THE BEST PRAYER FOR MEN
By Br. Patrick Mary Briscoe, O.P.
A version of this article appeared in the online journal, Dominicana
As valued benefactors
of the Rosary Shrine
of St. Jude, you know
the importance of
devotion to Our
Lady. But it may
not seem intuitive
for some Catholic
men. Growing up, I’d
occasionally catch my father as he finished
praying the Rosary early on Saturday
mornings or notice he’d left his handsome
set of beads lying out on a coffee table. I
had the blessing of his example. Other men
know their fathers have placed a Rosary
in their locker at work (try and find a
Catholic firefighter who doesn’t have either
a Rosary or a saint’s medal) or even just
keep one in their pocket, where from time
to time they’ll pause and touch the beads.
But for those men who haven’t “seen” or
“heard,” how do we make sense of the
Rosary as a manly devotion?
The Rosary is covert. A fierce point of
intimidation of being a man of faith in our
culture is the fear that we will amount to
being hypocrites. Rather than broadcasting
a false image of ourselves as mighty saints,
men prefer to keep things on the down
low. The problem is this principle of
authenticity—which is truly noble—can
be our undoing. When we’re not grounded
in something solid, we’ll drift away. We’re
not all called to martyrdom or preaching,
but we do need to be faithful. The Rosary
offers a structured program for building
up the foundation of faith in our souls in
secret, so that when the storms come our
hearts will be strong enough to be true.
St. Jude Messenger - Volume II, Issue I
0100_SJ_Messenger_VF.indd 4
5/8/16 3:51 PM