Pray the Rosary

Why Pray the Holy Rosary?

Sister Lucia of Fatima writes:

"The Rosary is the prayer of the poor and the rich, of the wise and the ignorant.
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To uproot this devotion from souls is to deprive them of
their daily spiritual bread.
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The Rosary helps to preserve that flickering flame of faith that has not yet been completely extinguished from many consciences.
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Even for those souls who pray without meditating, the simple act of taking the beads in hand to pray is already a remembrance of God - of the supernatural."

Sister Lucia speaking to Father Fuentes:

"Look, Father, the Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given new efficacy in the recitation of the Holy Rosary.
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She has given this efficacy to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is,whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families in the world, or of the religious communities,or even of the life of peoples and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary.
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There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot solve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.
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With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves. We will sanctify ourselves. We will console our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls."

Popes and Saints love the rosary:

"Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer

the world," said Pope St. Pius X!

"Give me one million families praying the Rosary and the world is saved," said Pope Pius IX!

In his book Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Alphonsus de Liguori says "Nothing can set hearts ablaze with love for God like the Blessed Sacrament;" and, the Blessed Virgin, through Her Rosary is the Treasure of Grace" that gently leads us to her Son.

"No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary either he will give up sin or he will give up the Rosary." Said Bishop Hugh Boyle.

St. Francis de Sales said the greatest method of praying IS -
Pray the Rosary.

WONDERS OF THE ROSARY

The word Rosary means "Crown of Roses". Our Lady has revealed to several people that each time we pray a Hail Mary we are giving her a beautiful rose and that each complete Rosary makes her a crown of roses.

Every time people pray the Rosary devoutly, they place a crown of one hundred and fifty-three red roses and sixteen white roses upon the heads of Jesus and Mary. Being heavenly flowers these roses will never fade or lose their exquisite beauty. *DeMontfort, Secret of the Rosary.

The rose is the queen of flowers, and so the Rosary is the rose of all devotions and it is therefore a most important one. The Holy Rosary is considered a perfect prayer because within it lies the awesome story of our salvation.

In the dark ages of ninth century Ireland, the Monks recited or chanted the 150 Psalms of David day after day as a community prayer or "Praise to the Lord". The local peasants outside the monastery wanted to join in with the brothers in Christ in this praise, but they could neither read nor write so they would instead recite the Lord's Prayer or the greeting of the Angel Gabriel when he announced to Mary that she was chosen to be the Mother of the Son of God. (The greeting is now called the "Hail Mary".) As peasants moved away from the monastery, they wished to continue this practice and so they would kneel in prayer and say 50 or 150 Our Fathers or Hail Mary's and count these prayers by small stones in a pouch or by knots on a string. In this way, they were joining in a "community of prayer" no matter where they were.

It is believed by most Catholics that in A 13th-century tale explains the origins of the Rosary and its association with roses. A young man each day offered the Virgin 150 roses (the number of Hail Mary beads on a 15-decade rosary) which he wove into a garland to place on her altar. Later, when he had become a monk, he lamented to his abbot that he lacked time to practice such devotions. "Say 150 Aves to Our Lady," the abbot replied, "which she will find just as acceptable as the roses." Each day, then, the monk knelt at her altar and said his Hail Marys. One day while traveling through a dark wood, the monk knelt down to say his prayers, and robbers beset him. Suddenly, a woman appeared amid the robbers. Reaching down, she pulled from the monk's still-praying lips 150 roses and wove them together. As the garland grew, the roses decreased in size until they were no larger than rosary beads. This vision was so miraculous, the story goes, the robbers renounced their sins and eventually became monks themselves. . *The Catholic Digest, May 1998

The well-known Jesuit, Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, used to say his Rosary with such fervor that he often saw a red rose come out of his mouth at each Our Father and a white rose at each Hail Mary. The red and white roses were equal in beauty and fragrance, the only difference being in their color.

These accounts differ from another more famous story of the origin of the Rosary. In 1206, St. Dominic was struggling to teach the illiterate of Europe the prayers of the Church. The Virgin appeared to him, this account says, and gave him the rosary to help the ignorant pray and mediate on the life of Christ. *The Catholic Digest, May 1998

To this day, the Catholic Church looks to the Dominicans as the official promoters of the rosary.

http://www.confraternityoftheholyrosary.org/

Three Well-Known Miracles of the Rosary:

Throughout the ages there have been many miracles of the Rosary. Here are a three of the Public and Well Known Miracles:

1. In 1917 Our Lady appeared at Fatima holding the Rosary and Scapular in Her hands. Sister Lucia, one of the children to whom Our Blessed Mother appeared, Says that the Rosary and SCAPULAR, are INSEPARABLE, and that our Lady wants us to use these sacramentals as devotions to Her, and if we heed her requests, She will save the World. If not, Russia will Scatter her errors through the whole world, provoking wars and persecutions against the Church, the Good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer and several nations will be wiped out. Having told those present to say the Rosary, Our Lady disappeared. The next time she appeared, the sun was whirling in the Sky (Seen by over 70,000 People). She was standing in the middle of the Sun. As she faded from view, the sun loosed itself from the sky and began to hurtle towards the earth. That was the end of the 6 month span of apparitions. She had come to say that she would save the world. And we remember the Prophecy of St Dominic:
“One day with the Rosary and the Scapular, She will save the world.”

2. In 1945 the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. A small community of eight Jesuit Fathers, only eight blocks from the epicenter, remained Unharmed (both the People and the building itself) while everyone else in a radius of 1.5 Km. from the center was Killed. Father Huber Schiffer (one of the eight priests) told the Eucharistic Congress of Philadelphia in 1976, when all eight members were alive and well, that 200 Scientists had carried out investigations for several years in Search of Scientific explanation. He told them that there was only one thing that made their house different to the others: THEY RECITED THE ROSARY TOGETHER EVERY DAY.

3. During his Pontificate (1566 1572), Pope Pius V found Europe had been shaken by the Reformation, by corruption, and by the Threat of Turkish Invasion. Seeing that things were only getting worse, he continued to pray his daily Rosary. Finally, Pius V called the countries of Europe to unite and pray the Holy Rosary. He succeeded in organizing an army. He had a Rosary given to each and every soldier, thus on September 30, 1571, against all odds, the much smaller European fleet of about 5000 men went into battle against the might of the Turkish fleet of about 30,000 Men. On October 7 the Battle of Lepanto, off Greece, was won by the Divine assistance of Our Lady. In thanksgiving for the Victory, October 7 was chosen for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

WHY THE DAILY ROSARY?

*Our Lady has 117 titles. She selected this title at Fatima: "I am
the Lady of the Rosary."

*St. Thomas Aquinas preached 40 straight days in Rome Italy on
just the Hail Mary.

*St. John Vianney, patron of priests, was seldom seen without a
rosary in his hand.

*"The rosary is the scourge of the devil" -- Pope Adrian VI

*"The rosary is a treasure of graces" -- Pope Paul V

*Padre Pio the stigmatic priest said:
"The Rosary is THE WEAPON"

*Pope Leo XIII wrote 9 encyclicals on the rosary.

*Pope John XXIII spoke 38 times about Our Lady and the Rosary...
He prayed 15 decades daily.

*St. Louis de Montfort wrote: "The rosary is the most powerful
weapon to touch the Heart of Jesus, Our Redeemer, who so loves
His Mother." He said,

"The Holy Rosary is not just a conglomeration of
our Fathers and Hail Marys, but on the contrary
it is a Divine summary of the Mysteries of the Life,
Passion, Death, and Glory of Jesus and Mary."

If you cannot find the time to say five decades all together, say a decade here and a decade there; you will thus be able, in spite of your work and the calls upon your time, to complete the whole Rosary before going to bed.

If it is impossible to say the Rosary on a particular day, Our Lady asks us to say the "Lord's Prayer", the "Hail Mary", and the "Glory be" at least seven times each.

If you do not have Rosary beads, it is perfectly okay to count with your fingers. Counting beads frees your mind to help you meditate on the mysteries.