The Rosary has a way of ensnaring us. But what we come to discover is that in being ensnared, we are saved. Fr. Gregory Pine teaches us that the Rosary asks of us a kind of contemplative stance—because we’re actually “heaven-dwellers” here on earth—we’re all called to be contemplatives. And we can do this by contemplating the saving mysteries of Christ. The mysteries we pray in the Rosary accompany us in this life, ultimately saving us! At his annunciation, Christ is saving. At his visitation, Christ is saving. At his nativity, Christ is saving. At his presentation, Christ is saving. All the way down the line, Christ is saving. And we contemplate these mysteries in union with Mary, the one who enjoys the most intimate union with her Son. She helps us to see joy, to see light, to see sorrow, and to see glory.
Recitation of the Rosary from the 2023 Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage
We pray the Rosary and ask for the intercession of Our Lady, “Because the blessed Virgin in her maternal intercession, in her maternal care, she wants to intercede on your behalf so we can rely upon that,” explained Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., during the during first Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage.
So as you pray the Rosary today, remember , that you are partaking, “richly of the joy of our Lord through the intercession of the most blessed Virgin Mary,” Fr. Gregory Pine.
We invite you to pray the Rosary with us, featuring 15 decades of the Most Holy Rosary, including the newly composed Dominican Rosary Litany, by Fr. Michael O’Connor, O.P..
The Rosary is Still the Prayer of the Family
Though the first Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage is a momentous event in the life of the Church, it is not the first national Rosary pilgrimage to take place in America.
On October 30, 1971, thousands of pilgrims led by Fr. Patrick Peyton, CSC, journeyed to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. The pilgrimage was a part of Fr. Patrick’s Family Rosary Crusade, a series of national and international pilgrimages dedicated to strengthening families through daily praying of the Rosary.
Fr. Patrick Peyton was raised in a poor, farming family in Ireland that had a strong devotion to family prayer. Every night, his family would kneel together to pray the Rosary together before going to bed. The Peyton family’s dedication to the Rosary strengthened their bonds of love to face the difficulties of poverty, illness, and immigration with trust in the Blessed Mother’s patronage. Fr. Patrick experienced Mary’s patronage in a direct way through a miraculous recovery from tuberculosis after entrusting himself to Our Lady of the Rosary. After his ordination to the priesthood, Fr. Patrick sought to repay Mary’s care for him.
Recalling his own family, Fr. Patrick began a world-wide campaign to spread the devotion of the family Rosary. He took as his motto, “The family that prays together, stays together.” He spoke to crowds of hundreds-of-thousands about the power of the Rosary to protect and strengthen families, and families around the world responded by dedicating themselves to praying the Rosary every day. Family prayer places God at the center of your family’s life. The practice of praying the Rosary together places your family under Mary’s protection and draws you closer to her son, Jesus.
Fr. Patrick Peyton was declared Venerable by Pope Francis in 2017 and his cause for canonization is ongoing. This year is the thirty-first anniversary of his death, but his message that the family that prays together, stays together is one that continues to be proclaimed and to bear fruit through daily family Rosaries.
When the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage meets in Washington, DC, fifty-two years after Fr. Patrick’s crusade, we will preach to the world that the Rosary is still the prayer of the family. The Rosary is the perfect prayer to protect and strengthen the family’s bonds of love through the intercession of our most loving mother.
What is the Rosary Confraternity?
A significant part of Christian piety in the late-Middle Ages were the various guilds and confraternities associated with different saints. These confraternities were made up of groups of parishioners who supported each other in their devotion to a particular saint. Members would gather for prayers, furnish an altar or decorations for an image of the saint, and pray for the intentions of all the members of the guild. The benefits of joining a confraternity extended even after death. Members would promise to pray for the deceased members of their confraternity and would endow a series of Masses to be said for the souls of any member who died. These groups were not limited only to the rich or the learned. Pious confraternities were made up of both wealthy and poor, educated craftsmen and peasant farmers. Guilds formed the glue of parochial life and helped to connect the members of local society through their devotions.
One such group that came about in the middle of the fifteenth century was the Confraternity of the Rosary. Inspired by the preaching of the Dominican Alan de la Roche, the first confraternity dedicated to the Rosary was erected in Cologne in 1447. Soon, many similar confraternities were established and they were placed under the care of the Dominican Order. These confraternities are still active today with countless members around the world. Many Dominican saints and blesseds, especially the martyrs of South East Asia, were active in promoting and participating in their local confraternities.
The Confraternity of the Holy Rosary is one of the most highly indulgenced pious associations of the faithful. Members of the Confraternity (called Rosarians) through the generosity of the Church, are offered great spiritual advantages including sharing in all the Masses, Divine Offices, and good works of the fathers, brothers, contemplative nuns, sisters, and laity of the whole Dominican Order. Additionally, plenary indulgences are made available to Confraternity members on the day of their enrolment, Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, the Assumption, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and the Immaculate Conception. A plenary indulgence is also available daily for those members who recite five decades of the Rosary at once.
Confraternity chapters at parishes will often pray the Rosary in common, but even when a Rosarian prays the Rosary alone he is united to all the members of the Confraternity praying the Rosary on behalf of the Church, in virtue of their membership in the public association. Rosarians, when they pray the Rosary, pray for the intentions of the whole Confraternity, tapping into all the graces offered by the Church to the Confraternity and its members.
Surely all the lavish benefits of enrollment in the Confraternity must require some great labor or special standing on the part of the members of the Rosary Confraternity. But no. Members can enroll online or through their local parish chapter, and, once enrolled, the only requirement is that members pray fifteen decades of the Rosary each week and include the other members and their intentions in their prayers—such great spiritual benefits for something many members would do even without the Confraternity.
You can learn more about the Confraternity of the Rosary here.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Refuge in Heaven
Is it possible to love too much? Not when it comes to our heavenly mother. Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., principal preacher at the inaugural Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage, characterizes Marian devotion “as overflow, not overkill.” He explains that Mary sets herself up “as an icon, not an idol, allowing our gaze to pass through her, to her Son. And she doesn’t upend the place of Christ, rather she extends it to us, with the care of a mother.”