The Rosary

THE name Rosary signifies a crown of roses; and well does this devotion deserve, by just right, a name so beautiful. The rose is the most beautiful of flowers and ravishes our senses with its beauty and perfume; and there is no delight that can equal the heavenly enchantment of the spiritual sweetness which is exhaled from this beautiful prayer.

The Rosary is a spiritual garland of mystic roses with which we deck the brow of Mary—a diadem which reflects the joy and brilliance, the purity and fecundity of the glorious Queen of Heaven.

The flowers which we weave are not of this earth, but are indigenous to Paradise, and were transplanted by an angel's hand from their native soil to bloom and flourish among the weeds and thistles of this miserable and sinful world.

There is no form of prayer more efficacious, or more excellent and acceptable before Heaven than Mary's own devotion, the Rosary. There is nothing that the great Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, urged more upon the Church than the devout practice of reciting the beads in her honor.

The devotion of the Holy Rosary was revealed to St. Dominic by the Blessed Virgin Mary, who commanded him to preach it throughout the world; and hence the Rosary has ever been the spiritual heritage and distinct property of the Dominican Order.

The Rosary is adapted to the learned and the ignorant, and to every capacity. The form and matter are intelligible to the most illiterate, and yet so sublime as to be matter of contemplation worthy of the highest intellect. Moreover, the Rosary is not only a most sublime and perfect devotion, but there is no devotion in the Church which is enriched with more precious and valuable helps to salvation; and there is nothing, outside the Holy Sacrifice, that can profit the living and the dead equal to the pious recitation of the Rosary.

The Form and Matter of the Rosary

The Rosary consists in the recitation, in honor of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of the Angelic Salutation one hundred and fifty times, distributed into fifteen decades; each decade being preceded by the Lord's Prayer and accompanied by meditation on one of the principal mysteries of our Divine Saviour and terminated by the doxology or "Glory be to the Father," etc. The vocal prayer is the matter, the body of this exercise; the meditation on the fifteen mysteries is the form, and, as it were, the soul of this prayer. The Rosary is divided into three parts; each part contains five mysteries and is called a chaplet. The first part consists of the five joyful mysteries; the second, of the five sorrowful; and the third, of the five glorious mysteries.

Manner of Reciting the Rosary

The method of reciting the Rosary practiced by the Dominicans is as follows:

In the name of the Father, etc.

V. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

R. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb—Jesus.

V. Thou, O Lord, wilt open my lips.

R. And my tongue shall announce Thy praise.

V. Incline unto my aid, O God.

R. O Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory be to the Father, etc., Alleluia.

(From Septuagesima to Easter, instead of Alleluia, say Praise by to Thee, O Lord, King of eternal glory.)

Then announce either "the first part of the holy Rosary, the five joyful mysteries," or "the second part of the holy Rosary, the five sorrowful mysteries," or "the third part of the holy Rosary, the five glorious mysteries." Then the first mystery, "The Annunciation," etc., and Our Father once, Hail Mary ten times, Glory be to the Father once; in the meantime, meditating on the mystery. After reciting five decades, the Hail, Holy Queen is said, followed by

V. Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray

O God, whose only begotten Son, by His life, death and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech Thee, that, meditating upon these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Five Joyful Mysteries

(Assigned for Mondays and Thursdays throughout the year, the Sundays in Advent and after Epiphany till Lent.)

Like scenes of some wondrous drama these Mysteries set before us the joys of the life of our Saviour. One by one the scenes are unfolded—each telling its story, conveying its Gospel lesson to the human soul. Before our mental view pass the personages mentioned in God's Book. Here are Mary the humble, Joseph the obedient, Elizabeth the prayerful, Simeon the just, the angels on earth and in heaven—all bending in lowly reverence before Jesus, the grand central figure of the Rosary devotion. Our minds filled with Faith and Hope and Love, we begin the decades:

First Joyful Mystery:

The Annunciation

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