The Seven Day Bible Rosary

In early 1967, a newspaper columnist asked a Catholic celebrity if she still prayed the Rosary. She replied, “Oh no! I don’t want to bore God.” When I read this, my first thought was that she was hugely confused about the difference between God and herself. My second reaction was that she was pointing at two problems that many of us have experienced—boredom and distractions. So I wondered if an expanded version of the Rosary might help some of us to reduce these difficulties. I used this method during the Seventies and Eighties and finally published it in 1993.

As Saint John Paul II would later point out, the traditional form omits the entire public life of Jesus (Rosarium Virginis Mariae  n. 19, October 16 2002). According to the Pope, the Rosary “is at heart a Christocentric prayer” and can be called a “compendium” or concise summary of the gospel (RVM n. 2). The Seven Day Bible Rosary provides a broad compendium on a weekly basis.

So I developed this method of praying the Rosary for easily distracted souls like myself. Reading or remembering a verse of Sacred Scripture before each Hail Mary does not completely eliminate my distractions, but it certainly helps to focus my mind and imagination. 

The Seven Day Bible Rosary offers seven sets of meditations, one for each day of the week. The Public Life decades give us five separate events; the Last Supper decades give us five important teachings, and the Church mysteries give us five reminders of the continuing work of the Lord today. Some verses were selected to help married couples; others were selected to encourage vocations. While I know most of the verses by memory, I still read them regularly.

Sent by John Kippley, author of The Seven Day Bible Rosary and reader of A Moment with Mary in our English edition, September 2019