The Promise and Power of the Rosary: The Joyful Mysteries

Lindsay Schlegel recaps her own experience of using the new book, The Family That Prays Together Stays Together, to pray the Rosary.

Most weekdays, I pray a decade of the Rosary with my children as I drive them to school. In our routine, this practice comes after a shared morning offering, guardian angel prayer, spiritual communion if the kids don’t have Mass at school that day, and prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.

Some days, it’s a quiet and peaceful experience. Other times, it comes after a rush to get out the door and a frustrating cajoling to get whoever hasn’t led a decade that week to either take his turn or speak up from the back of the car.

Often my mind is somewhere else for at least part of the decade. For one thing, I’m driving, and for another, the prayer is so familiar to me that it can be tough to stay present, especially if I’m not really prepared for what’s coming next in my day. More often I’m thinking of the person I’m offering the prayer for (if I can remember to do that!) than the mystery itself.

The week I included the reflections of Venerable Patrick Peyton and Fr. Willy Raymond in my routine, that changed. What I read in just a few minutes with The Family That Prays Together Stays Together: Discover the Promise and Power of the Rosary with Fr. Patrick Peyton before starting to get the kids ready came back to me when we were in the car a short time later. The scenes of the Joyful Mysteries played more freely in my mind, sometimes with an illuminating emphasis I hadn’t seen on my own. I found myself thinking more of Jesus and His Mother than about what was going on in my day (which is what praying the Rosary is about!).

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Shifting the focus away from myself like that always means a greater sense of peace, more patience, and a stronger willingness to follow the Lord in the little things the day brings. But it can be tough to accomplish on my own.

That Saturday night, my husband and I found ourselves with twenty minutes alone while the kids played with their uncle. We used it to pray a Rosary, again with the Joyful Mysteries, and while I admit my mind still wandered, I called on those reflections again to try to recenter my heart. Even without reading the reflections again, I was grateful to have them to lean on.

I shouldn’t have been surprised that these reflections would make such a difference in my daily prayer. Years ago, I realized that reading the Mass readings the night before made a huge difference in how well I was able to take them in while wrangling small children in the pew. Allowing my mind the space to process that information in a quieter moment helped me to participate when the situation had more going on. The same, I found, is true of the Rosary.

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While I elected to pray these reflections in the morning, rather than at night, they still helped my mind focus and my heart find a sense of rest in the prayer. Certainly a family would benefit from listening to them while praying the Rosary in full or a decade at a time. But to my mind, they’re best suited to a mama heart who wants to reengage with a beautiful prayer she might have started to take for granted, so that she can draw closer to the Lord and guide her children to do the same.

Venerable Patrick Peyton knew very well that all of us (even us mamas!) need our Mama on a daily basis.

Save 20% off the cover price of The Family That Stays Together Prays Together when you purchase the book from the Holy Cross Family Ministries online store. Use coupon code CMROSARY at checkout. This offer expires June 10, 2024.