The Rosary and 5 decades

  • Thread starter Thread starter ExtraordinaryGrace
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
E

ExtraordinaryGrace

Guest
I recently ordered a custom 15 decade rosary from the Carmelite Sisters. I had been searching for a 15 decade rosary and couldn’t find anything other than 5 decades on every major Catholic distributor and devotional site. Considering the craze in Fatima devotions I find this hard to believe and wonder has the daily mystery devotion model eclipsed the fact that you can say all of them in one day if you can’t do one sitting as it is church tradition and what is considered “The Rosary”? As someone who didn’t attend catholic school but was instructed on prayers by family that could also be taken into consideration.
 
Last edited:
I imagine size/convenience of carrying comes into play as well. I can simply “repeat” my same 5-decade rosary 2-3 more times to get all 15 or 20 mysteries covered. Most people think of a rosary as the 5-decade one, so I doubt there’s much demand for 15-decade sets.
 
I am struggling a bit with your post. Are you saying a Rosary requires a 15 decade set of Rosary beads?
 
I think the only people who use a 15-decade Rosary are Dominican friars, and possibly other religious orders who wear a Rosary on their belt.
This sounds like a great opportunity to make your own Rosary. I’m thinking that you would need about 50 feet of cord and a lot of knots!
 
I sent away for a custom one to be made by the Carmelite Sisters.
 
I read in a Rosary booklet published in the 50s that the 5 decade rosary is for instructing children. 15 decades is the Rosary as it included the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries said together or throughout the day. American Catholicism went through truncation due to a workforce centered on work ethic and not a Christ centered ora et labora Catholic model and catholic schools were used more than before to educate the faithful in their prayers but it seems that post WWII the rosary became 5 decades for all with each day devoted to a different mystery which is hardly as spiritually satisfying and seems to be a result of a 40 hour work week and so on and not devotional practice. Every rosary book that I have discusses saying the Rosary as in 15 decades.
 
Keep in mind that the Rosary is a private devotion. You can decide to pray 5 mysteries, 10 mysteries, 15 mysteries, 20 mysteries per day–it is completely up to you. There are no “rules” for private devotions.
 
I’m asking if the daily rosary devotional has eclipsed saying all of the mysteries. With the luminous mysteries added the full rosary is 20 decades. Either way the only widely available rosary is 5 decades.
 
I understand that. But when Our Lady presented herself at Fatima was it not the 15 decade Rosary that she was requesting? With the amount of Fatima craze I’m confused at the truncated daily rosary format, which is new, and how it has eclipsed the full form. Devotion or not it was not considered a Rosary if you only said one mystery.
 
In the days of the Fatima children, a full rosary was considered 15 decades. Children said only 5 decades (I believe the word was “terco”, meaning one-third) and were expected to work up to saying the full 15 as adults. The Fatima children said the 5-decade rosary. So if we want to pray like them then we too can use the 5-decade rosary (And can say it as many times as we want to make 15 or 20 decades).

Regarding traditional indulgences for the Rosary, the 1866 English translation of the Raccolta (the compendium of indulgences for the Church) indicates that the full Rosary is 15 decades, but the indulgences associated with it, including plenaries, are available for saying only “the third part” of it, in other words 5 decades. Furthermore, it notes that at least one of the indulgences for saying “the third part” goes back to 1726.

http://www.liturgialatina.org/raccolta/mary.htm

So I’m not sure how far back you want to go with your “tradition”, but it seems pretty clear that saying 5 decades daily, or several times a week, while meditating on the mysteries, is a practice that the Church has promoted for at least 300 years approximately. (Under the latest Manual of Indulgences, the Church still provides indulgences, including plenaries under certain conditions, for saying five decades.)

You’re always free to say more if you want. I know elderly retired people who say four or five rosaries a day. I work all day for a living and I sometimes want to pray other prayers as well, so one or at most two is generally my limit.

Also, if you want to say the Rosary like St. Bernadette at Lourdes, you can say the six-decade Brigittine rosary because that’s the one she (and Our Lady) used there.
 
Last edited:
ExtraordinaryGrace said:
But when Our Lady presented herself at Fatima was it not the 15 decade Rosary that she was requesting?
Click to expand...
How about setting aside “Fatima craze” (Whatever that is) and just looking at what Our Lady actually asked the children to do?

She asked them to “Pray the terco” - the five-decade rosary.


Now there is a school of thought that because Our Lady introduced and presented herself as Our Lady of the Rosary, using the word “Rosario” which would have meant 15 decades, she wanted us all to pray 15 decades. Which is fine, you just pray 3 tercos, if you are able to do that.

However, given that the children prayed 5 decades (and St. Bernadette prayed 6), and the First Saturday devotion requires 5 decades, and indulgences require 5 decades, and the Blue Army Shrine aka World Apostolate of Fatima promotes 5 decades said at least 3 times a week (to make 15 a week) if you can’t do 5 daily, I think it’s okay to say the 5 decade rosary. Say it 3 times if you want to make 15. It’s not like Our Lady is standing there going, “Hm, you only said 5, not 15. It doesn’t count. I wanted all 15 and your effort is lame.” She’d be pleased if someone sincerely said only 1 decade if that was all they were able to do.
 
Last edited:
A devotional book that I have on the Rosary makes a metaphor of three sisters and their praying of the rosary for a year. Each sister was visited by the Virgin Mother with a cloak made from the prayers offered up to her by each of the sisters. Only one received a beautiful cloak with the other two receiving tattered and insufficient cloths. The moral of the story was to make our prayers meaningful and plenty. I was instructed by women in my family who were educated by religious sisters. They awake early in the morning to start their prayers and I will always have memories of my fathers mother in prayer. I was asking if the devotion of saying all of the mysteries in one day has been eclipsed, to further explain my post. Every book on the rosary that I have says that saying all of the mysteries, 15- 20 decades, is the preffered method of prayer. I have yet to come across any that recommend saying less as being pleasing to Mother Mary.
 
If you’re doing more than a set of 5 decades, just restart on the beads and go around until you hit the 20 decades or however many you’re doing. In one session, you can do 1 decade or all of them or any number in between.
 
Last edited:
ExtraordinaryGrace said:
Each sister was visited by the Virgin Mother with a cloak made from the prayers offered up to her by each of the sisters. Only one received a beautiful cloak with the other two receiving tattered and insufficient cloths. The moral of the story was to make our prayers meaningful and plenty
Click to expand...
I will say, it is difficult for me to get all 15 decades said in one day. I try to make sure I get the 5 in every day and some busy days that is difficult.

That said, your post challenges me and the reason I say that is because I recently did a small paper on the history of devotion to the rosary and I remembered reading that St. Louis de Montfort said:

The word Rosary means “Crown of Roses” that is to say that every time people say the Rosary devoutly, they place a crown of one hundred and fifty-three red roses and sixteen white roses upon the heads of Jesus and Mary. Being heavenly flowers, these roses will never fade or lose their exquisite beauty.

Sometimes I think we want to do other prayers, and that is fine, though the rosary is what Our Lady has asked us over and over again to offer up in these times.
 
Last edited:
ExtraordinaryGrace said:
Every book on the rosary that I have says that saying all of the mysteries, 15- 20 decades, is the preffered method of prayer. I have yet to come across any that recommend saying less as being pleasing to Mother Mary.
Click to expand...
You honestly think Mother Mary is not “pleased” unless we say a certain number of decades?

Moreover, you think the Church actively promotes a 5-decade rosary, for 300+ years, that is not “pleasing” to Mother Mary? In other words, multiple Popes are encouraging something that Mother Mary doesn’t like?

Just because you interpreted your own personal “devotional books” that way?
. . . .
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes, I like St. Bridget. I’m still trying to get through the 1-year devotion of her meditations on the Passion of Christ.

I like to say the 6-decade Brigettine or Carmelite rosary sometimes as well. Don’t have a 6-decade rosary yet so I just repeat the last decade twice.
 
Last edited:
Tis_Bearself said:
Just because you interpreted your own personal “devotional books” that way?

Okay.

I think you have some strange ideas about both prayer and Mother Mary. I will pray for you.
Click to expand...
I read her post as someone who read Catholic something, somewhere, perhaps True Devotion, and wants to discuss it or ask questions. Your post seems more of a personal attack than an explanation of why 5 decades is okay to say.
 
Last edited:
I am a new member…
How do you create a new post?
I try to write a post but it doesn’t work
Thank you for your help.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top