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Question
Dear Father Angelo,
First of all, thank you. Thank you for the answers you have already given me and for the splendid work that you Dominican Friends do for the good of all souls.
I wanted to ask you a question about the prayer of the Holy Rosary. Last night I was at a prayer of the rosary for the father of a friend who passed away. It was Monday so I was expecting the joyful mysteries, but it started with the sorrowful ones, and so far nothing much to say. I thought that given the occasion it could be justified. What seemed strange to me was that after the recitation of three sorrowful mysteries, for the last two they switched to glorious mysteries. I just wanted to know if what I reported is allowed during the recitation of the rosary or not.
Thank you beforehand for your reply. While I extend my warm greetings, I also ask for a blessing for my family. I always remember you even during the Sunday Eucharist.
Giuseppe
Answer
Dear Giuseppe,
1. It has happened to me too. I was participating in the prayer of the Rosary for some deceased person, and I heard that the priest was doing precisely this.
It is not a liturgical abuse, because the Rosary is not properly part of the liturgy of the Church.
It is classified amongst the “Pious Devotions,” that is, among the prayers warmly recommended.
As we know, at Fatima, Our Lady said to recite it every day.
In Lourdes she held the crown of the Holy Rosary in her hands and while Bernadette was saying her prayers she was counting the beads.
2. Priests who ask to pray several dozen of the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries, are motivated by good intentions, because they want to illuminate the death and post-mortem of a person with the capital events of Jesus’ life: his death and resurrection.
However, in my opinion, they miss a very valuable pastoral opportunity.
3. We know that many people come to Church only on the occasion of funerals and the prayers of the Rosary for the dead because then they also have the opportunity to be close to the bereaved and to present their condolences.
Now, the pastoral opportunity is this: to fully pray the sorrowful mysteries or the glorious mysteries makes it easier for many people to remember the Rosary, the linked succession of events in the life of Jesus.
It becomes easier to remember them because they are in chronological order.
And who knows, one day these people may begin to pray on their own and discover the beauty of being in prayer, in company with the Lord, with Our Lady and also for their loved ones, living or dead!
4. Reciting the sorrowful mysteries, with a brief commentary, one can remember that these events are not the last of Jesus’ life, but the penultimate, and that they receive light only from the glorious mysteries.
Praying the glorious mysteries helps us to be close to our deceased, in the transition from this world to eternal life. From there our loved ones are not still, but are beginning to live the glorious mysteries of Jesus’ life.
5. On the other hand, it is a wasted opportunity to reduce the recitation of the Rosary to three tens, as I have heard on other occasions.
First of all, because it gives the impression of a hurried prayer, while it is true that at times it is precisely being in prayer that helps one to think, to live in communion with one’s deceased relatives by going over in one’s memory the may events passed together.
But also because the many who never come to Church do not even hear what the sorrowful or glorious mysteries of Jesus’ life are.
Without forgetting that it is to the prayer of the Rosary, that is, of the five mysteries, that the plenary indulgence donated to the deceased is linked.
We know, in fact, that the Rosary prayed in the church, or in an oratory, makes it possible to obtain a plenary indulgence under the proper conditions.
Now the plenary indulgence, if we understand it well, is an immense treasure.
Why deprive the deceased of this Charity?
I thank you for having given me the opportunity to recall these things which also have their pastoral value.
I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.
Father Angelo