
Real Men Pray the Rosary
A Practical Guide to a Powerful Prayer
By David Calvillo
160 pages, $12.95
Ave Maria Press, 2013
To order: avemariapress.com or (800) 282-1865, ext. 1
I never thought of the Virgin Mary as my personal trainer.
At least not before I read this book.
David Calvillo wants all you guys out there to get spiritually fit with Mary.
And he believes that the Rosary is the best spiritual workout: "You could get off the couch, drive to the gym and work your quadriceps. While that effort would be good, or at least healthier than lying on the couch, it would be even more productive to sit with a trainer and be led through an organized and time-tested workout designed to strengthen and tone all of the muscle groups. Such is the Rosary.
"Individuals who pray the Rosary regularly can call on Mary’s intercession as a spiritual trainer to not just lead them in one isolated workout, but, rather, to engage them to contemplate the span of the Christian Good News in an organized way.
"Just like the couch potato who, over time, works off years of inactivity through systematic exercise, so also our prayer life grows and gains muscle tone."
Calvillo, founder of the Real Men Pray the Rosary apostolate, argues with the zeal of a convert that the Rosary is a guy’s prayer (and why women should care). He credits the Rosary as the reason he learned to take his own faith seriously.
While the Rosary is sometimes associated with women, this book is suffused with a modern man’s spirituality, a modern man’s feel and a modern man’s way of thinking. Think of a very modern, very tough, very tested man’s man — Blessed John Paul II — in a parka atop a mountain he scaled, climbing tools at hand, shades on his eyes over a tanned, relaxed face … praying the Rosary.
Is the Rosary unfamiliar to you? This book has chapters to help guide readers to pray it, along with meditations (especially for dads) to help contemplate its mysteries.
You say you don’t have time? Calvillo, a busy lawyer, doesn’t buy that excuse.
Like to jog? Jog with Mary. (God gave you 10 fingers to count each decade.)
Have a long commute? Think of your car as your private chapel.
Can’t say five decades? Say one.
Like to work with your hands? The author provides websites that show how to make rosaries.
Don’t know what the Church says about the Rosary? This book offers excerpts from Vatican documents.
Don’t know other guys who pray the Rosary? Real testimonials are given.
Then Calvillo throws down the gauntlet: Take his 33-day Rosary challenge (because Jesus lived 33 years). With Mary as your personal coach, pray the Rosary for the next 33 days. If you’re not feeling spiritually rejuvenated, write to Calvillo. He and the men in his apostolate promise to pray harder.
So, if real guys — and real dads — pray for themselves, their wives and their kids, what are you waiting for?
For Father’s Day, this book will help Dad know Mary better — a far better gift than a tie.
John M. Grondelski writes from Taipei, Taiwan.
+JMJ+
There is the Living Rosary Association and The Rosary Confraternity one can join to get the spiritual benefits of Rosaries(and Rosary decades) of its members. Praying the Rosary in a group can help one persevere in it.
God Bless.
As a convert to Catholicism in 1993, it took me a little while to accustom myself to the rosary. But I decided to finally take the plunge as my commitment for the New Millennium, to pray the rosary daily. I have stumbled a handful of times, but counting the days since 01/01/2000, I’m closing in on my 5000th rosary soon. I plan on trying to calculate the precise day, and celebrating it in a special way.
I (a man) often wake before dawn and can’t go back to sleep and torture myself with worries. I now keep a rosary in reach and just do simple repetitions while thinking of others who lie awake in this big city: the lonely, the terminally ill,those in prisons, the grieving and above all those who feel utterly abandoned by both man and God. I invariably fall asleep, rosary in hand part way through the five decades and if I wake again I go on and drift off again. What sweet sleep it is instead of tossing about with worries, regrets and selfish fears.
You have hit on our main problem Dan, the average American can no longer stand silence. In the silence of the heart,is where we are most open to the promptings of our Lord. With the incessant clamor of noise, God is the last thing teens and now subteens have time for. And you can see it in their amoral preoccupations. Technology is stealing the souls of our children and thus corroding the future of our very nation that is in its greatest danger ever of losing its religious heritage. When I was working the distance from home to work was one rosary, and the trip home was easily one Chaplet of Mercy. Can you imagine what would happen if wasted travel time were converted to prayer time?
A couple of months ago a priest suggested I recite the Rosary while driving to work (I don’t hold the Rosary itself, but only say the prayers). I was so use to the distraction of the radio (news, sports talk, political talk) that at first it seemed odd to recite the Rosary.
Now, it seems strange not to during my morning commute and the silence—compared to having the radio on—is a notable difference. Yes, there is road noise, but the artificial sound filled by the radio is now gone. And silence has been something I’ve been pondering for some years. Modern man is seemingly in need of filling our surrounding with noise, but I have come to appreciate the silence of my morning drive, the silent parts of Mass, and just sitting outside in the backyard with no radio or music.
I look forward to reading this book for Men.Thank you for putting this book on the Website…...........
Add the Chaplet of Divine Mercy every day as well it only takes another seven minutes. Join the World Apostolate of Fatima. Let us see if we can have the peace promised there before its Centennial in 2017.
True words. As a frequently-disoriented lapsed catholic, I stumbled my way back into the Faith with Mary’s guidance and intercession. I started with a confirmation prayer card I found in my old room at home, literally reading each word.
In 2003, as a young infantry NCO, I snuck Mary along for the 20 km ruck marches and seven day sleep deprivation periods on my platoon 2IC course. She’s the one who taught me that old saw ‘offer it up’ - which has been tremendously profitable in my spiritual growth. Mary offered me intercession when I felt too lowly to approach our Lord (my actions only infrequently reaching my aim even today), and amplifying my pitiful attempts at prayer, showing me the tremendous grace available to those who only ask. Our Lord will not refuse His Mother, and She has ‘corrected my aim’ on many a prayer!
I have been waiting for a book written for men on the Rosary, and I will look forward to reading this book.