When I was young, my family owned an illustrated Lives of the Saints book. On the cover was a black and white picture of a young girl. I remember flipping through the book one night, trying to find the picture of the girl in the pages of the book so I could read her story. I found the image and read the emboldened name on top of the page: Thérèse of Lisieux. Is St. Thérèse Really that Special? After seeing more pictures of her, I realized this was the same girl who I saw statues of in churches. But she was older and usually wearing a habit and holding roses. It was my first time seeing images of her as a young girl and the first time I read her story. I am embarrassed to say now, but as I began reading, I quickly became annoyed. “Why was she a Saint? And what did she do to deserve that title?” I put down the book, but I was unable to stop thinking of her. Looking back at this memory, I see how erroneous I was in my thinking. Since reading her story, almost two decades ago, this beautiful Saint in heaven has interceded for me, guided me, and protected me. Through reading her autobiography, taking her on as my confirmation Saint, visiting her hometown of Lisieux, and experiencing a miracle through her intercession (more on that below), this little Saint clearly showed me not only why she was a Saint, but as Saint Pius X called her, “the greatest Saint of modern times.” St. Thérèse and Merciful Love This past year, my husband Mike and I read the book 33 Days to Merciful Love by Michael E. Gaitley, MIC. This book is a retreat that culminates in a consecration to Jesus’ Divine Mercy through the intercession of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. The retreat led us through the theology of Thérèse’s Offering to Merciful Love (something I never knew existed prior to reading Gaitley’s book!). This book changed our lives. It strengthened our relationship with Jesus, showed us the meaning of mercy, and taught us that Heaven is obtainable. Thérèse’s profound teachings of mercy and love echo Jesus’ teachings found within the Gospel. 3 Lessons I Learned From Thérèse’s Consecration To Merciful Love Thérèse is the youngest Doctor of our Church and considered to be the Doctor of Merciful Love. I don’t know about you, but prior to reading “33 Days to Merciful Love”, I never equated Saint Thérèse to mercy. I always thought of her doctrine of the “Little Way.” Yet after learning more, I discovered that Thérèse’s Little Way is in fact, a revelation of Jesus’ Divine Mercy. Here's what I learned: 1. I can become a Saint. Thérèse’s doctrine of the Little Way describes that the more humble we become, the smaller we become, the greater God becomes in our life. Thérèse placed her complete and total confidence in Jesus. She realized that true humility is the awareness of littleness. This complete awareness of her littleness, her awareness of her weaknesses and imperfections, gave her complete confidence in becoming a great Saint. 2. Purgatory can be avoided. For my entire life, I had the mindset of, “I hope I at least make it to purgatory.” After learning more about Thérèse’s Offering to Merciful Love, I discovered the profound reality that purgatory can be avoided. And more so, that talking about purgatory in the way that I did, actually hurt our Lord. Why? Saint Thérèse responds: You do a great injury to God in believing you’re going to purgatory. When we love, we can’t go there. With the hope of “just making it to purgatory,” I wasn’t fully trusting in God’s mercy. When a fellow novice told her she feared purgatory, Thérèse said: You do not have enough trust. You have too much fear before the good God. I can assure you that He is grieved over this. You should not fear purgatory because of the suffering there, but should instead ask that you not deserve to go there in order to please God, Who so reluctantly imposes this punishment. As soon as you try to please Him in everything and have an unshakeable trust He purifies you every moment in His love and He lets no sin remain. And then you can be sure that you will not have to go to purgatory. St. Thérèse believed that after consecrating her life to Jesus’ Merciful Love, after placing her complete and total confidence in God’s promise of mercy, she could go straight to Heaven. With this same confidence and trust, we can too. 3. Ask for the Mercy the world has rejected. Thérèse felt called to consecrate herself to Jesus’ Merciful Love. She wrote an eleven-paragraph prayer that offered herself to the Heart of Jesus by accepting all the Merciful Love that other souls rejected. Thérèse recited this prayer daily and knew that through the Offering, she was consoling Jesus by letting Him love her. She realized that Jesus’ love, His Merciful Love, was pouring into her heart through the act of her consecration and making her into a great Saint. Through reciting Thérèse’s prayer, and asking for the mercy that people in the world have rejected, I too am consoling Christ’s heart. My St. Thérèse Miracle I was blessed to study abroad in college. One weekend, three of my friends and I travelled to Lisieux, France to visit Saint Thérèse’s hometown. It was a beautiful little pilgrimage. I purchased some pictures of her (one of them being the same black and white image of young Thérèse I had first seen on the cover of the book when I was younger). My friends and I returned to our classes after our weekend in Lisieux with our hearts full of love for Thérèse. Yet sad news on the campus where we studied awaited us. One of our dear professors shared with us that his wife had miscarried. He stood in front of our class, at the podium, weeping as he told us the news, a place where just weeks prior he had announced with us the joyful news of her pregnancy. My heart was pierced with sorrow for this man, a man totally and completely in love with his wife and child in Heaven. I knew that nothing I could do would fully console their hearts. But I knew I had to do something. A Shower of Roses I said a little prayer, and the next day before class I decided to walk to the town’s local flower shop and bring some flowers to him to give to his wife. I looked around and saw yellow roses—the most beautiful bouquet I had ever seen. While I never choose yellow roses (I always go for the white!), I couldn’t leave the shop without them. Once back on campus, I found an envelope, and inside I placed the picture of Saint Thérèse as a young child I had purchased in Lisieux. I wrote a note to them, signing it Claire Frances. I never sign my middle name (Frances) when writing notes. But for some reason, I did that day. I got to class a little early, and walked up to the professor and handed him the yellow roses and the envelope. The classroom began filling up with my fellow students, and I saw the professor standing at a window in the front of the room with his back towards us, reading my card to him. I will never forget what happened next. I carry this memory in my heart, always. He slowly walked up to the podium with tears rolling down his face. He said he and his wife had been praying a novena to St. Thérèse and that today was the ninth day, the last day of the novena. In the novena, they had asked St. Thérèse for a yellow rose if the child was a girl, and that they had named her Faustina Claire Frances. 🌹 Pray with the Little Flower The St. Therese of Lisieux Rosary Beautifully made to last through years of prayer, and a meaningful gift for a confirmation, birthday, or any friend who loves the Little Flower or Our Lady. Shop the Rosary → Cling to His Merciful Love Sisters, Heaven is real, the Saints are real. They are continually interceding for us. They desire for us to be in Heaven with them. Become friends with St. Thérèse, this beautiful Doctor of Mercy. You will experience her powerful presence in your life as she teaches you the gospel message, the message of mercy and love. And in turn you will spread that message to the world. What areas of your life are in need of merciful love today? This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase by clicking through one of these links, Blessed is She will receive a small percentage of your purchase at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting this ministry by using our affiliate links!

The last six months have been a liturgical whirlwind. Advent sprinted by and ran headlong into Christmas morning. After only five short weeks of Lent, we were thrust into the contemplative season of Lent. As always, those forty days, which always seem like an endless amount of time, abruptly plopped me at the threshold of Holy Week and finally of his triumphant conquering of the forces of death and sin with his Resurrection. Seven more weeks of Easter celebrations and beautiful feasts Goodness gracious, I’m sure what comes next is going to be even more magnificent! And Then Comes Ordinary Time And then it hits me: Ordinary Time. Twenty-nine weeks of Ordinary Time. You’ve got to be kidding. What am I supposed to do with “ordinary” after everything I’ve been through in the past six months? I already put up with the hum-drum of ordinary in my everyday life. Now, I’m supposed to be ordinary in the life of the Church as well? Sheesh…how many more days until Advent? St. Therese and the Little Way But this, my friends, is a magnificent season. In fact, one of the greatest saints of our time, St. Therese of Lisieux, became an extraordinary witness to the importance and sanctity of the ordinary. Speaking of her famous life practice, known as the Little Way, St. Therese remarks that “in [the] little way, there are only ordinary things.” Yeah, okay, but aren’t we called to do big things? To bring Jesus single-handedly to every single person on this earth? To save the world with our Catholic super powers? But St. Therese continues, “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” Ah, there’s the key. In all of the grandiose liturgical seasons we just experienced, were we not given an example of Christ’s great love? And wasn’t this love also shown in small ways? Indeed, our savior, our God, was born in a poor little stable to make manifest for us his incomprehensible and immense love, which culminated in his total gift of self for us, out of that love, on the cross. Love Is Our True Super Power What, then, is our true super power? It is love. It is practiced in the littleness of Ordinary Time just as much as in the grandness of Advent and Easter. As we transverse (for an extraordinary amount of time) into this new liturgical season, let’s commit to practicing St. Therese’s little way, which she says “is the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute self-surrender.” It’s the way of letting that mom and her screaming child go in front of us in the check-out line. It’s the way of cheerfully interacting with that coworker. It’s the way of joyfully helping our friend finish that stressful project. Making Ordinary Time Extraordinary It is a time to practice. Let’s use this Ordinary Time to practice love, the very virtue that God has displayed for us so magnificently since the first Sunday of Advent. Following St. Therese’s example, we have the ability to make this Ordinary Time truly extraordinary with little acts of love. St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us. 🌹 Pray with the Little Flower The St. Therese of Lisieux Rosary Beautifully made to last through years of prayer, and a meaningful gift for a confirmation, birthday, or any friend who loves the Little Flower or Our Lady. Shop the Rosary → Meghan Perks

The Lord raises up Saints tailored to their time. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux's childlike spirituality challenges three false philosophies of recent history.

“Nothing was missing, not even the snow!” These are the words from Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, spoken on the day when she received the Carmelite habit. Where did this love of snow come from? Perhaps it is because I was a little winter flower, and the first adornment with which my eyes beheld nature clothed was its white mantle. I had always wished that on the day I received the Habit, nature would be adorned in white just like me. Therese was born on January 2, 1873 and is sometimes referred to as Saint Thérèse of the Little Flower. Deep in this season of winter, I thought it would be a good time to take a look into her autobiography, Story of a Soul, to better understand why. Jesus’ Garden Saint Thérèse often used flowers and gardens as imagery for the spiritual life. She writes about how we are each a flower in Jesus’ garden. In order to flourish, a garden must have someone to tend to it, to take care of it. Flowers do not all grow at the same speed, nor to the same height. Yet the speed of growth and the size of a flower are not what matter most. A garden is planted to be enjoyed, not for the sake of utility. Thérèse reminds us that Jesus enjoys us. He isn’t asking us to measure up to those we see at our right or at our left. He simply asks us to accept His will. Jesus deigned to teach me this mystery. He set before me the book of nature; I understood how all the flowers He has created are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the Lily do not take away the perfume of the little violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wild flowers. And so it is in the world of souls, Jesus’ garden. He willed to create great souls comparable to Lilies and roses, but He has created smaller ones and these must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God’s glances when He looks down at his feet. Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be. Winters of Trial Thérèse was born into a beautiful, loving family. Her parents and sisters were devoted to her and even she admits to being very spoiled. Yet despite a charming childhood, she did endure much suffering as well. She reflected on her mother’s passing, writing: Everything truly smiled upon me on this earth: I found flowers under each of my steps and my happy disposition contributed much to making life pleasant, but a new period was about to commence for my soul... Just as the flowers of spring begin to grow under the snow and to expand in the first rays of the sun, so the little flower whose memories I am writing had to pass through the winter of trial. When writing about the absence of her spiritual director, who only communicated to her with one letter each year (to her twelve) she says, The little flower transplanted to Mount Carmel was to expand under the shadow of the cross. Despite both the big and small sufferings which came her way, she chose to embrace them rather than just endure them. She understood that redemption was found through great suffering. It was almost as if suffering was her love language to the Lord, and in loving Him in this way, her soul was expanding. Yes, my Beloved, this is how my life will be consumed. I have no other means of proving my love for you other than that of strewing flowers, that is, not allowing one little sacrifice to escape, not one look, one word, profiting by all the smallest things and doing them through love. I desire to suffer for love and even to rejoice through love; and in this way I shall strew flowers before Your throne. I shall not come upon one without unpetalling it for You. While I am strewing my flowers, I shall sing, for could one cry while doing such a joyous action? I shall sing even when I must gather my flowers in the midst of thorns, and my song will be all the more melodious in proportions to the length and sharpness of the thorns. Throwing Flowers There is a line by Thérèse which I just love to imagine! She writes about her love for feast days. As a child, she especially loved those which honored the Blessed Sacrament with a Eucharistic Procession. I love her childlike wonder and joy! What a joy it was for me to throw flowers beneath the feet of God! Before allowing them to fall to the ground, I threw them as high as I could and I was never so happy as when I saw my roses touch the monstrance. She also recognizes Jesus’ pursuit of her, never failing to allure her through what He knows will bring her heart great joy. You know, dear Mother, how much I love flowers; when making myself a prisoner at the age of fifteen, I gave up forever the pleasure of running through fields decked out in their springtime treasures. Well, never in my life did I possess so many flowers as after my entrance into Carmel. It is the custom for fiances to often give their fiancees bouquets and Jesus didn’t forget it. He sent me in great abundance sheaves of cornflowers, huge daisies, poppies, etc., all the flowers that delighted me the most. There was even a little flower called a corncockle that I had never found since our stay at Lisieux; I wanted very much to see it again, that flower of my childhood which I had picked in the fields of Alencon. And at Carmel it came to smile at me again and show me that in the smallest things as well as the greatest, God gives the hundredfold in this life to those souls who leave everything for love of Him. As a child, my mother taught me to look out for how God is showing up in my life. How beautiful it is to be aware of how Jesus desires to delight us and smile upon us. For my mother, it is seeing a red cardinal. For me, it is a rainbow stretching across the sky. 🌹 Pray with the Little Flower The St. Therese of Lisieux Rosary Beautifully made to last through years of prayer, and a meaningful gift for a confirmation, birthday, or any friend who loves the Little Flower or Our Lady. Shop the Rosary → How does Jesus smile upon you?

I remember the first time I prayed an entire Rosary. I was twelve-and-a-half years old, and I had no idea what I was doing. My baby sister was just born with a slew of medical issues that no one had anticipated. My grandparents came to stay with my other siblings and me while Mom and Dad were at the hospital with her. When they arrived, they immediately sat down in the family room with my younger sister, my brother, and myself. They handed each of us a brand new Rosary. “It’s time to pray,” they said. “The Blessed Mother will help us.” So we prayed. Right there in the family room, before they even unloaded their suitcases. My siblings and I knew the individual prayers of the Rosary. The Our Father (or Lord's Prayer), the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be were part of our bedtime routines. And sure, we’d seen Rosaries before and even owned a couple ourselves. But as we all sat together united in prayer for the baby sister we had yet to meet, I knew that this prayer was unlike any I ever prayed before. What is the Rosary, Anyway? The Rosary might look like a fancy necklace, but it is so much more. For centuries, people of faith have used everything from paths of stones to knotted ropes to strings of beads to keep track of their prayers. And that’s exactly what the Rosary does for us! Made up of 59 beads, Rosaries also usually have a crucifix and a Marian medal. It is a sacramental that helps us keep track of the number of prayers we have said as we meditate on the lives of Christ and His mother, Mary. How Does the Rosary Deepen Our Prayer Life? How does praying the Hail Mary over 50 times help us grow closer to Jesus? Because knowing, loving, and communing with Him is the ultimate goal of prayer, right? I think Pope St. John Paul II said it best: Although the repeated Hail Mary is addressed directly to Mary, it is to Jesus that the act of love is ultimately directed, with her and through her. The repetition is nourished by the desire to be conformed ever more completely to Christ. At the end of His life, Jesus gave us His Mother to be our Mother, too. It's her deepest desire that we know her Son more and more. In our meditation on and recitation of the Rosary, we ask our Blessed Mother to bring our intentions and our very selves closer to the Heart of Jesus. And we all know that Jesus listens to His mother, right? Just ask the guests of the Wedding of Cana! 📿 Make It a Daily Habit Find Your Perfect Rosary From the Blessed Mother to St. Therese, St. Joseph, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, our rosaries are made to pray for your intentions every day. Shop All Rosaries → How to Pray the Rosary How do we pray the Rosary? Let’s take it step-by-step and bead-by-bead. Make the Sign of the Cross. While holding the crucifix, recite the Apostles’ Creed. On the first bead, recite the Our Father. On the next three beads, recite the Hail Mary (one per bead). In the space after the third Hail Mary bead, recite the Glory Be. On the next single bead, begin the first full decade. You will announce the first Mystery of the day (more on that below) and prayerfully consider it. Then, pray the Our Father. On the next cluster of 10 beads (or decade), pray one Hail Mary per bead. In the space after that decade, pray a Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer. Continue in this pattern for the next four decades as you move counter-clockwise around the Rosary. Announce and contemplate each Mystery, pray an Our Father, pray 10 Hail Marys, then finish the decade with a Glory Be. After all 5 decades have been said, conclude by praying the Hail, Holy Queen. Close with the Sign of the Cross. The Mysteries of the Rosary On each day of the week, we meditate on different Mysteries of the Rosary. The Mysteries are highlights of the events in the life of Jesus and His Church. The Joyful Mysteries We pray the Joyful Mysteries on Mondays and Saturdays. The Annunciation The Visitation The Nativity of the Lord The Presentation in the Temple The Finding of Jesus in the Temple The Luminous Mysteries We pray the Luminous Mysteries on Thursdays. The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan The Wedding Feast at Cana The Proclamation of the Kingdom The Transfiguration The Institution of the Eucharist The Sorrowful Mysteries We pray the Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesdays and Fridays. The Agony in the Garden The Scourging at the Pillar The Crowning with Thorns The Carrying of the Cross The Crucifixion The Glorious Mysteries We pray the Glorious Mysteries on Sundays and Wednesdays. The Resurrection The Ascension The Descent of the Holy Spirit The Assumption The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth To dive deeper into the spirituality and meaning of each Mystery, look here. We made a How to Pray the Rosary graphic just for you!   {formbuilder:MTAwOTI2} Cultivating the Habit of Praying the Rosary Making a habit of saying that many prayers each day may seem overwhelming if you aren’t used to it! Just to be clear, praying the Rosary every day is not a requirement of the Catholic faithful. It is an act of devotion. But anyone who has prayed the Rosary consistently for any length of time will regale you with testimonies about its power and the graces that accompany it. If you would like to begin to incorporate the Rosary into your daily prayer, here are some helpful tips, tricks, and resources: Many Hail Marys at a Time // The Rosary is prayed here, live, every day at 7:45 a.m. eastern time. Find a Rosary podcast, playlist, or app // I like this recording by the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Start small // Begin by just saying one decade a day (an Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, and a Glory Be). Then, work your way up to pray an entire Rosary! Don’t go it alone // Find a prayer partner and commit to praying together. This could be your spouse, your children, or a friend! Encourage one another in your journey with Christ. Growing in Love for the Rosary I won’t say that my relationship with the Rosary has been fully committed since the day my grandparents placed the purple beads into my hands. There have been weeks, even months, that have passed without me picking up my Rosary and praying with it. But Mother Mary is always there, always waiting with love to carry us to her Son. Pray with her, love her, and let her be a mother to you, too, through this beautiful prayer. Your heart will be glad you did. What questions do you have about how to pray the Rosary?   Join us over in our app for a live weekday Rosary at 11am ET! Our new Blessed Is She Rosaries have arrived! Get yours here! [bctt tweet="How to Pray the Rosary #BISblog //" username="blessedisshe__"] MARY SHOWS US THE WAY Just as a mother might pass on a beloved family tradition to her daughters, Mary shares the recipe for growing in virtue with us. This study on Mary's Virtues will breathe new life into your everyday, beginning right in Mary's home. GET HOME STUDY

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: I am far from perfect at praying the Rosary daily. I put my worldly obligations and my messy kitchen and Instagram before the Rosary again and again and again…But our Mama is patient with me, and I’m getting better. I have gotten better. One simple little trick has made the days I do pray the Rosary outweigh the days I don’t, and that’s the reason I’m writing this post. Not because I am perfect at it, but because the success of implementing this one thing made me wonder: how do other Catholic women make praying the Rosary a daily habit? Why Should We Pray a Daily Rosary? But first, why pray the rosary in the first place, let alone daily? We are so busy, doing very good things. In some seasons of life, setting aside 15-20 minutes for contemplative prayer truly feels next to impossible. Sisters, the reasons we are called to pray the rosary daily could fill an entire book, so I’ll keep it simple. It’s because Our Blessed Mother asks us to. In each one of her apparitions that have been approved by the Vatican, she has implored the world to pray the Rosary. The Promises of Our Lady to Those Who Faithfully Pray the Rosary She even made fifteen beautiful promises to those who pray the Rosary faithfully. These were revealed to St. Dominic, and then to Blessed Alan de la Roche. They are: Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies. It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for Eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means! The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. (Referring to perishing in hell) Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven. You shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death. All who recite the Rosary are my Sons, and brothers of my Only Son Jesus Christ. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination. The Rosary is Fuel for Our Souls What promises for a time such as this! If you have never tried to pray the Rosary daily, there is no better day to start than today. Yes, today. You don’t need to have the perfect plan, the perfect time slot, or even the perfect Rosary (though if you don’t have one, you can find a beautiful one that was custom-made for the Blessed is She community here). I encourage you to ask for Mary’s special graces to make it happen during this month, in which we honor Mary as Our Lady of the Rosary, especially. 📿 Make It a Daily Habit Find Your Perfect Rosary From the Blessed Mother to St. Therese, St. Joseph, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, our rosaries are made to pray for your intentions every day. Shop All Rosaries → How Catholic Women Pray the Rosary I asked Catholic women on Instagram how they make praying the Rosary a daily habit. I found myself so inspired by the different ways our sisters prioritize this prayer in the midst of their busy lives. How encouraging is it to know that we are all in this together, drawing closer to Our Lord through His Blessed Mother and interceding for these promises, from armor against hell to a flourishing of good works?! My Quick Tip... Before we dive into their wisdom, I’d love to share that simple trick that has worked for me: downloading a Rosary podcast (I use A Rosary Companion and like the Spoken + Ambient Music versions. But there are many options out there!). I’m in and out of the car often throughout the day and love listening to podcasts, which is why I think this has worked for me. I always queue up the Rosary when I get into the car, before listening to anything else. I’m a rule-follower to a fault, and making this particular rule has been so fruitful! Here are some more amazing tips and tricks for building the Rosary into your day. Pray a Little Bit at a Time “When we say the rosary, I like to imagine that we are safe inside the ‘New Ark’ (a title that was given to Our Lady since the earliest days of the Church), just like Noah and his family were safe and preserved from the floods by entering into the Ark. She has told us throughout all her apparitions about the importance of the Rosary and the graces we will receive to persevere through hard times. We have five kids (one in utero) of all different ages and attention spans. For many years, our nightly routine has been to say between 1-2 decades of the Rosary. It was only recently that our older kids suggested that instead of switching the mysteries each day, we commit to one mystery per week. This week, we have been saying the Sorrowful Mysteries, and next week will be the Glorious. It’s not perfect, but we have faith that it pleases Our Lady because we are trying our best.” - Kelli S. “The fifteen promises that Our Lady has made to those who are faithful to the Rosary are truly life-changing! Powerful, hell-fighting armor, vice destroyer, heresy dispeller--sign me up! Even though there are such amazing reasons to pray the Rosary, I still found so many excuses not to. But, God is persistent and He inspired the design of the Rosary bracelet we sell at ChewsLife that pretty much addressed all of my excuses. It's always on hand, so I don't lose it; it's sturdy, so my kids can never break it; and most importantly, the movable crucifix charm works like a bookmark to keep my place when I get interrupted. It has allowed me to use the quiet moments that are scattered throughout my day to get my Rosary in. God doesn't ask us to be perfect; He just asks us to begin!” - Shannon W. (of ChewsLife) “My husband and I do the first four decades on our own throughout the day, and then do the fifth decade together when we are both home. We think the reason this works is two-fold—it feels more manageable to pray a decade or so at a time, and we get to pray together!” - Lia M. Deepen Your Understanding “As a person currently in the process of converting to Catholicism, praying the Rosary daily is helping to form the bedrock of my life as a Catholic woman, wife, and mother. I pray two decades in the morning while nursing my son, two more decades at various points throughout the day (usually while nursing), and one more decade before bed. I keep engaged by doing scriptural meditations with each prayer—this has done WONDERS for helping me stay focused on the beauty of the Rosary, instead of letting it feel dull or repetitive.” - Courtney W. “I never really prayed the Rosary but I started doing a study by Take Up and Read called Ponder, which is all about the Rosary. It has helped me to meditate on the mysteries and create a daily habit. I started doing just one decade at a time and am working my way up to praying a full Rosary daily!” - Macy M. (Note: Blessed is She offers a wonderful Blessed Conversations series on the Mysteries of the Rosary!) Find Accountability “A group of friends and I got together and decided to pray the 54-day Rosary Novena. We set up a group message and texted each other every day, reminding and encouraging each other to pray. It was so powerful that we started a new novena two days after finishing the first!” - Meagan R. “Find someone who can hold you accountable. For me, it is my husband. Each morning, when we plan our day, we carve out a specific time to pray the Rosary, whether that be individually or together. If our days have been busy and we have failed, we try to give the other person 15 minutes at the end of the day “duty-free” (no kids, housework, etc.) when we can be alone in prayer. Find your person—whether that be your sister, friend, mom, or husband—and just start.” - Carrie G. “I joined a virtual Rosary community with @onehailmaryatatime. Following her helps keep me inspired because she shares so many glory stories from people who have prayed the Rosary! Now, I lead a virtual Rosary group where we video call once a week and pray together. The group holds me accountable and I love praying with women who are all over the country, yet are so similar to me, every week!” - Melissa T. Take Advantage of Mental Idle Time “Exercise is part of my daily morning routine, and I found that using my Rosary bracelet during my exercise allowed me the opportunity to slow down mentally, calm my heart, and cultivate a stronger relationship with God.” - Katlyn Rose I. “I live in NYC and usually spend my subway commute on my phone. Lately, I’ve tried to shut off my phone during my commute (signal is terrible in the subway anyway!) and pray the Rosary instead. Turning an otherwise idle time into prayer time has made me feel very productive and more spiritually fulfilled.” - Vicky W. “I have an hour-long commute to work, and every single day, as soon as I get into my car, I pull up the Risers Resided by Christen Peska on the Laudate app and get out my Rosary to pray along. The mystery traditionally recited that day is the one that plays, and each Rosary recitation is about 20 minutes long. I’ve been doing this for two straight years now—before that, I rarely prayed the rosary!” - Cynthia B. Focus on Intentions “Doing novenas for a reason bigger than myself has always helped me. For example, I did a 54-day Rosary Novena for my dad’s conversion...that was more than enough motivation to make myself pray a Rosary every day. I saw miracles happen. After that, I didn’t want to stop, so I did another 54-day novena for my future spouse. I met my husband a few months later.” - Melissa T. Embrace Imperfection and Keep Praying “We started praying the Rosary daily with our family almost seven years ago. We started the practice for Lent and it stuck because our kids wanted to delay bedtime. We were also going through a difficult time in our family, and after praying the Rosary daily for six months, we noticed all the peace and hope it brought to our lives. It had become a beautiful nightly ritual to bring our family together, screen-free, distraction-free. I encourage my Instagram followers to not focus on perfection and to just try. Mary sees your efforts and she will take your intentions to Jesus. Trust me.” - Kristin (of One Hail Mary at a Time) “Some of the best advice I’ve heard is ‘Just keep praying.’ Sometimes, stuff comes up. Maybe your kid starts crying or someone from work calls or you have to clean up a mess, or any number of things that need your attention—whenever you can, just keep praying through it.” - Trishey N. “Be okay with not always being perfect at it. Some days, you don’t want to, other days, you don’t have time...don’t allow those excuses to make you feel as though there’s no point. Your Mother loves you and meets you wherever you are. I love this quote from St. Bernadette: ‘In the evening, when you go to sleep, hold your beads. Doze off reciting them. Do like those babies who go to sleep mumbling ‘Mama, mama.’” - Carlin N. How do you cultivate the habit of a daily Rosary? We’d love to hear your tips and learn from what has worked for you!   Join us over in our app for a live weekday Rosary at 11am ET! Our new Blessed Is She Rosaries have arrived! Get yours here! [bctt tweet="How to Cultivate the Practice of Praying the Rosary Daily #BISblog //" username="lisajanelkirk"]

Pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world, and the end of the war. -Our Lady of Fatima For years, I was inspired to daily pray the Rosary. Yet, I often struggled with making it a habit to the point that I would go many months without praying it. I knew all the great things about the Rosary: how powerful the prayer is, how Our Lady is constantly asking us to pray it in her apparitions, how helpful it is to meditate on the Mysteries of Christ’s life, and how much Mary blesses us when we do pray the Rosary. To be sure, when I did pray the Rosary, I often felt a peace and consolation doing it. I deeply admired people who had a strong devotion to praying the Rosary. In fact, there was a time in my life, when I first was inflamed in my Faith, that I did have a strong habit of praying the Rosary. As the years went on, and I became more busy and less on fire, I couldn’t seem to get myself motivated enough to make it a habit once again. There’s Never Enough Time or Energy While I had the desire to pray it, it just wasn’t strong enough to overcome the difficulties and overwhelm that I had in my life. How was I to have the mental and emotional energy to focus on the Rosary at the end of the day? By the end of the day, I either wanted to zone out a little (or sometimes a lot) on television or social media, or crash into bed. I also tried to wake earlier in the morning. This didn’t seem to work out, either. Why is it that, when you finally motivate yourself enough to wake up early to pray before your children wake, they always seem to wake earlier, too? It’s almost like they have an internal sensor that tells them when I get up! In addition, over these past five years I have been consistently sleep deprived, either waking frequently due to pregnancy symptoms or by babies and toddlers who constantly wake all night. Every Stage is Busy In this season of life, I needed all the extra precious moments of sleep I could get. While it seemed to me that maybe I was just not in a season of life to be able to commit to praying the Rosary, the reality is, I have struggled with this long before I was a mother. When I was in college or when I was working full-time, I never seemed to have enough time or energy to commit to saying the Rosary daily. Not having it as a daily habit made it that much harder for me to be motivated enough to pray it when I did find myself with a little time or energy. WRITE + PRAY We invite you to sit with the Word and unpack it in a uniquely personal way, finding your own story. Discover your story within His. GET WRITE AND PRAY Perfectionism: The Enemy of Action I realized that I had fallen into a perfectionistic, all-or-nothing thinking that was halting any attempt to pray the Rosary. I had it in my mind that, if I was going to pray the Rosary, then I needed to pray the full five Mysteries, daily, at the same time of day, in complete silence, and at a time when I could give my full attention to it. That's how you create a habit after all, by setting aside a particular time every day and giving your full attention to it. While this is good advice to help get a regular habit going, it wasn't practical for my season of life. Instead of creating a solid habit, this mentality was keeping me from trying at all. Making the Rosary a Daily Habit In order for me to get in the habit of praying the Rosary, I just needed to try and fit in the Rosary in the everyday, nitty-gritty parts of my life. I needed to focus on saying a decade or two at a time, while doing the dishes or driving in the car, when rocking or nursing the baby at all hours of the day or night, or when putting the kids to bed. I needed to resist the discouragement that came when I failed and hadn’t prayed it in days or weeks, and thought, “What’s another day?” I needed to focus on small, realistic goals for myself, and have courage to get back up and keep at it. In this way, I was able to create a habit of praying the Rosary throughout my busy day and take the pressure off myself to do it the “right way.” I soon found that the more I prayed the Rosary, the more I experienced the fruits of peace, joy, faith, and patience. Experiencing these fruits strengthened my desire and will to make the Rosary a part of my everyday life. While I do still enjoy a good podcast or music when I drive or do the dishes, I have been able to create the habit of making this wonderful prayer a priority in my daily life and am so grateful for this gift. 📿 Make It a Daily Habit Find Your Perfect Rosary From the Blessed Mother to St. Therese, St. Joseph, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, our rosaries are made to pray for your intentions every day. Shop All Rosaries → In what ways can you creatively incorporate the Rosary into your daily life, and experience the blessings and graces that Jesus has in store for you through His Blessed Mother?   Join us over in our app for a live weekday Rosary at 11am ET! Anna Maria Sevilla is wife to a wonderful man and mother of three sweet, young boys. She is a homemaker and homeschool mom, and enjoys spending time in nature, reading, writing, crafting and dancing. Find out more about her here.

Long before the world knew him as Pope Saint John Paul II, his heart was being formed at home through the faith of his mother, Emilia.