In October, we celebrate the Month of the Holy Rosary. The Church, in her wisdom, has dedicated this time for the faithful to focus on growing in intimacy with Jesus and His Blessed Mother through this powerful prayer.

However, if you’re anything like me, your relationship with the Rosary has gone through different seasons. As a Catholic child, I was bored by—and dreaded—a prayer that felt like it lasted an eternity. In college on a Catholic campus, I was plagued by guilt and spiritual comparison for not being someone who prayed a daily Rosary or spoke openly about finding great consolation in it.

However, by God’s grace, I can confidently say I have learned to love the Rosary. This growth did not happen overnight, nor am I someone who prays it consistently every single day. But the Rosary has become a regular part of my prayer and has helped me grow significantly in my relationship with Jesus and Mary.

If you are someone who wants to grow in your love of the Rosary, here are some practical tips, tricks, and ideas which have helped me. 

Let the Beads Lead You in Prayer

I took a theology class in college dedicated solely to the study of Mary, and I remember the professor boldly claiming that if the majority of the population prayed a daily Rosary, the rates of mental illness would plummet. He was alluding to the fact that there is something mentally calming and therapeutic about the nature, structure, and particularly the repetition, of the Rosary.

This is even more true when you add in the manual component of thumbing through Rosary beads. Other religions have similar forms of prayer because it works! If you are trying to adopt a habit of praying the Rosary more consistently, treat yourself to an actual, beautiful Rosary. There are also many beautiful Rosary bracelets and Rosary rings that can make praying the Rosary on the go easier.

This is not to say that praying on your fingers isn’t legitimate, or that you can use your lack of a Rosary as an excuse to not pray one. After all, God gave us ten fingers for a reason! But sometimes the physical use of a Rosary can help lead us, through its beauty and physicality, into greater intimacy with Jesus. 

Don’t Let Interruptions Stop You

Personally, I know one of my biggest deterrents to starting a Rosary is often the fear of interruption—either external, with the demands of my state in life, or internal, with my own distracted thoughts.

However, we should never let the fear of not finishing be a reason for never starting a Rosary. In fact, many Saints have claimed that any Rosary started is sure to be finished for us by a member of the heavenly court.

Whether you get one decade in before the baby wakes up, or four decades in before your mind wanders and you forget you were even attempting such a thing, our merciful Lord loves us and sees our heart’s intentions. Jesus understands, in a human way, the reality of daily life. Even a few minutes spent in the presence of Him and His Mother is better than nothing!

Get to Know the Mysteries

Between the Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious, and Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, the Church has given us the ability to meditate and reflect on so much of the life of Christ and so many important events of Salvation History. Learning which mysteries belong to which days, and praying the Rosary accordingly, can help shake up any monotony we may feel when praying it. Spending time with Jesus and His Mother in these significant events—either in our imagination or by meditating on a piece of artwork—is a sure-fire way to grow in intimacy with them. 

The more familiar we become with the mysteries, the more they can become a place we return to again and again, bringing our own lives and intentions into the story of Christ.

Switch Up How You Pray 

Obviously, you can’t switch up much of the actual structure of the Rosary. But you can play around with different ways to pray it in your daily life.

Maybe one day you focus on the mysteries of that day. There are also fruits of the mysteries that you can focus your prayer on. Maybe you could focus on a particular intention for a Rosary, or offer each decade for a different intention. You could also try listening along to it on an audio version.

The Rosary is a great tool in our prayer life, and as our prayer life is nothing other than our living relationship with God, it ought not grow too stagnant. Trying new and different  ways of praying can help enliven that relationship and keep the Rosary from becoming monotonous or something we simply pray out of habit. 

Make the Rosary Part of Your Ordinary Life

At the end of the day, if you want to grow in your love of the Rosary, you need to actually start praying it. So consider what will help you most develop the habit.

I have found that accountability is immensely helpful. One Lent, I prayed a daily Rosary with my husband, and having that checkpoint helped the habit stay strong. Ask a friend or roommate to join you in the endeavor and hold you accountable.

Try habit-stacking a Rosary onto a part of your day that is already set, like a morning commute or a run. My grandma-in-law would pray one Rosary for every state she drove through on a road trip. An elderly neighbor down the street consistently goes on his morning walk with a Rosary swinging by his side. I pray a Rosary (or at least a few decades!) at the foot of my toddler’s bed every night while he falls asleep.

Obviously, as in all things, we need to be gentle and forgiving with ourselves, as there will always be days we fall short of our aspirations. But we also need to put ourselves in positions to succeed by developing a prayer habit that fits naturally into the rhythms of our ordinary lives.

The Rosary is not only a powerful spiritual weapon capable of great intercession, but also a tender gift to us. I know personally that its consistency and structure have led me to deep contemplation of the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Meditating on their lives has helped me come to deeper union with them in the ins and outs of my own daily life.

There is great grace available to us in the Rosary, and I hope that you can dive into its goodness and depth. 

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!