Information about the Confraternity, from the Legion of Mary Handbook

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!

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

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

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...!