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Question

Dear P. Angelo,

Today .. it’s holiday! Why the “Papa” presides over one big celebration for the opening of the year of faith and the Congregation for Catholic Education has suspended lessons. And I take this opportunity to recommend that you write something about the Confraternities of the Rosary. I have some friends who come together once a week to say the Rosary and want to know what are the advantages that can be gained from adhering to it. Maybe they hope they can get some help to pray better with the Rosary. Do you think they can continue as they do now, that is, by reciting the rosary together every week or that it is good to enroll in a confraternity like the one you mentioned? Are there any objective advantages or not? I don’t know if I explained myself very well … thank you, as always, let’s stay united in prayer!

Michele

Answer from the priest

Dear,

Dominicans of a Province of the United States of America urge to join the fraternities of the Rosary with this slogan: “There is everything to gain and nothing to lose”.

The same thing I repeat to you too.

But I need to tell you something about these Confraternities of the Rosary.

1. The first Confraternity of the Rosary was established in 1470 through the zealous preaching of the Breton Dominican Alain de la Roche (Great Dane of the Rock), revered with the title of blessed, although this title has not yet been confirmed by the Church.

A few years later, it was founded in Cologne by Fr. Joseph Sprenger, a Dominican man, a local Confraternities of the Rosary.

After that the Confraternities of the Rosary began to spread throughout Europe and then all over the world.

It was also for the spread of the Confraternities that the devotion to the Rosary of Mary spread so widely and the Rosary was recited everywhere in an increasingly uniform way.

2. From the beginning, the Confraternities of the Rosary have been associated with the Dominican Order so much so that the establishment of the various Confraternities constitutes a privilege reserved to the Dominican Order.

The Brotherhood of the Most Holy Rosary is therefore an international association of Catholic faithful established for the purpose of “praising and honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary and guaranteeing her protection with the recitation of the Rosary for the mutual spiritual advantage of all members around the world. “.

Today, members of the Rosary Confraternities promise two things:

to recite fifteen dozen of the Rosary each week (the whole Rosary) and to include the intentions of the other members in their prayers.

3. This obligation is minimal. And the spiritual benefits received are very great.

Together with the various plenary and partial indulgences which are granted to the members of the Brotherhood, one receives the truly great benefit of the countless Rosaries which are recited for the intentions of each by the other members around the world.

The spiritual benefits also consist in being made part of the prayers and good works and merits of the friars, the nuns (cloistered), the Sisters and tertiaries of the Order of Preachers (that is, of the Dominican Order).

Among these there are also the suffrages that are performed by prayer pro defunctis celebrated weekly in each Dominican convent.

As you can see, it is a wonderful prayer chain, which unites the confreres from all over the world together with the friars, nuns and tertiaries of the Order of St. Dominic, in an admirable communion of Saints.

4. According to Blessed Alain de la Roche, they also enjoy the promise

to be treated by Jesus and Mary with singular affection and tenderness,

as brothers and favorite children, with the promise of every special assistance and favor in life, in death and after death.

St. Pius V attributed the following effects to the prayer of the Rosary: “The faithful quickly transform into other men; the darkness of heresy dissipates; and the light of the Catholic faith is manifested “(Consueverunt Romani Pontifices).

5. The obligation to say a whole Rosary per week does not bind under penalty of sin.

Furthermore, it is not mandatory to recite the fifteen dozen of the Rosary all at once. They can be said during the week in the three groups of five dozen: joyful, painful and glorious mysteries.

John Paul II conceded that one of these groups could be replaced with the group of mysteries of light.

In fact, he said that “this integration of new mysteries” does not affect “any essential aspect of the traditional arrangement of this prayer” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 19).

The whole Rosary therefore remains of 15 mysteries, five of which can be substituted for those of light.

6. In the recitation of the Rosary, as we know, is not enough, the consecutive profusion of the Pater, the Hail Marys and the Glory to the Father, but the mysteries (events) of the life of Jesus must be mentioned.

Furthermore, for this to be a Rosary, it is necessary to contemplate the mystery.

Otherwise, beautiful prayers are said, such as those mentioned, but it is not yet a question of Rosary.

Contemplation of the mystery is thus:

first, we join the event of the life of the Lord that was mentioned, reproducing the scene in our memory, knowing that at that moment the Lord does not intend only to make us remember what he has accomplished, but in some way actualizes it and makes it contemporary to each of us and our needs.

Second, we thank the Lord for what he has done for us. This thanks is very important because it is as if at that moment we opened our eyes to an immense gift that is put in our hands. In fact, these are events in the life of the Lord that have infinite value and merit.

Third, the Father is begged to join us with the graces we ask him by presenting him in exchange for the infinite merits of the events of the Lord that are being meditated on as if we had done them.

Contemplation can also concern the words of individual prayers or other events in the life of the Lord.

It is therefore not necessary to read a meditation on the mysteries, even if this can be useful especially if the Rosary is recited in groups of families.

7. As I mentioned, in the prayer of the Rosary, the members of the confraternities include the intentions of the other members.

It is not necessary to renew this intention with each recitation of the Rosary. It is sufficient to do it with a “general will”.

This general will can be expressed in the moment in which one enrolls in the Confraternity.

8. I mentioned earlier the various plenary indulgences.

For members of the Confraternity, the plenary indulgence is granted, under the usual conditions, on the day of registration (the day indicated in the register), as well as the feasts of Christmas, Easter, the Annunciation, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Immaculate Conception and the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.

Plenary indulgence is granted, under the usual conditions, to all those who pray with the Rosary in a church or oratory, in a family, religious community, or in a pious association of faithful.

Otherwise, the indulgence is partial.

And above all, there is the intercession and special protection of the Madonna, the Mother of God, in life and in death.

9. The Dominican friars and all members of the Order automatically become participants in the benefits of the Confraternities simply by being members of the Dominican Order.

The members of the confraternities of the Rosary, mindful of the spiritual benefits they receive from the whole Dominican Order in life, in death and after death, will procure in a spirit of gratitude to remember in their prayers especially the Dominican priests and friars, because the Lord help them to work more and more for his greater glory, for the good of the Church, for the conversion of sinners and of those who still do not believe in Jesus Christ, their Savior.

Finally, they will remember to pray for the spread of this prayer, suggested and recommended directly from Heaven in many apparitions approved by the Church.

10. A regulation of the brotherhoods states that if one does not fulfill the commitment made during the week, if on the one hand he does not commit any sin, on the other he does not participate in spiritual fruits.

It is nice to think that in presenting one’s requests to God, one can appeal to the merits of the Order and associates to the brotherhoods and say to the Lord: “I deserve little, but the friars, the Sisters, the tertiaries of the Dominican Order and all Rosary members worldwide deserve a lot. Lord, I rely on the prayers that all this multitude presents to you in my name and for my needs. “

11. To enroll in the confraternities of the Rosary, it is sufficient to give one’s membership, even online, to a priest of the Dominican Order.

Many of our visitors, for ease, can forward them to me too, p. Angelo Bellon, O.P., and I will take care to transmit the adhesion to the provincial promoter Father of the Holy Rosary so that he may be enrolled in the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary.

Put your name and surname and the city of residence.

Thank you, dear Michele, for giving me the opportunity to talk about this immense fortune (to use a secular term). It is worth signing up. Only benefits are received in life, in death and after death.

Especially those who already say the whole Rosary during the week do well to register.

As always, I remind you of the Lord and bless you.

Father Angelo