Rosary

 BASIC R.C.BELIEF

See new mysteries added by Pope John Paul II to Rosary

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The most popular devotion of the Roman Catholic Church. Prayers are recited for each bead.

While holding the crucifix in the hand, repeat The Apostles Creed. On the first bead, recite the Our Father. On each of the next three beads, recite the Hail Mary. In between the 4th and 5th bead, recite the Glory Be. On the fifth bead call to mind the Mystery, then recite the Our Father.

On the main part of the Rosary recite 10 Hail Marys and one Our Father (Lord's Prayer). Repeat this five times, during which time five mysteries of the Rosary are contemplated. The mysteries recall joyful, sorrowful and glorious occurrences in the lives of Jesus and Mary. A complete Rosary is 15 decades (each of 10 Hail Marys and 1 Our Father); it is more usual to pray 5 decades.

The Joyful Mysteries: (1) The Annunciation; (2) The Visitation; (3) The Nativity; (4) The Presentation; (5) The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple.

The Sorrowful Mysteries: The Agony in the Garden; (2) The Scourging; (3) the Crowning with Thorns; (4) The Carrying of the Cross; (5)The Crucifixion

The Glorious Mysteries: (1) The Resurrection; (2) The Ascension; (3) The Descent of the Holy Ghost; (4) The Assumption;(5) The Coronation of Mary.

St. Dominic is credited with preaching the Rosary as an antidote to the Albigensian heresy. He called it "the rampart of the Church of God" and "the Book of Life." Popes have described it as "The salvation of Christians;" "the dispeller of heresies;" "the scourge of Satan"; and "promoter of God's Glory."

From THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY, by St. Louis de Montfort, page 30. "While Saint Dominic was preaching the Rosary in Carcassone, a heretic made fun of the miracles and the fifteen mysteries of the Holy Rosary, and this prevented other heretics from being converted. As a punishment God suffered fifteen thousand devils to enter the man's body.

"His parents took him to Father Dominic to be delivered from the evil spirits. He started to pray and begged everyone who was there to say the Rosary out loud with him, and at each Hail Mary Our Lady drove one hundred devils out of the heretic's body and they came out in the form of red hot coals."

The Rosary received great impetus by the words of our Lady at Fatima in 1917.

Msgr. Sullivan in EXTERNALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH says, "Repetition in prayer is a very ancient custom. It would seem natural for man to recite his prayers over and over. The Buddhist has his long string of beads which he uses to measure his eternal repetitions of the praises of Buddha."

From SACRAMENTALS, Catholic Information Center, page 21. "It is difficult to determine just how this special form of repeated prayer began. We know that. . . repeated prayer is common in many religions. That is what we would expect since it is natural to human beings."

From HOW TO SAY THE ROSARY, Imp. Patrick Hayes, Archbishop of New York. "THE FIFTEEN PROMISES OF MARY TO CHRISTIANS WHO RECITE THE ROSARY.

(1) Whoever shall faithfully serve Me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.

(2) I promise My special protection and the greatest grace to all those who shall recite the Rosary.

(3) The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against Hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.

(4) It will cause abundant virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lead them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.

(5) The soul which recommends itself to Me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.

(6) Whoever will recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortunes. God will not chastise him in his justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God and become worthy of eternal life.

(7) Whoever shall have a true devotion to the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.

(8) Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise.

(9) I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.

(10) The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.

(11) You shall obtain all you ask of Me by recitation of the Rosary.

(12) All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by Me in their necessities.

(13) I have obtained from My Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.

(14) All who recite the Rosary are My sons, and brothers of My Only Son Jesus Christ.

(15) Devotion of My Rosary is a great sign of predestination. (Given to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan.)"

An additional ejaculation, given at Fatima, is often inserted between decades of the Rosary, "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins; save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need of Thy mercy."

POST VATICAN II

From WOMAN CROWNED WITH STARS by Michael Malone (Imp: Bishop Sullivan, Baton Rouge, 1981). "Our Blessed Mother's Rosary concludes with the Mystery of the Coronation of the ImmaculateVirgin Mary as Queen of all creation; however, the crowning of Our Lady is not the culmination, but the actual commencement, of all that has even happened from the very beginning of time."

From SIMPLICITY, John Michael Talbot. "Personally, I have found praying the Rosary to be one of the most powerful tools I possess in obtaining simple, childlike meditation on the life of Jesus Christ."

From HEAVEN'S WEAPONS, published by Apostolate of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, St. Martinville, LA. "Ventimiglia, the author of an ancient history of the Carmellite order, revealed how God inspired St. Dominic to prophesy that some day the Blessed Mother would give us two devotions to be known as the Rosary and the Brown Scapular , AND ONE DAY, THROUGH THE ROSARY AND THE SCAPULAR SHE WOULD SAVE THE WORLD.

"In the year 1214 while St. Dominic was trying to convert sinners without success. Our Lady appeared to him, gave him the Rosary and taught him how to use it. Many miraculous conversions resulted!"

From READ ME OR RUE IT by Fr. Paul SULLIVAN. Imp. Joannes Timotheus, Archiepiscopus, Cincinnatenesis, 8/22/25. Re-printed 11/2/74 by National Centre for Padre Pio, 11 N. Whitehall Rd., Norristown, PA 19403. "Blessed John of Massias, a Dominican lay brother, obtained by his prayers (chiefly the recitation of the Rosary), the liberation of one million four hundred thousand souls!"

CATHOLIC JOURNALS

From THE CHURCH WORLD, 3/26/87. "This brings us to the heart of the matter: The Eucharist and the Rosary! It is generally recognized by the spiritually `advanced' and by common Catholic consciousness that in Catholic spirituality these are the most powerful means of prayer through which one can more deeply enter into the life of God and thereby more seriously confront the reign of Evil. By spiritually `advanced,' I mean people as Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, Padre Pio, Dorothy Day, the Cure d'Ars, Mother Teresa.

"For example, Padre Pio - who appears to be one of the most extraordinary human beings of the 20th century, a stigmatic, says, The Rosary is THE weapon.' Now when a person with such spiritual credentials makes such a definitive statement about how to overcome evil, it seems to me it can only be ignored or dismissed with fear and trembling.

"Beyond this, the major Marian apparition of the 20th century - Fatima - explicitly relates the daily recitation of the Rosary to an ending of war and the obtaining of peace. As described by Lucia, on July 13, 1917, in the Cova da Iria, Mary said, `. . . Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of war. . . ' With such endorsements it would seem that the Rosary would be a part of every Catholic peace gathering, small or large."

From LEAVES, Sept/Oct 1979. "The rosary goes back to the first century of Christianity. (In fact, legend has it that when the Apostles found that Mary's body had been assumed into heaven and only roses remained where she had lain, they used the petals to offer psalms of joy to God.)"

From THE CATHOLIC ANSWER, September/October 1990, page 9. "Pope John XXIII referred to the Rosary as `David's sling,' the instrument of faith capable of withstanding the goliaths of modern problems. At the age of 68, he concluded that he had better prepare for death. For him, that meant increased devotion at Mass, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and the daily praying of the Rosary."

From A CATHOLIC SURVIVAL GUIDE, NEW COVENANT, February 1991 Our devotion to Mary must be expressed in some practical way, the most common being the Rosary..."

From THE SPIRITUAL NEWSLETTER, Box 364, Bloomsbury, NJ 08804, May 1998. "Apart from the Mass, there is no other prayer as consoling as the Rosary. . . There is no better way to find inner peace, despite the day's turmoil; no better way to bring down blessings from Above. Besides, there is a special window for getting into Heaven for all those who pray the Rosary. Our Lady is in charge of it. Don't worry. She'll spot you in a second! She knows who her friends are.

VAIN REPETITIONS

As a subscriber to The Wanderer, the very conservative Catholic weekly from St. Paul, MN, one of the first columns I read is James Drummey's Catholic Replies.

A recent question to Drummey from a Catholic is: "Well- meaning Protestants say that the rosary is too repetitious. Since they have only the Bible for their teachings, can you show me where in the Bible we can prove the authenticity of saying the rosary?"

Answer: "There is no mention of the rosary in the Bible and no Scripture passage that would authenticate this devotion. (It) was popularized by St. Dominic at the time of the Albigensian heresy in France...

"As for the charge that the rosary is repetitious, and therefore a violation of Jesus' warning in Matthew 6:7, Jesus was talking about the hypocrites who love to stand and pray in synagogues or on street corners in order to be noticed..."

James Drummey is either intentionally or ignorantly misquoting scripture. Those who prayed on the street corners were called "hypocrites"; those who repeated prayers were called "heathen."

Msgr. John Sullivan in The Externals of the Catholic Church (page 257) writes, "Repetition in prayer is a very ancient custom. . This usually leads to a resolution to say a certain number of prayers daily; and then the utility of having some counting device suggests itself at once. Hence comes the string of beads which we call a Rosary. The use of some means of counting prayers is not restricted to Catholics. The Buddhist of India has his long strong of beads which he uses to measure his eternal repetitions of the praises of Buddha."

Drummey then likens the repetitious prayer of the rosary with Jesus' repeating his prayer in Gethsemane three times. He also uses the example of the publican in Luke 18, who, Drummey says, "kept repeating `God be merciful to me a sinner,' and went home justified". There is nothing in the text to suggest the publican prayed this prayer repeatedly. Those of us who have called upon God for mercy and salvation know that but one call is necessary.

In October 2002, Pope John Paul II added a fourth group of Mysteries to the Rosary, the “Mysteries of Light.” Contrary to his usual emphasis on Mary, he devoted these mysteries solely to Jesus Christ. They are His Baptism, turning the water into wine at Cana, His proclamation of the kingdom of heaven, His Transfiguration and the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

In Our Sunday Visitor's magazine The Pope Speaks, John Paul II designated October 2002 to October 2003 the Year of the Rosary. In a lengthy message about the Rosary, he concludes thus:

At the start of the 25th year of my pontificate, I entrust this apostolic letter to the loving hands of the Virgin Mary, prostrating myself in spirit before her image in the splendid shrine built for her by Blessed Bartolo Longo, the apostle of the Rosary. I willingly make my own the touching words with which he concluded his well-known "Supplication to the Queen of the Holy Rosary":

"O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain that unites us to God, bond of love that unites us to the angels, tower of salvation against the assaults of hell, safe port in our universal shipwreck, we will never abandon you. You will be our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life ebbs away. And the last word from our lips will be your sweet name, 0 Queen of the Rosary of Pompei, 0 dearest Mother, 0 Refuge of Sinners, 0 Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted. May you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in heaven."