Rosary Background - A beautiful and inspiring tool for deeply powerful prayer.

As part of the Great Sacrament of Penance (Confession), our confessor and spiritual father (Parish Priest or Bishop) will assign an appropriate penance designed to assist us overcoming our sinfulness, to offer gratitude and thanksgiving to our Lord and Savior for his unmerited Mercy, and as a plea to the Trinity and Mother Mary for assistance in overcoming our faults. The most common form of penance is a set quantity of decades of the Rosary. To get the most out of our penance, it is helpful if we understand the deep, traditional roots of the rosary itself.

The practice of repeating prayers, notably the "Our Father..." and "Glory Be...", traces its origins back to the earliest centuries of the Church. The use of prayer beads predates the Church, finding a special place among Egyptian monks.

During the early Middle Ages, the repetition of the "Our Father..." 150 times emerged as an alternative to reciting the 150 Psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours. By the thirteenth century, various alternatives to the Psalter surfaced, featuring repeated prayers or verses from Scripture. These included the 150 Angelic Salutations, the 150 praises of Jesus, and the 150 praises of Mary. Since the Psalms were viewed as the prayers and praises of Christ, it was common to pair each prayer or Psalm with a sentence from the Gospel for meditation on the life of Christ while reciting the prayer. This paved the way for meditating on the mysteries within the context of the Rosary.

By the fourteenth century, these diverse alternatives to the Psalter began to coalesce into a form more akin to the Rosary we recognize today. Around 1365, the Carthusians organized the "Hail Mary..." into decades preceded by an "Our Father." In 1569, Pope St. Pius V issued Consueverunt Romani, advocating for the recitation of the Rosary to safeguard Christians against invading Muslims. He spoke of St. Dominic, founder of the Dominicans, who provided a commendable example when he confronted the Albigensians by embracing "that simple way of praying and beseeching God, accessible to all and wholly pious, which is called the Rosary, or Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which the same most Blessed Virgin is venerated by the angelic greeting repeated one hundred and fifty times, that is, according to the number of the Davidic Psalter, and by the Lord's Prayer with each decade." When the Church achieved a miraculous victory over the Muslims at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the Rosary, recommended by St. Pius V, was credited and firmly established as a popular devotion.

Beyond being a venerable devotion, endorsed by Our Lady herself, the Rosary beautifully integrates various modes and objectives of prayer, especially mental and vocal prayer. Mental prayer involves meditating on an event or image, allowing its spiritual significance and reality to permeate our hearts and minds, transforming our affections and intentions. Vocal, or perhaps more appropriately, verbal prayer is the recitation of words, typically traditional formulas like the "Our Father..." or "Glory Be..."

Regrettably, in modern times, the Rosary as vocal prayer has at times been discouraged. Some modern Catholics yielded to Protestant criticism of Marian devotion, viewing it as a kind of medieval superstition. Others, influenced by the spirit of democracy and individualism, believed it better to pray in one's own words rather than using those of others.

While it is important to acknowledge that another person's relationship with God cannot replace our own, we need not adopt an either/or mindset. Christians have long recognized that just as a sunset moves us to praise and give thanks to God, so too can the life and words of a saint inspire us and offer perspective on what God is calling us to do. In this regard, employing time-honored prayers or acclamations does not stifle our personal growth, but when approached in a spirit of prayer, broadens our spiritual horizon.

Yet, there is more to the recitation of these ancient patterns than simply nurturing our spiritual life. Christians affirm the Scriptures to be divinely inspired. As the Second Vatican Council affirmed, "everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit" (Dei Verbum, 11). Our spiritual forebears prioritized the repetition of the "Hail Mary...", the "Our Father..." and the "Glory Be..." over personal or improvised prayers because these prayers and praises are divinely inspired and have been sanctified for us by Sacred Scripture.

Allowing these words to form the basis of our prayer accomplishes at least two crucial things. Firstly, it enables us to surrender to these events and individuals. It allows us to place our concerns and life events in the context of the great events of our salvation. Secondly, it transforms our act of prayer into an act of thanksgiving and praise in itself. Since these words have been sanctified by God, when we honor them and use them as the foundation of our own prayer, we demonstrate a special reverence for God's salvation. By cherishing the words He bestowed upon us, we draw especially near to His divine heart. Therefore, let us embrace the practice of praying the Rosary this month, remembering that even if we don't "feel it," we are still honoring God.