I am curious about how you readers recite the Rosary. There are regional and cultural variations.
Context: I found my old audio files of my recitation of the Rosary in Latin that I used on my old Ustream feed (back when I had one – remember that?). I am considering working up a new version.
Some people like to add the “Fatima Prayer” after each mystery.
Some people like to a short phrase about each mystery during each “Hail Mary”. Such as
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus… He Who was crowned with thorns for us. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and in the hour of our death. Amen.
Some people add the Litany of Loreto at the end.
Let’s have some polls. Please respond in all three, if you can.
Father Z.,
I add the Fatima Prayer after the Glory Be, before the mystery. In a group I like to use the Scriptural Rosary… http://www.kofc12833.org/files/4014/1373/7382/scriptural_rosary.pdf
A very refreshing post!
fxr2
Father,
You didn’t ask, but at our parish family rosary where we have taken up teaching our children to fervently pray the rosary (weekly on Monday nights) we add a prayer to St Michael the Archangel after the Salve Regina, plus a short litany of the saints of the day, St John Vianney (for Vocations) and the last of which are always, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Mercy, and (after the shortest pause for emphasis) Our Lady of Victory (which is our parish).
Ed
Have to qualify my answer to the last question. I add the Litany of Loreto at the end of the Rosary I say on Sunday before Mass, for the United States. I also add the Litany of St. Joseph for the Universal Church. And, if I have time, I add the Litany of the Holy Name, so as to get in the whole Holy Family.
I had to look up what the Litany of Loreto is. I will be add it to my daily rosaries (one is my usual one, and the other, specially for the Synod)
Why does custom suggest praying the Apostles Creed instead of the Nicene Creed when reciting the Rosary?
I add the Antiphons/Hymns for the rosary as given in the 1957 Cantus Selecti. There are antiphons before each set of mysteries, antiphons for each mystery, and hymns after each set of mysteries.
After each decade I add the Fatima prayer as well as “Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the most powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved Spouse.” I believe this is something only I do. I figured we have the Our Father directed to the Father, the Fatima prayer directed to Our Lord, so I wanted to add something directed to the Third Divine Person.
I am an Eastern Catholic, and the Rosary is not an Eastern devotion. That said, I recite the Rosary every day (Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries), with some modifications. I start out with the Trisagion Prayers instead of the Apostles Creed. At the beginning of each mystery, after the Our Father, I recite the troparion of the feast if the mystery corresponds with a feast. Then I recite a scripture verse before each Hail Mary (I have pretty much committed the verses to memory. I recite the Fatima prayer at the end of each decade. Done this way, the Rosary takes me about an hour.
Here is an example of a troparion (for the Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan): “When you were baptized in the Jordan, O Lord, the worship of the Trinity was revealed. For the Father bore witness to You, and called You his beloved Son. And the Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirmed the truth of His Word. O Christ our God You have revealed Yourself, You have enlightened the world, Glory to You.”
PS: I meant to say that I recite one set of mysteries each day, not all of the mysteries.
We always say the St. Michael prayer after the final response prayer (“O God, Whose only begotten Son…”).
There’s hardly anyone in Germany who prays the rosary at all who wouldn’t add the mysteries during the Hail Marys. For us, that’s sort-of the point of a rosary.
As for the end, I do not add the Litany of Loreto because I do not know it by heart, and most of the time I have no prayerbook immediately at hand. I follow the suggestion of the Catechism Compendium and end with
“Pray for us, holy Godbeareress, that we become worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray. – God, whose one-begotten Son purchased eternal rewards through His Life, death and resurrection, grant, we beseech Thee, that recollecting these sacred mysteries in the Rosary of the blessed Virgin Mary, we might imitate what they comprise, and attain what they promise. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Praised by Jesus Christ: now and forever, Amen.”
A few years ago I began saying the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity at the beginning of the Rosary (rather than the three Hail Marys).
I say the Fatima Prayer in Portuguese. I only speak it a little bit of Portuguese and I thought using the words given to the children in their native language would be beneficial to me personally.
There are several versions of the Fatima Prayer in Latin. I wonder which is the most faithful to the Portuguese words? (I do a Latin Rosary with a group and sometimes on my own.)
Also, I say the Salve Regina and St. Michael prayers (but not “God Whose only begotten Son” because I haven’t memorized it) at the end of the final rosary for the day.
I do the Fatima Prayer, but nothing else,
One parish I know does the St Michael prayer
Another does the Memorare, a prayer for the holy souls that I don’t know, and a prayer that starts “O Sacrament Most Holy” after every rosary.
I pray the Fatima Prayer, as well as this prayer, after each decade:
Mary, mother of Grace, mother of Mercy,
shield us from the enemy
and receive us at the hour of our death. Amen.
The St. Michael prayer is said at the end, with
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us (3x) and
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
Yes to the mysteries and the Fatima prayer. A different litany in place of the Loreto. Yes to the St. Michael prayer too.
In the Spanish tradition, the Creed and the 3 Hail Marys in the beginning are omitted and replaced with an Act of Contrition. The 3 Hail Marys are recited at the end, instead.
As Imrahil says, German speakers add the little meditation of the mystery to the Ave. I encountered this in Bavaria and Austria. The English version of iBreviary also includes similar texts.
In a group, we usually sing, “Ave, Ave, Ave Maria,” and we pray the Fatima prayer, the collect, and the St. Michael prayer. One group adds the Litany of Humility by Cardinal Merry del Val. Sometimes we sing the Salve Regina; I know of a group that prays the Dominican Rosary so they use the Dominican chant. In France they sing Credo III for the Credo, and they also sing the “Gloria Patri” to the Parisian tone chant from the 18th century.
Isn’t adding the Litany of Loreto an Italian custom?
The usual mysteries. With the Fatima prayer after each decade. Though I find it difficult to keep my mind on the mysteries….
In earlier times the rosary often went together with vita Christi meditations or meditations on the Passion. Thomas Worthington’s “The Rosarie of Our Ladie. Otherwise Called Our Ladies Psalter…” (1600) pairs each Ave Maria with a scriptural passage. With the book in front of me that actually works well – you can skim as you say the aves and take in the meaning. But the EEBO print on demand paperback of a microfilm isn’t ideal.
I would be interested in how many people pray 4 mysteries vs. 3. Originally I prayed 4 but found it much easier to remember the days when following the form for just 3. Does anyone else follow this form?
For those that are interested the 3 mystery pattern is Joyful (Monday and Thursday), Sorrowful (Tuesday and Friday) and Glorious (Wednesday and Saturday). On Sunday there is a rotation… Advent/Christmas = Joyful, Lent/Easter = Sorrowful and all other times = Glorious.
@marnold, For me it depends. I really do like the Luminous mysteries, but doing the traditional 3 sets aligns with the Divine Office, which I do every day. Thursdays will just have to become double rosary day =)
I pray the Fatima prayer after each decade however I only say, “especially those most in need”.
I believe this is the original prayer as said in Portuguese. I think this was confirmed some years ago on this very blog.
Three mysteries only.
Sometimes English, sometimes Latin.
Apostles Creed
First prayers for the Holy Father’s safety, health and intentions
Fatima prayer after every Glory Be (O my Jesus, ….)
Conclude with:
Salve Regina
Memorare
Prayer to St. Michael (St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in …)
Rosary prayer (O God, Whose only begotten Son has purchased…)
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy (3)
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray (1)
St. Joseph, pray (1)
All you Saints and Angels of God, pray (1)
May the Divine assistant remains always with us… (1)
I don’t always pray it the same way, but I often use a scriptural reflection on the mysteries which has a scripture verse or other phrase for each Hail Mary that helps to keep me focused on the mystery. I usually only read that part silently though. If it’s a walking rosary, I’ll remember verses associated with the mystery or sometimes linger on a particular aspect.
Sunday: Luminous and Glorious
Monday: Joyful
Tuesday: Sorrowful
Wednesday: Glorious
Thursday: Luminous
Friday: Sorrowful
Saturday: Joyful
Two full sets of four in the week.
Sure would like a copy of those recordings for use in the car!!! Tell me how, please…
I have to mention the mysteries in the Hail Marys to remember what I’m meditating on. Fatima prayer after Gloria. No Loreto after the Rosary, don’t know it by heart.
I add the Fatima prayer after each decade. Btw, I’d like to see the official (or at least a recommended) Latin version of the Fatima prayer (in a church or elsewhere with other people I pray in Slovak/other language, at home with my wife in Latin).
I am used to add the short phrases for the mysteries only after the first Ave Maria 0f each decade if praying at home. Of course I accept the usage of a church/community if praying elsewhere. Similarly, I do not pray the luminous mysteries at home, but I don’t have any problems to pray them elsewhere.
I do not add the Loreto litany after a rosary. I pray (better said, I try to pray) the Loreto litany daily in May and on Saturdays, but I don’t connect it with a rosary.
Off topic – thanks a lot (and I mean really a lot) for your blog, Father. God bless you!
Harris, if your car supports Bluetooth, you can download the recordings to your iPhone or cloud drive and play them through your Bluetooth-enabled phone.
I’ve taken to playing audio files this way when I’m on the road in a rental car. Somewhat sadly in retrospect, I bought my current (and very possibly last) personal vehicle about 15 minutes before Bluetooth became a thing.
I don’t usually do the rosary with the phrase (I did it once or twice).
We say the Fatima prayer at the end of each decade as a family, and I do on my own, too.
As a child when I got too old to lead a decade (we started with the youngest child who could lisp his Hail Marys) my Father got me to memorize the litany of loredo. I would like to add it to my own personal rosary but my husband, fond as he is of ‘trimmins,’ already has 15 minutes worth, so it might be too much.
I say the luminous mysteries with others, if they lead the luminous and never on my own ( it is optional right), my family doesn’t. We say the Glorious Mysteries in the evening as a family, except on Friday.
Harris, if your car has a plug in for an i pod, you can drop the mp3s, like copying and pasting a file, onto your i pod (if you plug it into your computer), and plug it in in your car. If you don’t have a plug in for an i pod ask your car dealer what it would cost to get one installed. The i pod or a cheap version of the same can cost from 15$ to 40$.
Sundays I do the Luminous, the other days the usual schedule.
I don’t pray the Litany of Loreto at the end, but now I’m thinking that maybe I should, maybe before the Salve Regina.
I need a lot of help saying the Rosary. But there is a great app & it’s an audio so I’m not doing this alone.. It can be customized to include Apostolic creed, Fatima prayer, Loreto litanies etc. I enjoy hearing the biblical reference for each mystery. I have made this suggestion to many friends & we all report to saying the rosary more often. Just go to your app store.
Dear Fr. Z,
I’m late to the comments, but I hope you see this. Would you consider going “live” again on uStream? That was such fun. Do you still feed the birds? Every Advent since you posted it, I play the Advent video with the Rosary in Latin and the songs in the background as I go about my business.
downyduck
I just learned that the Litany of The Blessed Virgin Mary – Litany of Loreto has variations in the ending for Advent, from Christmas to the Purification, and during Pascaltide.
On the Crucifix: In the Name . . . . and kiss the crucifix. Mention special intention, if any for whole Rosary. Say Apostle’s Creed.
First Bead: Our Father for intentions of the Holy Father.
Three Beads: Three Hail Mary’s for: 1) Increase in virtues of Faith, Hope, Love; 2) In honor of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; 3) In honor of Mary as Daughter, Mother, Spouse; 4) To remember the vows of Stability, Conversion (to Monastic way), and Obedience. Each individually, but sometimes all together.
Gloria
On the Decades:
Say that decade’s Mystery and Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s while meditating on the Mystery; Gloria; Fatima prayer.
At end of Decades, say Hail, Holy Queen and O God, Whose Only Begotten Son . . . .
End with:
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Immaculate Health of Mary, prayer for us.
St. Joseph, pray for us. Sometimes add invocations to other favorite saints.
I have a missal I use, and I admit, I didn’t know the litany I use at the end was called the Litany of Loreto. When I get home I’ll have to take a look and see if the name is mentioned.
Now, this may sound strange, but I look forward to the litany. I really, really like litanies. The brevity of each line is easy to focus on and keep in mind as I say “Pray for us.” The tempo and the phrasing (depending on the translation) are soothing yet direct. I find it very easy during the litany to meaningfully consider Christ and His mother.
At my parish (St. Bernard of Clairvaux), we have always added the Memorare at the end, after the prayer to St. Michael. Good St. Bernard was especially devoted to Our Lady and composed the beautiful Memorare.
I always pray the Luminous Mysteries on Thursdays, and I offer my daily rosary for my pastor. I am especially fond of the Luminous Mysteries. They seem particularly appropriate when offering a rosary for priests, since they seem to highlight the Sacraments and priestly duties (the Baptism of Our Lord, the Wedding Feast at Cana, the Proclamation of the Gospel, the Transfiguration, and the Institution of the Eucharist). Pax et Bonum!
At my parish, we pray the Fatima Prayer, and if the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, we add “O Sacrament most holy…” after the Fatima Prayer. We end with the Litany of Loretto.
When I pray it privately, I skip the litany, but I say the Fatima and “O Sacrament” prayers.
If I am feeling like I need to do some extra penance or need an extra favor I do tack on the Litany of Loreto. My family is Mexican and when we have recited together we always add the Litany. At my parish they also add on the “O Sacrament Most Holy” prayer after the Fatima Prayer and they add the St. Michael prayer after the Salve Regina to conclude.
The practice of the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem (who have a special event coming up in Charles Town, West Virginia, next weekend) taught me to add the following intention to the first Our Father after the Apostles’ Creed:
O Lord, send us priests!
O Lord, send us holy priests!
O Lord, send us many holy priests!
In my family, we start with the Apostle’s Creed, add the Fatima Prayers inbetween the decades, and end with the Hail Holy Queen and Saint Michael prayers. I later learned the “O God, whose only begotten son” later and don’t have it memorized so I don’t normally say it. Oh, I forgot. We also pray “For the intentions of the Holy Father” before the first Our Father and then pray for an increase of Faith, Hope, and Love/Charity before the first three Hail Mary’s.
@Vox clamantis in deserto
from Fisheaters.com
O My Jesus, + forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.
Latin Version: Oratio Fatimae
Oh mi Jesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, libera nos ab igne inferni, conduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim illas quae maxime indigent misericordia tua. Amen.
1) TWF: Yes, I do the same! I don’t know how it started, but I always do that prayer after each decade–also 1/10 beads is to St Joseph–it just is.
2) Father Z: I would love you to do have podcazt with the rosary in Latin, similar to your Pope Benedict’s Stations of the Cross 2005–I listen to that one over and over again on long drives in the car.
I don’t like the Fatima prayer. I use it if I am praying aloud with others and they expect it. Otherwise I do not use it.
robtbrown Thank you for the wonderful suggestion of the Luminous Mysteries on Sunday! I said them for a brief while back when they were “new” on Thursdays as we were told to do but later dropped them altogether because it made the ‘rhythm’ of the pattern clunky and and went back to the routine 3 mystery form mentioned by marnold above. Saying the Luminous Mysteries on Sunday will include them in my repertoire and eliminate the need to remember the Sunday rotation.
My addition is the Fatima prayer after each decade as asked at Fatima (and not after the introductory Glory Be at the beginning of the Rosary).
My three Hail Mary’s at the beginning are offered (one each) for the Pope, my Bishop, and my parish priest(s). Some I know offer these three prayers for Faith, Hope, and Charity.
I don’t say any prayers after ending the 5th decade with the Fatima prayer. There are no prescribed prayers ‘after the Rosary’, just prayers of personal/regional custom.
I posted a poll on my blog yesterday as well about the rosary:
http://introiboadaltare.blogspot.com/2015/10/umfrage-wie-betest-du-den-rosenkranz.html
In germany you add the mystery after the ‘Jesus’ of each ‘Ave Maria’.
Also nearly everywhere the fatima prayer is added after each mystery.
When I’ve prayed with religious orders ( traditional ones) the creed, our father and 3 Hail Marys are omitted. Anyone know why?
Other than inserting a “Jesus, who …” clause in each Hail Mary, I’ve not found another way to so actively contemplate each mystery without distraction—to make the Rosary a real “school of the Gospels” and systematic review of the incarnation, life, passion, and resurrection of Christ. For example, what more concrete contemplation the passion of Christ in the sorrowful mysteries than by inclusion of such phrases as
The Agony in the Garden
Who in His agony said, Not my will, Father, but thine be done.
Who in His agony sweat drops of His precious blood.
The Scourging at the Pillar
Who in His scourging suffered His flesh to be ripped and torn.
Who in His scourging suffered His precious blood to be shed.
The Crowning with Thorns
Who suffered His head to be deeply pierced with sharp and painful thorns.
Whose precious blood streamed down from His head crowned with thorns.
The Carrying of the Cross
Who struggled to lift and carry His heavy cross for us, weak from scourging and torture.
Who fell and was crushed by His heavy cross, weak from loss of blood in scourging.
The Crucifixion
Who for suffered His hands and feet to be nailed to the cross in terrible pain.
Whose precious blood and saving water poured forth from His pierced heart and wounded side.
Dear Henry Edwards,
maybe it’s just me, but I think these insertions would be long enough to break the Ave Maria rhythm.
i add efter each glory by at the beginning of the mysteries, “jesus i love you” which padre pio recommended we say.
i mean;;after each Glory Be….typing not good this morning
I add the Fatima prayer after each mystery and also add the St. Michael prayer at the end.
This book has good “Jesus Who” phrases and is illustrated with reproductions of paintings by Fra Angelico and Giotto. It includes the Luminous Mysteries:
The Rosary with Fra Angelico and Giotto
I add the Jesus prayer after each decade.
The evidence for Fatima is so overwhelming that I couldn’t neglect our Lady’s request that the prayer she gave be said in between the mysteries. I also follow Paul VI in not doing the Luminous mysteries. He decided against revising the rosary.
Henry Edwards, is it, perhaps, because you were there for any rosary after the first five decades?
I really like those mini meditations. I wonder if they would help my sleepy children to focus.
MrsMacD,
The file knoxlatinmass.net/Rosary.pdf contains scriptural reflections (like those above for the sorrowful mysteries) for the joyful, glorious, and luminous mysteries as well. Though perhaps they might be shortened for use by children. Over the years a focus of my scriptural reading has been to mine the Gospels for Christological reflections to focus my own prayer of the rosary.
We love the Scriptural Rosary and I try to keep an extra blue book on hand to give to Protestant friends who question the scriptural foundations of the Rosary. When on long car trips with the children, we start with the Annunciation and go through the mysteries in the order of life of Christ: Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, Glorious. We talk about each mystery’s relevance and context so that the children see it as a prayer of deep meditation, but also to help them use it as a mnemonic device for remembering important points of the Gospel.
@nzcatholic
“When I’ve prayed with religious orders ( traditional ones) the creed, our father and 3 Hail Marys are omitted. Anyone know why?”
What orders are you talking about? Last month I spent a weekend at a Trappist monastery for a vocation retreat and they pray the rosary daily without omitting anything and inserting the Fatima prayer. The Trappists use the ordinary form of the liturgy, but the Cistercian order is very old. Do you mean traditional order as in an order that uses the extraordinary form or traditional as in some of the orders founded long ago?
nzcatholic says: When I’ve prayed with religious orders ( traditional ones) the creed, our father and 3 Hail Marys are omitted. Anyone know why?
That’s not been my experience in these USA with the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem or the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, both Traditional (EF Mass) orders (Augustinian and Benedictine respectively). Perhaps what you are referring to is a custom of Traditional orders in New Zealand?
Prayers for faith, hope and charity on first three Aves. Fatima prayer at end of each decade, then at conclusion of Rosary the Salve Regina, the O God Whose only begotten Son, etc., next the Memorare alternately with the Flower of Carmel prayer. Conclude with the prayer for the dead, then the St. Michael prayer on the Crucifix from where I began the Rosary. I use a variety of scriptural rosary books regularly though not exclusively. The Salve Regina is the only prayer I know in Latin, having absorbed it while in the temporary (approx. 6 months) care of some very loving nuns when I was a preschooler.
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Regarding the Luminous…Thursdays are abortion day at the PP near us. There are Protestant groups who pray there at the same time we do. It is my understanding they prefer not to have us say the rosary…but no one has spoken directly to me yet, so my children and I pray the Luminous loudly enough to hear eachother. I have noticed the Protestants inching in to hear what we are saying…so we try to annunciate and clearly emphasize the scriptures. That we have the Luminous mysteries and that they are recited on Thursdays is a blessing to this situation. It’s like our prayers are doing double duty: knocking back the demonic presence at the abortion clinic and beconing His sheep that have wandered into fields that do not provide adequate nourishment. I am grateful for the addition of the Luminous mysteries.
Love this thread, thanks Fr!
After each decade:
We say the Fatima prayer.
Then we say “Jesus, Mary & Joseph we love you save souls!”
Then we sing “Ave, Ave, Ave Maria. Ave, Ave, Ave Maria”
@KateD- I generally only pray the Luminous mysteries when praying outside a Planned Parenthood clinic. I go on Saturdays 3 or 4 times a year. There’s a small group who come each Saturday and pray all 20 mysteries. One time, when I was there, as we were praying the mystery of the Wedding at Cana, a gentleman drove up and handed us $20 to thank us. Normally we get people shouting obscenities. It was as if Mary was interceding in that very moment for us by getting a donation for the prolife cause!
In reference to Father’s question, I pray the Fatima prayer after each decade, offer the three Hail Mary’s at the beginning for faith hope and charity, and I generally add several sets of 3 Hail Mary’s, and Our Father and Glory Be at the end- one set for the Pope, one for all priests who I have ever heard mass of, and one for the intentions of my rosary.
I have found this thread incredibly interesting, and the point about the Spanish rosary tradition beginning with the first decade will be shared with my 7th grade catechism students this week. We prayed the rosary together, and for many of them, it was their first rosary in English and they were unsure on the order. Unaware of the distinction, I had just gone over the order in English- I didn’t realize there were so many variations! We used, by the way, a booklet from LifeTeen that has reflections after each Hail Mary. Next year, I think I will go back to the usual Scriptural Rosary book, but this one did do a nice job of linking the mysteries to our own lives.
When I used to be able to attend daily Mass I would always stay for the rosary afterwards. They would pray the mysteries of the day. But between the decades, after the Fatima prayer they would add “Save us, save America.”
Does anyone else so this? (I don’t, unless the others do, simply because it has not been my habit.)