Rosary during adoration?

[KephaKobet]

Is it appropriate to pray the Rosary, a prayer that focuses so heavily on Our Lady, when in the presence if the Blessed Sacrament? I feel like all attention should be on Jesus and adoration is not the time to be directing prayer to anyone but Him. Personally, I find it to be uncomfortable and distracting.

What do you think?

 

[Ohana]

I do not see a problem with saying the Rosary during Eucharistic Adoration. Someone once said/told me that Mary always takes you to Jesus - always. Put another way, she brings Jesus to us - in His birth, the incarnation, teaching and public ministry.

The Rosary is the only time I am conscious of doing two things at once - praying vocal prayer (even if silent) and meditating on Christ’s life. I like Father Barron’s comment on the Rosary as calming the “monkey mind”, the one jumping from thought to thought. In the Rosary we focus out attention on the life of Christ through the intercession of His Mother, and ready ourselves for meditation or contemplation, or just being with Jesus for a time.

 

[chrsbrosky]

Hm, I’m interested to see other’s opinions as well.
A priest at my parish always recites a decade of the Rosary during exposition… It just feels weird praying to Mary when Jesus is right there in front of us.

However, saying an entire Rosary in Adoration doesn’t seem wrong to me. It’s a nice quiet time to mediate on the mysteries, and the silence helps me focus more on the prayers.

It’s pretty much up to personal preference.

 

[Jeanne_S]

Is it appropriate to pray the Rosary, a prayer that focuses so heavily on Our Lady, when in the presence if the Blessed Sacrament? I feel like all attention should be on Jesus and adoration is not the time to be directing prayer to anyone but Him. Personally, I find it to be uncomfortable and distracting.

What do you think?

The rosary doesn’t focus heavily on Mary. The mysteries which are contained in it are meditations on the life of Christ. I usually say a rosary while I am in the Adoration Chapel. Remember,everything Mary always leads us to her Son.

 

[johnnyc176]

The rosary doesn’t focus heavily on Mary. The mysteries which are contained in it are meditations on the life of Christ. I usually say a rosary while I am in the Adoration Chapel. Remember,everything Mary always leads us to her Son.

This.

Of course if the OP meant saying it out loud then I would have to agree that that would not be appropriate if others are there also.

how-to-pray-the-rosary-everyday.com/

 

[Granum_Frumenti]

Is it appropriate to pray the Rosary, a prayer that focuses so heavily on Our Lady, when in the presence if the Blessed Sacrament? I feel like all attention should be on Jesus and adoration is not the time to be directing prayer to anyone but Him. Personally, I find it to be uncomfortable and distracting.

What do you think?

I find it appropriate–given the understanding (which I have long shared) that the rosary focuses even more heavily on Christ and that true Marian devotion is Christocentric, anyway. (This last statement is not a blanket endorsement of all Marian devotions during stated adoration or exposition times, whether the devotion is done publicly or privately; here we should seek someone more competent to answer the question than I am.)

zenit.org has a handy answer page from 2010 concerning publicly praying the rosary during exposition. The Congregation of Divine Worship has explicity stated in 1997 that such a recitation is permitted.

Fr. Edward McNamara, the Zenit author, also wrote, “Before the Holy See’s intervention, the appropriateness of praying the rosary during exposition was a matter of debate among liturgists. Some, in good faith, saw it as an inordinate mixing of Marian and Eucharistic devotions.”

(The link within “In January-February 1999 the newsletter of the U.S. bishops’ Liturgy Committee” no longer works, since the USCCB site has been overhauled recently and doesn’t redirect everything. Instead, go to old.usccb.org/liturgy/innews/199.shtml . Scroll about halfway down for the relevant content.)

An unoffiical translation of the CDW response appears on ewtn.com.

The Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus affirms that the Holy Rosary as a Gospel prayer, centred on the mystery of the redemptive Incarnation, is therefore a prayer with a clearly Christological orientation (n. 46).

One way of doing so may “[underline] its Christological aspects with scripture readings pertinent to the mysteries and giving space for silent meditation and adoration of the same.”

Another part of this page notes something that occurred to my mind too: the current norms for indulgences generally give a partial indulgence to the recitation of the rosary, but under certain circumstances, the indulgence may be plenary. One of these is praying it in a church–where the Blessed Sacrament is usually present, even if not usually exposed.

The original document Marialis Cultus contains even more detail about the rosary and its Christological character, like the part after what that page quoted.

Of course, it’s also not required of you to pray the rosary during such times, either.

 

[Bookcat]

From the Holy See: adoremus.org/EuchAdor_Rosary.html

And from Adoremus: adoremus.org/599Rosary.html

 

[Nimzovik]

Actually, if I remember right - is it not accorded to Mother Teresa of calcutta that Mary helps those that say the Rosary in Adoration?

Anyways See here: ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=115775 for the Rosary in front of the Sacrament.

 

[Delaine75]

Absolutely nothing wrong with praying the Rosary during Adoration! I do it all the time!

A friend of mine said that the Rosary is only about Mary, but then I pointed out certain lines in each prayer and she changed her mind:

“Our Father…”
“Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus…”
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit…”
“O My Jesus…”
“…that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ…”

Plus, there are the meditations on the life of Christ, not the life of Mary. I believe that praying the Holy Rosary is a way for Mary to bring us closer to her Son, so there’s no reason why it would be wrong to pray this in Adoration.

 

[JuantheTuba]

It’s appropriate, the Mysteries are all about Christ(well except the last two Glorious) but if you find it too distracting then no need to do them, just say another prayer.

 

[Mary_Ellen]

In our Adoration Chapel the Rosary and the Chaplet of Mercy are prayed out loud at scheduled times. These times are posted on the door of the chapel so that those who find them distracting can schedule their prayer times accordingly.

 

[po18guy]

The rosary doesn’t focus heavily on Mary. The mysteries which are contained in it are meditations on the life of Christ. I usually say a rosary while I am in the Adoration Chapel. Remember,everything Mary always leads us to her Son.

Exactly right! I will be en route shortly to spend time before our Lord Jesus, Whose mysteries we contemplate during the Rosary. Of the twenty mysteries, only two seem to involve only Mary - yet do they? Actually, no, since we simultaneously contemplate Who it was that assumed Mary into heaven, and Who crowned her with glory. When we contemplate Mary, we also contemplate Jesus, Whose life is inextricably intertwined with her own - exactly as Jesus, in His divine intellect, and through His divine act of creation, intended.

During the Rosary, after the Apostle’s Creed and at the beginning of each decade, we offer the Lord’s prayer. Think about Who taught the world that perfect prayer. He it is Who is present before you as you pray it during adoration. As I pray the Our Father, I offer the words directly to the Son, through Whom they came to us. After all, He is our Mediator with the Father. As well, you also adore Him each moment you are before Him, whether in prayer or the simple contemplative silence of the spirit.

 

[Granum_Frumenti]

Actually, if I remember right - is it not accorded to Mother Teresa of calcutta that Mary helps those that say the Rosary in Adoration?.

I was thinking of the same sort of thing, though I forgot the source. I just did a search and found a statement like that, both attributed to her and not attributed to her (though I didn’t run across any so far that attributed such a statement to someone else).

Why was I thinking of the same thing? Years ago, I saw posted near an adoration chapel a poster that pretty much says this, from the site of the Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament (maybe that poster came from them):

acfp2000.com/What/Eucharist&Adoration.html

When you pray the Rosary in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament, you love Jesus with the Heart of Mary and offer to Jesus the perfect adoration of Mary. Jesus receives your holy hour as if Mary herself were making it. Mary encloses you in her Heart and Jesus accepts your hour with Him as coming directly from the Heart of His very own Mother. The Heart of Mary makes up for what is lacking in our own hearts.

Who has said similar things?

 

[His_helpmeet]

I was told once that there is, in fact, an indulgence for praying the Rosary in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament.

 

[Nimzovik]

If I remember correctly, it is in the book, it is blueish, and that is all I can remember now. Mayhap I go to adoration tonite and find it in there, as it always is there.

 

[KephaKobet]

Thanks for the responses, everybody. What you’re saying makes sense - the meditations are what the prayer is really centered upon and Mary always leads us to Jesus. I guess it’s just a personal preference.

 

[R_C]

Is it appropriate to pray the Rosary, a prayer that focuses so heavily on Our Lady, when in the presence if the Blessed Sacrament? I feel like all attention should be on Jesus and adoration is not the time to be directing prayer to anyone but Him. Personally, I find it to be uncomfortable and distracting.

What do you think?

It is very appropriate to pray the Holy Rosary at some time during adoration. To begin with, the prayer does not focus on Our Lady. If understood as it is supposed to be, the Holy Rosary is entirely centered on Christ. It is a meditation on the life of the Lord, going through the most significant “mysteries” of the gospels. The prayer of the Angelic Salutation is offered in order to pray to the Lord through the most perfect of all intercessors, His beloved Mother. There is no better or more safe way to direct our prayers to him.

I invite you, in order to gain a profound understanding of this most ancient and respected prayer (which used to be prayed even during Holy Mass), to read “The Secret of the Rosary” by St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort.

You also seem to not yet fully grasp how to direct devotion to Our Lady. “Treatise on the True Devotion” by the same author may be a worthy reading, as well as “Imitation of Mary” by Thomas Kempis (a selection of writings not many have heard of).

 

[Granum_Frumenti]

I guess it’s just a personal preference.

I was going to add this to the end of my first post, but the timeframe has passed to edit.

Of course, it’s also not required of you to pray the rosary during such times, either.

None of that post (and, as I read them, the other responses in this thread) is intended to force you or anyone else to pray the rosary during exposition, whether as part of a public group reciting aloud or silently by yourself…

It is also worth noting that you, the sources quoted in this thread, the other posters in this thread, and I all (probably) agree on the importance of adoring the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar; we just haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on the relationship of the rosary to that adoration.

 

[KephaKobet]

I invite you, in order to gain a profound understanding of this most ancient and respected prayer (which used to be prayed even during Holy Mass), to read “The Secret of the Rosary” by St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort.

I was actually planning on picking that book up next time I have some money to spend! I’ve heard good things about it.

Maybe Satan is just trying to keep me from praying the Rosary in a way that’s especially beneficial to my soul. I’ll try it in Adoration sometime soon.

 

[R_C]

Maybe Satan is just trying to keep me from praying the Rosary in a way that’s especially beneficial to my soul. I’ll try it in Adoration sometime soon.

Maybe From the Spiritual Exercises:

When such good soul wants to speak or do something within the Church, within the understanding of our Superiors, and which should be for the glory of God our Lord, and there comes to him a thought or temptation from without that he should neither say nor do that thing – bringing to him apparent reasons of vainglory or of another thing, etc., – then he ought to raise his understanding to his Creator and Lord, and if he sees that it is His due service, or at the least not contrary to it, he ought to act diametrically against such temptation, according to St. Bernard, answering the same: «Neither for thee did I begin, nor for thee will I stop.»