Spreading the Rosary

One

The Living Rosary Spread to Poland

Yesterday in our meditation we learned about Blessed Pauline Jaricot, the young laywoman who started the Living Rosary, a movement of families and friends who came together to learn the faith, pray the Rosary, and share in good conversation. Within just a few years more than one million people were involved and then it spread all over Europe and came to Poland. 

Recall from yesterday, this is what Our Lady wants now, for she said on May 25th, 2024, “Dear children! In this time of grace, I am calling you to prayer with the heart. Little children, create prayer groups where you will encourage each other to the good and grow in joy. Little children, you are still far away. That is why continue to convert anew and choose the way of holiness and hope so that God may give you peace in abundance. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Two

Jan Tyranowski

Jan was born in 1900 and he grew up here in the suburbs of Kraków. His father wanted him to be an accountant, so he got a degree as an accountant and began working professionally as an accountant. Now, I'm an extrovert, and to me, being an accountant wouldn't be very stressful as far as being exposed to people. But it was too much for Jan. He was such an introvert that being an accountant was too much, too much involvement with people, and it caused him such stress that he ended up with a chronic stomach problem, completely debilitating. 

So, he left his profession as an accountant and joined the family business as a tailor so that he could work in the back room in solitude, creating and mending suits. That much of an introvert. Are any of you introverts? Well, you don't have any excuses.  

But then came the moment that changed Jan's life. In 1935, he heard a sermon in which a priest said, "It is not difficult to become a saint," and Jan took this as the truth. So he committed himself to three things: to daily meditation on the Word of God, particularly in the rosary; to receive Jesus as often as he could in the Eucharist; and to study and to learn his faith. 

Then he needed to create a strategy so that he could do those things every day. So, he formed a Rule of Life, a recipe, a structure for his life.  

Three

World War Two

On May 23rd, 1941, the priests of St. Stanisław Kostka parish were arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Dachau. But before they were taken away, they entrusted their work to Jan Tyranowski. 

Jan picked out a few people who wanted to grow closer to God. Since public gatherings were illegal, he invited them to his small apartment once a week.

In those weekly hour-long meetings in his apartment Jan would read something true and beautiful about the Catholic faith to them, they would pray the Rosary and have some good conversation about it. In this way, he taught them the faith and he taught them how to meditate and form a resolution so they could be working on a virtue every day.

Then he showed them how to form a rule or recipe of life so they could live a well-ordered and balanced life during the chaos of the Nazi occupation. By Nazi law this was illegal and the penalty was death. If they were found out, they would have been executed on the spot, but it was worth the risk. See, Jan was willing to go out of his comfort zone and do something that was risky, to invite people to his home, to form them in the faith, to teach them how to pray. 

But he didn’t stop there. Jan did not have a large group, just a few, but he met with them every week, getting to know them, personally investing in them, and mentoring them one-on-one. He personally invested in each of those leaders so that they would personally invest in the others.  

Four

Living Rosary Groups

Each of the young men that were in Jan’s Living Rosary Group then invited a small group of friends to meet regularly in their homes and they just duplicated what Jan did with them.

They would read something true and beautiful from the Catholic faith, pray the Rosary, and have some good conversation. In this way, they taught them the truths of the faith, how to meditate, and how to form a daily resolution so they could grow in virtue. They also taught their group members how to create a rule or recipe of life. Then each of those leaders personally invested in one or two of them and encouraged them to start their own Living Rosary Group. And that is how it grew. Then Jan Tyranowski would meet clandestinely with the entire Living Rosary Organization on the third Sunday of every month.

Five

Karol Wojtyla 

One of the young men that he picked out to be a leader was young Karol Wojtyła who would become Pope St. John Paul II.

So it was this non-theologian, introverted layman who was really the first one to form Karol Wojtyła in deeper prayer and theology and philosophy and the works of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. 

And it was Jan Tyranowski who handed Karol Wojtyła True Devotion [to Mary] by St. Louis de Montfort, which young Karol Wojtyła would carry to the chemical factory and read. Because at that point in his life, Karol Wojtyła thought that devotion to Mary would be a distraction from Jesus. But it was thanks to Jan Tyranowski and to St. Louis de Montfort that John Paul II developed his devotion to Mary. 

And it was thanks to Jan Tyranowski and the spiritual direction that Jan gave to young Karol Wojtyła that he changed his course. He was going to be a playwright. Karol Wojtyła had decided to become a playwright and marry, and thanks to the spiritual direction of Jan Tyranowski, he changed his course toward the priesthood and became the first non-Italian pope in 450 years.  

Anyone remember what the Church was like in the 1970s? Can you imagine what the Church would look like today if we never had John Paul II? 

It's all due to, yes, to God, but God works through His servants. And it's due to an introverted layman who committed himself to a life of friendship with Jesus in prayer and the willingness to form other people in prayer. One introverted layman forms one young person, and the whole world is changed.  

Jan had a very simple method: he invited people into his home, he introduced them to prayer through the Rosary, and then he personally invested in them one-on-one.  

It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that, and the whole world changes. That's why we're here. That's our mission. Friendship, good conversation and the Rosary.