Seton Magazine Catholic Homeschool Articles, Advice & Resources
Seton Educational Media has a number of wonderful books for children and parents about Our Blessed Mother. To make it more affordable for families to add these fine books to their home libraries, we are running a sale on selected Marian books. Editor’s note.
In the 1200s, St. Dominic promoted the prayers of the Rosary, but it still may have been only the first half of the Hail Mary. The Blessed Mother appeared to St. Dominic and revealed that his preaching against a current heresy in the Church would be successful if people would say the Rosary. Our Lady gave the specific Mysteries or “meditations” of the Rosary to St. Dominic in order to encourage people to join in reflecting on the events in the life of Jesus.
Many followers of St. Dominic promoted the daily praying of the Rosary, and popes approved the addition of the Our Father to separate the ten Hail Marys, and later added the Glory Be. Pope Pius IX said, “If you
desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, in your country, assemble every evening to recite the Rosary.”
The Blessed Mother, in her appearances to the three children of Fatima in 1917, announced that she is Our Lady of the Rosary, and asked people to say the Rosary every day to obtain peace in the world.
The Family Rosary Crusade was started by Father Patrick Peyton, who promoted the Family Rosary on the radio in the 1940’s and on television in the fifties. Father ended all his shows with his famous quote: “The family that prays together stays together.”
Pope John Paul II had a special devotion to Fatima and to the Rosary, and even led the world in a Rosary on international television. He wrote an Apostolic Letter promoting the Rosary, and declared the year from October of 2002 to October 2003 as The Year of the Rosary.
The daily family Rosary has had a revival among Catholic home schooling families as mothers and fathers realize more deeply the importance of family prayer. Many now realize that living the Catholic Faith in the home, second only to attendance at Mass, is the basic foundation of the spiritual life.
Our Lady of the Rosary, you have appeared on earth many times to confirm what the popular piety of humble religious and laity have developed on your behalf over the centuries: the prayer of the Holy Rosary. You have so made the Rosary your own that you identified yourself as “the Lady of the Rosary.”
By the will of Almighty God and the power of the Holy Spirit, you became the Virgin Mother, the chief catechist, and the first disciple of the Incarnate Son of God. Because of your complete cooperation with the Most Holy Trinity—from the first moment of your existence, during Jesus’ birth, His hidden life, public ministry, death, Resurrection, and Ascension, the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, to your Assumption and Coronation— you have become the Mediatrix of all graces. Help us and our children to experience the Rosary as a source of abundant graces!
Blessed Virgin Mary, you lived a hidden and humble life. Your Rosary is a hidden and humble prayer. Its origin is veiled; its origin is humble because it began as a prayer of mostly illiterate peasants. Its practice is humble. It involves simple vocal words, easy memorization, repetition, and a series of simple stories. Its results are hidden if we look by sight; yet, these results are extraordinary and tremendous, like your
privileges, if we “look” by faith!
Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, help us and our children to say the Rosary daily and persevere in it. Help us to see the ordinariness of its practice as a way to humility. At the same time, help us and our children, especially as they grow up, to recognize the Rosary as essential to a measure of peace in our time, as a key step in the conversion of people from idolatry and immorality, and, finally, as a sure path to the heights of contemplative union with God. Queen of Peace, pray for us; Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!
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