The Work Up
First is this easy-to-do 14-day workup for people who are maybe just starting a prayer life, or perhaps the requirements for the RRW are maybe a little too much to do in one piece, and you need to break it down. Start this before jumping into level two if either of these applies to you.
Days 1&2:
1 decade of the Rosary.
Days 3,4&5:
1 decade of the Rosary.
5 min in silent prayer.
Days 6,7&8:
2 decades of the Rosary.
5 min silent prayer.
Days 9,10&11:
3 decades of the Rosary.
5 min silent prayers.
Days 12,13&14:
4 decades of the Rosary.
5 min silent prayers.
After this 14-day workup, you will be ready for level two of the RRW regiment.
Tips
Here are some tips and tricks to make your prayer life as smooth and fruitful as possible
When to Pray:
One of the best times to pray is in the morning. You can start your day with a portion of the requested prayers, based on levels.
Do them while walking. If you are someone who has a somewhat regular walking routine, then this is a great time to spend some time in prayer.
If you have extra time at school towards the start or end of class, you can use that time to pray.
Another good time to pray is at night. At night, right before going to sleep, you can bring your entire day to God through these prayers of the RRW and tell him how your day went and how you wish the next day to go.
For the rosary, just pray whenever you are not doing something. In the car, hiking, lying around, outside, walking, waiting for something, adoration, and especially any time of the day when you want to play that video game or watch that video, and that is really doing nothing to bring you closer to God.
As Saint Francis de Sales says, “Every Christian needs a half-hour of prayer each day, except when he is busy, then he needs and hour”.
Note on silent prayer:
You are only asked to spend at least 10 minutes in silent prayer. That being said, the more you can do, the better and more holy your prayer life will be. When you do your time in silent prayer, find a quiet place. Make sure that you don’t have any tasks at the moment and that your siblings can give you a little bit of space. Then, just close your eyes and open your heart. God will do the rest. Bring everything to him, and lay it all at his feet, tell him your struggles, hopes, if it is the evening, tell him what went well that day and what went wrong, what you want to fix, and what you did fix. If it is the morning, ask him for a great day, tell him what you want to do differently from the day before, and what you want to continue. Then just stop and listen.
The best way for you to achieve this is to follow the ACTS order, which is Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Use this order to bring your entire day to Jesus and be able to cover everything. Through this method, you can also talk with God. It might feel weird at first, but if you listen and really feel the words coming from your mouth, then you will find comfort in laying everything down at his feet.
Also, if you spend all your silent prayer time waiting for it to be over, one, it will take longer, two, you will not be completely focused on listening for God’s voice, and three, then it will really just be wasted time, with you not getting much out of it.
Temptation
Let’s face it the world is full of little temptations that everyone is going to fall for at one point or another. These are some tips and tricks that I have made by doing them myself because of the addiction I had to screens.
Video games: This is a hard one, I mean, you probably have streaks to keep, bosses to beat, and things to open. These are small temptations that make you weaker and more prone to addictions in the future.
Here is my first tip to break this kind of addiction. BREAK YOUR STREAK. Take a week and do no personal screen time at all. This was hard for me, I broke 2 streaks and missed out on a lot of good stuff, but by the end of it, I felt so much better for two reasons. One, I had just proved to myself that I could break my addiction. Two, I had a great week. I got tons done, I grew relationships with my family, and got better sleep. There are tons of benefits to just taking a week off. You might be thinking, “There is no way I can do a whole week without screens”. Well, I will tell you right now it is hard. I mean that had to be one of the longest weeks of my life because the devil was constantly making me think of what “I want to be playing” and not “what I should be doing”. Not even what you should be doing, but what will help you in a greater way. That can be reading, playing outside, or just writing a letter to someone. Now you might be thinking, “Well, what do I do after that week”? What I suggest is one of two things. One, taking even more of a break to fully get rid of your addiction. Two, do only an hour a week (or two if need be). Saint Carlos Acutis actually played video games. He limited himself to only an hour a week. I mean, in any game, you can’t get much done in an hour, but that totally turns your mind to think of screens not as a stimulant but as a small, short activity.
Watching Videos:
Videos include TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and any other short videos that include you staring at a screen. This is harder to break an addiction to because it is so easily accessible. I would start by limiting your screen time by half. If you have 10 hours a week on screens, then make it 5, if it’s 6 hours, make it 3. Keep doing this until you have only 1 to 2 hours a week. Videos are an easy temptation to fall into because of the quick access and immediate dopamine hit. A dopamine hit is when you get onto a video and it immediately makes your brain happy (or think it is happy). But what is really happening is you’re getting addicted to having immediate pleasure without any work. This will affect you in the long run, and it will leave you dry and wanting more after every moment you have on your screen. Break this habit, and I promise your future self will love that you gave it up. Instead, find other things that give you long-lasting dopamine that makes you happy during and after doing it. There are many options here, including reading, painting, or playing a sport. Whatever you enjoy in the real world that isn’t including screens. Take a minute right now and think to yourself, “What do I like to do, what makes me happy?”. Come up with a list in your head (or on paper if you wish) and do this thing every time you’re feeling tempted.