Personal Rosary
In the rosary, we meditate on the mysteries of Christ and His mother. The Virgin Mary shares in the joy of His coming and the suffering of His passion and death. She is present in the major moments of His life and was raised to join Him in glory at her passing. The rosary is a reflection on His life in Scripture, her life of absolute faithfulness, and our own lives imitating them in communion with His Bride, the Church. This book is a collection of personal prayers for deeper meditation on the mysteries. Where The Scriptural Rosary follows the life of Christ in Scripture, The Personal Rosary meditates on our lives following Him. As we pray to “imitate what [these mysteries] contain”, we focus our meditation on how we can take up our crosses in daily sacrificial love for God and one another.
Why The Personal Rosary
Bishop Joseph E. Strickland Foreword
by His Excellency Joseph E. Strickland Bishop of the Diocese of Tyler, TX I am pleased to be able to offer this Foreword for Patrick Yanke’s book, “The Personal Rosary”. Praying the Rosary has become a dynamic part of my prayer life in the last several years that continues to develop and grow. The title Patrick has chosen for his book on the Rosary is very descriptive and to my mind very important. It evokes two dimensions of “personal” that I believe are essential if we wish to pray the Rosary in the way Our Blessed Mother and her Son Jesus Christ want it to be incorporated into our faith journey.
The Rosary
Prayer isn’t always about the words we say, but rather the spirit and heart we bring to our prayers (CCC 2562). The words may change when we approach His throne of mercy and grace but not the spirit behind the words. In the Rosary, the main prayers are important elements but our focus is on the mysteries we contemplate. Touching the beads, our attention is not just on the repetition of our words but deep in meditation on the mysteries before us. We engage all of our senses. May the reflections given with each mystery help deepen an understanding of the life of Christ in each of us.
Prayer
Begin and end with the sign of the Cross—the sign of Christ’s love for us.
Dedication
“There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”
Growing up in a regimented home run by a police officer and a doctor, I gained an early appreciation for discipline, education, and hard work. Since both careers required them to be out of the house at all hours of the day, I also learned to be very independent at an early age as a type of latchkey kid. It wasn’t uncommon for my brother, sister, and I to prepare ourselves for school, ride our bikes to and from, and then amuse ourselves in the afternoon until adult supervision arrived. We made our own meals and had to be self-starters in our school work. This was all before the age of ten.
