figure out how to relate to her. She was perfect, and the Mother of God. And at the time, I was just a single young woman who couldn’t even keep her plants alive. But then everything changed. I became a mother.

Suddenly, I found myself praying to Mary a whole lot more often. I felt hugely unprepared. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I needed all the help I could get—both the earthly and heavenly kind. Mary might have raised the Son of God, but she was still a mother. She knew what it felt like to feed a baby, to soothe an infant in the night, to teach a toddler how to walk and talk.

Mary and I suddenly had a lot more in common.

So I began to talk to Mary more. I imagined myself in her presence, sharing all of my joys and struggles with her. I imagined Mary offering me comfort and support. In the months and years that followed, my relationship with Mary grew and grew. She became a friend, a sister, even a mother to me. And in response, I became a Rosary-praying woman.

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It began simply. My kids were getting to be school-aged, and I knew they could handle a decade of the Rosary every day. So we started with just one decade. After a few months, I realized that we could do more, and week by week, decade by decade, we built up to praying one set of Mysteries a day. Becoming a mother had truly turned me into a Rosary-praying woman.

The Rosary is a powerful weapon, and in the hand of a mother, it can be life-changing. #CatholicMom

In this month of May, I encourage you to start with just a decade of the Rosary, or if you’re already doing that, maybe go for more. The Rosary is a powerful weapon, and in the hand of a mother, it can be life-changing.