Real Men Pray the Rosary : A Practical Guide to a Powerful Prayer

David Calvillo along with his wife are founder of the apostolate Real Men Pray the Rosary. In this book Real Men Pray the Rosary: A Practical Guide to a Powerful PrayerDavid takes it from his Texas home to the national stage.

David begins the early part of the book telling the story of his (as he refers to is as) “Saul conversion story” through the prayer of the Rosary. In Chapter 2 titled “A Prayer for Men”, he follows up his own story with those of other men. This section will truly make you stop and reflect upon how truly powerful the Rosary can be.

The book includes numerous references to Encyclicals and Papal documents supporting the Rosary. These include those written by Pope John Paul II, Pope John XXIII, Pope Pius XI, Pope Benedict XV, and Pope Leo XIII. The sections of these documents quoted led me to do a little deeper exploring within the documents themselves. In fact one thing I found most interesting was Pope Leo XIII, who is known as “the Pope of the Rosary”, penned  some 11 documents with the Rosary as the topic.

David doesn’t stop there with the input of great Church figures. He spends time on St. Louis de Montfort perhaps one of the greatest contributors to Rosary devotion in the Church. He touches upon Louis de Montfort’s books Secrets of the Rosary and Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary. When you have finished David’s book if you are looking for deeper reading on the Rosary you can’t go wrong with Louis de Montfort. In fact part of David’s own love of the Rosary came about through reading of Secrets of the Rosary which he details in the book.

The book also serves as a great reference for beginners in how to pray the rosary as well as a meditation source for those experienced with the prayer. Each mystery is presented with text from Scripture as well as a Papal Meditation from the documents mentioned earlier. This provides a powerful resource for prayer and meditation.

David Calvillo has provided the reader with a great resource on the Rosary. Coming in at 134 pages this an easy but information packed read. The references to Church documents are invaluable and the meditations on each mystery make the book one that can be used often. In addition to this book I highly recommend you visit David’s website at realmenpraytherosary.org to learn more about this great apostolate.
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I received a copy of this book for this review from Ave Maria Press.