According to this, the Rosary has undergone more than a few changes over these many years. What do you make of this?
73 posted on 11/11/2002 7:48 AM PST by sandyeggo
I thought you were just chiding that if the BVM had wanted to complain that there was a "huge gaping hole" in her rosary, she ought to have spoken to Dominic the Prussian, not Saint Dominic de Guzman.
But if you meant that the rosary changed over time, please note that the changes stopped with Pope St. Pius V in the 16th century; so I would characterize it not as evolutionary change but as the change of growth and coming to maturity.
The rosary is not ... even an important part of Catholicism.
18 posted on 11/10/2002 10:04 AM PST by LadyDoc
I believe that it is important, albeit not essential. Worldwide the “picture” of a Catholic is somebody holding a rosary. Mystics have said that as a prayer pleasing to God, it is second only to the Holy Mass.
Seems like John Vennari wants to be more Catholic than the Pope.
21 posted on 11/10/2002 10:37 AM PST by Dusty Rose
My oldest son, 10 yrs., thinks these mysteries help him recall the entire Gospel and salvation story, and has stated he always thought something was missing to the Rosary till now.
27 posted on 11/10/2002 11:56 AM PST by Polycarp
I would rather try to engage in a dialogue with the living Pontiff and try to convince him of my point of view, than nurture the conceit that Pope Saint Pius V, innumerable saints, innumerable ordinary Catholics, and the children of Fatima had been praying a rosary that was “missing something.”
We need to stop treating devotions ... like they were written on the stone tablets brought down by Moses. Devotions have changed over the years, and will continue to do so.
31 posted on 11/10/2002 12:58 PM PST by SuziQ
Well, you know, the Fifteen Mysteries actually are etched in stone on the walls of many a church and cathedral, as well as depicted in many, many stain glass windows and paintings. I think it a shame that all of these holy objects have been rendered obsolete, as if the new fashion line for next spring had just come in from Paris (and you wouldn’t want to be caught wearing last year’s style). Mary’s Psalter should not be treated like that.
He commended to the Church the Luminous Mysteries as a suggestion not a command.
34 posted on 11/10/2002 2:40 PM PST by Siobhan
I LOVE the new Mysteries of Light.I say them everyday.
50 posted on 11/10/2002 8:47 PM PST by Lady In Blue
This is why I use the word obsolescence. The pope suggests five “new” mysteries, and suddenly someone stops even saying the “dusty, old” fifteen mysteries any more.
A “suggestion” from the pope is more than a “suggestion” from your next-door neighbor. In fact, there have been many proposals over the years to alter or add to the mysteries of the rosary, and many good Catholics have been saying their own versions of mysteries as private devotions. This is fine.
But a “suggestion to add” five mysteries from Pope John Paul II is, de facto a “fait accompli addition” of those five mysteries. I may be free to say them or not, but "The Rosary" is no longer fifteen mysteries long, it is now twenty mysteries long, and all of the wealth of devotional art and literature containing only the fifteen is henceforth obsolete and unusable.
Hand in hand with obsolescence is planned obsolescence. We see it not only in the design of toasters, but since 1969 we have been seeing it in the way the Novus Ordo changes from year to year to year.
When one innovation has been made, expect another one soon, and then another one after that.
After all, why isn’t there a mystery for the Sermon on the Mount? The Cleansing of the Temple? The Woman at the Well? The Raising of Lazarus?
Well, I expect that there will be soon.
Why decades? We could fit in 25 mysteries for 200 beads if we said only 8 Hail Marys in between. (A great planned obsolescence scheme for some rosary manufacturer.)
As I said above, IMHO the Luminous Mysteries ought to have been “suggested” as a new chaplet.
Since "static" seems to be that quality you most value, you ought to IMMEDIATELY move to suppress the writings of ... John Newman--remember that fellow, who thought "development" was a natural thing...
92 posted on 11/11/2002 9:20 AM PST by ninenot
Actually, the proper model here is not Newman but Yves Congar, who taught that the Catholic Church has no capital-T Tradition, but only many small-t traditions, all of which evolve over time. Cardinal Avery Dulles has said that the Second Vatican Council was the vindication of Yves Congar.
I think the demonstration that even with "decrees" such as Rosarium Virginis Mariae (which was more of a suggestion than anything else), that "old ways" still find a way to continue shows that even though we have a one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, God has given us free will (checked by dogma) to worship and praise Him in our favorite ways.
118 posted on 11/11/2002 12:29 PM PST by Pyro7480
Our religion unites man, who lives in a Hereclitian world of flux, with the immutable, unchanging God, Who has no beginning or end: I Am Who Am (Ex.3:14). It is appropriate for there to be some mimesis between the unchanging object of our contemplation, and the method of our contemplation. Granted, it will be imperfect; our world is a world of historical change. But must we live in a Congarian sect where change is the only constant?