St. Dominic - Why We Pray This Way
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Today is the Feast of St Dominic
Mary gave St. Dominic the Rosary, but not exactly the way most people think of it. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, a great Dominican theologian of the 20th century explained Dominic’s method of the Rosary: “At the end of the 12th century southern France was ravaged by the Albigensian heresy – a heresy which denied the infinite goodness and power of God by admitting a principle of evil which was often victorious…It was at that moment that Our Blessed Lady made known to St. Dominic a kind of preaching till then unknown, which she said would be one of the most powerful weapons against future errors and in future difficulties. Under her inspiration, St Dominic went into the villages of the Albigensians, gathered the people, and preached to them the truths of salvation — the Incarnation, the redemption, eternal life. As Mary had taught him to do, he distinguished the different kinds of mysteries, and after each short instruction, he had ten Hail Mary’s recited… And what the word of the preacher was unable to do, the sweet prayer of the Hail Mary did for hearts. As Mary promised, it proved to be a most fruitful form of preaching., The Mother of Our Savior and Our Interior Life, p. 255
So, we pray the Rosary in a new way that is actually a really old way introduced by St. Dominic - a short teaching from the Word of God, followed by meditating or thinking about the short instruction while we pray the decade, and we do this five times.
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The Rosary is Supposed to be a Meditation on the Word of God.
The traditional mysteries of the Rosary were meant to serve as an outline for the life and teachings of Jesus. They were never meant to limit us to those scenes. Imagine reading the table of contents of a book over and over and never reading the book. Sooner or later, you will lose interest because you want to know more, you desire to go deeper.
During the Rosary we are supposed to meditate upon all that Jesus, the Word of God revealed through his life and teachings. The full Word of God is comprised of three things: Scripture – the Old and New Testaments; Tradition – the lives and writings of the Saints; and the Magisterium – the official teaching of the Catholic Church.
We can meditate or think about all of this during the Rosary. The Old and New Testament, the writings of Augustine, Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux or St. Faustina; and the teachings of the Church. In fact, the best synthesis of the Word of God is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is great to meditate upon during the Rosary.
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The Rosary is meant to be a meditation, not a rote saying of words as our mind wanders
In meditation we do three things:
A. We listen to God by reading or hearing His Word in Scripture, Tradition and the teaching of the Church. This is the way usual way God speaks to us.
B. Then we reflect or think about what God has said and done to understand it, to love God for it and to form firm convictions.
C. Then we form a resolution to put into practice that day what God has said to us.
D. This is the way Mary gave the Rosary to St. Dominic and that is why we pray the Rosary this way because the Rosary is meant to be a meditation on the Word of God in the School of Mary
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In the approved apparition of Cuapa, Nicaragua in 1980 Our Lady gave a vision of how the Rosary began and how She wanted it prayed.
Mary instructed the visionary Bernardo to look up at the sky where he saw something like a movie being played before him:
“After seeing the procession of martyrs, there followed a group of saints dressed in white and carrying luminous rosaries in their hands. The rosaries had extremely white beads and gave off light in a variety of different colors. It was made known to him that St. Dominic led the procession while he carried a very large open book. Dominic would read, and after listening - they silently meditated. After this period of prayer and silence, they then prayed the Our Father and ten Hail Mary’s and the Glory Be. When the rosary was finished, Our Lady said to me: “These are the first ones to whom I gave the rosary. That is the way that I want all of you to pray the rosary.”
Our Lady then informed Bernando that she was not pleased when the rosary is prayed in a rushed mechanical way as our minds wander in distraction. She said: “Pray the Rosary, meditate on the mysteries. Listen to the Word of God spoken in them…Put into practice the Word of God.”
Mary does not want us to just say the Rosary while our minds wander. She wants us to meditate, to think about the Word of God and then make a resolution we will put into practice and change our lives.
That is how Mary wants the Rosary prayed.
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When St. Dominic's mother, Blessed Jane of Aza, was pregnant, she had a dream of a dog with a torch in its mouth, running around the world and setting everything on fire.
She went to the local monastery and asked a monk what it meant. He replied that the child in her womb would be a great preacher, who would set the world ablaze with the fire of his words.” In fact, the word ‘Dominican’ is a play on the Latin, Domini canes, which means ‘dogs of the Lord.”
When Mary gave Dominic her method of the Rosary, she made known to him a kind of preaching till then unknown, which she said would be one of the most powerful weapons against future errors and in future difficulties.
Let’s be dogs of the Lord running about setting the world on fire with the Rosary by sharing this podcast with others and inviting them to pray the Rosary with us!