The Rosary is a prayer that is pretty widely known. Most Catholics today have at least heard of it. So why is it that there are so many who either have never prayed it or wouldn't choose to pray it? The most common reasons that I have heard are something along the lines of 1) "I don't know how", 2) "I don't have time", or 3) "I tried it but it wasn't for me"/"it is boring".
The simplest one to respond to is the first: the more times you pray it, the more familiar you will become with the structure. And there are tons and tons of resources online to help you get started.
As far as not having time, I completely understand if that's how you feel. However I will say that praying the Rosary actually takes less time than most people think. (It does, of course, require you to give up a bit of your own time which can be hard, but a good Catholic life demands a little sacrifice ;) On average, the Rosary takes about 20 minutes to pray, and I would guess that all of us have, in our daily store of "wasted" or "lost" time, at least that long...
- commute to school/work (morning or night)
- snack/meal time
- there always seems to be some wasted time in the afternoon..
- free time
- before bed (or, perhaps getting up twenty minutes early would work better for you)
My point is, though, that just as you would "make" time for something you were really excited about or something really important to you, it is possible (albeit hard at times) to make time for this prayer.
Finally, the objection that it "isn't for you" or it is "boring":
I think this may stem from a lack of understanding. One thing about the Rosary is that it is infinitely deep in meaning - as we see from many of the saints, no matter how many times you pray it there is always more to meditate on and pray about. Still, it is certainly true that it can seem boring to repeat the same prayer over and over. In response to this, Saint Josemaria Escriva would say,
Say the Holy Rosary. Blessed be that monotony of Hail Mary’s which purifies the monotony of your sins!
It seems to me that if the Rosary always feels monotonous, though we may not be doing anything wrong per se, we probably also aren't digging quite as deep as we could (and we can always go deeper!). So, practically, how do we get out of this to more fruitful prayer?
1) Try to avoid distractions as much as possible
2) Focus on the mystery!
There are SO many different ways to do that. One very cool one is to simply put yourself into the mysteries - uniting yourself to Our Lady. If you are praying the First Joyful Mystery (the Annunciation), imagine going about your everyday life as a young, unmarried girl when a beautiful, shining angel appears to you out of nowhere and addresses you as "full of grace", saying they were sent from God to ask you to be the mother of His Son. What an incredible, crazy question, to which Mary answered, with complete trust, "Yes". You can think about her immense humility in that moment, and how her response reflects the way she lived her entire life.. As you repeat the words of the Angel Gabriel, you could spend years thinking about just that one mystery!
Another beautiful way of praying the Rosary that I have somewhat recently been introduced to is the Scriptural Rosary. This means that before each Hail Mary you pray a line of Holy Scripture. I've found this to be extremely fruitful. (You could also read all ten lines of Scripture at once before you begin each decade if that works better for you.) In fact, here are a few helpful links for doing this:
JOYFUL Mysteries:
SORROWFUL Mysteries:
GLORIOUS Mysteries:
I want you to know that in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the rosary. - Our Lady to St Dominic
We have a difficult battle to fight here on earth - the battle against the devil and things of this world. Fortunately, we aren't left alone to fend for ourselves hopelessly. One of the many aids we have is the spiritual weapon of the Rosary. It may look like just a delicate string of beads, but when used properly it can prove fatal to sin and evil.
In 1917, Our Lady appeared to Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta - three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. Among her messages was an urge to everyone to pray a Rosary daily...
This puts me in mind of something Sister Lucia once said: “The Rosary is the most beautiful prayer Heaven has taught us. More than any other prayer, it leads us to a better knowledge of God and his redemptive work.
…
Pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace in the world and the end of war.” According to Sister Lucia’s account, the heavenly Lady was very explicit about this. “Our Lady,” Lucia wrote, “did not predict that we would have pleasures, earthly joys, honor, power, or material goods. Nor did she predict that we would become big, important people in this world, which is nothing but illusion, blindness, and vanity, and where every goal is sought with so much anguish, deceit, and injustice. “Do you wish to offer yourselves to God? Will you bear all the sufferings he will send you in order to make reparation for the sins by which he is offended? Will you pray for the conversion of sinners?” “Yes, we will.” “It was with full awareness of this prediction of many sufferings,” Sister Lucia remarked, “that I pronounced my ‘Yes’. And the Lord did not let us down, nor was his grace ever lacking, as Our Lady had promised: ‘The grace of God will be your strength’. (taken from The Last Secret of Fatima by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, p33)
Our Lady promises that pure and fervent prayer of the Rosary will change the world. Maybe not overnight, and maybe not even in our lifetimes. But we can be sure that she will keep her promise. And even if your recitation of the Rosary only saves one soul throughout your whole life - even if that one soul is yours - it will have been worth it.
It would be impossible to name all the many saints who discovered in the Rosary a genuine path to growth in holiness. - Pope St John Paul II
There is one thing I can assure you: You will never regret taking the time to grow in your relationship with Our Lord and Lady through the Holy Rosary.
The Rosary is a long chain that links heaven and earth. One end of it is in our hands, and the other end is in the hands of the Holy Virgin. The Rosary prayer rises like incense to the feet of the Almighty. Mary responds at once like a beneficial dew, bringing new life to human hearts. -St Thérèse of Lisieux
Further Reading/ My Sources: