Praying the Rosary

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PeteyK006

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Does anyone know where the tradition of praying the Rosary with a leader and responses originated? My wife prefers to pray the entire thing together when we pray it as a family instead of in a response format as she feels that she shouldn’t only be praying half of the Rosary. I told her that much like praying the Mass, we’re still praying even when we aren’t speaking out loud, but that didn’t seem to be a sufficient reason for her. Any suggestions?
 
According to the Dominican website it used to be chanted in choir, so it was split, like the Psalms when praying the office in a group. Also I remember hearing there was a partial indulgence for doing it the way you describe, but I can’t remember the details.

Edit: I found the source, it was Saint Louis Marie De Montfort, secrets of the Rosary.
“4. Urban VIII, who was very pleased to see how devotion to the Holy Rosary had spread in Rome and how it was being said in two groups or choirs, particularly at the convent of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, attached one hundred days’ extra indulgence, toties quoties, whenever the Rosary was said in two choirs. This was set out in his brief “Ad perpetuam rei memoriam,” written in the year 1626. So every time you say the Rosary in two groups you gain one hundred days’ extra indulgence.”

catholictradition.org/Classics/secret-rosary46.htm

Source for the Dominican website
english.op.org/rosary/how-to-pray-the-rosary.htm
 
Thanks, that’s helpful.

One thing that I notice in the St. Louis de Montfort piece is that may be used the other way (as we have a small family - two kids under 4 who do not yet really pray the Rosary with us much at this point so it is mainly just my wife and I):

“…In this way those who are strong uphold the weak, those who are fervent inspire the lukewarm, the rich enrich the poor, the bad are counted as good…”

So she may argue that when we pray the whole thing out loud together we are upholding each other.
 
PeteyK006 said:
Does anyone know where the tradition of praying the Rosary with a leader and responses originated? My wife prefers to pray the entire thing together when we pray it as a family instead of in a response format as she feels that she shouldn’t only be praying half of the Rosary. I told her that much like praying the Mass, we’re still praying even when we aren’t speaking out loud, but that didn’t seem to be a sufficient reason for her. Any suggestions?
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My only advice is, don’t make the Rosary a source of division.
Take turns or pray the way she wants to.

I am sure Our Mother would not enjoy watching Her children arguing over how a family prays.
 
No, it’s not something that we fight over, just different family traditions coming together. I had never given much thought to why it was done in a response format, it was just what I had done growing up when I prayed the Rosary with my family or whenever we did it in a group before or after weekday Mass.

In the end, I’m happy that we pray together, so really don’t want to put any strain on that! Maybe as the kids get a bit older and start to become more active in this prayer, it’ll be easier to fall into more of a response format.
 
PeteyK006 said:
No, it’s not something that we fight over, just different family traditions coming together. I had never given much thought to why it was done in a response format, it was just what I had done growing up when I prayed the Rosary with my family or whenever we did it in a group before or after weekday Mass.

In the end, I’m happy that we pray together, so really don’t want to put any strain on that! Maybe as the kids get a bit older and start to become more active in this prayer, it’ll be easier to fall into more of a response format.
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I am so glad to hear that it isn’t problem.
 
Thanks for your thoughts and (name removed by moderator)ut! I’ll give those articles a more thorough read over the next few days.
 
Just a thought: saying the Rosary together as a family has great power.

On the other hand, there has been more than one person who, as a young child, had to sit/kneel/stand through whole rosaries, and grew to dislike (the most polite word I can think of) it.

You might consider saying one decade with the children, either before bed or as you are putting them to bed, and then recite the rosary together after they are down. 10 to 15 minutes seems like an eternity to young ones, and I suspect they would get more out of shorter prayers than one that they may all too easily see as tedious.

Everybody has their own opinions about raising children; and on occasion, they are right. Not to make too much of a point of it, but I struggled even well into grade school while the adults payer on.
 
It’s something that we’ve recently started doing in the evening after dinner. We’ve started slowly with one decade per night, but are hoping that as the mugs get older we’ll be able to add to that. At their ages, they’re more listening while they play than paying with us, and we’re hoping that it’ll become something that they want to join in. Our 3 year old will join us once in a while, or just find himself saying the prayers along with us while playing.

That’s okay of the reason I was looking into the leader and response format, so that he can feel like he’s got a bigger roll if he leads a few Hail Marys. It’s not anything that we have an exact solution to, but thanks for all of the (name removed by moderator)ut!
 
Usually the person leading the Rosary said the first part, then the rest Join in,and the leader saying it with them.
 
I have downloaded the rosary and meditations by fr. John Riccardo (Detroit) which are available here:

frjohnriccardo.libsyn.com/webpage/category/Rosary

I have them on a small digital voice recorder and listen (and pray along with them before Mass).

These are completely in his own voice. I don’t like recordings audio or DVD that have a response format – I get distracted by the change in voices – but that’s just me.
 
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