The Rosary.

The rosary: I don't pray it often because one is supposed to concentrate on the mysteries, which is difficult for me, unless I use a guide of some sort. So, for those who face the same problem, I recommend two things. One is the book The Complete Rosary: A Guide to Praying the Mysteries and the other is a scriptural rosary.

The book The Complete Rosary has been quite a help to me in that the author, William George Storey, gives a brief history of the rosary, and instructs one on the meaning and purpose of it. The most helpful aid to my meditation has been using the phrases he suggests as inserts into the Hail Mary's, between "Jesus" and "Holy Mary". For example, if one is praying the Joyful Mystery of the Annunciation, one might say the following:

"Hail Mary, Full of Grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus,
Who was conceived at the message of an angel.
Holy Mary, mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now, and at the hour of our death."

Check out the preview on Amazon. It's a great book, and I highly recommend it!

A scriptural rosary is a rosary prayed with both the traditional prayers of the rosary and Scripture verses. I have developed my own, and offer it to you, my reading public (assuming I still have one) beginning with my next blog post.

Updates:

Scriptural rosary, introductory prayers here.

Scriptural rosary, first mystery here.

Scriptural rosary, second mystery here.

Scriptural rosary, third mystery here.

Scriptural rosary, fourth mystery here.

Scriptural rosary, fifth mystery here.