When I was a child, the Rosary was an
important part of practising the Catholic faith. The prayer would be
said in Church services but it was also strongly encouraged as a
communal evening prayer in Catholic homes.
Looking back, it seems to me that we
did not always say the Family Rosary. I'm sure that we mostly said it
but there were times when the prayer fell by the wayside. When the parents
resurrected it after a fallow period I mightily resented it. Maybe
that was the problem. If it had been said every single night I'd have
been used to it.
I hated the Rosary. Ah sure there were
times when I was trying to reconcile myself to a decent practice of
the religion that I tried to like it but I could not. It was long and
dreary and boring and tedious and off-putting. In the chapel, I could bear
it but home – sure there were a million better things you could be
doing, watching The Man From Uncle, playing with Bunty dolls,
listening to Radio Luxembourg, reading books, fighting with the
sisters, even just thinking.
Apparently, you were supposed to 'dwell'
on the Mysteries. The Joyful were dreary, The Glorious tedious and
the Sorrowful, they were interesting but, ultimately, deeply
depressing. The Rosary just did not do it for me.
Then, when the five decades were
completed there were end prayers. I think we did three. I actually
liked the Memorare and can recite it to this day. The rest were an
awful drag.
The worst Rosaries of all were when the
parents decided to say it on the way home from visiting relatives,
late in the evening when you'd be tired. It was so intrusive. Riding
in the car, all of us children asleep or half-asleep was an introspective, thinking time, not a time to be reciting some dreary
dirge of a prayer.
Y'know when I look back I think I must
always have been a Crap Catholic.
