Rosary blessing

It's been a while since I last posted, but I thought I'd draw attention to a post on another blog (from last year). This post was actually precipitated by a question I posed to Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. It reminds us that ALL indulgences were rescinded by virtue of Pope Paul VI's Indulgentarium Doctrina unless specifically renewed. Fortunately, a new set of indulgences were requested by, and confirmed for, the Rosary Confraternity – see http://www.rosary-center.org/nconobl.htm.

Anyway, here is the post: http://dominican-liturgy.blogspot.com/2008/10/rosary-blessings-and-indulgences.html

(I dedicate this post to the person in the picture.) 

Newman's Rosary

A friend of mine recently told me he had the good fortune, when visiting Littlemore, to be offered a chance to pray the Rosary on Newman's own (pictured here).

Turns out this Rosary is pictured on the front of a recently released CD, Pray the Rosary with Cardinal Newman. 

With all this in mind, I searched the Newman Reader – and I might gather together all I can find of Newman on the Rosary when I can – but for now I wanted to posted a selection from an address he made on 5 October 1879 to boys at Oscott College: 

"Now the family is, even humanly considered, a sacred thing; how much more the family bound together by supernatural ties, and, above all, that in which God dwelt with His Blessed Mother. This is what I should most wish you to remember in future years. For you will all of you have to go out into the world, and going out into the world means leaving home; and, my dear boys, you don't know what the world is now. You look forward to the time when you will go out into the world, and it seems to you very bright and full of promise. It is not wrong for you to look forward to that time; but most men who know the world find it a world of great trouble, and disappointments, and even misery. If it turns out so to you, seek a home in the Holy Family that you think about in the mysteries of the Rosary. Schoolboys know the difference between school and home. You often hear grown-up people say that the happiest time of their life was that passed at school; but when they were at school you know they had a happier time, which was when they went home; that shows there is a good in home which cannot be found elsewhere. So that even if the world should actually prove to be all that you now fancy it, if it should bring you all that you could wish, yet you ought to have in the Holy Family a home with a holiness and sweetness about it that cannot be found elsewhere. This is, my dear boys, what I most earnestly ask you. I ask you when you go out into the world, as you soon must, to make the Holy Family your home, to which you may turn from all the sorrow and care of the world and find a solace, a compensation, and a refuge. [...] And when I speak of the Holy Family I do not mean Our Lord and Our Lady only, but St. Joseph too; for as we cannot separate Our Lord from His Mother, so we cannot separate St. Joseph from them both; for who but he was their protector in all the scenes of Our Lord's early life? And with Joseph must be included St. Elizabeth and St. John, whom we naturally think of as part of the Holy Family; we read of them together and see them in pictures together. May you, my dear boys, throughout your life find a home in the Holy Family; the home of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, St. Elizabeth, and St. John."

Fifteen Saturdays et al.

Today, I was reminded about Saturday devotions and I must find out more and write about them in due course. Meantime, here's this: http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/resources/firstsaturday.html and http://www.mariancatechist.com/html/spiritualdevelopment/blessedvirginmary/saturdaysandtheimmaculateheart.htm and http://www.rosarychapel.net/15Saturdays.php ...

Double vision

It's been a while since I wrote here, and in the meantime I've been enrolled in the Rosary Confraternity – twice over! 

Yes, first I received a certificate saying that I would be enrolled on January 11, 2009, and I was all excited. I made sure I (at least tried to have) gained the Plenary Indulgence on that day. 

So began my life as a Rosarian...

But then, a few months later, in through the letter-box popped another certificate, this time saying I had been enrolled on March 25, 2009! It's obviously a clerical error, but it tickled me! 

I just hope I am not unwittingly obligated to say 30 decades every week...! 

I shall rummage through my old Rosary book and start posting again! I have also discovered that the Lady Altar at the London Oratory was gifted by the Rosary Confraternity members there – must find out more...! 

Confraternity membership

After having applied to join the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary at the Rosary Center I have just been informed that there is a backlog owing to an overwhelming number of enrollments from foreign countries. 

So, all this time I thought I was a member – and have been praying the Rosary accordingly – I have found that I am due to be enrolled on 11th January, the Baptism of the Lord! My certificate is apparently in the post. 

But this is good. It has given me time to "practice" my Rosary, and it also means that I shall be able to avail myself of the Plenary Indulgence attached to joining by confession, communion and prayer for the Pope's intentions on the actual day of joining! 

Prayer to S. Joseph

Before October is up, I thought I'd post Pope Leo XIII's Prayer to S. Joseph – At te, beate Ioseph – which he prescribed for the month of October after the recitation of the Rosary. 

The prayer was originally given to the Church in the encyclical letter Quamquam pluries on devotion to S. Joseph (15 August, 1889). At the time, the Pope said: "To those who recite this prayer, We grant for each time an indulgence of seven years and seven Lents." 

It is worth noting that this prayer (or, indeed, any prayer in honour of S. Joseph) still carries a partial indulgence under the norms of the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (fourth edition, 1999). 

Preces in honorem S. Ioseph 

Partialis indulgentia conceditur christifideli qui S. Ioseph, Sponsum B.M.V., prece legitime adprobata pie invocaverit (e.g. Ad te, beate Ioseph). 

Ad te, beate Ioseph, in tribulatione nostra confugimus, atque, implorato Sponsae tuae sanctissimae auxilio, patrocinium quoque tuum fidenter exposcimus. Per eam, quaesumus, quae te cum immaculata Virgine Dei Genetrice coniunxit, caritatem, perque paternum, quo Puerum Iesum amplexus es, amorem, supplices deprecamur, ut ad hereditatem, quam Iesus Christus acquisivit Sanguine suo, benignus respicias, ac necessitatibus nostris tua virtute et ope succurras. Tuere, o Custos providentissime divinae Familiae, Iesu Christi sobolem electam; prohibe a nobis, amantissime Pater, omnem errorum ac corruptelarum luem; propitius nobis, sospitator noster fortissime, in hoc cum potestate tenebrarum certamine e caelo adesto; et sicut olim Puerum Iesum e summo eripuisti vitae discrimine, ita nunc Ecclesiam sanctam Dei ab hostilibus insidiis atque ab omni adversitate defende: nosque singulos perpetuo tege patrocinio, ut ad tui exemplar et ope tua suffulti, sancte vivere, pie emori, sempiternamque in caelis beatitudinem assequi possimus. Amen. 

English translation (this is from my Baronius Press 1962 Roman Missal; USCCB-authorised translation of the Enchiridion can be bought here):

To thee, O blessed Joseph, we fly in our tribulation and after imploring the help of thy holy Spouse, with confidence we ask also for thy intercession. By the affection which united thee to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and by the paternal love with which thou didst embrace the Child Jesus, we beseech thee to look kindly upon the inheritance which Jesus Christ acquired by His precious blood, and with thy powerful aid to help us in our needs. Protect, most careful guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen people of Jesus Christ. Keep us, loving father, from all pestilence of error and corruption. From thy place in heaven be thou mercifully with us, most powerful protector, in this warfare with the powers of darkness; and, as thou didst once rescue the Child Jesus from imminent danger of death, so now defend the holy Church of God from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity. Guard each of us by the constant patronage, so that, sustained by the example and help, we may live a holy life, die a holy death, and obtain the everlasting happiness of heaven. Amen. 

The Rosary: Its Power and Its Use

I am reading an excellent book called The Rosary: Its Power and Its Use by Rev. F. John Leather, O.P., published in 1932 by Sands & Co. This book is out of print nowadays and so I thought I'd type out excerpts from it. The book is illustrated by the work of Fra Angelico, which is interesting, but there is also some wonderful information about the history of the Rosary and the Rosary Confraternity, which I intend to post here.

As a first post, this taken from pp. 37–38, on the beads of the Rosary – it starts pretty mundanely, but quickly gets much more interesting!:

"When we say the Rosary we pass the beads through our fingers, and thus automatically count the required number of Hail Mary's without distracting the mind from the prayers and meditations. These Rosary beads must consist of five, ten, or fifteen decades; and each decade should have an Our Father bead and ten Hail Mary beads; otherwise, they cannot receive the special Dominican blessing not be called a Rosary (S. Cong Indulg., 20th June, 1836). Rosaries, however, made of solid glass or crystal may be blessed (Penit. 21st Dec., 1925). The blessing by a Dominican Father, or other Priest with Dominican faculty, carries with it an Indulgence of one hundred days on each bead said as part of the Rosary (S. Cong. Indulg., 29th August, 1899) A Rosary that has lost four or five beads remains blessed (S.C.I., 10th Jan., 1839), and the missing beads may be added."

These indulgences have been abrogated since the publication of the new Enchiridion, but presumably what constitutes a Rosary still stands and also whether a Rosary loses its blessing when broken to some extent. (My crucifix has broken: is it still blessed?!)

For more information about the traditional Dominican blessing see http://dominican-liturgy.blogspot.com/2008/10/rosary-blessings-and-indulgences.html which outlines the situation as it stands today.