Preface; About Rosary Meditations; Preface to Meditations on Humility; Holy Rosary Mysteries;

† J.M.J.

“Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle” –Psalm 144:1

PREFACE

Pope St. John Paul II taught about how to pray the Rosary in his apostolic exhortation, Rosarium Virginis Mariae. In particular, he recommended the scriptural Rosary:

“Listening to the word of God In order to supply a Biblical foundation and greater depth to our meditation, it is helpful to follow the announcement of the mystery with the proclamation of a related Biblical passage, long or short, depending on the circumstances. No other words can ever match the efficacy of the inspired word. As we listen, we are certain that this is the word of God, spoken for today and spoken “for me”. If received in this way, the word of God can become part of the Rosary’s methodology of repetition without giving rise to the ennui derived from the simple recollection of something already well known. It is not a matter of recalling information but of allowing God to speak. (#30)”

Pope Benedict XVI echoed this emphasis on the value of Sacred Scripture for praying the Rosary during his visit to Pompeii, Bl. Bartolo Longo’s shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary:

“If Christian contemplation cannot leave the Word of God out of consideration, if it is to be a contemplative prayer, the Rosary must always emerge from the silence of the heart as a response to the Word, after the model of Mary’s prayer. Seen clearly, the Rosary is completely interwoven with scriptural elements. First of all there is the enunciation of the mystery, preferably made, as it has been today, with words taken from the Bible.”

Accordingly, these pages features short passages from Sacred Scripture for each decade of the Rosary. A scriptural Rosary may be either narrative or thematic. For some mysteries, there are a few different accounts of the mystery. For some, such as the wedding at Cana, there is only one narration of this event. However, there are various other scriptural passages where the theme relevant to the mystery is considered. To supplement the narration of the mysteries and to prompt further meditation, thematically relevant scriptural passages are also provided.

For each set of verses, they are separated into ten parts for easy praying per Hail Mary. Of course, even a few verses at at time is ample material for reflection for praying a decade of the Rosary.

May Our Lady of the Rosary, the Eternal Queen of Heaven, smile upon our efforts to enrich our prayer of her Rosary with listening to Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit, her mystical spouse.

About Rosary Meditations

  by St. Anthony Mary Claret

St. Anthony Mary Claret (1807-1870) was Archbishop in Cuba, Father of Vatican Council I, and religious Founder. He is noted for many apostolic writings, a fruitful missionary work, and an example of heroic suffering under persecution.

Importance of the Rosary

The formula of prayers we will speak of briefly is called the Rosary, because it is a crown of roses consisting of Hail Mary’s which Christians offer to the Queen of Heaven and earth. Ancient peoples of the East had the custom of offering crowns of roses to distinguished persons; and true Christians have the praiseworthy habit of offering every day with great devotion this crown of Marian roses to their beloved Mother, the holy Virgin. This was the practice of St. Louis, King of France, of the great Bossuet, of Fenelon, of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Francis de Sales, St. Francis Xavier, and others. Thus from the year 1208, during which the glorious St. Dominic taught it as it is prayed today, there has not been a Saint nor a person distinguished for learning and virtue, nor an observant religious community, nor a well-ordered seminary, which has not kept up devotion to the Rosary.

The Rosary is a prayer which is both mental and vocal … As it is made up of such holy elements, no one will wonder that it is a devotion so agreeable to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary and very powerful for winning all favors. Indeed we know and have verified by experience that in this devotion a remedy is found for public needs, as wars, pestilences, famine, and other calamities. Likewise for individual necessities of soul and body the Rosary has been found to be a great assistance.

The Rosary is a rich mine in which Christians who pray it and meditate it attentively and devoutly gain immense spiritual treasures. It is a flourishing garden in which flowers of all kinds of beautiful, fragrant virtues are plucked.

The holy Rosary is the most powerful, easiest and sweetest means for dispelling religious ignorance and getting rid of error and heresy. Indeed, when people love and recite the holy Rosary they find it makes them better. While one prays the Our Father and ten Hail Marys it is not necessary to reflect on all of the ten points into which the mysteries are divided; one may linger on that point or points which appeal more to him or move him more to devotion. This method given here of announcing the mystery and then meditating on it by points, is the method which St. Dominic commonly practiced, according to Blessed Alan’s account.

Note: St. Anthony Claret’s “The Rosary Meditated” was translated from his El Santisimo Rosario Explicado published in Barcelona in 1892 (except the passage asterisked is from p. 49 of his El SantisimoRosario published by Coculsa in Madrid in 1954). The holy author added the explanation. This edition is re-printed from the Fatima Crusader.

PRAYERS TO OBTAIN HUMILITY.

A Method to ask this Virtue whilst reciting the Rosary.
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is most efficacious to obtain humility. To be genuine, however, it must be animated by unlimited confidence in the intercession of Mary. Her influence over her Divine Son along with her love for us, her adopted children, insures success to the prayers we send up to her. Among these prayers, the Rosary claims the first place.
Let us represent to ourselves a poor man that aims at obtaining some help from his sovereign. What steps does he take? He draws up a petition in which he depicts his needs in the most affecting language. Does he present it himself? No; his inexperience, his poverty, his miserable appearance will, he fears, be no passport to the royal presence. But he knows the gentleness, the compassion, the condescension of the queen, and he ventures to claim her influence with the king. His petition from her hand is graciously received, his prayer granted.
Who will not recognize in the foregoing picture precisely his own position? The Lord’s Prayer is the petition in which all our wants are set forth. But who would say that it has less weight from the hand of the Queen of Heaven than from our own? Might not the Lord reply to sinners such as we, as to the foolish virgins of the Gospel: “I know you not?”* Might He not address to us the words once used toward the wicked servant: “Thou wicked servant.”! But with what tenderness will He not receive our petition from His beloved Mother! ” My Mother, ask,” will he say to her, “for I must not turn away thy face.”
It is confidence in Mary’s powerful intercession that makes us add the Angelical Salutation to the Lord’s Prayer in the recitation of the Rosary.” If Mary’s compassionate heart was so eager for a miracle in favor of the bride and bridegroom of Cana, who had, however, made her no petition,” says St. Bernardin of Siena, § “what will she not do for Christians that invoke her, that offer her reiterated supplications?”

*St. Matt. xxv. 12. fib. xviii. 32. Js Kings ii. 20.
§ St. Bernardin, tom. 3, serm. 9.

Verses Pertaining to Sets of Mysteries:

Joyful Mysteries

Gal 4⁴ But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: ⁵ That he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Luminous Mysteries:

Acts 3²² Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him, in the midst of you, as you also know:

Sorrowful Mysteries:

Acts 3²³ This same being delivered up, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you by the hands of wicked men have crucified and slain.

Glorious Mysteries:

Acts 3²⁴ Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the sorrows of hell, as it was impossible that he should be holden by it.

Third Joyful Mystery

⁶ For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.

⁷ His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David,

First Glorious Mystery

³⁰ The God of our fathers hath raised up Jesus, whom you put to death, hanging him upon a tree.

Second Glorious Mystery

³¹ Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.

Third Glorious Mystery

³² And we are witnesses of these things and the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to all that obey him.