Let’s return to an oldie-POLL for today’s beautiful feast.
The Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is prayed according to different methods in different parts of the world. For example, in Italy it will usually include a litany at the end. In Germany you will sometimes hear a line about the mystery being prayed interjected into the Hail Mary.
And… to my point… in the English speaking world you will not rarely hear after the Gloria following each decade the addition of a little prayer associated with Fatima:
“O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.”
However, not everyone adds this. I, for example, do not.
What I am curious about is… do you add the Fatima prayer when you say the Rosary? This may be in individual or public recitation.
It may be that you do it own way when alone or with one group, and another in other instances.
Just pick then which you prefer.
Please make a choice and add your comment to the combox, below.
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Have said the Fatima prayer after each decade since we converted (was already praying the Rosary as a High Church Piskie).
Have always said the “Bavarian Rosary” which I first learned of in Germany in the 60′s. Rather than announce the Mystery at the beginning of the decade, a short phrase is interpolated in the middle of each “Hail Mary” e.g. “. . . and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, whom thou, o Virgin, brought with thee to Elizabeth” or ” . . . who was crowned with thorns for us.”
Can get you off track if you tend to be distractible (like me) but does encourage meditation on the Mysteries rather than high-speed rote recitation.
My daily recitation is undergoing reconstruction. As I learn Latin (by myself online) to prepare for next year I slowly incorporate the Latin prayers I know into the Rosary. So I’m doing the Pater Noster, Ave Maria and Gloria Patri in Latin, then the Creed, Fatima prayer and Hail Holy Queen in English.
But yes, I enjoy the Fatima prayer. For a time I also said the prayer to St.Michael after the Gloria Patri for aborted babies, but for some reason I stopped.
I pray the rosary in Latin, including Fatima’s Prayer daily. I don’t know Latin, and I don’t have a Latin Mass nearby, but I practiced my prayers in Latin until I got them down pat. (With a Latin Rosary CD, I practiced 1 prayer 3X a day. It was easy!) My oldest son (14) knows the Latin rosary, and the other children are learning it. When I pray the rosary with my husband, we pray it in Spanish.
About “today’s beautiful feast”: Here in Sweden, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is tomorrow, because today is the Solemnity of Saint Birgitta of Vadstena (AKA Bridget of Wastein), our country’s patron saint and most illustrious daughter :D
I’d never heard of the Bavarian Rosary but it sounds quite interesting. I might have to try to look it up. Does anyone know of an English translation from the German that it is (presumably) in?
I vary between Latin and English when I pray. Latin always helps me to seperate what I am doing from my day to day life but sometimes I like the warmth of my native language. I try to say at least one decade in the alternative to what I am mainly using that day just to make sure I don’t forget it.
LF
LF – if you’re up for adding the mysteries in Latin, here they be.
Like Tom, I pray parts in Latin and parts in the vernacular and I add the Fatima prayer in each decade and the St. Michael prayer at the end too.
First thought of the day as I awoke was that this morning I will pray 15 decades with the principle intention of the resolution of the difficulties between SSPX and the broader Church.
I’ve been a permanent Deacon for 10 years and don’t come from a tradition of using the Fatima prayer. The first time I led October devotions my father-in-law was in the front bench and, as I started announcing the second mystery, he loudly recited the Fatima prayer over my announcement! I let him win.
I take the view that, when carrying out traditional devotions one should do what the congregation expects so I always add it now.
My theory is that cradle Catholics pray the Rosary they learned as kids. For me (growing up in the 1980s), that included the Fatima Prayer. It also gave no intention to the 3 “tail” Hail Mary’s, and an unaccompanied Salve Regina at the end.
I replace the Hail, Holy Queen at the end with the Prayer to Saint Michael, since he is my confirmation saint.
Phil
Haven’t we had this poll before?
I grew up reciting the Fatima prayer and continue to do so. Although, like several other commentators, it presents a bit of a problem when we say it in Latin: I can only say the Fatima prayer and the Creed all the way through in English.
I have always done the Fatima prayer, since I was a child. As a family we also added the Saint Micheal prayer after the Hail Holy Queen at the end, so I continue to do that.
In our family, we put our special intentions on the first ‘Our Father’ bead after the creed. We go around the family and speak them –it is a good way to know what is on our children’s hearts and for them to know ours. We always pray for the Holy Father and his intentions, the Bishop, priests and religious, increase vocations, end to abortion and contraception, etc, plus personal intentions.
I, too, have always said the Fatima Prayer since I was a child. It’s how I was taught to pray the Rosary and how I continue to pray it. It’s part of how my children are being taught to pray the Rosary.
I say the rosary in Latin- except for the Apostles’ Creed as I don’t know it yet. I do say the Fatima prayer. I cross myself during the Gloria. I say the corresponding Marian Antiphon- which right now is the Salve Regina, but during Eastertide I said the Regina Caeli etc. I also meditate for a period on the Mystery before starting the Pater Noster. When we’re saying the rosary with our children its in English but I give a mini-meditation on the Mystery and we only say the Hail Holy Queen at the end. After the rosary we say the “rosary prayer” (O God, whose only begotten Son…)
I generally use the Fatima Prayer in mind of all my family who have fallen away from the Church or from Christianity altogether.
I always add either the Fatima Prayer OR the Prayer of the Miraculous Medal. I say Pater Noster, Ave Maria and Gloria Patri in Latin (not only to manifest – firstly to myself – my sense of unity with the Universal Church, but also because of some problems with translations of these prayers to Lithuanian), the rest in my native tongue. Generally my uneducated opinion is that while Latin is the liturgical language of the Church, vernacular is perfectly fitting for the private devotions.
I went through 12 years of Catholic schooling and never said the Fatima prayer while praying the rosary. About 10 years later, I met my wife. I Can’t say the Rosary without it now.
I’m so skeptical of Fatima that I have long since abandoned that prayer. At any rate, when I do say a rosary, I utter what prayers I do utter in Latin…and I’m afraid I don’t know that prayer in Latin. ;^)
I pray it in the Dominican manner, with the Fatima prayer. I begins a little differently:
Make the Sign of the Cross
V: Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee.
R: Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
V: O Lord, open my lips.
R: And my mouth shall declare Your praise.
V: O God, come to my assistance.
R: O Lord, make haste to help me.
1st Mystery, etc.
I recite the Fatima prayer simply because Our Lady asked us to.
Since Fatima is an approved apparition of the Church, and Our Lady at Fatima specifically asked us to pray the Rosary for peace for the world and the conversion of sinners, and I wouldn’t think of praying the Rosary without it.
I think the Fatima prayer is my favorite part of praying the Rosary.
As well as the Fatima prayer I have been using a prayer at the beginning before the creed, which I picked up from EWTN – “Queen of the Holy Rosary, you deigned to come to Fatima to reveal to the 3 shepherd children the treasures of grace hidden in the rosary. Inspire our hearts with a love of this devotion that by meditating on the mysteries of our redemption contained it in, we may obtain peace for the world, the conversion of sinners and of Russia, (here I add “and for the poor souls in purgatory”) and the favors we ask of you in this Rosary” I then add my intentions. I thought I was the only one doing this but then today at church the leader did this prayer at our Rosary before Mass.
At the end I usually do either the Memorare or the “pour forth thy grace” prayer used in the Angelus, followed by the Pater, Ave, and Gloria Patri for the Holy Father. Occasionally my son and I do these in Latin as practice, but I find it does distract me from mediation, maybe that will change if I keep trying.
While in private, I don’t generally add the prayer, preferring to stick to the traditional rosary (which seems to have caused quite a commotion in other posts), though when praying the rosary during benediction I have no objection to adding the Fatima prayer or the Luminous Mysteries. I do think the Fatima prayer is quite beautiful but I suppose I’m a creature of habit and learned the rosary without it and without the Luminous Mysteries.
That should be “contained in it” in the opening prayer.
If I understand things correctly the Rosary is part of the official liturgy of The Church. Any changes to it has to be approved. I am certain that the Fatima prayer has been approved as an option. I dont think anything like the “Bavarian” Rosary is approved; although it seems very nice and in line with the thinking of St. Louis DeMontford, I stopped using the DeMontford method when I realised it wasn’t approved.
@Centristian: I cannot understand anyone being skeptical of Fatima.
I learned to pray the Rosary from people who always included the Fatima prayer and it is a habit now for me to pray it. Something feels off when I leave it out so I still pray it.
I think the best thing for me when trying to learn the prayers was keeping EWTN on in the livingroom and stopping work whenever a prayer came on and saying it along with the person on the TV. The repetitions really helped me to learn to pray the traditional prayers.
I really *like* the Fatima prayer. I pray it a lot, even when not saying the Rosary.
I always add the Fatima prayer after each decade, but I say a slightly different translation based on how Sr. Lucia wrote it in Portuguese: “Ó meu Jesus, perdoai-nos, livrai-nos do fogo do inferno; levai as almas todas para o Céu, principalmente as que mais precisarem”
Thus, I say “O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those [who are] most in need.”
This translation omits “our sins” after “forgive us” and also omits “of thy mercy” at the end of the prayer since these phrases are not included in the original Portuguese.
Centristian,
Didn’t know that any Catholic, traditional or otherwise, had the latitude to be skeptical of Fatima. I understand that private revelations aren’t part of the deposit, but I understood that particular private revelations given special or preponderant approval and attention by Holy Mother Church commanded our docility to their guidance.
I first learned from Fr. Romano Guardini in his little classic, The Rosary of Our Lady, tells about the use of “Jesus, who” prayers to contemplate the mysteries of the Rosary. In each Hail Mary, just after the name of Jesus, a clause is inserted referring to the mystery being contemplated. In his apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae Pope John Paul II again highlights this way–which has also been recommended by Popes Paul VI and Benedict XVI–to make the name of Jesus the “hinge” of the Hail Mary, and thus to concretely “contemplate the face of Jesus” when saying the Rosary:
For instance, for the first glorious mystery (the resurrection) you might insert “… Jesus, who arose from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the prophets as He’d promised He would. Holy Mary, . . . “. Aquiring a personal list of such rosary clauses can be a focus of scripture reading. Click here for a little booklet giving such clauses for each of the twenty mysteries of the Rosary.
Oh Father, add the Fatima prayer! It is so beautiful!
I also add the Collect, starting “Oh God, whose only begotten Son, …” and the prayer to St. Michael, and three pleas to the Sacred Heart and one to the Immaculate Heart.
Have a blessed day in our beautiful Mother!
I’ve used the Fatima Prayer at the end of each decade of the Rosary ever since I first learned of the apparitions in my teenage years (after 1967). I taught myself to pray it, since my mother was the only other member of my family to pray the Rosary, even though we all went to Mass faithfully on Sundays and holy days….go figure.
I use a slightly different version than the one Father G mentions: ‘O my Jesus, pardon us, save us from the fire of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need.’ I got this from my constant reading of William Thomas Walsh’s book, ‘Our Lady Of Fatima’. Dr. Walsh, in turn, got his translation directly from Sister Lucia. She didn’t like a version that was circulated which mentioned the ‘souls in purgatory, especially those most abandoned.’ She was very emphatic about it!
At the end of the Rosary when I pray it on my own, I add the ‘Hail Holy Queen’, three Hail Marys for the Holy Father (in imitation of Blessed Jacinta of Fatima) and the St. Michael prayer (I added this on in the 1970s after hearing a priest on the radio preach on St. Michael and the battle against evil in the world).
Lately I’ve also ‘tacked on’ two more Hail Marys: the first, for ‘all priests and seminarians, especially those priests and seminarians who are dear to my heart’, whom I mention by name (you’re included in the list, Father Z!), and the second for the repose of the soul of one of our TLM chapel coordinators who died this past August.
I always say the Fatima prayer~
“The heavens rejoice, and all the earth ought to stand amazed when I say ‘Hail Mary’. Satan and hell tremble when I repeat ‘Hail Mary’. Sorrow is banished, and a new joy fills my soul when I say ‘Hail Mary’. My languid affection is strengthened in God and my soul is refreshed when I repeat ‘Hail Mary’. So great is the sweetness of this blessed salutation that it is not to be expressed in words, but remains deeper in the heart than can be fathomed. -St. Thomas a Kempis
I always say the Fatima prayer when I pray the rosary. I think it is particularly beautiful and powerful. I have a German last name that means “rosary”, so I feel somewhat obliged to live up to it.
Also, I too am interested in this “Bavarian Rosary”. An initial Google search didn’t really turn anything up, so if anyone can provide more information, I’d appreciate it. I’d like a way to concentrate on the mysteries more.
I grew up saying the Fatima prayer after each decade in our daily rosary, so I still include it.
For awhile when I was young, my mother took us through the Scriptural Rosary, which is sorta the same idea as the Bavarian Rosary. Between each Hail Mary is a meditation on that particular Mystery. It is very helpful to children and those learning to meditate on the Mysteries. Eventually we took the ‘training wheels’ off and stopped after we got the hang of it – my meditations are much richer because of those early exercises. Just a few months ago I pulled out that old book and perused the book as I said my Rosary for a refresher.
[never heard of the Bavarian Rosary before, thank you, AnAmericanMother - and to Henry Edwards for Fr. Romano's meditations]
Like Random Friar, I also pray the Rosary the Dominican way, and with the Fatima Prayer. Also, per the practice of my chapter, I pray the St. Michael prayer at the end.
I hope Fr. Augustine Thompson weighs in here, and that he will remind us of the traditional Dominican version of the Glorious Mysteries, the last of which I have forgotten.
Tina,
As I learned it, it was pretty much as Henry describes. I don’t think it was necessarily confined to Bavaria or even originating there — or it may have arisen in various places independently. That’s just what I heard in Rosenheim in 1968!
I pray it as I learned it, like most here. I’ve been praying it daily since 2007 (I do occasionally miss a day). I’ve always said the Fatima Prayer. For a long time, I did not pray the Luminous Mysteries. After reading some meditations on them, I added them back about a month ago. My last parish (I’ve moved around a bit) prayed the Rosary before daily Mass and added the St. Michael Prayer, the Memorare, and prayers for the Holy Father after the Hail Holy Queen. I got in the practice of doing that in my private daily recitation.
FrAWeidner:
“Centristian,
Didn’t know that any Catholic, traditional or otherwise, had the latitude to be skeptical of Fatima. I understand that private revelations aren’t part of the deposit, but I understood that particular private revelations given special or preponderant approval and attention by Holy Mother Church commanded our docility to their guidance.”
Why would any Catholic have to show docility to the guidance of the messages of an apparition that he isn’t required to believe in? Even if it did all happen as it is alleged to have–and the alleged details differ, depending on who’s talking or writing (or at what age one is talking or writing)–it all happened in 1917. If there was a warning message, it was a message for an era that has long since passed. In other words, whatever Fatima may have been all about–Communism, Russia, Vatican II…again, it depends on who you’re talking to–it’s all over now. Fatima, true or false, is not timeless and eternal. It is by now severely dated.
The fifth option: as a Catholic, the rosary wasn’t my spiritual meditation practice (but in addtion to the office and reciting the Canticum Fratris Solis, I used to pray the via crucis daily) and as a non-Catholic now, I don’t pray the rosary. But I do think that the discipline of a meditation on what is spiritually beneficial to a truly healthy human life is a something Catholicism has to offer to the world.
It occurs to me that in responding to FrAWeidner’s question to me that I have opened something of a rabbit hole, and I know how Fr. Z dislikes that. I would like to rescind my remarks, therefore, as they go beyond what Fr. Z has asked us to comment on. I also apologize if my answer offended the sensibilities of believers in the Fatima events.
My family and I always say the Fatima prayer at the end of each decade. Also, at the rosary recitation before our traditional Mass each Sunday, myself and others who lead also say this prayer at the end of each decade.
When I pray the rosary alone, I love to use the little book “The Spiritual Rosary” and recite each intention for each Hail! Mary. Helps keep my mind focused since my mind tends to wander.
I add the Fatima prayers.
A local Carmelite monastery also adds a short prayer to Mary after the Fatima prayer in each decade. I often hear the Saint Michael prayer added at the end of the Rosary. Other places customarily add a litany at the end.
I always add the Fatima prayer because that’s what I grew up with; the parish I grew up in says the Rosary before every Mass and adds the St. Michael Prayer and this prayer from Fatima:
“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You! Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the sacrileges, outrages and indifference by which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of you the conversion of poor sinners.”
I add the Fatima prayer always + Jesus Protect and save the unborn + sung “Ave, Ave, Ave Maria, Ave, Ave Ave Maria”
Please remember me in your rosaries today. I am making a Consecration to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary (St. Louis DeMontfort) and despite the 33 day preparation I am so unready except with God’s help.
I have included the Fatima pray about 10 yrs ago. Its routine in all parishes around here and it is now by habit.
I have had discussions with many that say they cant “do” the rosary because its too complicated with too many things to remember. I suggest to them, to start with the basic prayers and not worry about the rest unless they feel compelled to do so. If they say that is too hard, I suggest just saying the words Our Father and Hail Mary on the appropriate beads.
Why not add the Fatima prayer? Didn’t our Lady of Fatima ask that it be recited in between each decade? It is sad to see that our Lady’s message is not followed. In 1957, Sister Lucia said that our Lady is sad because almost all, the good as well as the bad, do not follow her message. This is a message that was confirmed by a major miracle predicted by the children seers three months in advance to the day and which was acknowledged by the same anti-Catholic newspapers which had previously scoffed at the prediction. Pope Benedict said in his 2010 visit to Portugal the message of fatima will not be totally fulfilled until the future.
@ Gregg the Obscure
Thank you – That will be very useful. I am still learning some of the Latin (the Credo and Salve Regina mostly).
Also: I think that at least one other person, in addition to myself, was also interested in the Bavarian style of saying the mysteries (interjection within the Ave Maria itself). Anyone out there able to point us towards a listing in English (or even in the German or Latin) of that style?
LF
I add the Fatima prayer. I like the Luminous mysteries too.
I have been making a strong effort to pray the rosary as a family. I recently introduced the short version of the Prayer to St Michael after the Hail Holy Queen. Two teen age boys and we really really need St Michael’s protection.
I have tried to pray the rosary in Latin. But, I find myself concentrating more on the Latin (doesn’t fit too well in my old mouth) than the devotional aspect. Any suggestions for me on that problem?
Oh, for the curious: As a Dominican friar, I do wear the rosary at my left side, large, 15-decade. I have to use a smaller hand rosary, unfortunately, due to various encounters between my large rosary and choir stalls, car doors and the like. Those encounters never fared well for the individual beads.
I don’t think I’m the exception here in the Dominican order. I think you’ll find that most friars are a few beads short of a full rosary! ;)
I rarely pray the rosary. I’ve tried to get into the habit, but it’s so repetitive for me that I start getting the lines of the prayers mixed up and my mind wanders off into the most random thoughts, and it seems kinda pointless for me to keep going. I’ve only recently done it once and I sat down and forced myself through it. It took me a long time because I had to keep starting over whenever I’d mess up a prayer. I only did it because the priest made me do it for my penance (and what a penance it was). And yes, I added the Fatima prayer after each decade because that’s how I learned it growing up.
I include the Fatima prayer as our Lady and Mother requested.
She told us at Cana to do whatever He tells us. He, being the perfect son, surely tells us to similarly oblige her, who can be trusted above all. Even the Holy Trinity, with the angels, waited a breathless moment for her assent…and found her trustworthiness to be immaculate, as hoped for.
Rosary every day…with the Fatima prayer at the end of each decade. I do very much need to work on being less distracted when I pray the Rosary…
I do pray the Fatima prayer after the Glory Be. At the end of the Rosary I pray the “O God, whose only begotten Son” prayer, then the Hail, Holy Queen, Then the Memorare.
Okay, as I have been asked. The original last two Glorious Mysteries were the Second Coming of Jesus and the Last Judgment. As Our Lady always points to Jesus, I suspect she would prefer these to the current purely Marian ones. The current two were substituted for the original ones by the Franciscan Pope Clement XIV. He did do some good for the Church, however, he suppressed the Jesuits. (Yes, that last comment of mine was jocular and not serious)
“Didn’t know that any Catholic, traditional or otherwise, had the latitude to be skeptical of Fatima.” All Church approbation of a private revelation (of which Fatima is an example) means is the the revelation is free of doctrinal and moral error and so can be accepted without fear of falling into error. No Catholic is obliged to accept any private revelation, even if it is approved.
I have no personal problem with Fatima, but I never add the Fatima prayer. It is not part of the Dominican tradition. Nevertheless, if someone, Dominican or not, wants to add this prayer, I am not going to criticize them. In private prayer one can add any prayers to any devotion one wishes. So long, of course, as the prayer is orthodox.
I always add it, and I have it as a part of the Rosary prayer group I lead at our local juvenile jail.
Licensed: ”Anyone out there able to point us towards a listing in English (or even in the German or Latin) of that style?”
Included in my comment at 9:55 am above is a link to a 4-page booklet—roughly, one page each for each set of mysteries–containing typical clauses for inclusion in the Hail Marys for each of the 20 mysteries of the Rosary, with brief illustration of how they are used. It was compiled several years ago from various sources, not least including the Bible, and is intended just for a start. For the kind of contemplation that Pope John Paul II describes, a person should ideally insert his own. I ordinarily use several different ones within each decade, trying to fit them together into a meditation of that decade’s mystery. For instance, for the second luminous mystery:
. . . Jesus, our master and teacher, of whom you his mother said, Do whatever he tells you, Holy Mary, . . .
. . . Jesus, who at thy own behest turned jars of water into wine for the marriage guests at Cana, Holy Mary, . . .
. . . Jesus, mighty wonder worker, whose signs and miracles were intended to inspire belief in the Gospel, Holy Mary, . . .
But the point is that, once you into it, you get the most benefit if you “make them up” yourself.
When I learned the rosary as a convert, I was taught to include the Fatima Prayer, and I still do. It would seem strange to me to leave it out.
@Centristian – “If there was a warning message, it was a message for an era that has long since passed.”
Why do you say this? It seems to me the warnings from Fatima apply just as much, if not more, today than they did in 1917.
I don’t use the Fatima prayer. At the beginning of the Rosary, after the Our Father , I say the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity. It seems more appropriate than three Hail Marys for an increase of Faith, Hope, and Charity.
No Fatima prayers, but our family adds the Litany of Loreto at the end.
I don’t say the Fatima Prayer, but I do say the Rosary a little differently.
At the beginning, in place of three Hail Marys for an increase in Faith, Hope, and Charity, I say the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Seems more appropriate to me.
I myself, and we here when together, will pray the Fatima prayer after the Glory Be and before announcing the next mystery. Several of us gathered at a small Marian grotto just this afternoon and prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries to mark this day of Our Lady of the Rosary (or Our Lady of Victory as we were reminded this morning).
I could not vote in the poll, as someone from this network has already voted it would seem…
I have a very difficult time saying the Rosary if I just stick to the basic prayers. My mind wanders tremendously. I can find myself going through an entire decade thinking of something else rather than the prayers that I have been saying, but not hearing. So what I have been doing is applying a unique meditation to each Hail Mary. That keeps me thinking abut what I am doing rather than day-dreaming. And I haven’t memorized them, so I have to “make them up” maybe a little differently for each Rosary.
One decade is a bit rote. For example, the fifth decade of the Sorrowful Mysteries is Jesus dying on the cross. The first two Hail Mary’s are dedicated to the forgiveness of sins, the third Hail Mary is “Jesus is nailed to the Cross.” And then the last seven are the “Seven Last Words of Christ.”
It takes longer, but I find it more effective for me.
I add the Fatima prayer and also add the mystery into the Hail Mary German-style.
APX,
I used to worry about my mind wandering and losing count, then a priest said to me “Our Blessed Mother is not a bureaucrat!”
Now I don’t worry if I have prayed 9 or 11 “Hail Mary”s, or if I was concentrating hard enough . . . I just drag myself back on track and keep praying, trusting that Mary and her Son will count it unto me for righteousness.
@Henry Edwards
Please accept my apologies. Somehow I had completely missed your earlier post.
That is exactly what I wanted. I know it may sound stupid but I had always seperated the ‘set prayer’ from my own ‘personal (that is to say intuative or improvised) prayer’ and had never really considered expanding upon or deviating from them. I’m looking forward to trying this as I think it may help me in the meditations for each decade – something with which I have, on occasion, found difficult or stilted over the years.
Many thanks,
LF
As far back as I can remember, any public recitation of the Rosary in this area has included the Fatima Prayer. Likewise, in private recitation of the Rosary, I always use the Fatima Prayer. It seems (for me) almost neglectful to omit such a beautiful plea for mercy for ourselves and others that the Blessed Mother herself has given us. I try to dedicate each Rosary for a specific overall intention, and then I pray for the intention of an increase of faith, hope and charity on the three introductory Aves. At the beginning of each decade I also ask for an increase in a virtue (patience, obedience, humility . . .). I end with the Salve Regina, the Rosary Prayer, the “To Thee O Blessed Joseph” (because I have a particular devotion to him as well as the Blessed Mother and this prayer fits well with the Rosary), the Saint Michael Prayer and a litany of the Blessed Mother and saints whose intercession I beg because they have a deep connection to my life (e.g. patron saint, confirmation saint, patron of my profession, etc.). The Rosary, even with the additions, still takes no longer than 15 minutes. Now if I could only develop the constancy to pray it every day . . .
I learned to pray the Rosary some time after becoming Catholic, and I don’t pray it as often as I could, but I find great solace in it. I say the Fatima prayers because that is how I learned to say the Rosary. Now it seems incomplete without them.
I pray the Fatima prayer after each Gloria Patri. I also pray the “O God, whose only begotten Son …” at the end of the Rosary after the Hail, Holy Queen/Salve Regina. That prayer was one of the proper prayers at Mass (E.F.) last Sunday – the External Solemnity of the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.
Today is also First Friday.
I say it as I learnt it…:D That is, after each decade the Gloria Patri, O Bone Jesu, then two other prayers: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you, please save souls; and; God, Our Father, please send us holy priests, all for the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, all for the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, in union with St. Joseph.
Thank you, Fr. Augustine!
P.S. Wasn’t Clement XIV also the one who, before he became Pope, cleared the Jews of the Blood Libel?
(sorry for prematurely hitting the post button)
… taught in our “Gotteslob” common prayer book.
I always include the Fatima prayer in My daily rosary, as is also very common in Germany.
I pray the Rule of the Theotokos, which is described here:
http://therosemarytree.blogspot.com/2009/01/rule-of-theotokos-byzantine-rosary.html
After the “Glory” the following prayer is said:
“Open unto us the gate of compassion, O blessed Theotokos; hoping in thee, we shall not fail; through thee may we be delivered from adversities; for thou art the salvation of the Christian People.”
One thing that has always bothered me slightly regarding the public recitation of the rosary is the fact that most people end the Our Father without an “Amen.” People simple move on to the “Hail Mary” which, of course, they conclude properly with the “Amen.” Some may regard this as a trivial thing, and perhaps in the large scheme of things, it is….
I use the Fatima Prayer when praying the rosary. My daughter also adds the prayers that are included in the “International Rosary” shown on EWTN, because she used to watch this a lot when she was younger (back when we still had cable TV and EWTN was still a “basic” channel).
She does the prayer at the beginning, which JonPatrick referred to, but she also adds a prayer at the end which I think goes like this (she recites it from memory and, because of her autism, repeats it with exactly the same tone of voice and inflection as the little girl in the video does):
“Merciful Father, we are together on earth and alone in the universe. Look on us and help us to love one another. Make our hearts as fresh as the morning and our souls as innocent as the lamb. May we forgive each other, and forget the past, and may we have peace inside, and in our world, today and forever. Amen.”
She also changes the first three Hail Marys from “pray for us sinners” to “pray for me, a sinner” just like in the video.
Re: leaving out the Amens — in a lot of Western prayer traditions, you’re supposed to say Amen at the end of prayers when prayed alone, but not say Amen if the prayer is part of a greater prayer. So techhhhhnically, you’re only supposed to say Amen when you’re done with the whole Rosary, or at least a decade. I can never remember it, so I say Amen at the end of every prayer. But it scandalizes some people, who see it as a sign that one is not paying attention to the fact that one is praying a whole Rosary instead of just repeated individual prayers. (And so on….)
It’s a technical point, a minor point of etiquette that some people apply and some don’t, depending on who taught them what. Like singing the Rosary Our Fathers in the Liturgy of the Hours style instead of a Mass style. Some people go with this kind of etiquette more than others, that’s all.
So yeah… if people leave out the Amen, it’s on-purpose and correct and they don’t mean to scandalize you. And if they leave it in, it’s perfectly okay also, and they don’t mean to scandalize you.
I wasn’t brought up to say the Fatima prayer, so usually don’t include it when saying the Rosary privately. When we say it in our Franciscan fraternity, the leaders always include it, so I follow right along.
Another form that we use frequently is the Rosary of the Seven Joys of Mary, or the Franciscan Crown Rosary. It is largely the same as the “classic” Rosary, except it has seven decades, each with a meditation on one of Our Lady’s joys. (Anything to be different from the Dominicans!) We say the Fatima prayer there too.
I was asked fora Latin version of the Fatima prayer for use in our parish rosary, which is prayed in Latin, and I couldn’t find one, so I translated it myself. Please feel free to correct my grammar. I’m also curious to see how others would translate it.
O mi Jesu, indulge peccata nostra, conserve nos ab igne inferni; duc omnes ad caeli gloriam, praecipue tua misericordia egentes. Amen.
I always say it. Our Lady wanted it. why deprive others of the opportunity for” souls to be led to heaven especially those in most need of her mercy.”
Bea
When my faith was re-awakened after John Paul the Great’s death, it was partially due to the rosary. While I remembered praying it as a child during Lent with my family, I wasn’t really familiar with it as an adult. When I started attending Mass on my day off of work I discovered that they would say the rosary before Mass. So I really learned how to pray it then. They (and now I, too) add the Fatima prayer, and also ‘Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful Intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse’. We end the Rosary with Hail Holy Queen, The Memorare, the St. Michael prayer, and a short litany that ends with the Saint of our parish.
I never say it – I simply was not taught that way as a child. Born and raised in the US, it so happened that I had Spanish nuns in grade school. They never said it. It was a bit disconcerting when I first ran into it. People were praying a rosary aloud in church, and suddenly they launched into a prayer that was unfamiliar to me.
I learned the Fatima prayer upon joining the Rosary Society and from EWTN’s presentation, which I began to join to moderate my time. I had no idea that this prayer was from Fatima. I liked it right off because it so includes other people in need of mercy, too. Sometimes, not lately (so tired?/lazy?), I think of (using calendar/notes) intentions for others on my mind with each call to Mary or with each decade. I do believe that devotion to Mary helps our prayer to reach its destination.
PS to Bea:
(Being picky, but its about her Son’s mercy.)
When I was a kid in Catholic school, we prayed the rosary at school, and I don’t think they used the Fatima prayer (the school was run by Dominicans). I didn’t start praying the rosary on my own on a regular basis until I was in my 30′s, and people very dear to me started dying. I decided that I would start praying a rosary every day for the poor souls in Purgatory, but it had been so long since I’d prayed it, that I needed to use a booklet at first to remember how it all went. The one I used happened to have the Fatima prayer in it, so I included it.
O mi Iesu, dimitte nobis peccata nostra, salva nos ab igne inferiori, conduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim ilas quae maxime indigent misericordia tua.
Is the version of the Fatima Prayer I use. I’ve seen many many many other versions.
I am a “came back home” Catholic. One day while driving to work, it suddenly occurred to me that everyone who ever prayed the Fatima prayer at the end of the Rosary had prayed for me.
Thank you!
Cathy
PS, yes, I pray the Fatima prayer at the end of each decade!
I add the Fatima Prayer after every “Gloria”, though I am not sure that the adding it to the first three Hail Marys is required. Can’t be bad, methinks.
The version I have memorised is as follows:
“Domine Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, salva nos ab igne inferiori, perduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim eas, quae misericordiae tuae maxime indigent.”
Mundabor
I add the Memorare.
In private recitation, after each Gloria, I say the following ejaculations:
– Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven especially those in most need of thy mercy.
– Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary your well beloved spouse.
– Oh Sacrament Most Holy, Oh Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
I also find these useful to say throughout the day when I’m not praying the rosary, especially in times of doubt or stress at work.
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““Hail Mary” e.g. “. . . and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, whom thou, o Virgin, brought with thee to Elizabeth” or ” . . . who was crowned with thorns for us.”´
AnAmericanMother,
That’s the way I pray, I didn’t realise it was Bavarian : ) , I just found it on the Internet when I converted! It took me ages to understand that most people don’t do this, and THAT’S why they can pray a whole Rosary in no time flat!
It’s a beautiful prayer that only takes a few seconds, and I am also praying for “all souls”, not just myself.
Note: in my entire life (long) I have never heard a public rosary, in church, at convents, at retreats, at schools, in families, anywhere, that did not include this “Fatima Prayer” at the end of each decade. It never occurred to me until this post that anyone would say the Rosary without it.
SimpleCatholic –
Here is the version of the Fatima prayer that I learned:
O Bone Jesu, libera nos a peccatis nostris; libera nos ab ignibus gehennae; perduc in paradisum omnes animas praesertim eas quae plus misericordia tua indigent.
However, there are many versions of it in Latin that I have come across. I don’t think there is one definitive text, because to my knowledge it was translated from a Portuguese prayer.