Free Holy Rosary for Protestants Program

In My Own Words

What is the Rosary?

The Rosary is the Prayer of the Gospels, a meditation on 20 primary events in the Life of Our Blessed Lord Jesus and His Blessed Mother Mary.

If you have something against the Rosary, you have something against the Holy Bible! Like the Holy Scriptures, it is the Good News of Jesus! It's a Scriptural prayer.

We

• pray as Our Lord Jesus tells us to in Matthew 6:9-13 and
• meditate on God becoming truly man like us in all things except sin for our salvation in Luke 1:28, Luke 1:42! The Church formalizes this in the Hail Mary:

  Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you. [Luke 1:28]
  Blessed are you among woman and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. [Luke 1:42]
  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. [The Church]

What are these 20 primary events?

Mysteries of the Holy Rosary

The First Joyful Mystery The Annunciation of the Angel to Mary (Luke 1,26-38) We say 1 Our Father: Matthew 6:9-13 followed by 10 Hail Mary's. During the 10 Hail Mary's we mediate on this mystery of Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother's life.
The Second Joyful Mystery The visitation of Mary to Saint Elizabeth (Luke 1,39-49)
The Third Joyful Mystery The nativity of Jesus in Bethlehem (Luke 2,6-12)
The Fourth Joyful Mystery The presentation of Jesus to the Temple. (Luke 2,22-35)
The Fifth Joyful Mystery The finding of Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2,41-51)
The First Luminous Mystery The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River (Matthew 3,13-17)
The Second Luminous Mystery The wedding feast of Cana (John 2,1-12)
The Third Luminous Mystery The proclamation of the Kingdom of God (cf. Mark 1:15) (cf. Mark 2:3-13; Lk 7:47- 48): (cf. John 20:22-23).
The Fourth Luminous Mystery The Transfiguration of Our Lord (Luke 9,28-35)
The Fifth Luminous Mystery The institution of the Eucharist (Mark 14,22-25)
The First Sorrowful Mystery The Agony of Jesus in the garden (Luke 22,44)
The Second Sorrowful Mystery The scourging of Jesus at the pillar (Mark 15,15)
The Third Sorrowful Mystery The Crowning with Thorns (Matthew 27,27-31)
The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery The Carrying of the Cross (Luke 23,26-32)
The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery The crucifixion and death of Jesus (John 19,25-27)
The First Glorious Mystery The Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28,1-6)
The Second Glorious Mystery The Ascension of Jesus to Heaven (Luke 24,36-51)
The Third Glorious Mystery The Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2,1-4)
The Fourth Glorious Mystery The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven (Judith 13,18-20; 15,10)
The Fifth Glorious Mystery The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth (Revelation 12,1)

What's the history of the Rosary?

An Outgrowth of the 150 Psalms of David

Most historians trace the origin of the Rosary as we know it today back to the so-called Dark Ages of ninth century Ireland. In those days, as is still true today, the 150 Psalms of David were one of the most important forms of monastic prayer. Monks recited or chanted the Psalms day-after-day as a major source of inspiration.

The lay people who lived near the monasteries could see the beauty of this devotion, but because very few people outside the monasteries knew how to read in those days, and because the 150 psalms are too long to memorize, the lay people were unable to adapt this prayer from for their own use.

So one day in about the year 800 A.D., one of the Irish monks suggested to the neighboring lay people that they might like to pray a series of 150 Our Fathers in place of the 150 Psalms. Little did he know that his simple suggestion was the first step in the development of what would one day become the most popular non-liturgical prayer form of Christianity.

At first, in order to count their 150 Our Fathers, people carried around leather pouches which held 150 pebbles. Soon they advanced to ropes with 150 or 50 knots; and eventually they began to use strings with 50 pieces of wood.

Shortly afterwards the clergy and lay people in other parts of Europe began to recite, as a repetitive prayer, the Angelic Salutation, which makes up most of the first part of our Hail Mary. St. Peter Damian, who died in 1072, was the first to mention this prayer form. Soon many people were praying the fifty Angelic Salutations while others favored the fifty Our Fathers.

1214 and the Albigensian heresy. (Origin of the Mysteries)

It was in the year 1214 that the Church received the Rosary in its present form and according to the method we use today. It was given to the Church by St. Dominic, who had received it from the Blessed Virgin as a means of converting the Albigensians and other sinners. Saint Dominic, seeing that the gravity of people's sins was hindering the conversion of the Albigensians, withdrew into a forest near Toulouse, where he prayed continuously for three days and three nights. During this time he did nothing but weep and did harsh penances in order to appease the anger of God. At this point our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by three angels, and she said,

"Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?"

"Oh, my Lady," answered Saint Dominic, "you know far better than I do, because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been the chief instrument of our salvation."

Then Our Lady replied, "I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the principal weapon has always been the Angelic Psalter, which is the foundation-stone of the New Testament. Therefore, if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter."

So he arose, comforted, and burning with zeal for the conversion of the people in that district, he made straight for the cathedral. At once unseen angels rang the bells to gather the people together, and Saint Dominic began to preach.

1917 and Our Lady of Fatima.

Between May and October of 1917, three shepherd children, Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto reported visions of the Virgin Mary in the Cova da Iria fields outside the hamlet of Aljustrel, very close to Fatima, Portugal. They had this experience on the 13th day of each month at approximately the same hour.[1] Lúcia described seeing Mary as "brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal glass filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun."[1]

A photostatic copy of a page from Ilustração Portugueza, October 29, 1917, showing the crowd looking at the miracle of the sun during the Fatima apparitions (attributed to the Virgin Mary)According to Lúcia's account, Mary confided to the children three secrets, known as the Three Secrets of Fatima.[1] She exhorted the children to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners.[1] The children wore tight cords around their waists to cause pain, abstained from drinking water on hot days, and performed other works of penance.[1] Most important, Lúcia said Mary asked them to say the Rosary every day, reiterating many times that the Rosary was the key to personal and world peace. Many young Portuguese men, including relatives of the visionaries, were then fighting in World War I.

Thousands of people flocked to Fatima and Aljustrel in the ensuing months, drawn by reports of visions and miracles.[1] On August 13, 1917, the provincial administrator Artur Santos[2] (no relation), believing that the events were politically disruptive, intercepted and jailed the children before they could reach the Cova da Iria that day.[1] Prisoners held with them in the provincial jail later testified that the children, while upset, were consoled by the inmates, and then led the inmates in saying the Rosary.[1] Administrator Santos interrogated the children primarily about the alleged secrets, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to discover what those secrets were.[1] Santos went so far as to feign the preparation of a pot of boiling oil, and then removed the children one by one from his interrogation room, claiming that each removed child had been boiled to death in the oil, and urging the remaining child to divulge the secret so as to avoid a similar fate.[1] That month, instead of the usual apparition in the Cova da Iria on the 13th of the month, the children reported that they saw Mary on August 19 at nearby Valinhos.[1]

On October 13, 1917, the final in the series of the apparitions of 1917, a crowd believed to be approximately 70,000 in number[3], including newspaper reporters and photographers, gathered at the Cova da Iria in response to reports of the children's prior claims that on that day a miracle would occur "so that all may believe".[1] It rained heavily that day, yet, countless observers reported that the clouds broke, revealing the sun as an opaque disk spinning in the sky and radiating various colors of light upon the surroundings, then appearing to detach itself from the sky and plunge itself towards the earth in a zigzag pattern, finally returning to its normal place, and leaving the people's once wet clothing now completely dry. The event is known as the "Miracle of the Sun".[4].

Columnist Avelino de Almeida of O Século (Portugal's most influential newspaper, which was pro-government in policy and avowedly anti-clerical)[1], reported the following "Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws-the sun 'danced' according to the typical expression of the people."[5] Eye specialist Dr. Domingos Pinto Coelho, writing for the newspaper Ordem reported "The sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceeding fast and whirling movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the sky and to be approaching the earth, strongly radiating heat".[6] The special reporter for the October 17, 1917 edition of the Lisbon daily, O Dia, reported the following, "...the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds...The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands...people wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they."[7]

Depiction of the three children receiving the vision. This tilework is from Ironbound, a Portuguese neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey.No movement or other phenomenon of the sun was registered by scientists at the time.[1] According to contemporary reports from poet Afonso Lopes Vieira and schoolteacher Delfina Lopes with her students and other witnesses in the town of Alburita, the solar phenomena were visible from up to forty kilometers away.[1] The three shepherd children, in addition to reporting seeing the actions of the sun that day[8], also reported seeing a panorama of visions, including those of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of Saint Joseph blessing the people.[1] The Benedictine historian of science, Fr. Stanley Jaki, has suggested that the apparent movement of the sun was a hallucination caused by an atmospheric inversion, but that the children's foreknowledge of the apparent sign was miraculous.

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Promises of the Rosary

1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.
   
   
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
   
   
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
   
   
4. 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 people 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.
   
   
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish.
   
   
6. 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.
   
   
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
   
   
8. 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.
   
   
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
   
   
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.
    
    
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
    
    
12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
    
    
13. 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.
    
    
14. All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ.
    
    
15. Devotion of my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

Questions about the Rosary

Question:

I thought there were only 15 mysteries of the Rosary. Where did you get the other 5 Luminous mysteries from?

The Answer:

Our late Holy Father Pope John Paul II gave them to the Church in his encyclical: Rosarium Virginis Mariae, the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In it his said:

Consequently, for the Rosary to become more fully a “compendium of the Gospel”, it is fitting to add, following reflection on the Incarnation and the hidden life of Christ (the joyful mysteries) and before focusing on the sufferings of his Passion (the sorrowful mysteries) and the triumph of his Resurrection (the glorious mysteries), a meditation on certain particularly significant moments in his public ministry (the mysteries of light). This addition of these new mysteries, without prejudice to any essential aspect of the prayer's traditional format, is meant to give it fresh life and to enkindle renewed interest in the Rosary's place within Christian spirituality as a true doorway to the depths of the Heart of Christ, ocean of joy and of light, of suffering and of glory.

Coming soon.

 

Addressing biases and un-truths

Objection:

At an evening devotion in a Catholic Church I heard many prayers like these to Mary. I cannot find in Scripture where Mary is to be worshipped in the same way as Christ.

The Answer:

I am not surprised, for such a doctrine is nowhere taught in Scripture. Moreover, if any Catholic dared to worship Mary in the same way as he worships Christ, he would be guilty of a most serious sin, and no Catholic Priest could give him absolution unless he promised never to do it again. But that does not mean that one must deprive Mary of all honor.

Objection:

Why pray to Mary at all?

The Answer:

Because God wills that we should do so, and because such prayers to her are of the utmost value. God often will to give certain favors only on condition that we go to some secondary agent. Sodom was to be spared through the intercession of Abraham; Naaman, the leper, was to be cured only through the waters of the Jordan. Now Mary is, and must ever remain the mother of the Christ. She still has a mother's rights and privileges, and is able to obtain for us many graces. But let us view things reasonably. If I desire to pray, I can certainly pray to God directly. Yet would you blame me if, at times, I were to ask my own earthly mother to pray for me also? Such a request is really a prayer to her that she may intercede for me with God. Certainly if I met the mother of Christ on earth, I would ask her to pray for me, and she would do so. In her more perfect state with Christ in heaven she is not less able to help me.

Objection:

Between each Our Father to God, you throw in ten prayers to Mary!

The Answer:

You've got it the wrong way. Between each ten Hail Mary's an Our Father is said. The Rosary is essentially a devotion to Mary, Jesus' mother, honoring her whom God Himself so honored. And it honors her particularly in her relationship to Christ, whose life is the subject of the meditations. The Our Father abstracts from the incarnation of Christ; the Hail Mary is full of reverence to Our Lord's birth into this world for us. [Luke 1:28, Luke 1:42]

Objection:

Would not the Rosary be just as efficient if said with one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Gloria?

The Answer:

It would not be the Rosary then, but some other type of devotion. Nor would such a devotion be as efficient for inner meditation on each mystery due to the brevity of the prayers. While saying those 10 Hail Mary's aloud, our inner meditation ponders on the various mysteries themselves. In the same way man is made with a viewable body and un viewable soul; so the Rosary has an outward part, the vocal prayer, and an inner part, the inner meditation on the various mysteries. Your trouble seems to be based on the mere question of numbers. That is quite immaterial.

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