The Rosary

Mary Giving the Rosary to St. Dominic
Mary Giving the Rosary to St. Dominic

Mary’s Rosary has been called a compendium of the entire Gospel. Each of the Mysteries of the Rosary have an essential message of faith. To preach the Rosary is to preach the life of Christ, the unity of His Church, and the salvation of souls.

Preaching the Rosary and understanding its true potential is not just an option for Dominicans: it is an essential charism of every Dominican. Former Master of the Dominican Order, the Very Rev. Damian Byrne, O.P., issued a letter on the Rosary in which he quoted Pope Pius XI who said that the Rosary is “the principle and  foundation on which the Order of St. Dominic rests for perfecting the lives of its members and  obtaining the salvation of others.”

For centuries, popes have considered the Dominicans as the official teachers of the Rosary. In his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, Pope Paul VI encouraged Dominicans to effect “the restoration, in a dynamic and more informed manner, of the recitation of the Rosary.” In 1994 Pope John Paul II, also a lover of Marian devotion, said to the Dominicans at the Angelicum that one of their special callings is “to delve into the mysteries of Christ through prayer, particularly with the Rosary.”

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