Rosary Confraternity

Information about the Confraternity, from the Legion of Mary Handbook

2010-08-30T15:54:00.001-07:00

I was recently reading the The Official Handbook of The Legion of Mary – available as html and pdf here – and was interested to read their resumé of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary:

APPENDIX 7

THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE MOST HOLY ROSARY

1. This is an association that unites into one great family the faithful who undertake to recite the fifteen decades of the Rosary at least once a week. Membership of a family implies a sharing among the members. Those who join the Rosary Confraternity are invited to place in Our Lady’s hands not only their rosaries, but the value of all their works, sufferings and prayers, to be distributed as seems best to her among the other members and for the needs of the Church. The Confraternity was founded by the Dominican Alan de la Roche in the year 1470. Its promotion is a special responsibility of the Dominican family. For this reason all those inscribed become sharers in the spiritual benefits of the Order.

2. The fact that St. Louis-Marie de Montfort was not only a member of the Confraternity, but devoted himself ardently to its propagation, should be a headline for legionaries. The following interesting document is still in existence: “We, the Provincial of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), do certify and declare that Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, Brother of our Third Order, preaches everywhere and with much zeal, edification, and fruit, the Confraternity of the Rosary in all the Missions which he gives continually in the towns and country places.”

3. In order to join, one’s full name must be enrolled on the register in a Church where the Confraternity has been established. To obtain the many indulgences and privileges of membership it is necessary to meditate on the mysteries as best one can while reciting the prayers. It was St. Louis-Marie de Montfort who said that “meditation is the soul of the Rosary.” The obligation to recite the fifteeen decades at least once a week does not bind under sin. The ordinary daily Rosary more than fulfills. The entire Rosary need not be said together; the decades may be recited one or more at a time according to convenience. There is no obligatory meeting or subscription.

4. Some of the advantages of the Confraternity are as follows: (a) The special protection of Our Lady, Queen of the Rosary; (b) a share in all the good works and spiritual benefits of the members of the Dominican Order and of the Rosary Confraternity, the world over; (c) a share, after death, in the prayers and suffrages offered by the same for the dead; (d) a plenary indulgence may be gained on the day of enrolment, on the feasts of Christmas, Easter, Annunciation (the Incarnation of the Lord), Assumption, Our Lady of the Rosary, Immaculate Conception, Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple.

5. Apart from indulgences to be gained as members of the above Confraternity, a plenary indulgence is attached to five decades of the Rosary said while meditating upon the mysteries at the one time in a church or public oratory, or with a family, or in a religious community, or at a meeting of a pious association (which would include the Legion). A partial indulgence is attached to its recital in other circumstances.

6. The conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence are:

(a) Sacramental confession — the one confession will satisfy for the gaining of several indulgences;

(b) Holy Communion — to be received each time one wishes to gain a plenary indulgence;

(c) Prayer for Pope’s intentions — one Pater and Ave or any other prayer according to liking, will satisfy the condition. The prayers are to be repeated for the gaining of each plenary indulgence.

(d) It is required also that one be free from any affection for sin, even for venial sin. “The Holy Rosary is the fairest flower of our Order. Should it come to pass that this flower withers, simultaneously the beauty and lustre of our Institute is seen to fade and disappear. And on the other hand, when that flower revives, forthwith it draws down on us the heavenly dew, imparts to our stem an aroma of grace and causes it to bring forth, as from a root of piety, fruits of virtue and of honour.” (de Monroy, O.P.)

Join the Rosary Confraternity in the UK!

2010-08-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

The internet now makes it easy to join the Rosary Confraternity. You can sign up online at http://www.rosary-center.org/

For those in the UK, you can enrol in the traditional way, with pen and paper! If you would like to be enrolled, could you please send your name and a stamped addressed envelope to the address below, and your name will be entered in the Confraternity Register and you will be sent a Certificate of Enrollment.

fr Neil Ferguson OP

St Dominic’s Priory

Southampton Road

London NW5 4LB

For more details, please visit http://english.op.org/Rosary_Confraternity.html

Rosary Confraternity Prayer

2010-04-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

I am posting here the Rosary Confraternity Prayer. I have yet to find out whether there is a Latin version, but I have been in touch with the Rosary Center and I am waiting for a reply. It was written, apparently, in 1979, with approbation being given as detailed below.

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary and Mother of us all, we come to you for help in our sorrows, trials and necessities. Sin leaves us weak and helpless but Divine Grace heals and strengthens.

We ask for the grace to love Jesus as you loved Him, to believe as you believed, to hope as you hoped; we ask to share your purity of mind and heart. Give us true sorrow for sin and make us love people as you and Jesus loved them. Obtain for us the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we may be wise with your wisdom, understand with your understanding, know with your knowledge, prudent with your prudence, patient with your patience, courageous with your fortitude and desire justice ardently for everyone with the all consuming desire of the Sacred Heart of Jesus your Son.

Open our minds that as we pray the Rosary we will understand the teachings of the Gospel contained in its mysteries.

We pray especially for the members of the Rosary Confraternity whom we love. Help them wherever they may be; guide them, watch over them and make them strong in their trials and suffering. We are drawn together by a common bond of great charity for you and for each other; keep us faithful to your Son and to your Rosary till death.

Intercede for the souls in Purgatory, especially for the members of the Rosary Confraternity who have died. May they rest in peace. Finally we ask for grace of final perseverance for ourselves and for our loved ones that we may all be reunited in heaven forever.

Saint Dominic, you who received so much Grace and Strength from the Rosary, Pray for Us.

Imprimi Potest:
Thomas P. Raftery O.P., Lect. S.Th., J.C.D.
Provincial

Nihil Obstat:
+ Paul E. Waldschmidt CSC, D.D., S.T.D.

Imprimatur:
+ Cornelius M. Power, D.D., J.C.D.
Archbishop of Portland

March 30, 1979

Rosary blessing

2009-09-25T09:17:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-06-13T16:08:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-12-31T11:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-24T04:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-21T02:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Fifteen promises

2008-10-20T13:08:00.001-07:00

The fifteen promises of Mary to Christians who recite the Rosary, given to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan

Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the rosary, shall receive signal graces.
I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the rosary.
The rosary shall be a powerful armour against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw 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.
The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the rosary, shall not perish.
Whoever shall recite the rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.
Whoever shall have a true devotion for the rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
Those who are faithful to recite the rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the rosary.
The faithful children of the rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the rosary.
All those who propagate the holy rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
All who recite the rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only son Jesus Christ.
Devotion of my rosary is a great sign of predestination.

Joining the Rosary Confraternity

2008-10-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

The spirit helpeth our infirmity. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings (Romans 8:26)

This month, after a period of discernment, I have applied to join the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary (an Archconfraternity), a worldwide body of people devoted to the Rosary. I thought that October, Mary's month, was an appropriate time to do this!

I have decided to start a blog devoted to gathering information about this fascinating prayer group, concentrating on its history and other information that might be difficult to access elsewhere. It follows that I also intend this blog to be a useful resource for praying the Rosary.

To start with, I am pasting below the Rosary Confraternity prayer, as found on the Confraternity website. In due course, I shall make a pdf of this prayer for downloading...

Rosary Confraternity Prayer

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary and Mother of us all, we come to you for help in our sorrows, trials and necessities. Sin leaves us weak and helpless but Divine Grace heals and strengthens.

We ask for the grace to love Jesus as you loved Him, to believe as you believed, to hope as you hoped; we ask to share your purity of mind and heart. Give us true sorrow for sin and make us love people as you and Jesus loved them. Obtain for us the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we may be wise with your wisdom, understand with your understanding, know with your knowledge, prudent with your prudence, patient with your patience, courageous with your fortitude and desire justice ardently for everyone with the all consuming desire of the Sacred Heart of Jesus your Son.

Open our minds that as we pray the Rosary we will understand the teachings of the Gospel contained in its mysteries.

We pray especially for the members of the Rosary Confraternity whom we love. Help them wherever they may be; guide them, watch over them and make them strong in their trials and suffering. We are drawn together by a common bond of great charity for you and for each other; keep us faithful to your Son and to your Rosary till death.

Intercede for the souls in Purgatory, especially for the members of the Rosary Confraternity who have died. May they rest in peace. Finally we ask for grace of final perseverance for ourselves and for our loved ones that we may all be reunited in heaven forever. [Amen]

Saint Dominic, you who received so much Grace and Strength from the Rosary, Pray for Us.

Imprimi Potest:
Thomas P. Raftery O.P., Lect. S.Th., J.C.D.
Provincial

Nihil Obstat:
+ Paul E. Waldschmidt CSC, D.D., S.T.D.

Imprimatur:
+ Cornelius M. Power, D.D., J.C.D.
Archbishop of Portland

March 30, 1979