Our Lady, St Dominic and the Rosary

Today is the feast of St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominicans. In 1208 Mary appeared to St. Dominic and gave him the Rosary. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, the great Dominican theologian of the 20th century explained how this happened, “At the end of the 12th century southern France was ravaged by the Albigensian heresy…It was at that moment that Our Blessed Lady made known to St. Dominic a kind of preaching till then unknown, which she said would be one of the most powerful weapons against future errors and in future difficulties. Under her inspiration, St. Dominic went into the villages of the Albigensians, gathered the people, and taught them the truths of salvation…And after each short instruction, he had ten Hail Mary’s recited…And what the word of the preacher was unable to do, the sweet prayer of the Hail Mary did for hearts. As Mary promised, it proved to be a most fruitful form of preaching.

And so, we pray the Rosary according to way Mary gave it to St. Dominic: beginning with a brief teaching from the Word of God, we then meditate, we think about those things as we pray each decade, repeating this rhythm of reflection and prayer five times.

The Rosary as Meditation

The Rosary is supposed to be a meditation on the Word of God. Not just a wrote saying of words while our mind wanders. For the Rosary to be a meditation it needs three simple steps: Read or listen to something from the Word of God found in Scripture, Tradition (the writings of the Saints) or the Magisterium (the teaching of the Church). Reflect or think about what struck you. Apply that truth to your life. Ask: Am I living this or not? Then form a resolution. Commit to do what Jesus told you to do.

Are you meditating during the Rosary, are you thinking about and applying to your life the truths presented and are you letting them confront your behavior.

Are you forming a resolution, committing to actually do what Jesus said?

The Content of the Meditation

What should we think about during the Rosary? Our Lady wants us to think about, meditate upon everything Jesus did and taught that is handed on by His Church. Now, the traditional mysteries of the Rosary were meant to serve as an outline for the life and teachings of Jesus. They were never meant to limit us to those scenes. Imagine reading the table of contents of a book repeatedly and never reading the book. Sooner or later, you will lose interest in the table of contents because you want to know more, you desire to go deeper.

This is why St. John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries and then he said, “Obviously these mysteries neither replace the Gospel nor exhaust its content. The Rosary, therefore, is no substitute for reading the Word of God; on the contrary, it presupposes and promotes it. Yet, even though the mysteries contemplated in the Rosary, even with the addition of the mysteria lucis, do no more than outline the fundamental elements of the life of Christ, they easily draw the mind to a more expansive reflection on the rest of the Gospel, especially when the Rosary is prayed in a setting of prolonged recollection.” Rosarium 29

That is why we meditate on the entire Word of God contained in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium in daily bite sized digestible portions so you can learn your faith as you pray.

Capua Nicaragua

In the approved apparition of Cuapa, Nicaragua in 1980 Our Lady gave a vision of how the Rosary began and how She wanted it prayed. Mary instructed the visionary Bernardo to look up at the sky where he saw something like a movie being played before him, “After seeing the procession of martyrs, there followed a group of saints dressed in white and carrying luminous rosaries in their hands. It was made known to him that St. Dominic led the procession while he carried a very large open book. Dominic would read, and after listening, they silently meditated. After this period of prayer and silence, they then prayed the Our Father and ten Hail Mary’s and the Glory Be.  When the rosary was finished, Our Lady said to me, “These are the first ones to whom I gave the rosary. That is the way that I want all of you to pray the rosary.”

Our Lady then informed Bernardo that she was not pleased when the rosary is prayed in a rushed mechanical way as our minds wander in distraction. She said, “Pray the Rosary, meditate on the mysteries. Listen to the Word of God spoken in them…Put into practice the Word of God.”

Mary does not want us to just say the Rosary while our minds wander. She wants us to meditate, to think about the Word of God and then make a resolution we will put into practice and change our lives.

That is how Mary wants the Rosary prayed.

Dogs of the Lord

When St. Dominic's mother, Blessed Jane of Aza, was pregnant, she had a dream of a dog with a torch in its mouth, running around the world and setting everything on fire. She went to the local monastery and asked a monk what it meant. He replied that the child in her womb would be a great preacher, who would set the world ablaze with the fire of his words. In fact, the word ‘Dominican’ comes from Dominics name but it is also play on the Latin, Domini canes, which means ‘dogs of the Lord.”

When Mary gave Dominic her method of the Rosary, she made known to him a kind of preaching till then unknown, which she said would be one of the most powerful weapons against future errors and in future difficulties. Let’s be dogs of the Lord running about setting the world on fire with the Rosary by sharing this podcast with others and inviting them to pray the Rosary with you!

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