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THE CATHOLIC PACIFIC NORTHWEST
The Holy Names of Jesus and His Blessed Mother Mary
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A Catholic Christian Millennial Renaissance 
The Rosary is a prayer in which the Holy Spirit invites us to contemplate the life, death and resurrection, the mysteries, of our Lord, Jesus, who is True God and true man, through the eyes of His mother, Mary, Queen of Divine Love. October is a month dedicated to Mary and the Rosary, pray that all people may come to a greater appreciation of Jesus and his Blessed Mother through the mysteries of the Rosary.
WHY DO CATHOLICS HAVE SPECIAL VENERATION (DEVOTION) FOR MARY?
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WHAT IS THE ROSARY?
The Rosary is a devotion to Mary which is shared by all Roman Catholics. It is predominantly a mental prayer, a meditation on various mysteries in the life of Our Lord and Our Lady. The Rosary is a perfect blend of vocal prayers and meditation. The prayers that we recite as we meditate are meant to become a sort of chant in the background. The vocal prayers center on the recitation of a number of decades of Hail Marys, each decade introduced by the Lord's Prayer and concluded by a Glory Be. During the recitation of these vocal prayers, we meditate on certain events, or mysteries, from the life of Christ and Mary. In other words, while we say the various decades of the Rosary we attend to the mystery we are contemplating rather than to the words of the Hail Mary, Our Father, or Glory Be. The repetition of the Hail Marys helps to keep our minds from distractions as we meditate on the mysteries. The mysteries on which we meditate in the Rosary are divided into three sets and present an outline of the life of Jesus, stressing the key points in the drama of our redemption. Frequent reflection on these principal events will assist us as our faith grows and develops. The entire Rosary is composed of fifteen decades (a decade meaning a series of ten beads) corresponding to fifteen mysteries. The five decade rosaries which one commonly sees are really for praying only one-third of the Rosary at a time.
The Rosary begins with the recitation of the Apostles' Creed. This prayer is followed by an Our Father, three Hail Marys and the Glory Be said on the beads preceding the five decades. Each decade is preceded by an Our Father, includes ten Hail Marys, and concludes with the Glory Be. The Rosary ends with the Hail Holy Queen.
FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY
The feast of our Lady of the Rosary was established by Pope Pius V
in 1573 in thanksgiving for a battle won by the Christians over the
Turks through the intercession of Mary gained by praying the
Rosary. This feast was extended to the whole of the Catholic Church
by Pope Clement XI in 1716.
The rosary has had a long tradition of being a devotional of the
faithful. It began in two forms, in the first, the prayer consisted of
150 Our Fathers, mimicking the number of Psalms in the Bible. The
second prayed 150 Hail Marys also mimicking the 150 psalms.
As devotion to the rosary grew, it became simpler, and also a means
of directing meditation. Mysteries were added for the faithful to
meditate upon. Over several centuries, the rosary evolved into the
prayer form that we use today, with 15 mysteries remembering
events in the life of Jesus and the Blessed Mother. Promotion of the
Rosary as a devotional of the Faithful has been greatly encouraged
by the Dominicans.
Never will anyone who says his Rosary every day be led astray. This is a statement that I would gladly sign with my blood. (St. Louis de Montfort)
INTENTION
Please pray, through the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary, for
the Pope, for his health and for his intentions.
In our devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, we imitate her as our faultless model that we may engender Christ in our hearts and souls and glorify God. Her complete dedication to the Lord in faith and love is the example for our daily surrender to the continuing call of God. With the rosary we unite ourselves to Christ through the heart of His Mother, the greatest of all saints, in our communion with her and with them. Through our love of her we consecrate ourselves in Christ to become images of Our Lord, fostering through prayer a profound communion of mind, heart and soul with Him. By our focus on Him, our whole life may be penetrated by an apostolic spirit and an apostolic work bringing all to Him. In your daily life, listen for the Lord’s call, and do not reject it! Dare to become part of the renewal of holiness, the regeneration of soul, which is coming upon us in this new milliniumn, calling each to sainthood in our daily life in following Christ. Cultivate proper ideals, be readily accepting of God’s plan for you as He invites you to seek holiness in your life. Then, seek and admire all God’s works in the world through the eyes of God, fix your eyes on all the beauty destined never to pass away.
FIFTEEN PROMISES OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN TO CHRISTIANS WHO FAITHFULLY PRAY THE ROSARY
1. To all those who shall pray my Rosary devoutly, I promise my special protection and great graces.
2. Those who shall persevere in the recitation of my Rosary will receive some special grace.
3. The Rosary will be a very powerful armor against hell; it will destroy vice, deliver from sin and dispel heresy.
4. The rosary will make virtue and good works flourish, and will obtain for souls the most abundant divine mercies. It will draw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. Those who trust themselves to me through the Rosary will not perish.
6. Whoever recites my Rosary devoutly reflecting on the mysteries, shall never be overwhelmed by misfortune. He will not experience the anger of God nor will he perish by an unprovided death. The sinner will be converted; the just will persevere in grace and merit eternal life.
7. Those truly devoted to my Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite my Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces and will share in the merits of the blessed.
9. I will deliver promptly from purgatory souls devoted to my Rosary.
10. True children of my Rosary will enjoy great glory in heaven.
11. What you shall ask through my Rosary you shall obtain.
12. To those who propagate my Rosary I promise aid in all their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Son that all the members of the Rosary Confraternity shall have as their intercessors, in life and in death, the entire celestial court.
14. Those who recite my Rosary faithfully are my beloved children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion to my Rosary is a special sign of predestination.
HOW TO PRAY THE ROSARY:
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THE ROSARY HAS FIFTEEN MYSTERIES DIVIDED INTO THREE GROUPS.
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HOW TO PRAY THE ROSARY: |
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"Pray the Rosary every day |
THE HOLY ROSARY: |
THE ANGELUS:
The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary...
Behold the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done unto me according to your word.
Hail Mary...
And the Word became flesh. And lived among us.
Hail Mary...
V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray: O Lord, it was through the message of an angel that we learned of the incarnation of your Son Christ.
Pour your grace into our hearts, and by his passion and cross bring us to the glory of his resurrection.
Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Glory be to the Father.
MOST HOLY LADY, MOTHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST AND OUR MOTHER:
Most Holy Lady, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Mother, we thank you for surrendering your will to the Father’s plan, so that Jesus might become for us the Bread of Life and the Cup of Eternal Salvation.
Because you wish to lead us to His Eucharistic Presence, from which flows the font of God’s mercy for the forgiveness of our sins and the sins of the world, and because you are present wherever Jesus is honored and adored in this most holy mystery, we wish to invoke you under the title of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.
We then come to you, O Most Holy Mother, Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, and this day consecrate ourselves to you, individually and communally, so that through your help and intercession our hearts may be disposed for Jesus as was yours.
Make His Eucharistic presence be more powerfully felt in our families, in our religious and parish communities, in the Church and in the world, so that the Triumph of your own Immaculate Heart may lead us to the promised reign of the Eucharistic Heart of Our Lord, who together with the Father and the Spirit is God, for ever and ever. Amen.
QUESTION TO EWTN ON WEARING THE ROSARY (07-18-2000):
Question: Many people wearing the Rosary around their neck in a devout manner. This seems especially popular among certain populations of people. Could you please clarify this matter? Thank you.
Answer: Some people wear religious articles as jewelry. Presumably a devout Catholic does so as an act of piety. There would be nothing instrinsically wrong with doing so, any more than the wearing of a medal.
However, it is easy to go over board and become a victim of superstition in such matters. Superstition is the wrong use of holy things, or misdirected worship of God (generally a venial sin). At all times in our religious practices there should be a certain simplicity, a lack of ostentation.
Virtue, as St. Thomas Aquinas explains, is the mean between extremes, one of defect and one of excess. What would be the extremes in external marks of religion? At the extreme of defect would be the person who makes no external or public show of religion. This lack of piety acts as if God is not a part of their life, or not a part of public life. Consider today the schizophrenic attitude of many Christians that faith is a private matter that must not intrude upon their, or society's, public life. Such a person would likely be embarassed or ashamed to be publically identifed by making the Sign of the Cross, or some other external mark of their Catholicity.
At the other extreme is the person who covers themselves with medals, makes great effusive acts of piety in public, etc... Granting that this can be a very simple person with simply a poor idea of piety, but it can also be the proud person, clamoring to be seen. Jesus did not condemn the wearing of prayer shawls in public by the Pharisees, only their vain use by showy tassles and showy displays of piety on street corners.
For this reason the Church and her spiritual writers have always cautioned moderation in such matters, and this for two reasons. For the person himself, because by simply following the customs of the Church and what is usual in piety, one guards oneself against pride and vanity, which can easily creep into our pious practices, and against superstition (as if God's protection and love, and our growth in holiness, is conditioned by such things). Second, for the sake of those who see us, since ostentatious displays are an obstacle to others and give religion a bad name, as if such excessive practices are essential to religious faith and make us devout.
Like St. Therese of Lisieux, we should be content to be rather ordinary in the eyes of men.
(Colin B. Donovan, STL; Eternal Word Television Network [EWTN]; 07-21-2000)
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Created: 4/22/2000 - - - Modified: 11/15/2003