Praying the rosary with the saints sample

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PRAYING THE ROSARY WITH THE

SAINTS

by Rev Nick Donnelly

All booklets are published thanks to the generous support of the members of the Catholic Truth Society

CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE

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CONTENTS Introduction ...............................................................................3 How to use this book ................................................................8 The Joyful Mysteries...............................................................10 The Mysteries of Light............................................................20 The Sorrowful Mysteries .......................................................30 The Glorious Mysteries...........................................................40 Lives of the Saints....................................................................50

Dedicated to Pope John Paul the Great, with affection and gratitude

Acknowlegements This form of scriptural rosary is inspired by Peter Huyck’s A Scriptural Rosary - 1596, itself based on Henry Garnet’s The Societie of the Rosarie, composed during Penal times when possession of a rosary was illegal, under pain of death. The bible quotations are taken from the NRSV and King James Version translations. Quotations from the saints and others have, where it facilitates ease of reading, been edited or abbreviated, without prejudice to the original meaning.

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INTRODUCTION The saints reflect the face of Christ The saints appeal to so many of us because of the love, truth, and sincerity of their lives. In their personalities and actions we see a reflection of the face of Christ, and in their words we hear His voice speaking to us. The saints are living proof that Christ fulfills His promise to remain with His people to the end of time.

During our time, which can seem one of moral confusion, loss of the sense of God, and failure of purpose, we have the opportunity to draw closer to Christ through the saints.

Blessed Pope John Paul II beatified and canonised more saints during the 25 years of his pontificate than all his predecessors put together. His urgency came from the certainty that the power of the Church resides in the witness of the saints, who make real in everyday life God’s call to each one of us to become holy. By bringing so many saints to our attention the Holy Father wanted to encourage us to follow the example of their way of life, to share in their fellowship, and to find help through their intercession.

Saints come from every walk of life - teachers, tailors, soldiers, cleaners, farmers, and lawyers. Saints are ordinary men, women and children who come to a

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PRAYING

THE

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WITH THE

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moment of grace in their lives when they give themselves totally to God, some as young as 5, some as mothers and fathers, some as widows. Many have to overcome, with the help of God, the objections of their families, misunderstandings from fellow Catholics, and persecution at the hands of the State. But in so doing, they become extraordinary in faith, courage, wisdom, and love.

Each one of us receives the living Gospel passed down the ages by a line of saints going back to the apostles. If the Church is a living body, the saints are the genes that pass on the code of the Father, the inheritance of the Son, and the life of the Holy Spirit to each successive generation.

Patrick, Aquinas, Campion, Neri, Mother Teresa, and countless others, continue to shape the characteristics and temperament of the Church. We cannot go through our own country without walking the paths they walked, or touching the places they touched. From the Isle of Iona to Alyesford Priory, from Caldey Island to Walsingham, our Church contains the vibrant presence of those who precede us into the Kingdom.

The rosary - bringing us closer to Christ The purpose of our communion with the saints is that they join us closer to Christ. There is one among all the saints who joins us closest - Mary, His mother, and our mother. Mary was intimately united to Jesus at the moment of her conception, an intimacy which deepened

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throughout her life - her ‘yes’ to His incarnation in her womb, her share in His passion and death on the Cross, her reception of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and her bodily assumption into heaven.

We feel a natural sympathy and familiarity towards Mary, as we also seek to become intimately united to Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus is of a different order, by virtue of Him being the only begotten Son of the Father, and through His incarnation, true God and true man. Our risen and glorified Lord prays for us within the relationships of the Most Holy Trinity. Mary, though raised above the choir of angels, prays for us as a creature, ‘so weak, yet so strong; so delicate, yet so glorious; so modest and yet so mighty’ (Blessed John Henry Newman). We need not fear or feel remorse before our gentle, sinless Mother, as we join our prayer with hers in awe and contrition before Jesus, the Son of God: ‘pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death’.

The saints are passionate in their devotion to Our Lady, because of all the creatures made by God, Mary is most like Jesus. In his recent letter on the Rosary, John Paul II writes that this way of prayer - taking form under the guidance of the Holy Spirit over the past 1000 years - has been loved by countless saints, who found it a genuine path to growth in holiness. The rosary offers a privileged means for daily conversation with the Lord, that leads us to an ever-more profound intimacy with Jesus and Mary.

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PRAYING

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WITH THE

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It provides us with a way of moving closer to Jesus through sharing in the life and memories of His Mother.

Uniquely, the rosary communicates to us an essential truth of the Catholic understanding of the Gospel - we come to Jesus through Mary.

Blessed John Paul II wrote that Mary’s memories of Jesus, impressed upon her heart throughout their life together, became the ‘rosary’ she prayed in the silence of her heart.

By virtue of her assumption into heaven, Mary’s memories are eternal and present at the heart of the Church and the Communion of Saints. Through praying the rosary we share Mary’s memories and, as it were, see through her eyes the mysteries of her son. Among all the devotions, the rosary most consecrates and conforms us to Him. To each generation of saints, Jesus uncovers deeper truths about the incarnation and our call to share in God’s life of love, so that we may make our own ‘the mind of Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 2:5). The rosary, as a simple and accessible way to holiness, is one of the best ways of knowing Him, so as to become more like Him. The rosary contains the essence of the Gospel, particularly with the inclusion of the new Mysteries of Light, which enable us to meditate on the public ministry of Jesus. Through praying the rosary, Jesus and Mary make the Gospel more real and vital in our lives,

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deepening our need for repentance, our love of the Eucharist, and inspiring us to proclaim the Good News to our neighbours.

The rosary - the way back home One of the great British apostles of the rosary is the convert Blessed John Henry Newman. When he was not writing or reading, he had his beads in his hands, finding the rosary the most beautiful of all devotions, containing all in itself. He had discovered that its great power lies in bringing the deepest truths of Jesus’ life and death nearer to our hearts.

Newman invites us to appreciate the simplicity of the rosary, knowing that the repetition of Mary’s name fills the mind with thoughts of God and Jesus, and the heart with the desire for heaven.

He encourages us to pray the rosary, sure that it will bring us comfort and security through the trials and suffering of life. The rosary is a precious chain of prayers that joins us to heaven. When we feel careworn or lost in the darkness, and our hearts are heavy with sorrow, the rosary provides a way back to our true home, where God waits for our return.

Nick Donnelly - Feast of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 19th March 2004.

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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK To pray this rosary meditation, first read the intention of the Mystery, then say the Our Father, and then read each sentence in turn with a Hail Mary. Complete each Mystery with a Glory be. Finish the rosary with the Hail Holy Queen.

The Mysteries of the Rosary are prayed on particular days: Monday: Joyful Wednesday: Glorious Friday: Sorrowful Sunday: Glorious

Tuesday: Sorrowful Thursday: Light Saturday: Joyful

If we follow this daily sequence we join our praying of the rosary with Christians throughout the world, enabling the Church to ‘pray constantly’ to the Holy Trinity with Mary.

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Hail Holy Queen Hail, holy Queen, mother of mercy; hail our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy towards us; and after this our exile, show us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.

O God, whose only-begotten Son, by his life, death and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life; grant, we beseech you, that meditating on these Mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may both imitate what they contain, and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord.

R. Amen.

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THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES The First Joyful Mystery - The Annunciation _____________ _____________

Intention: that we will have the immense joy of seeing Christ born anew within our hearts. (Columba Marmion) 1. And the angel Gabriel came to her and said, “Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28) 2. That an Angel should show reverence to a human was never heard of until the Angel reverently greeted the Blessed Virgin saying: “Hail.” (Thomas Aquinas) 3. The Blessed Virgin was superior to any of the Angels in the fullness of grace. (Thomas Aquinas) 4. She was so filled with grace that from her soul grace poured into her flesh from which was conceived the Son of God. (Thomas Aquinas)

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5. This was the first Eucharist: the gift of His Son establishing in her the first altar. (Mother Teresa) 6. From that moment on, she offered her body, her strength, her whole being, to form the body of Christ.

(Mother Teresa) 7. The most high Father in heaven announced this Word in the womb of the holy and glorious Virgin Mary.

(Francis of Assisi) 8. The blessed Virgin is so honoured, as it is right, since she carried Him in her most holy womb. (Francis of Assisi) 9. A Son whom the heavens could not contain; and yet she carried Him in the little enclosure of her holy womb and held Him on her virginal lap. (Clare of Assisi) 10. In you heaven met earth when divinity and humanity were joined in one person, the God-Man. (Bernard of Clairvaux)