More Help with Saying the Rosary

Tomorrow we are halfway through the 54 Day Rosary Miracle Novena!  (or if you started on January 25 because of Leap Year, Monday is the halfway point).
 
If you love the Rosary but are not good at saying it, here are some more thoughts and suggestions from the saints, in the spirit of GK Chesterton's "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."   

I love that maxim of GKC's, NOT because it encourages me to slack off and settle for less, but because it encourages me to risk trying something, or persevering in something, even if I don't think I am very good at it.  After all, that's the only reason I am a Mom 7 times over : ) and it applies to my prayer life too! 

St Louis Marie de Montfort -- "Say a Decade Here and a Decade There"

One thing you can do if it is very difficult to say an entire Rosary at a sitting is to break it up into decades and say one decade at a time.  I found this out from a priest when I told him of my difficulties and distractions in saying a complete Rosary at a sitting.  The priest recommended breaking it up into decades and then focusing on completing each decade with as few distractions as possible.  

More in St Louis de Montfort:

I advise you to divide up your Rosary into three parts and to say each group of five decades at different times of the day. This is much better than saying the whole fifteen decades at once.

If you cannot find the time to say five decades all together, say a decade here and a decade there; you will thus be able, in spite of your work and the calls upon your time, to complete the whole Rosary before going to bed.

St Therese de Lisieux -- "Little Children are Just As Pleasing To Their Parents Asleep As Awake"

 Suppose that you fall asleep before you finish praying?   St Therese of Lisieux answers:

The fact that I often fall asleep during meditation, or while making my thanksgiving, should appall me. Well, I am not appalled; I bear in mind that little children are just as pleasing to their parents asleep as awake; that doctors put patients to sleep while they perform operations, and that after all, "the Lord knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust."

This gives me a glimpse into how God thinks.   To Him, all our greatest works are as nothing except as done simply for His sake.  That's why He is so often pleased with a small thing done lovingly and humbly more than with some grand gesture or large undertaking. 

St Therese de Lisieux -- "My Mother ..Must See My Good Will and Be Content With It"  

A bit more that I found that St Therese said about her struggle saying the Rosary:

"Reciting the Rosary costs me more than using an instrument of penance. I feel I say it so badly; in vain do I strive to meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary; I am unable to fix my attention For a long time I was sad because of this lack of devotion which surprised me, for I love the Blessed Virgin so much that it should be easy for me to say in her honor prayers which please her so much. Now, it saddens me less; I think that the Queen of Heaven being my Mother, she must see my good will and be content with it."

As for me, I missed some days saying the Rosary while we were traveling (first to Disneyland, then up to Oregon to visit grown sons, then I am going up to Alaska again!).   But I am picking up again and uniting my efforts with those of others who either were entirely consistent or are hardly able to say the Rosary at all, for whatever reason : ).