THE HOLY ROSARY
It is already mid-October and I want to make sure this month will not end without me sharing the power and beauty of the Holy Rosary.
The word rosary comes from Latin and means a garland of roses, the rose being one of the flowers used to symbolize the Virgin Mary.
It is commonly said that St. Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans), instituted the rosary as we know it now. Yes and No. While certain parts of the rosary predated St. Dominic and others arose only after his death, it was St. Dominic’s missionary work in fighting the Albigensian heresy which spread the understanding and devotion of the Holy Rosary during his time.
Centuries before St Dominic, monks had begun to recite all 150 psalms of David on a regular basis. As time went on, it was felt that the lay brothers, known as the conversi, should have some form of prayer of their own. They were distinct from the choir monks, and a chief distinction was that they were illiterate. Since they couldn’t read the psalms, they couldn’t recite them with the monks. They needed an easily remembered prayer.
The prayer first chosen was the Our Father, and, depending on circumstances, it was said either fifty or a hundred times. These conversi used rosaries to keep count, and the rosaries were known then as Paternosters (“Our Fathers”).
The use of “prayer beads” and the repeated recitation of prayers to aid in meditation stem from the earliest days of the Church and has roots in pre-Christian times. Evidence exists from the Middle Ages that strings of beads were used to count Our Fathers and Hail Marys. As mentioned earlier, these strings of beads became known as “Paternosters,” the Latin for “Our Father.”
The rosaries that originally were used to count Our Fathers came to be used, during the twelfth century, to count Hail Marys—or, more properly, the first half of what we now call the Hail Mary. (The second half was added some time later.) The structure of the rosary gradually evolved between the 12th and 15th centuries. Eventually 50 Hail Marys were recited and linked with verses of psalms or other phrases evoking the lives of Jesus and Mary. During this time, this prayer form became known as the rosarium (“rose garden”). During the 16th century, the structure of the five-decade rosary based on the three sets of mysteries prevailed.
The Rosary tells the story of the life of Jesus Christ, His mission, passion, death, resurrection and glory. Of course, the Rosary honors and contemplates Mary too, “Because of the mission she received from God, her life is most closely linked with the mysteries of Jesus Christ, and there is no one who has followed in the footsteps of the Incarnate Word more closely and with more merit than she”. With Mary, the heart is oriented toward the mystery of Jesus. Christ is put at the center of our life.
The Rosary, when it is prayed in an authentic way, not mechanical and superficial but profoundly, in fact, brings peace and reconciliation. It contains within itself the healing power of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, invoked with faith and love at the centre of each “Hail Mary”.
First we must understand that each part of the Holy Rosary are meditations. It isn’t just a recitation of prayers, but a meditation on the grace of God. Christ forbade meaningless repetition (Matt. 6:7), but the Bible itself prescribes some prayers that involve repetition. Look at Psalms 136, which is a litany (a prayer with a recurring refrain) meant to be sung in the Jewish Temple. In the psalm the refrain is “His mercy endures forever.” Sometimes in Psalms 136 the refrain starts before a sentence is finished, meaning it is more repetitious than the rosary, though this prayer was written directly under the inspiration of God. And in Matthew 26: 39-44, Jesus also repeated His prayer to God the Father, three times.
When praying the rosary, I oftentimes imagine myself as a child time traveling back to each scene of the Mysteries. I become part of the scene interacting with the characters in each mystery. My personal method of meditation not only made the story of Jesus come alive but it made it so meaningful as it has made my emotions so real in each mystery.
It is the meditation on the mysteries that gives the rosary its staying power. The next time you pray the rosary, include reading the corresponding bible verses of each mystery.
The Joyful Mysteries are these: the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), the Visitation (Luke 1:40-56), the Nativity (Luke 2:6-20), the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:21-39), and the Finding of the child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41-51).
Then come the Sorrowful Mysteries: the Agony in the Garden (Matt. 26:36-46), the Scourging (Matt. 27:26), the Crowning with Thorns (Matt. 27:29), the Carrying of the Cross (John 19:17), and the Crucifixion (Luke 23:33-46).
Then we have the Glorious Mysteries: the Resurrection (Luke 24:1-12), the Ascension (Luke 24:50-51), the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4), the Assumption of Mary into heaven (Rev. 12), and her Coronation (cf. Rev. 12:1).
And in 2002 Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, added the five Luminous Mysteries: The Baptism of Jesus- (Matt 3:16-17), The Wedding Feast. (Jesus’ first miracle. Reveals Mary’s role in our lives. She said “Do as He says.”- John 2:1-5), The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God- (Mark 1:15), The Transfiguration- (Matt 17:1-2), The Institution of the Eucharist- (Matt 26:26).
The Hail Mary is found in these verses- Luke 1: 28, 42-43, 48-49. While the Our Father is found in Matthew 6:9-13. These are the major prayers in the rosary and are said repeatedly.
As I learned more about the rosary, I realized that it contains the heart or the most essential parts of the New Testament. Notice, that while it is true that we say the Hail Mary repeatedly, honoring the first ever follower of Jesus, the first ever to say Yes to Him and do His will and eventually becoming His mother, the Holy Rosary is undeniably Christocentric. It infact summarizes the story of God’s love for us. And so for me, The Holy Rosary is a love story. Jesus’ Love Story.
Sources:
● https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/overviews/months/10_1.cfm
● http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-rosary