The Twenty Mysteries of the Rosary?

Seattle Catholic ^ | November 8, 2002 | John Vennari

[ultima ratio]

The Twenty Mysteries of the Rosary? by John Vennari

The Apostolic Letter opens the door for a "pastoral approach" to the Rosary that is "positive, impassioned and creative - as shown by World Youth Days". In other words, a nod is given to a jazzed-up Rosary for the "youth".

"When one lives by novelty, there will always have to be a new novelty." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

On October 16, 2002, Pope John Paul II marked the 24th Anniversary of his papacy with the release of the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, in which he proclaimed a "Year of the Rosary" from October 2002 to October 2003. The document also contained a major innovation from a Pope whose Pontificate has been marked by a steady stream of novelties. He announced that he would add five new mysteries to the Rosary.

Word of the new mysteries was reported first on October 14 by various news agencies claiming that information was leaked from Vatican sources.

Father Richard John Neuhaus from First Things magazine found these early reports hard to believe, and told The Chicago Tribune that the Pope was not likely to alter the Rosary. "That he would suggest," said Neuhaus "or even declare some kind of official change to the Rosary is totally atypical, totally out of character." Neuhaus then said that the Pope does not have the authority to mandate changes in such a prayer.1

Father Neuhaus is correct that a Pope cannot mandate such changes, but he is mistaken to claim that the Pope's change of the Rosary would be "out of character" for this Pontiff of post-Conciliar aggiornamento. Even the secular press recognizes John Paul II as a man with a passion for setting papal precedents.

The New York Times' Frank Bruni wrote on October 15: "Time and again, Pope John Paul II has boldly gone where other Popes have not: a synagogue, a ski slope, distant countries with tiny populations. Tomorrow, he will apparently cross another frontier, making a significant change in the Rosary, a signature method of Catholic prayer for many centuries." 2

Bruni failed to mention that John Paul is also the first Pope to kiss the Koran,3 participate in rock'n'roll liturgies,4 allow Altar Girls, permit "lay ministers" to distribute Communion at his Papal Mass,5 suggest a "common martyrology" that contains Catholics and non- Catholics, praise documents that call the need for non- Catholics to convert to the Catholic Church an "outdated ecclesiology," 6 take part in "inculturated" ceremonies that includes pagan ritual,7 and convoke pan-religious prayer meetings that include Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Snake-worshipers.8

On the same theme, Rueters said, "Changing one of Christianity's most fundamental prayers after nearly a millennium will be a typical way for the 82- year-old Pope to crown 24 years of a pontificate marked by bold initiatives sometimes taken against the advice of aides." 9

The "new mysteries" of the Rosary took everyone by surprise. Thus I have postponed publication of Part III of my World Youth Day series10 in order to comment on this latest "bold initiative".

The Apostolic Letter

Two weeks previously, the pontiff announced he was preparing a document to stress the value of the Rosary. He urged the faithful to recite the Rosary, including together as families. John Paul said then that he wanted people to "rediscover the beauty and depth of this prayer".

The Pope, for a good part of the Apostolic Letter was true to his word. Much of Rosarium Virginis Mariae is praiseworthy, even edifying. How can one argue with the promulgation of a "Year of the Rosary" in order to revitalize practice of this Holy devotion? How can one find fault with the Pope's call to pray the Rosary for peace? How can one complain when the Pope laments that families are fragmented, that they often get together only to watch television, and that they should set some time aside to pray the Rosary together instead?

Also of interest was the Pope's frequent references to Blessed Bartholomew Longo (1841-1926) who was baptized Catholic, left the faith to become a satanic priest, and then repented, converted back to Catholicism and became an apostle of the Rosary. This is a beautiful lesson that conversion is possible even in apparently hopeless cases.

It is probable that the Letter will do much good in revitalizing Rosary devotion. Tens-of-thousands of Catholics who do not follow the details of Vatican events, will simply learn through the press, or from parish priests, that the Pope wants a renewed devotion to the Rosary and they will comply. I have little doubt that this Letter will produce its desired goal to inspire more Catholics in this holy exercise.

Yet at the same time, countless Catholics are baffled at the unnecessary addition of five new mysteries. What is this strange post-conciliar belief among today's Church leaders that Catholics will not find a traditional devotion interesting unless John Paul updates it? Why is it thought necessary to disfigure our devotions in order to capture a Catholic's attention? Why was it requisite for the Pope to put his personal stamp on the Rosary, rather than simply promote it as is: as did all the Popes before him, as did countless saints, and as did the Mother of God at Fatima?

The New Mysteries

The addition proposed by the Pope, called the Five Luminous Mysteries, also called the "Mysteries of Light," center on the public life of Christ. They are:

the Baptism of Christ in Jordan, the Wedding Feast at Cana, the Announcement of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration, the Institution of the Eucharist as the sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery. These new mysteries, according to John Paul, are to be placed between the Joyful and Sorrowful Mysteries.

The Pope says that these additions are not mandatory, and explains his reason for the change. "I believe" he writes, "that to bring out fully the Christological depth of the Rosary, it would be suitable to make an addition to the traditional pattern which, while left to the freedom of individuals and communities, could broaden it to include the mysteries of Christ's public ministry between His Baptism and His Passion." 11

Do you know of any Catholic, any saint, any Pope who ever considered the Rosary "lacking" in Christological depth? Did not the saints and the Popes constantly speak of the excellence of the Rosary? Did they ever suggest a radical addition to alter the structure of the Rosary in order to "improve" what was already excellent?

Reaction to the new mysteries has been predictable: everything from traditional Catholics who call it an "outrage," to Medjugorje followers who claim it "bears all the hallmarks of Divine inspiration". Once again, the much-vaunted "Pope of unity" has launched a novelty that divides Catholics.

And the question is, why?

Perhaps we should first ask, why not change the Rosary?

The Psalter Assaulted

A constant characteristic of the pre-Vatican II Popes was to abhor novelty and to safeguard tradition, including traditional devotions.

Thus, if one could go back in time and ask any of the pre-Vatican II Popes why they never added "new mysteries" to the Rosary, the answer is easy to presume. "Because," the pre-conciliar Pope would say, "if I add 5 new mysteries, I will have to add 5 new decades. If I add five new decades, then the Rosary can no longer be called 'Our Lady's Psalter'. Now Catholic tradition, my holy predecessors and Our Blessed Mother referred to the Rosary as Her 'Psalter', because the 150 Hail Mary's of the 15-decade Rosary correspond to the 150 Psalms of David. It would be audacious of me to add 5 decades. This would be the decimation of the entire concept of Mary's 'Psalter', a term hallowed by centuries of usage, a term that explains the origin and essence of the Rosary, a term used by the Queen of Heaven Herself. Further, if I make this radical change to the Rosary, then what is to prevent more radical changes in the future?"

The History of Mary's Psalter

The entire history of the Rosary is bound up with the 150 Psalms of the Old Testament, otherwise known as the Psalter of David. From the dawn of Catholic history, monks and hermits prayed these Psalms as part of their daily liturgical life.

Saint Benedict, in his Holy Rule, explains that the monks of the desert recited the 150 Psalms every day. Saint Benedict arranged the Psalms for his monks so that all 150 would be recited in one week.12 This became the Divine Office (Breviary) that priests and religious recited every day until the post-conciliar aggiornamento revolutionized both Breviary and Mass.

The story of "Mary's Psalter" reportedly begins with the Irish monks in the 7th Century. These monks divided the 150 Psalms of David into a Na tri coicat format of three groups of fifty. Arranged in such a way, the "fifties" served both as reflective and corporal/penitential prayer.13

The people of the Middle Ages in their great love of Our Lady set to fashioning "Rosariums" in Her honor. They composed Psalms in praise of Mary to match the 150 Psalms of David. St. Anselm of Canterbury (1109) made such a Rosary. In the 13th Century, St. Bonaventure divided his 150 Marian Psalms into three groups. The first group commenced with the word Ave, the next with Salve, and the final fifty Psalms each commented with the word Gaude. Such Rosaries of praise took the name of Our Lady's Psalter.14

It was not long before the custom of reciting Hail Mary's became the substitute of reciting the Psalms in praise of Our Lady. "By the 13th Century" writes the Redemptorist Father James Galvin, "the number of Aves was set at one hundred and fifty to equal the number of the Psalms of David." 15

Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that the Psalter of David, composed as it is of one hundred and fifty Psalms, is divided into three equal parts of fifty Psalms each. These three equal parts represent figuratively the three stages in which the faithful find themselves: the state of penance, the state of justice, the state of glory. Likewise, explains Father Anthony Fuerst, "the Rosary of Mary is divided into three parts of fifty Hail Mary's each in order to express fully the phrases of the life of the faithful: penance, justice and glory." 16

Heaven itself declared the immeasurable value of this Psalter. In 1214, Our Blessed Mother told Saint Dominic to "preach My Psalter" in order to rekindle faith, to convert sinners and to crush stubborn heresy. Saint Louis de Montfort tells the story in his magnificent work, The Secret of the Rosary.

"Saint Dominic," writes Saint Louis, "seeing that the gravity of the peoples' sin was hindering the conversion of the Albigensians, withdrew to a forest near Toulouse where he prayed unceasingly for three days and three nights. During this time he did nothing but weep and do harsh penances in order to appease the anger of Almighty God. He used his discipline so much that his body was lacerated, and finally he fell into a coma."

Our Lady then appeared to him, accompanied by three angels. She said, "Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?"

Saint Dominic asked Her to tell him. Our Lady responded:

"I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach My Psalter." 17

Our Lady's words contain two special points of interest:

She uses the language of the Church militant. She does not speak of the Rosary in a sentimental manner in order to achieve good feelings or pan-religious unity. No, She refers to it as battering ram against heresy.

She twice uses the term "Psalter", which is the Rosary designated as 150 Aves that link it to the Psalms of David. Regarding the Rosary's traditional structure, Msgr. George Shea writes, "Because its 150 Hail Mary's correspond to the 150 Psalms of the Psalter, the complete Rosary is sometimes called Our Lady's Psalter. In fact, the latter was its common designation down to the end of the 15th Century, while 'Rosary' was reserved for a part, i.e., a third, of Our Lady's Psalter." 18

As late as the last quarter of the 15th Century, Blessed Alaus de Rupe protested vigorously against the use of the terms "Rosario," "Chapelet" or "Corono," and insisted that the title of Our Lady's Psalter be retained.19 Msgr. Shea points out that the first indication from a Pope that the Psalter of Mary is commonly called "Rosary" is found in the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Leo X, Pastor Aeterni dated October 6, 1520, over three hundred years after Our Lady spoke to Saint Dominic.

The Constant Language of the Popes

The term "Psalter" of Mary, as a link to the 150 Psalms of David, is what we find consistently from the Popes throughout the centuries.

The Apostolic Constitution of Pope Leo X, Pastor Aeterni October 6, 1520, uses the term "Psalter of Mary" in connection to the Rosary.20

Pope Saint Pius V wrote in Consueverunt Romani of September 17, 1569, "And so Dominic looked to that simple way of praying and beseeching God, accessible to all and wholly pious, which is called the Rosary, or Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which the same most Blessed Virgin is venerated by the angelic greeting repeated one hundred and fifty times, that is, according to the number of the Davidic Psalter, and by the Lord's Prayer with each decade." 21

Pope Leo XIII wrote "Just as by the recitation of the Divine Office, priests offer a public, constant, and most efficacious supplication; so the supplication offered by the members of this Sodality in the recitation of the Rosary, or 'Psalter of Our Lady' ..." 22

Pope Leo XIII later said, "The formula of the Rosary, too, is excellently adapted to prayer in common, so that it has been styled, not without reason, the 'Psalter of Mary'." 23

Pope Pius XI wrote in his Encyclical Ingravescentibus Malis. "Among the various supplications with which we successfully appeal to the Virgin Mother of God, the Holy Rosary without doubt occupies a special and distinct place. This prayer, which some call the Psalter of the Virgin or Breviary of the Gospel and of Christian life, was described and recommended by Our Predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII ..." 24

Sadly, Pope John Paul II has made the term "Psalter of Mary" with its rightful connection to the Psalter of David, as obsolete as fund drives for Pagan Babies. Anyone who accepts the twenty-decade Rosary, and still refers to the Rosary as Mary's Psalter, will use the term divested of meaning. Why introduce this destabilization? Would not Pope John Paul show more respect to the pious sentiments of Catholics worldwide, to his predecessors and to the Mother of God by leaving Her Psalter at peace?

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[ultima ratio]

Peter also betrayed Christ three times. Implicit in Our Lord's words was the expectation that Peter would transmit the truths which had been given him, not that he would make up novelties and invent a new religion. This Pope has done just that and has been a disaster for the Church.

[ultima ratio]

You, like others, have focused on this minor business of the rosary. I keep responding to each of you, but none of you seem to get the message. The added mysteries are nothing but further symptoms of the modernist disease. It is not even that significant, compared to other changes. But it is still another push to scrap traditional Catholicism. So far in the revolution the Mass has been protestantized, our churches have had their tabernacles shunted aside, their communion rails ripped out, in some places even the kneelers have been removed. There is not a single sacrament that has not undergone major overhaul. Our sacred music has been scrapped. Our religious orders have collapsed, as have our missions around the world. Our seminaries have become playgrounds for sexually active gays. Our Catholic theologies have been scrapped, our Catholic devotions have been scrapped, our Catholic literature has been scrapped, our Catholic doctrines have been suppressed. Communion is taken in the hands and kneeling for communion has been eliminated. Cardinals and bishops are in open apostasy across the globe. Meanwhile the Pope venerates the Koran and pours libations to animist spirits in a Togo forest and elevates heretics to the cardinalate. He thus performs acts that can only be interpreted as idolatrous and irresponsible. THAT is what's going on. My reference to the rosary is merely to just another novelty. Pretty routine really, though it is prelude to still more drastic changes. In a few years nothing of the original rosary will be left. What is really happening is that the conciliar Church is imposing a new religion. To achieve their ends, the faithful are being acclimated to these gradual changes until finally nothing of the ancient faith--which had been virtually unchanged for two thousand years--remains or can even be remembered.

[Siobhan]

You are correct. The Catholic witness on FR has been completely sabotaged whether it was Stephen Hand and Company or the so-called 'ultratrads' -- who may well be SSPXers or even agents of the USCCB -- there is no way of knowing. But the end result has been a neutralizing and a disrupting of something that was wonderful when I first arrived, and I lament its passing. And I wish there were some way to put it right.

[Siobhan]

We should enjoy and delight in this wondrous faith in Jesus Christ, in our worship of Him, and in our devotions --as should all real Catholics.

[Siobhan]

ultima ratio,

In your posts you use the words of the Catholic faith, but every single one of your posts on this thread is written in darkness and drips with evil.

I believe you have been sent here by satan to disrupt and divide the Catholics who have worked hard to forge a common witness. I know that means nothing to you, but I serve you notice. I know who you are and who you serve. Perhaps you are not even aware how much you are in the devil's thrall. But your posts are a testimony to how deceived you are and how systematically you and your ilk are trying to deceive faithful and traditional Catholics. If there is any well meaning soul who is sucked in by you and your posts, I urge them to run as far as they can from you.

[patent]

>>>.And I wish there were some way to put it right.

Be not afraid. These things come and go, we've had these infestations before around here.

patent

[Siobhan]

Thank you, patent. I know you who have been here longer have seen things come and go. I pray this infestation will be brought to a swift end through the intervention and intercession of St. Michael the Archangel.

[patent]

>>>>I know you who have been here longer

Interesting thing to me is that my reg number is only about half way into the reg numbers. So many people who registered before me are still here, though many have left as well.

[Lady In Blue]

I agree with everything you said,Siobhan.I don't trust myself to answer these ultra traditionalist! It's an outrage to think they know more and are holier than the Pope John Paul 11. I LOVE the new Mysteries of Light.I say them everyday.When I first started saying them,I used the scripture right along with saying them.Are these people saying that the public life of Our Lord is not Catholic enough to be included in the Rosary?!

[Maximilian]

We should enjoy and delight in this wondrous faith in Jesus Christ, in our worship of Him, and in our devotions --as should all real Catholics.

Let's say we lived in a city -- let's call it "New Jerusalem." It's a beautiful city which has been built up over 2000 years. We love our city and are devoted to it to the point that we would sacrifice our lives for it.

But at this particular point of history, the city is besieged on all sides. It has suffered other sieges over the course of its long history, but this is perhaps the most dangerous situation yet. Enemies attack it relentlessly from without. Even worse, it is known that there are numerous traitors who are undermining it from within. The city has suffered devastating casualties with the loss of tens of thousands of officers and millions of citizens.

Do we serve our city by ignoring the problems? Is it true loyalty to pretend that nothing is wrong? Will we save our city from destruction by happy talk divorced from reality?

Let's say that the citizens of the city believe that God has promised that the city will never be entirely destroyed. Do we fail for that reason to combat the enemies, both external and internal. Do we have any less obligation to fight to the death? Or is God's promise perhaps contingent on OUR faithfulness?

The citizens of "New Jerusalem" may delight in their city, but they are called to be "militant," and they fail in their duty if they shirk the necessary tasks when times are at their bleakest.

[saradippity]

archbishop Weakland's resigned end of May 2002.

Ultima Ratio signed on as a Freeper end of July 2002.

Hmmm?Perhaps life was getting too dull after two months of being relatively ignored and without the power position to continue wreaking havoc in the Church?

[ultima ratio]

Oh, get off it. Nothing I have said can justify your venomous reaction.

I have said the Mass has been protestantized. That is the truth. It now is virtually indistinguishable from a Lutheran or Methodist worship service. Long passages are interchangeable with the Protestant Lord's Supper, even word-for-word.

I have said Catholic doctrines are suppressed. This is the truth. Both the Real Presence and Christ's Divinity, as well as the concept of sacrifice for the expiation for sins, are questioned by churchmen at the highest levels while Catholic youngsters have been uncatechized concerning them for a full generation. A Gallup poll published in US News and World Report ten years ago showed that two out of three Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence. Yet Rome has not been alarmed and does nothing about it.

I have said that the seminaries are corrupt and Rome has known all about it for decades. This is the truth. The Wanderer and The Remnant and Catholic Family News and Catholic World Report and The Latin Mass--just to mention a handful of well-circulated sources--have been publishing information about seminary corruption for years. Letters of petition from the laity have been sent to the Vatican by the thousands, complaining about clerical abuses as well, much of it stemming from corrupt seminaries--to no avail. The seminaries still are subsumed in the gay subculture. (Read Goodbye, Good Men!)

I have said this Pope has venerated the Koran, has prayed with animists and witchdoctors and voodoo priests as though their religions were equal to our own, has worshipped with Jews and mullahs in synogogues and mosques. This is the truth. It is all very well documented, however much you dislike to hear about the Pope's idolatrous actions.

I have said this Pope is reluctant to discipline high-placed apostates and has allowed corrupt prelates to remain in office despite their harmful effects on the faithful, many of whom have been instrumental in victimizing innocent Catholic children for decades. This is the truth. The scandals we suffer daily have been primarily Rome's responsibility to redress. Reforms should have been instituted years ago, but this Pope cannot bring himself to fire anybody, no matter how corrupt. It is usually only after the media gets wind of something juicy, like Archbishop Weakland's long-standing love affair with a priest, or Bishop Cawcutt's well-publicized gay porno activities, that Rome decides to act with a little vigor and demand a few resignations from unworthy spiritual shepherds. Too little too late.

For speaking out about these shocking facts, you curse me and call me evil and satanic. This is sheer slander and a sign of your intellectual poverty as well as your frustration. You cannot deal factually with what I say, so you hurl abuse and insults. But the problem is not me. The problem is with Rome and its modernist hierarchy. Instead of focusing your anger on me, get after them as I do.

[ultima ratio]

You have a mistaken notion about the rosary, about which much has been written by popes and theologians. The essence of the rosary is contemplative prayer, a much higher form of prayer than verbal recitation.|

[ultima ratio]

"You love the Church of pre-Vatican II." This is a telling comment by you. You are acknowledging the conciliar Church is something different. It is a new religion. I have been saying this all along. I DO love the pre-conciliar Church, miraculously preserved by a remnant of traditionalists, because it is Catholic and Apostolic. This new religion pushed by Rome is neither.

[ultima ratio]

As usual, you are in denial and miss the big picture. The rosary is a small part of the whole. What remains of the old Church? Hardly anything. If they could, they would tear down Chartres and put a Tajmahoney in its place. They are already redefining essential doctrines. And you will continue to applaud them because you identify the Pope with the very Catholicism he is attacking and dismantling for the sake of a wholly new doctrine: an exaggerated ecumenism never before preached or practiced in the Catholic Church.

[ultima ratio]

My solution is a restoration of Catholic tradition, its culture and its rituals, beginning with the old Mass. What we have now is a form of Protestantism.

[ultima ratio]

I love how you miss the point. It's not about three or four decades of the rosary. It's about change for the sake of change and a slow destruction of Catholic culture and devotions. There have been more changes to Catholicism in the past forty years than in the entire two thousand-year history of the Church. That in itself should warn you something is very wrong. Revolution by its very nature is hostile to Catholicism, especially when it touches on Catholic doctrines. We should revere the deposit of faith as is handed-down, not look to alter it to make it more accommodating or politically correct. Our faith is what has been transmitted through the ages, not what the Pope himself has decided to invent. Novelty has no part in it, and while this change to the rosary is a tiny part of a much bigger picture, it is nevertheless symptomatic of the same evil that is attacking tradition on all other fronts.

[Catholicguy]

If the Blessed Mother had thought that there was a "huge gaping hole" in her Rosary, you'd think she would have mentioned it to St Dominic or the children of Fatima or somebody

<> Is it outside the realm of possibility she inspired this Pope to make these changes? <>

[ultima ratio]

No, nobody destroyed anything. What we have introduced is a perspective people like you cannot effectively oppose. You can't oppose our arguments because they are sound and factually based. The fact is, traditionalists are not in the business of destroying anything. We want a restoration of the faith and a restoration of Catholic doctrines and a restoration of tabernacles at the center of sanctuaries and a restoration of a priesthood that is celibate and holy and a restoration of our children's innocence by means of a sound catechesis and a restoration of our ancient customs and rites and pious practices and a restoration finally of our truly Catholic identity. What we have got now is this modernist protestantized abomination--this is the REAL STENCH, the stench of four tragic decades of scandals and apostasies which have been the only authentic legacy of the liberal take-over of the Vatican.