As we enter the month of May, devotion to Mary and praying the rosary come to the fore. Here is a variation that I  find very helpful. It originated, with some variations, with Cardinal Suenens of Belgium.   At bottom,  instead of  one Our Father and then ten Hail Marys  and one Glory Be,   reduce the ten Hail Marys to three, and move more quickly through the mysteries.

The advantage of this?  I find that with the normal  ten Hail Marys,  I am often distracted by the fifth Hail Mary and forget what mystery I am on. But I can very easily  reflect or concentrate on the mystery for the span of  three Hail Marys,  and then move on to a new mystery.  One parent in Nigeria said his children, with their short attention span, love this way of saying the Rosary.

If you have the time, you can continue through more than  five decades and move from the joyful to the  luminous, sorrowful or glorious  mysteries. In this way too, you actually see the connection between the various groups of mysteries.  One even might fashion more mysteries,  events from the public life of Christ or from his 40 days as Risen Lord.  For example,   1) the Risen Lord  appears to his mother Mary, 2)  he appears to Mary Magdalene as the Gardener, 3)  to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus,  4) to the apostles with Thomas,  5) to the apostles on the shore of the sea of Galilee.

If you are satisfied with the tried and tested way of reciting the Rosary, continue that practice.  But trying the Suenens way of reciting the rosary may  give new life to an old devotion. Try it and you may like it.

Peter Schineller, S.J.

Peter Schineller, S.J., is a former associate editor of America.