HFO (Happiness and Fitness Online)

“The Rosary and my family”

We started praying the rosary years ago. We did it Sunday evenings with my wife and two children taking turns in leading it, me not knowing how to do it yet. We did it to fill a need I was having deep inside me.

Once that was met, however, I began to feel another one, so we started doing it every night. Then, I realized that to give meaning to “the family that prays together stays together,” I had to learn the rosary. So I did, allowing the four of us to lead the prayers alternately.

Very soon my children were grown-ups and had schedules of their own leaving me and my wife to say the rosary. Then a cruel twist in fate came upon us – my wife died. Now I pray the rosary daily, alone, in front of her urn. It will be a real blessing if my children can pray the rosary with me.

Knowing the Rosary:

I recently received an email regarding Mother Theresa’s rosary beads. How it got to be passed around people in sad and life-threatening circumstances; how it gave them the strength, the courage and inner peace to face their ordeals head-on and came out in great spirits.

Since I started praying the Rosary, I’ve always wondered how the beads and its praying came about. That email prodded me into another route of personal discovery. This is not about how to pray the rosary but of how this string of beads came to symbolize a Christian’s faith.

History of the rosary:

The word “Rosary” comes from the Latin word rosarium, meaning a “rose garden” or “garland of roses.”

According to tradition, the Rosary was given to St. Dominic, during an apparition, by the Blessed Virgin May in the church of Prouille in 1214. That apparition was given the title Our Lady of the Rosary.

On the scholarly side, the origin of the rosary is more circuitous and, really scholarly to the point of being boring. But boredom belongs to those not desiring of wisdom and wisdom is the fountain from which the flowering of life begins.

Praying with beads, such as the rosary, may have begun as a practice by the laity to imitate the monastic Liturgy of the Hours (official set of daily prayers prescribed by the Roman Catholic Church to be recited at the canonical hours by the clergy), wherein monks prayed the 150 psalms daily.

Since most of the laity and even lay monastics could not read at that time, they substituted the 150 Psalms with the Pater Noster (Our Father), using cords with knots to keep an accurate count.

Evidence suggests that during the Middle Ages, both the Our Father and the Hail Mary were recited with prayer beads and in the 7^th century, St. Eligius wrote of using a counting device to keep track of the 150 Hail Marys of the Psalter of Mary.

In the 13^th century of Paris, France, there were four trade groups involved in making prayer beads. They were called paternosterers and their beads were called paternosters, suggesting a link between the Our Father and the prayer beads.

Then in the 12^th century, during the rule of the anchorites (people who, for religious reasons,  withdraw from the secular society to become prayer-oriented), a book, the Ancrene Wisse, was written specifying how groups of 50 Hail Marys were to be divided into five groups of ten Hail Marys each.

Gradually, the Hail Mary came to replace the Our Father as the prayer associated with the beads. Eventually, each group of ten Hail Marys came to be preceded by an Our Father to further conform with the structure of the monastic Liturgy of the Hours.

Further developments of the Rosary:

Dominic of Prussia (1382 – 1460), a Carthusian monk, is attributed to have meditated while praying the Hail Marys calling it the “Life of Jesus Rosary.” He also added a sentence to each of the 50 Hail Marys using quotes from the Scriptures. His practice became popular among the Benedictines and Carthusisans from Trier to Belgium and France where it was greatly promoted by the Dominican priest, Alan de Rupe.

From the 16^th to the 20^th century the structure of the rosary largely remained unchanged until the Fatima Prayer was added into it in the 20^th century and, lately, the Luminous Mysteries were added by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

Key dates (some) of the Rosary:

4^th century – Desert Fathers started using prayer ropes to count repetitions of the Jesus Prayer;

1214 – traditional date of the legend of St. Dominic’s reception of the rosary from the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the Rosary;

Mid-13^th century – the word “Rosary” was first used by Thomas of Champitre but not in reference to the prayer beads;

Early 15^th century – Dominic of Prussia, a Carthusian, introduced 50 mysteries, one for each Ave Maria;

Circa 1514 – the Hail May prayer attained its current form;

1597 – the first recorded use of the term “rosary” to refer to the prayer beads;

1917- Our Lady of Fatima is said to have asked the inclusion of the Fatima Prayer to the Rosary and asked to have the Rosary be prayed to stop the war and as part of the Immaculate Heart’s reparation;

2002 – Pope John II added the Luminous Mysteries as an option for Roman Catholics in an Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae..

My Rosary:

I have one of those cheap plastic rosary beads. I can’t remember who gave it to me but I’ve had it even before I know how to use it. Once white, it is now yellow with use with traces of dirt in its grooves and corners. I found it to be a faithful companion. It does not complain, nag, make promises or fail in its commitments. But the serenity and peace of mind it gives me is beyond measure. It goes with me wherever I go, overseas or local. At night I put it on top of my chest to put me to sleep. It helped maintain my sanity and strength to meet, head-on, the ordeals of my life – the most trying of which was the loss of my wife.