The Living Rosary

“Fifteen coals, only one is lit, three or four are half lit, the others are not. Bring them together and it’s a furnace. How beautiful is this charity which makes, from a multitude of people of all ages and conditions, a single family with Mary as its Mother.” – Pauline Jaricot

After creating a mission organization called the Propagation of the Faith, Pauline Jaricot understood that without prayer, the Church and the missions could not thrive. In 1826, she created the Living Rosary, in which the recitation of all the Mysteries of the Rosary is divided among 20 people. Each person commits to reciting one decade daily while meditating on one of the mysteries of the life of Jesus. In this way, the full Rosary is recited daily by the group.

Since this past June, local members of the Emmanuel Community have been praying a Living Rosary for our parishes, school and Community. This was a pilot program in preparation for opening up this prayer opportunity to everyone.

The Living Rosary is a beautiful and simple way for both children and adults to be united in prayer and in the mission. Pierre Goursat (the founder of the Emmanuel Community) was convinced that any time an initiative of the Community bore fruit, it was due in large part to those praying behind the scenes and offering up their suffering.

Please join us in this mission for a three-month period! We’ll begin this October 7th (the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, originally Our Lady of Victory) and change mysteries roughly every three months: on January 1st (the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God), March 25th (the Annunciation), and June 29th (the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul). Here is our common intention for our Living Rosary: that our parishes and school may thrive and bear great fruit.

The nice thing about praying one decade daily is that, if you’re not in the habit of praying the Rosary, it’s an easy way to get into it. One decade only takes a few minutes to pray well. If you already pray the Rosary, it doesn't necessarily add to your commitment, but joins you to the mission. Focusing on the same mystery each day can open up deeper insights into a particular event or aspect of Jesus’ ministry, or of other biblical characters associated with a particular mystery. In addition, I find it easier to remain committed to a particular discipline when I’m not alone in it: the momentum and well-being of the group encourage me to remain faithful to my own portion.

To sign up, please email livingrosary4@gmail.com.

We’ll ask the Holy Spirit for guidance in distributing the 20 mysteries evenly and let you know which one you’ve been assigned for the first three months. Then we’ll switch things up in the new year. Feel free to email the above address with questions, insights received, or fruit borne through this initiative.

I will conclude with a portion of Saint John Paul II’s introduction to his 2002 encyclical on the Rosary (Rosarium Virginis Mariae):

“The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium. It is an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redemptive Incarnation which began in her virginal womb. With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.”

In Jesus,

Father Kevin