While I was on retreat I read St. Louis de Montfort's Secret of the Rosary. It renewed and magnified my love of the rosary. Most days I prayed all twenty decades and, to help myself focus and meditate on the mysteries, I made a mini reflection from memory before each Hail Mary. For example, praying the decade on the Annunciation, I said the Our Father and then, before the first Hail Mary I thought, "An angel of the Lord was sent to Nazareth to visit a young virgin named Mary." Before the next Hail Mary I thought, "The angel greeted her saying, 'Hail Mary, full of grace, you have found favor with God and will become the mother of the Messiah.'"
I have always had trouble keeping my mind on the mysteries as I pray. By reciting a bit of scripture before each Hail Mary, I am much more focused. Then the prayers truly do become the background music for the meditation. And I'm not drifting off into what I'm going to make for dinner.
There are all kinds of aids for the rosary. Check out this scripture accompaniment to the Joyful Mysteries from a website that offers all the mysteries and includes the text of the prayers for those who may not know them. There's even an audio rosary on the main page of the site so you can pray along.
After the Mass the rosary is the devotion most pleasing to the Blessed Mother. Think of her apparitions. At Lourdes she had a rosary over her arm. At Fatima she held it in her hands. One of her titles is Our Lady of the Rosary. And how much it honors her Son to hear the prayer He taught His apostles and to hear His holy mother honored by repetition of the angelic salutation.
If you don't yet love the rosary, why not pray a Hail Mary every day for the grace of learning to love it. That prayer will surely be answered.
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