I vividly remember the first time that I was asked to lead a decade of the Rosary in a group. I'm a cradle Catholic, but went to public school. My family was faithful about Mass attendance and prayer before meals, but I didn't grow up participating in many of the prayer and liturgical traditions of our faith, so I've had a lot to learn as an adult!
In college while with a group at the Newman Center, I was asked to lead a decade of the Rosary. Just a decade of the Rosary- no big deal. I had experience with public speaking, so I shouldn't have been nervous. I prayed the Rosary on my own, but hadn't ever led in a group. So I totally botched the whole thing up- I literally prayed the wrong Mystery (with confidence ;) ) and didn't know the prayers that came after the Hail Marys. Needless to say, I was a little embarrassed and now still prefer to have a reference in front of me when I'm leading the Rosary for a group!
And that brings me to the new resources I have for you in this post. As part of my teaching position, I help plan and lead our monthly Holy Hours and other prayer experiences for the school. We often pray the Rosary together, and I always have students take on as many roles as we are able.
When asking a middle schooler to lead a decade of the Rosary, I was mindful of my embarrassing experience in college and have always had a guide to the Rosary available for them to reference or read off of. But your typical Rosary brochure or guide isn't an explicit narrative of the Rosary. You might have to flip back and forth between pages, read directions in a separate place than the prayers, and it certainly doesn't give guidance for leading the prayers in a group, especially the custom of the leader saying on part of the prayers and the congregation saying the second part.
So over the years, I've created a set of Group Rosary Guides that have explicit scripts for leading the Rosary out loud. These have been so helpful as I invite and encourage my students to be brave and lead a decade of the Rosary for our whole school Holy Hours.
I tried to make them easy to read with large font, use bold/italics to differentiate between what they are reading the group response, and include even the most basic lines (like the Sign of the Cross) explicitly typed out. They are paced out to have one part per page so it is easy to label with a student name on a post it note. I have all of mine printed and in a binder, and as my collection has grown it has been such a gift to just pull out the binder when I need it and be ready to go!
I'm sharing this with you as Google Docs instead of pdfs. That is intentional so that you can edit as needed for your students, school/parish customs, or for a particular theme or intention. Please remember that if you would like to edit, I cannot grant you edit access for the original file, as it will change it for everyone. Please either go to File>Make a Copy and edit in Google Docs, or go to File>Download>Microsoft Word to download and edit on your computer.
Here are basic guides for the four sets of Mysteries:
And here are some more specific guides fit for monthly devotions, certain themes, as well as included Gospels passages at the beginning of each Mystery:
I hope that these are helpful to teachers/youth leaders/parents as they guide kids to lead groups in prayer!
