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Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., invites you to join the Dominican Friars for the inaugural Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage, Sept. 30th, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. Fr. Pine will give talks on the Rosary and on Our Lady and they’ll be confession, Eucharistic Adoration, praying of the Rosary, and a Vigil Mass. Come on pilgrimage with Fr. Pine and his brothers!

In 1208, St. Dominic received a heavenly vision of the Blessed Mother. Many believe that the Rosary came forth from this vision. The Feast of the Assumption is one of the great mysteries Catholics meditate on when praying the Rosary. You are invited to join Kathryn Lopez of the National Review and three accomplished Friars from the Province of St. Joseph, on the Eve of the Feast of the Assumption, to talk about the origins of the Rosary and the POWER of the Mysteries of the Rosary in our lives today. Fr. Patrick Briscoe, O.P., the editor of Our Sunday Visitor, Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P., the chaplain at The Catholic University of America, and Fr. Sebastian White, O.P., the editor of Magnificat, join Kathryn Jean Lopez for a live discussion on all your questions.

Even among the kaleidoscopic crowd on the subway and in the streets of New York City our Dominican habits tend to stand out and invite questions. One piece of the habit that draws a lot of attention is the Rosary. Those who are unfamiliar with the devotion usually ask what the beads are for and, often, if they are Protestant, this leads to questions about Catholic Marian devotion. 

Their questions usually center around the scriptural basis for the Rosary and other Marian devotions. These types of questions are fairly easy to respond to. 

The history of the Rosary is grounded firmly in the liturgical practice of reciting the Psalms. The Rosary emerged as a way for illiterate men and women (or, at least, those who could not read Latin) to participate in the Liturgy of the Hours. A full Rosary contains 150 recitations of the Hail Mary, in the Bible there are 150 Psalms. This is no mere coincidence, it is a purposeful adaptation of the Psalmody to fit the abilities and needs of Christians who would otherwise be disconnected from the Scriptures.

In addition to this overarching connection to the Psalms, each individual component of the Rosary has a scriptural connection. 

The Lord’s Prayer, which begins every decade, is pulled directly from the Gospel of Matthew (Matt 6:9-13). 

The Hail Mary also has a strong basis in Scripture. Its first half is a combination of two scriptural verses from the Gospel of Luke. Hail, Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you! the angel Gabriel greets Mary in the first chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:28). Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, proclaims Elizabeth in Luke’s account of the Visitation (Luke 1:42). 

The second half of the Hail Mary (appended in the 15th century) is not as directly scriptural, but draws from scriptural themes and verses. Holy Mary, mother of God relates to Elizabeth’s greeting of Mary as “the mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43). Mary is the mother of Jesus, the incarnate second person of the Trinity. She has, thus, been honored by the Church as the Theotokos (God-bearer) since the 3rd century. The title of Mother of God was confirmed by the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. The final petition of the Hail Mary, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, draws on the Letter of James which admonishes Christians to pray for each other and proclaims that the prayers of a righteous man (or woman) has great power in its effects. (Jas 5:16). Who could be more righteous among men and women than the one seen fit by the Father to become Mother of God?

Finally, the mysteries of the Rosary follow the life of Christ as depicted by the Gospels. As we meditate on these mysteries, we are reminded of the Evangelists’ accounts of the birth, ministry, Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. A popular practice is to read short passages connected with the mystery before each decade or, even, each Hail Mary. When we meditate on the mysteries, we dwell deeply on the Gospels and are led to a deeper understanding of the Scriptures by our recitation of the Rosary. 

The Rosary and Tradition

After offering these arguments for the Rosary’s connection to the Scriptures, my interlocutor will usually offer his own arguments for why I am wrong and why I am really worshiping Mary instead of God. From these kinds of discussions I’ve come to see that difficulties with the Rosary are not really centered on the question of Marian devotion, but the larger problem of Sola scriptura or faith based on the Bible, alone. 

The Rosary acts as a focal point for these interactions because it represents the Church’s understanding of theology, which makes use of both Scripture and Tradition (CCC 82). When we pray the Rosary we act upon, among other things, our belief in Mary’s intercessory power, the Church’s power to grant indulgences, and the various Marian apparitions that call for increased devotion to the Rosary. None of these beliefs contradict Scripture, but they are not explicitly referred to either. These beliefs rest firmly on the Gospels, but build upon that scriptural foundation to a fuller understanding of the Christian faith. Difficulties with the Rosary are often a manifestation of a reticence to connect scriptural evidence with the Tradition that undergirds the Rosary. 

This does not mean that we should disregard or do away with the importance of Sacred Scripture. On the contrary, Scripture remains an important component of the faith and provides a window into the life and teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is not the only window. The Scriptures, themselves, proclaim this in multiple passages. St. John concludes his Gospel with a proclamation that “there are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). St. Paul likewise testifies that not all of the apostles’ teaching was committed to writing, but that their oral teaching should be observed as closely as written instruction (2 Thes 2:15). 

The Catholic Church combines the importance of Scripture with the magisterial Tradition guaranteed by apostolic succession. Christ commissioned Peter and the apostles to feed his lambs and tend his sheep, establishing the Church as an institution to draw men and women to a relationship with God. We receive the fullness of this nourishment when we observe the teachings and practices of Christ and the apostles as presented by both Sacred Scripture and the traditions of the Church.   

One tradition that draws us close to Christ is devotion to his mother. Devotion to the Blessed Mother always begins and ends with Christ. Every dogmatic definition related to Mary has been a defense against Christological errors. The Rosary, though intensely Marian, is Christological to its core. Through the Rosary, Mary, the best of mothers, leads us to Jesus. When we pray the Rosary for Mary’s intercession, we ask her to obtain for us grace from her son, Jesus Christ. Jesus, the most perfect of sons, always listens with love to his beloved mother.  

“O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine.” Today, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Catholics throughout the world are making this petition. Our Lord Jesus was, of course, preeminently meek and humble, but, we may wonder, what other virtues are we asking for in this short prayer? In what other ways do we desire our hearts to be “like unto his”? I would suggest that the life of our Holy Father Saint Dominic can help us find an answer to this question.

In the biblical sense, the “heart” refers to the very depths of one’s being, where one decides for or against God (CCC 368). A heart that is purified is one that is given over to God alone, and to those who have such hearts eternal life is promised:

Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? The man with clean hands and pure heart, Who desires not worthless things.”

Psalm 24:3-4

In the Gospel, we hear this promise again from the lips of Christ himself: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

To some, this might seem to suggest that one should keep the concerns of sinners far away from one’s own heart. Under this interpretation, the less one thinks about sins and sinners, the more pure one’s heart is. In the life of Saint Dominic, however, we see purity of heart manifested in a very different way. Blessed Jordan of Saxony, Dominic’s immediate successor as Master of the Order, wrote of him, “God gave him the singular gift of weeping for sinners, the wretched, and the afflicted, whose sufferings he felt within his compassionate heart, which poured out its hidden feelings in a shower of tears.”

Dominic, far from keeping sinners at bay, welcomed them into his heart and made of them an integral part of his prayer and contemplation. In his nightly vigils, he could often be overheard asking the Lord, “What will become of sinners?” Not only in his prayer, but also in his relationships with others, he was known for this solicitude: “All men were swept into the embrace of his charity, and, in loving all, he was beloved by all.”

Saint Dominic challenges our notion of what it means to have a pure heart, and it is a truly Christian challenge. His embrace of sinners is the manifestation of an authentic imitation of Christ. To be pure of heart is to have one’s heart so closely conformed to the Sacred Heart, that his concerns become ours. We do not need to search the Gospels for long to discover that Our Lord carried the concerns of sinners and the afflicted in his Sacred Heart: “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). Here, in the Gospel and in the life of Saint Dominic, we find one more gift we might obtain by asking our Lord, “Make my heart like unto thine.”

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This article was originally published on dominicanajournal.org and was written by Fr. Raymund Snyder, O.P..

I’ll be honest up front: there can be debate within Dominican ranks regarding the status of the Luminous Mysteries. Should Pope St. John Paul II have “changed” the Rosary by adding mysteries? 

Objections: (1) For centuries, the Rosary has consisted of 150 Hail Marys (ten for each of the fifteen mysteries). This number corresponds to the number of Psalms. Thus, many have called the Rosary the “Marian Psalter.” The addition of five mysteries makes the number of Hail Marys exceed the number of Psalms, which is unfitting. (2) To pray the Rosary is to contemplate Jesus through the eyes of Mary. But Mary rarely appears in the Luminous Mysteries. (3) Dominican friars, sisters, and nuns wear a Rosary on their belts. The additional beads make the Rosary too long and unmanageable.

On the other hand, in June of 1917, Our Lady appeared to three children at Fatima and asked them to add a prayer after every decade of the Rosary. “Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins . . . . ” It seems then that the Rosary can be changed for the good of the Church.

I answer that, it was eminently fitting that the saintly pope should add five mysteries to the Rosary, and for three reasons. 

First, Our Lady presented the Rosary to the Church by way of her servant, Saint Dominic. For this reason, the Rosary has been associated with and promoted by the Order of Friars Preachers. Among the sons of Dominic, Saint Thomas Aquinas stands out as the Order’s greatest theologian. In his Summa Theologiae, he devotes 33 questions to the mysteries of Our Savior’s life, and he divides these mysteries into four groups: those relating to his coming into the world, to the course of his life in the world, to his departure from this world, and to his exaltation after this life. With the addition of five mysteries that correspond to the course of Christ’s life on earth, the Rosary now better reflects the theology of Saint Thomas and, therefore, the Dominican Order as a whole.

Second, the Luminous Mysteries not only draw the mind to important moments in the earthly life of Christ, but also to the most important moments in a Christian’s earthly life: namely, his or her reception of the Sacraments. Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan reminds us of our own rebirth in Christ. The Miracle at Cana recalls the sacrament of matrimony. Christ’s Preaching of the Kingdom and call to conversion bring to mind three sacraments: confirmation, which strengthens one to witness to the Gospel; reconciliation, which follows on conversion; and anointing of the sick, which was conferred by the Apostles in their first preaching mission (Mark 6:13). The Institution of the Eucharist reminds us not only of the Eucharist, but also the sacrament of holy orders, which Christ instituted that same evening. The mystery of the Transfiguration summarizes all seven sacraments, as they are meant to transform us by grace unto eternal glory.

Third, in recent centuries, certain false teachers have obscured the truth of Christ’s earthly life. So-called rationalists began to question the miracles performed by Christ, and even his entire life as recounted in the Gospels. The Luminous Mysteries combat such erroneous thinking by drawing Christian minds and hearts to the central mysteries of Our Lord’s earthly ministry—the revelations of his divine sonship at his baptism, his divine power in the first of his signs, his reign in his preaching of the Kingdom, his future glory in the Transfiguration, and his Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist.

To the above objections, it could be said that: (1) While no one may add to the number of Psalms since the Psalms are a part of Scripture, Hail Marys may be added to the Rosary, even as most Catholics add three to the beginning of the Rosary for an increase in faith, hope, and love. (2) Our Lady delights in nothing more than drawing our attention to her Son. Hence, her counsel in the second mystery—“Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5)—forms the Marian foundation of all the “mysteries of light’” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae 21). (3) Sartorial concerns should not determine the devotional life of the Church; just the opposite. Furthermore, nothing prohibits the use of a traditional fifteen-decade Rosary for religious attire.

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This article was originally published on dominicanajournal.org and was written by Fr. Bernard Knapke, O.P..