Is it okay to not say the Rosary daily?

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This argument is bordering on goofy. I’m sorry. Please allow me point to some misconceptions that to us, religious and clergy, make it sound goofy.
  1. There is an assumption that the Rosary is required prayer in order to have a Marian cult. This is not true. The Rosary is a very powerful prayer, but the Church has had a Marian cult since the second century. It began in the East when Mary was first referred to as Thetokos.
  2. People are speaking about Dominicans, Carmelites and Franciscans as if they had gone through their formation programs. Some lay members may have, the vast majority of people here have not. Let’s clarify. All three of these orders is very Marian. None of them have the rosary as part of their life of prayer. It is a private devotion that the friars may use or not use. The orders have no authority to impose it. These orders impose: daily mass, Divine Office, Lectio Divina and mental prayer. The rest is up to the individual. In some houses, by agreement, the friars gather to pray the rosary. That’s an agreement, not a mandate.
  3. Along the same lines, the Carmelites, Franciscans and Dominicans predate the rosary as we know it. Contrary to popular opinion, the Dominican Order itself has publicly stated that Our Lady did not give the Rosary to St. Dominic. There is a nice article about it by the Dominicans on Catholic Answers. They explain how that misconception came to be. It was a Dominican friar who created the first rosary as we know it. There were primitive versions of it, but not the same. If the Carmelites, Dominicans and Franciscans used these primitive versions, it was an individual devotion, not a devotion of the order.
  4. The Carmelite Order did not always wear the scapular, contrary to popular mythology. When they returned to Europe they wore a tunic that was striped, white and brown. The Dominican habit and way of life was imposed on them. They kept the original brown and white colors. If you look at their habit, it’s exactly the same as that of the Dominicans. They were forced to abandon the life of hermit and to become mendicants. At the time, the Franciscans were the most influential order in the Apostolic Palace. They were very suspiscious of the Carmelite hermits, because up to that point, all the hermits around them had been heretics, for example, Waldo and company. They pushed and pushed until the Church ordered the Brothers of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to become mendicants, adopt the habit of St. Dominic and the work of the Franciscans (1238). No miraculous scapulars were given to them at that time. The vision of St. Simon Stock is later (1251). Though the early historians of the Carmelite Order do not mention it. The first time that it was mentioned was in the 14th century. by 1251, everyone was already wearing a scapular, except for the Franciscans, because Francis did not want the friars to look like religious. That’s a whole other thread.
  5. The universal Church does not pray the Rosary. It is primarily prayed in the Latin Church and in SOME eastern Catholic Churches. However, the Eastern Catholics have great devotion to Our Lady and much of the Marian dogma came out of Eastern Catholicism. The Incarnation and the Dormition of Mary are major holy days in the East. They have incredible writings on Mary that date back to the early days of the Church. It is from them that the Muslims borrowed and how the Muslims came to develop a cult to Mary. Mohamed did not know the Latin Catholics. They did not exist in the Arab world. The Eastern Catholics did. It goes to show how strongly they lived Marian Spirituality that they even influenced Islam. But they had no rosary.
  6. Finally, St. Louis de Montfort should not be taken out of context, because it does him a great dissservice and a disservice to his great work on Mary. You must read all of his writings on Mary to understand him well. What he did was to pull together centuries of Marian spirituality from East and West and restate it in a beautiful and cohesive treatise that is reflective of the Church’s faith. His intent was to promote the faith. He uses Mary as the archetypal of the Church. He’s saying much more than just “Pray the rosary.” He didn’t have to write great theology to say that. He could have sent out a memo.
Everything that he says about Mary is really about Jesus and his Church. If you pull Mary out and focus on her alone, you destroy the work of St. Louis. She must be understood in the context of that mysterious relationship between Christ and his Body, the Church. It is she, who gives to the Church its humanity, as it was she who gave humanity to the eternal Logos.

St. Louis points us to the relationship between humanity and divinity found in the Mystical Body. Divinity flows out of the Trinity and humanity from the Mother of the Second Person of the Trinity. Just as the second person of the Trinity uses Mary to become one with us in our humanity, we go through Mary to become one with him, because Mary is the instrument whom God used to unite humanity and divinity. That is the central message of St. Louis de Montford. Therefore, since her role in salvation history is essential, man owes it to God, to honor her whom God created for the sole purpose of reaching us. When we honor the instrument we also honor the craftsman.

Put it into secular terms. We go to Washington DC to visit the Air and Space Museum. Why do we preserve all of those flying machines? Because they are special. What makes them special? They speak to us about man’s genius and his progress. By preserving and visiting the instruments, we show respect and admiration for human ingenuity.

By venerating the instrument we show love and respect for Divine intervention in human history.

All analogies limp, so you’ll have to do a little stretching here. I hope it helps.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
 
MODERATOR NOTICE

The original question is very simple. Please answer it and leave out your personal theology and beliefs. ONLY, if the other person asks you, should you provide such information. Otherwise, stick to the question in the OP.

I have cleaned up this thread as best I could and have issued a number of infractions for:
  1. rudeness
  2. misrepresenting official teaching of the Church with personal beliefs
  3. misrepresenting what the other person said
  4. derailing the conversation
  5. argumentative behavior
  6. agenda posting.
If I get one more BPR about this thread, I will have to close it.
 
JReducation said:
  1. Along the same lines, the Carmelites, Franciscans and Dominicans predate the rosary as we know it. Contrary to popular opinion, the Dominican Order itself has publicly stated that Our Lady did not give the Rosary to St. Dominic. There is a nice article about it by the Dominicans on Catholic Answers. They explain how that misconception came to be. It was a Dominican friar who created the first rosary as we know it. There were primitive versions of it, but not the same. If the Carmelites, Dominicans and Franciscans used these primitive versions, it was an individual devotion, not a devotion of the order.
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I think this is the reason there often times is a misunderstanding of the OP and others in the first place.
I have found that many times within the church, esp in those who tend to a more traditional approach to worship, there can be a romanticizing of various devotions to the point they become pious legends and even morph into mythologies.

Many really are of the belief, and understandably so considering how entrenched the belief has become, that Our Lady actually gave the to St Dominic and thus its gives it a “supernatural” level of authenticity and authority.

When that legend is shown to be, quite frankly fictional, then you have those who arent so interested or devoted to the Rosary pushing back.

The Rosary is a wonderful devotion and meditation. I say it myself daily when I am not in my busy season at work. I find very helpful in my prayer life.

But I can well understand why someone may not be drawn to it. And to let them know it’s “ok” not to have a devotion to is is not a problem.

I do pause for a brief moment when I hear people say it because they are under the impression that Our Lady did give it to Dominic. Hopefully the love it regardless of its real history.
 
Marie5890 said:
I think this is the reason there often times is a misunderstanding of the OP and others in the first place.
I have found that many times within the church, esp in those who tend to a more traditional approach to worship, there can be a romanticizing of various devotions to the point they become pious legends and even morph into mythologies.

Many really are of the belief, and understandably so considering how entrenched the belief has become, that Our Lady actually gave the to St Dominic and thus its gives it a “supernatural” level of authenticity and authority.

When that legend is shown to be, quite frankly fictional, then you have those who arent so interested or devoted to the Rosary pushing back.

The Rosary is a wonderful devotion and meditation. I say it myself daily when I am not in my busy season at work. I find very helpful in my prayer life.

But I can well understand why someone may not be drawn to it. And to let them know it’s “ok” not to have a devotion to is is not a problem.

I do pause for a brief moment when I hear people say it because they are under the impression that Our Lady did give it to Dominic. Hopefully the love it regardless of its real history.
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It’s associated with St. Dominic because the Dominicans made it popular. It was a very effective way of teaching scripture and getting people to pray with the scriptures in an era when people did not know how to read. It was perfect. It’s a cross between Lectio Divina and the Divine Office. Of course the Hail Mary as we know it did not yet exist. It stopped at “Thy womb Jesus”

It is said that it came from an old custom of praying the Paters in place of the Breviary. Monks would have a string with beads to count the 150 Paters.

Most people don’t know that there are several versions of the Rosary. The most popular is the Dominican rosary with the 15 decades. But it’s not the only version. About the same time that the Dominicans came out with the 15 decade rosary the Franciscans came out with the seven decade rosary called the Franciscan Crown. That too has it’s own myth as to how it started.

Legion says that there was a novice who made it a habit of making a crown for a statue of the Blessed Mother. The Guardian of the house ordered him to stop. The novice was heartbroken. The Blessed Mother appeared to him and told him to make her a crown of seven decades and gave him the seven mysteries called the Seven Joys of Mary.

However, there is no evidence that this is true. Franciscan history denies that this ever happened. What seems more likely is that someone created it to take the place of the Seraphic Office that St. Francis created. There were friars who could not read Latin. The Crown fist the Seraphic Office, which is based on the number seven for the seven.

At the end of the day, the legends are not the important part. The important part is that people pray with devotion. That’s what these old friars wanted to help people do. They wanted to help them pray. This ministry was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, to answer the OP, it’s more than OK to pray the rosary daily. It is highly desirable, especially if you don’t do any other form of prayer such as the Liturgy of the Hours. It is important to note that the Rosary should never be used instead of the Liturgy of the Hours.

What I’m trying to say is that the Church does not want us to say, “I know how to do both, but I only have time for one, so I’ll pray the Rosary, because the Blessed Mother said to do so.” The Church teaches us that between the two prayers, the Liturgy of the Hours takes precedence. The Divine Office is liturgy and is public prayer. The rosary is neither liturgy nor public prayer, even when it’s prayed by a million people at one time.

But yes, if you can pray it daily, it’s good to do so.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
 
I don’t doubt forms of the primitive rosary existed before the time of Saint Dominic. But I also don’t doubt that Our Lady confirmed this particular devotion as being her Psalter with Saint Dominic. And if you doubt this I shall point you to thousands upon thousands of miracles attributed to the Most Holy Rosary as evidence of it’s heavenly favour.
 
Laudate_Dominum said:
Our Lady is the path Our Lord Himself tread in coming to us.

Next to the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin (which is a part of the Liturgical prayer of the Church) the Rosary is the greatest devotion to Our Blessed Lady as it was instituted by she herself. Why would someone disregard this beautiful devotion to her receive from her own hands? How could someone truly say that they are devoted to her and not nurture a love of her beads?
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So was the Brown Scapular instituted by Our Lady herself, in an apparition to St Simon Stock.

So was the Miraculous Medal in her apparition to St Catherine Laboure.

And those are only the ones I can think of right off the top of my head.

A very little research would probably reveal others as well, each with miraculous stories attributed to her intercession on behalf of practitioners of the devotion. 🤷
 
Laudate_Dominum said:
I don’t doubt forms of the primitive rosary existed before the time of Saint Dominic. But I also don’t doubt that Our Lady confirmed this particular devotion as being her Psalter with Saint Dominic. And if you doubt this I shall point you to thousands upon thousands of miracles attributed to the Most Holy Rosary as evidence of it’s heavenly favour.
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You’re mixing up two things.

One thing is the origin of the rosary and the other is the power of the rosary.

The rosary was not given by Our Lady to St. Dominic. The Dominican Order has already refuted this. They have evidence that it never happened and they have evidence of how the rosary came to be and how they promulgated it.

This does not take anything away from the power of the rosary. Nor does it deny that it was inspired by grace. It certainly does not take away from the miracles attributed to praying the rosary. All of this can exist without St. Dominic in the middle.

You should show some respect for the Dominican Friars when they speak to us about Our Holy Father Dominic. They know him better than we do. Our Holy Father would not have hidden such a thing, if it had happened. He never claimed that such a thing happened, nor was there ever a rosary found in his possession. Apparently, the first rosary was made after his death. Again, that does not mean that it is not the inspiration of grace.

That’s where you have to make the distinction.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
 
LilyM said:
So was the Brown Scapular instituted by Our Lady herself, in an apparition to St Simon Stock.

So was the Miraculous Medal in her apparition to St Catherine Laboure.

And those are only the ones I can think of right off the top of my head.

A very little research would probably reveal others as well, each with miraculous stories attributed to her intercession on behalf of practitioners of the devotion. 🤷
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The Carmelites say that there is no conclusive proof that St. Simon had such a vision, but there is nothing to refute it either. What they do know is that they were wearing the brown scapular years before St. Simon became the Prior General and allegedly had the vision.

It is always possible that Our Lady blessed their brown scapular in some very special way, even though it existed before that. The scapular is not a Carmelite invention. It was worn by Benedictines, Trinitarians and Dominicans long before it was worn by Carmelites.

We do have historical evidence that St. Catherine had these visions. She spoke about them to her confessors and to her sisters.

There is the difference between St. Simon and St. Dominic. There are things attributed to them that they never claimed and no one who lived with them ever claimed. The stories emerged later, sometimes a century or more later.

The fact is that behind every story there is some kind of truth. As we know with St. Dominic, he had a great devotion to Our Lady and so did the Carmelite hermits long before St. Simon become their superior. St. Dominic and St. Simon lived lives of intense prayer and Our Lady was part of their life of prayer. We know this, because they spoke and wrote about it.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
 
A_Catholic said:
JRKH;8720128:
The reason I ask this is because the statements you have made seem to reject those quotes.

Insulting? Christ is the one who gave Mary to us as our Mother. Why do you think he did that? I don’t mean to offend you, but I think you have just insulted our Lord. This is why I keep asking if you have read the quotes I gave to you. Why do you think Blessed John Paul II had as his moto “Totus Tuus”? That quote is directed to Our Lady. Why would he say this to Our Lady and not directly to Christ? Because he accepted the gift Our Lord has given to us in His Mother, and Blessed JPII, as a sinful human being, gave all he had to Mary so that she could make it presentable to our Lord. And that is the example he and all the othe saints have given to us. All of my offerings to Christ are tainted with sin, are filthy and rotten in his sight. But our Blessed Mother takes what we have to offer, and as a good mother would do, cleans them up and presents them in an acceptable way to Christ.
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I am no expert but I just wanted to question the idea of Mary cleaning up our offerings which are tainted with sin before they are united to Christs sacrifice. Is this really true? If so can someone explain this in more detail.

Thanks.
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Laudate_Dominum said:
Our Lady is the path Our Lord Himself tread in coming to us.

Next to the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin (which is a part of the Liturgical prayer of the Church) the Rosary is the greatest devotion to Our Blessed Lady as it was instituted by she herself. Why would someone disregard this beautiful devotion to her receive from her own hands? How could someone truly say that they are devoted to her and not nurture a love of her beads?
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How do you know the Rosary was instituted by the BVM?
 
Laudate_Dominum said:
Originally Posted by JReducation View Post
The rosary was not given by Our Lady to St. Dominic.
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Just for the benefit of anyone lurking on this thread…

We are well aware of JR education’s background, training and long track record of good accurate council given on these boards.

Could you provide us with something of your credentials such that would allow you to call into question the information provided by JR?

Then having done so, perhaps you could provide the background information, links, official documents etc that support your statement above.
It would be much more helpful than what you have provided so far.

Peace
James
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JRKH said:
Just for the benefit of anyone lurking on this thread…

We are well aware of JR education’s background, training and long track record of good accurate council given on these boards.

Could you provide us with something of your credentials such that would allow you to call into question the information provided by JR?

Then having done so, perhaps you could provide the background information, links, official documents etc that support your statement above.
It would be much more helpful than what you have provided so far.

Peace
James
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Well done, JRKH. 👍
 
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