Pray the rosary daily. The rosary is a weapon. Before I ever picked up the devotion for myself I had heard this statement, but it was hollow in my heart; it never resonated.

Then one day I turned on the television and I happened to hear a young mother who was about my age tell about her many struggles. In the midst of her testimony about the darkest part of her life she told how she had learned from a friend about the spiritual benefits received when we pray the rosary daily. A daily rosary devotion is the fastest way grow in relationship with God, and I am going to testify to this with my rosary story.

This woman told about how Mary became very real to her, and was able to guide her through tough times and I developed a longing. I wanted that.

How I Began to Pray the Rosary Daily

So I found a set of rosary beads for myself and I began to teach myself how to pray it. I’m a convert to the faith, having been taught from childhood to stay away from all kinds of Marian devotions. The process was difficult and the distractions were numerous, and when I began to pray the rosary daily I was not finding the joy that this woman claimed. But I persevered and kept the daily rosary prayers going. Somehow it was a peaceful habit if nothing else.

To keep myself engaged, because I wanted to pray the rosary daily and experience what this woman claimed, I decided to commit during the Lenten season to pray the rosary daily for 40 days in a row. I bought books to help me make the nightly recitations. Still I didn’t yet connect it with a deeper spiritual walk. 

But I persisted. At times I forgot to pray the rosary daily, or I was lazy and skipped a night or two on purpose. In a bad patch I would quit my habit to pray the rosary daily for weeks or even months. Then my life would start to come apart at the seams and I’d find myself looking for those rosary beads again.

Now it’s been over a decade of rosaries and my life is profoundly different than when I started learning to pray. The secret to a profound experience praying the rosary is in your ability to open your heart and meditate on the meaning of the prayers. If you are easily distracted it is best to pray a Scriptural rosary. 

The Rosary Fights against Evil like Nothing Else

The rosary IS a weapon. I know this now with certainty. I have lived it. Countless decades, countless beads- my fingers have rubbed them as my mind has contemplated the TOTAL sacrifice Jesus has made for my soul.

The rosary changes YOU, slowly, over time, into a soul more in tune to the divine will of God. It makes you stronger and more resilient against temptation. It ingrains in your heart the truth of the Gospel, one mystery at a time, through the eyes of Mary, and her Immaculate Heart.  

The rosary is a WEAPON. If you’ve never gone to battle with nothing but your faith and your beads, winding them through your fingers in desperation then you cannot understand this. But if you have, and if you’ve committed yourself to it day in and day out for days, weeks, and months, even winding into years and decades, then you know what I mean.

You Change when You Pray the Rosary Daily

As my soul began to change,  my desire to pray increased. I entered into a deeper sense of love and wonder. Then people came into my life at meaningful times to help me grow in faith and seek the Lord more deeply in adoration.

If a certain intention has been in your heart and on your lips and only you and God know the depths of it, then the rosary is your weapon.

I have a set of beads that I prefer over the others. It’s worn, and is attached to many worries and sufferings and a reminder of countless answered prayers over the years. I have taken many leaps of faith and cried many tears while clutching those beads. It’s a symbol of my promise to love Jesus, the Eternal Father, and to trust in the Holy Spirit. As I pray the rosary daily I also honor Mary, the Mother of God, my mother too, now, in my heart. I have finally come to understand what that woman was talking about. 

These beads have accompanied me to foreign countries, on vacation trips, to healing Masses, adoration chapels, for blessings, and they have even become a third degree relic after touching a remnant of the nail that pierced our Lord’s foot. 

Why do I tell all this? I want you to believe, to hope, and to adore Him. I want you to know and understand that He is real, and if you are a person who wants to touch the divine but has no words on your lips when you want to pray, then the rosary is your weapon. It is the key to helping you connect to Jesus, through Mary, His mother. 

When we pray the rosary daily with devotion the rosary can tear down obstacles and chase away hopelessness, despair, anti-God thoughts, and temptations. When we pray a daily rosary our hearts keep focused on God in a way that looks outward and not inward.  It trains our minds to think on the things of God from Mary’s perspective, rather than our own often misguided, selfish, and limited views.

Miracle Happens Years after I Began to Pray the Rosary Daily

I have a rosary miracle I’d like to share, but before I do I want to relate to you some history of the rosary: 

The Sack of Rome, occurred nearly 500 years ago. German mercenaries stormed and ransacked Rome, desecrated churches and shut them down.   It was an inconceivable chastisement that came about due to massive corruption and later led to a renewal of the church. I see a correlation between what happened then and what I see happening now, and just like then, when the people began to cling to their rosaries, I believe we need to do the same now.

The image above is only a small portion of “The Last Judgment” – a fresco painted by Michelangelo which covers the whole altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. His work depicts the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity. In the small portion depicted above you can see an angel of God who is elevating two penitential souls toward heaven as they are desperately clinging to a rosary. Michelangelo is suggesting that through the Holy Rosary, salvation is at hand, and the souls clinging to it for eternal life are almost there, with the help of the angels and saints. I encourage you to pray the rosary daily in your walk with Christ.