Book Club: Reflections on the Family Rosary

Don't worry if your family Rosary doesn't look like this.

So, Eleanor's been teething the past week. This is her hardest tooth yet, and it's only getting progressively worse. She's been getting up in the middle of the night, sometimes twice a night. So I didn't get to writing my past 3 reviews. So this upcoming week, I'm going to publish one a day for 6 days, and then the last 2 weeks I will write 3 times a week.

Onto the first essay, titled Reflections on the Family Rosary. It's barely 2 pages, but contains an important gem for parents to understand. No matter how hard the distractions come, or the temptations to let it slide hit you, a daily family rosary is important for the faith, to encourage children to hear God's voice, and even as a tool for conversion. This family doesn't hesitate to welcome their intruding neighbors to join them when interrupted, and they all do gather for prayer, whether willingly, joyfully, or reluctantly.

I have 2 distinct memories of my family rosary growing up. The first was the realization (given to us by Mom) that Dad assigned rosary mysteries based on where we knelt, instead of birth order like Mom. From that moment on, we started fighting about who was kneeling next to Dad's strict upright figure, because that meant that we would get to say (for reasons not clear to me or I'm sure to my siblings) the coveted fifth decade. The second was during my reluctant teenage years, when we lived in Idaho, and when the only time Mom could get all of us to settle down and pay attention was in the 30 minute car ride home from school. We all had lots of homework, Mom had dinner to get ready, and so we made the best of a bad situation by spending our time in prayer. Thinking back, I realize it gave me a mental break from the pressures at school, preparing me for the pressures of being at home, as the oldest in a large family. It's not a fond memory like the first, but it's meaningful nonetheless.