History Of The Holy Rosary

our present meditation is on the history of the Holy Rosary as we enter into our reflections on Our Lady of the Rosary during this Mary and retreat the first wish to see something of the history of this devotion you might wonder what purpose is there in doing this why not get right down to well to the Rosary and there is plenty as we shall see in these 15 cardinal mysteries of our faith on which to meditate not for six days or six years what six hundred lifetimes ye might ask mother going back in history to review how the Rosary began how we developed and how it reached its present forum my concentration perhaps surprisingly will not be ongoing over the what is admittedly a highly controversial subject who started the devotion to the rosemary we leave that to the wisdom of God of course of course st. Dominic had a great deal with making the rosemary not only well known but spread throughout the Catholic world beginning in the early 13th century but our concentration will rather be on what we call the development of the doctrine about Our Lady because except for this growth or progress in Marian doctrine devotion to the Holy Rosary would not have become what it now is belonging to the foundations of our Catholic piety as we asked ourselves what does the church mean by development of doctrine development of doctrine means that while the deposit of faith the truths revealed by God this deposit has remained essentially unchanged since apostolic times to the present when God had decided from all eternity to reveal about his mother that had been revealed and was completed by the end of the first century of the Christian era there will be no new revelations either about the Holy Trinity about the supernatural life about Jesus Christ or about Mary no more new revelations consequently objectively what God has revealed to the world especially in the person of Christ remains constant no new truths will be communicated by God until the end of time and for our purpose what God wanted to reveal about his mother he revealed past tense his finished the content the truths the relatives that God wish to reveal have been revealed however subjectively in how the church and we within the church grasps the meaning of these truths how clearly their church understands what God has revealed with what conviction and certainty their church professors what she believes and with emphasis however this once and for all deposit of faith will be put into practice for the salvation and sanctification of mankind that is constantly growing and it will continue growing until the end of time having said that immediately they remind ourselves heather has been over the centuries and into our own time a remarkable development of Marian doctrine from apostolic times to the present a review of this development of doctrine from apostolic times until now our lady was honored by those who believed in her son she was honored from the very beginning one of my spiritual joys while studying and wrong was to go down into the catacombs and after 1900 years which some of you you've seen these shall we call them frescoes on the side of the walls and the catacombs very clear in one wall fresco after another Mary his features those first Christians had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary tradition tells us how lady was on earth for some 15 years after her son's ascension they may be sure she told the Apostles a great deal after fall she lived with him for over 30 years and they for less than three years after all she was his mother so devotion to the Blessed Virgin began with a dawn of Christianity then his time window and the faithful people had no doubts that Mary the mother of Jesus was the mother of God that went on for some 300 years then after the liberation of the church from the tyranny of the Roman Empire a new problem enter the church her enemies now were not from the outside but from the inside and no sinner that harris's arrives questioning and denying the divinity of Jesus Christ then over educated theologians began to question Mary's divine maternity one date we should all memorize for 3/1 431 in the year the the Council of Ephesus in Asia Minor condemned the patriarch arch Bishop of Constantinople as a heretic for denying insisting that is people no longer invoke Mary as Theotokos as a mother of God you know what happens the people of Constantinople rose up in rebellion Kirti here guess whom they appealed to wrong and that small before the age of communications here holiness they beg the Pope do something he did nestorius was condemned and deposed Oh once nestorianism arose and the church defined Mary's motherhood of God you see what the story is did clever man that he was he divided Christ into two persons a divine person who of course of course have the first person of the Holy Trinity as his father and a human person so claimed Astoria's Mary was the mother only of the human person and you see how logical it is to also deny Mary's virginity makes sense and consequently about the same time arose the major heresies denying Mary is a virginity one outstanding Catholic scholar and writer after another - especially Saints Ambrose and Jerome battled and that's the only verb to use those who tonight Mary's virginity some of the language that st. Jerome used against a man by the name of helvetius is almost not communicable in public sometimes I've wondered how did you roam ever get to be honored as a saint and the names he called helvetius haffley be softened in English translation for denying our ladies perpetual virginity all this I think we need to hear lest we get the strange idea rampant nowadays that they have oceans like the rosary well you know pious women what did you identify marry where their own devotion to Christ so it's not surprising if pardon the gender again here women finger their beers but don't tell me say those colors and I repeat I don't have to read their books I know them how well I know them and how embarrassing ly well they know me they have ocean to Our Lady of the Rosary it is doctrinal foundations here's as old as the church in the early church therefore when writers began to question Mary's perpetual virginity before Christ's conception in conceiving Jesus in her birth of Jesus had Bethlehem and in her whole life until her assumption into heaven all these heretics serve a very important purpose in the church and they become catalysts to sharpen clarify and deepen our understanding of the faith and specifically on the level on which the heretics deny it I pray for Hans kun but I thank God for the mouthings of Hans corner and embarrassingly Hans Coons principle English publisher is my own publisher Doubleday over the years is Ellis people have been trying to get the two of us together on television I was thrilled with the prospect Hans can always turned it down pardon me for using the language he's yellow as a result of the doctrine of Mary's virginity being widely denied the church no more clearly and deeply understands and how this mystery of our faith better be understood that we're the God's grace not only can chastity has fidelity and marriage and the avoidance of contraception the practice in married life but single people can remain chaste and wonder of wonders and there are some normal sane sober individuals well actually i know it sounds incredible but they will actually undertake to live a life of consecrated chastity we Catholics had better be clear that God can do the humanly impossible as Mary was told remember what is impossible Tom and here's possible to go and she is the standing model of living a humanly impossible life because of the grace she be saved and we buy our invoking her help can obtained from her son through her in the 16th century heather time what I always call the Catholic Reformation the partisan revolution and the Catholic Reformation the role of Mary in the life and worship of the faithful increased immensely he had had to do you know why because Mary was removed and that's the verb Mary was removed her from the life of the faithful in the ocean to the Blessed Virgin literally disappeared from Protestantism in the 16th century one dramatic thing happened for 1,500 years the faithful had been reciting in the Hail Mary Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus amen how but something had to be done because it was so widely questioned and denied what did the church had talked about progress in Mary and devotion or progress in devotion to the Holy Rosary that church added let's say it together Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen you go back as I have over the years with my students in Christology you go back and you see what kind of Christ came into existence in the 16th century outside of Catholic Christianity it was not the Christ that we Catholics believe in who what happened devotion to Mary for all practical purposes was removed and if there is anything as one who restorative six partisan divinity schools have taught I counted them nine graduate courses in partisan theology listen all in Catholic seminaries and universities here there is one thing I know and I share with you well the anglo-saxon mainly Protestant cultured world most needs here's the recovery of its faith in and devotion to Mary I hope you believe me many tragic things happened in the 16th century I know of none of the practical order that was more tragic than the disappearance of the mother of Jesus indeed mother mother of God from the life and worship and prayer of millions in the Western world tomorrow we might ask why why was the Hail Mary an odious this is not a mere addition of words Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death we are going through the history of the Holy Rosary and what we wish to bring out is a profound meaning hidden behind every syllable of the rose away who we Catholics talk about progress we Catholics thanks to this edition which was placed by the church following the first parts of what had for centuries have been called the Ave Maria and in the sixteenth century became the Santa Maria Holy Mary what happened the church inspired by the Holy Spirit now wants to keep alive the following six prerogatives of Our Lady had to make sure these truths would not be forgotten until the end of time they are enshrined fifty three times in every rosary when we recite five decades the Santa Maria Mater Dei Ora pro nobis peccatoribus nunc had in hora mortis nostrae Amin contains six doctrines there as we begin this retreat on the rose way we better keep asking our lady to obtain from her son a deeper and clearer understanding of what we're saying so were not merely pardon the verb mouthing the word but thinking has believers first that Mary is the holiest of human persons and that sanctity he is indeed the fruit of divine grace but not only not only Mary had a freewheel sure she was flooded with grace both had flood might have swept over her and she would not have become what she was sang tomaría unless she had cooperated with that grace and if there is one bedrock principle on which those who revolted against the Catholic Church in the 16th century here there is one thing they deny it is our capacity with our free wills to cooperate with God's grace and listen and thus and thus and thus become holy how we need beginning with a speaker how we need to know what we're praying when were saying some tomorrow yeah second Marion mystery Mary is the mother of God order Mater Dei here we the works of Martin Luther a good deal of what Luther wrote has never even listened has never even been printed and somebody is printed has never been translated from either there is no German or Latin the obscenities the blasphemies and that terrible movie The Last Temptation remember in which Christ's for two long hours horse portrayed as a man of passion who was aroused sexually by women including Mary Magdalene that blasphemous movie would never have been either written in script or filmed at some five million dollars except in millions of Americans even many who call themselves Christians do not believe they just don't believe that Jesus is not a human person he is a divine person of course he has a human nature both a human nature is absolutely and utterly without sin any Muslim without concupiscence when then we invoke Mary as the mother of God we mean that that child she gave birth to on Christmas morning here was a divine person we're dealing with mystery but it's one thing to believe in a mystery it's something else to question the mystery or deny it because you cannot comprehend its meaning third Mary and mystery handed by the church in the 16th century Mary is our principal intercessor with her son Santa Maria Mater Dei all Rob pro nobis pray for us and we know to whom here asking her to pray we do our prayer that's called invocation maybe does a her praying that is called intercession over the years of my priesthood some of my greatest joys were giving rosaries to Protestants and teaching them the Hail Mary the receptionist's in Manhattan on Park Avenue I lived for 10 years teaching at the University she did me a favor so I said I'll say the Rosary for yer rose me what's that so I pulled my rosary out here that only for Catholics Oh No Protestants can say a - can I have one so I gave her the Rosary that I had in five minutes I did not really explain how to say the rose where it cost our Joshua treasure in Manhattan 495 I had a buy a cassette she had a recorder that recited the rows me and she learned it by memorizing the Hail Mary to pray to the Blessed version so and she might intercede with her son and needless to say she is the most powerful intercessor why because of water we've just called her remember mother of God what a loving son won't do for a loving mother I've watched it they can get anything the possible and the impossible including less remind ourselves of all miracles to work twice had in mind the heating of paralytics the restoration of sight of the blind even raising the dead back to life here's a mother he might have set her himself oh no they ran out of wine alright alright and by the way he never did it again all of this is hidden behind our invoking a lady pray for us forth truth of our faith headed by the church in the 16th century pray for us sinners we sinners are invoking the sinless mother of God we sinners let me try it out first without we sinners our invoking the sinless Mother of God what do we need everything because having sinned what do we deserve from God listen nothing what a sinner does his loses his rights to obtain from God what a person is fifth mystery we are baking Our Lady to pray for us the word now in Latin nonk he is most significant what is the church telling us there no should be a continuous presence before this retreat is over he will talk about living indeed in the presence of God he will also talk about living in the presence of his mother yeah there is why in divine providence we are so constantly in need so he might constantly ask for help then now that I recited a moment ago is past there's a new now right now the constant help that we need and keep these prepositions in line from Christ through Mary to ourselves centuries of the church's wisdom has chiseled out those prepositions we now and the moment we've said it we've got to repeat now again anyone who is scandalized at our repetition of Hail Marys my friend I can see you do not understand human nature we need constant helps and not just in a given rosary 50 times but that's how the Rosary began was told Our Lady's assaulter ps klt are the hundred and fifty Hail Marys to correspond to the hundred and fifty psalms this is or should be the Divine Office for every believing Catholic to recite every day they are constantly besieged by the evil spirits mother world in which we lived and even more constantly my own fallen better falling human nature they're always caving in you're always falling over they always need someone to brace us up and our faith tells us the one who is bracing we constantly need he is that of his mother finally and crucially when the church in the sixteenth century and of the Santa Maria to the Ave Maria the concluding prayer or a pro nobis peccatoribus nunc ad in hora mortis nostrae any of the hour of our death my first sermon I'm embarrassment I even think about it was in the knavish yet they could speak on any subjects the audience was my fellow novices 75 of them cuz they have their sermons to prepare I was giving my high spoke on this passage from the Old Testament remember thy last hand and thou shalt never sin of all the sublime subjects I might have talked about that was 52 years ago how we need to daily and many times daily remind ourselves of our last end which merely here's the first beginning because of that moment and we leave time and anti eternity what we most need is the greatest grace that God can give us listen the greatest grace that God can give us here that we might die in the friendship of God and for that we must pray and for that our most powerful intercessor is how elated here on the history of the Holy Rosary consummating are the doctrine locked up in what we say when we recite the rose where we are now up to modern times when sin became so prevalent the very meaning of sin was lost you know my proof for the fact of the modern world in such large measure has lost its sense of sin [Music] Jordan my proof of that is the rise of the science of psychiatry father what are you talking about here's what I'm talking about Freud the founder of modern psychiatry in volume after volume I haven't gone through his 21 volumes but I read enough of Freud to say this in only his years of clinical practice he has never met a single person who was not tormented by the sense of guilt but Froy did not believe in God Freud was an atheist what's this guilt what happened millions of people especially in the Western world having weakened or even lost their faith in the order as a logical consequence lost their understanding of what Eocene warrior sin sin memorize this sin is a deliberate offense against God but when the sinner sins by offending God things happen to that person's thinking show that person's emotions to that person's control in other words what we now call psychosis we believers know is somehow somehow the result of sin Eve the person himself or herself or of others we have sinned against the one who is now in emotional distress in the five years as chaplain have a state asylum in Michigan have told this to many audiences 90 plus percent of the people institutionalized were there because of the sins of others the cruelty the rejection the failure to love we were made to be loved as we were made to breathe so what are the church to talk about development of doctrine taupe is the ninth defy and Mary's Immaculate Conception many reasons one reason has the Holy Father said in offer over a hundred years the church has been teaching that Our Lady is not only the model but the inspiration and our hope in this valley of tears of overcoming sin where the grace that she received from the first moment of her existence we are swimming in sin we are breathing sin every page of the Chicago Tribune or the New York Times what is it but one dreary narrative about sin and crying half to another sisters I hope you appreciate the grace of your religious vocation of not being as you know you didn't drop from the sky to enter the novitiate you know being protectors and surely by our lady from the constant contact with pressure from a madly sinful world in the 20th century when the cult of the human body and that's one place where the word cult really fits when the human body especially the bodies of women have become the idols of millions their church inner wisdom Nephi and Mary's bodily assumption into heaven the Rosary had been said for centuries before 1950 when Pius the 12th defy that Mary was assumed body and soul after she finished her life on earth how we need how we need to understand and grasp the profound meaning of Mary's bodily assumption here the Holy Father told some 600 bishops assemble for the ceremony of the definition on the day after November the second he told the pellets one reason or a divine inspiration hi define Mary's bodily assumption into heaven he is to help the world begin II whether church and within the church the most faithful devotees of Mary Terry loves God has given us a body with which we are to adore him the body is not in height law the body is not to be adored the body is to be used and the pleasures of the body gives us are to be sacrificed to the infinite go harder their chest today said the Holy Father he is the adoration of God with our bodies Heather these bodies which in this life we're the God's grace we controlled according to the divine we rule and we sacrifice even we consecrated religious the legitimate pleasures and joys of marriage will be rewarded after the last day when our body is will share in that everlasting joy of the heavenly kingdom I'm almost but not quite finished with going through the history of the Holy Rosary our present Holy Father Pope John Paul the second if there was ever a Marian Pope since Peter I don't know it is John Paul the second Marian doctrine which is the main scene the foundation of the Rosary here the devotion is based on doctrine or it is just verbal piety under the present Holy Father Marian doctrine has grown by leaps and bounds just one but very important aspect with a rising recognition and respect for the role of women in human life and society our Holy Father keeps associating two things go back over his writings and by now they're becoming a small library hey continues associating two things one is a doctrine and the other is a devotion what's the doctrine the doctrine is that the modern world needs Mary more than the world has ever needed her ever needed her in all its millennia of history you know the world needs a memory has the model for women to imitate the world needs memory has the mother of a suffering but understanding mother of a human race going through the most painful agony how the Pope compares to Mary's an agony on Calvary if the world needs Mary is the most powerful intercessor or the Divine Son to whom can we turn the Pope says to Mary still in the level of doctrine that we need Mary as our hope for a world torn by war and abortion and the breakdown of family life and and but breakdown of so many human lives all of this here's a Marian doctrine but the same Holy Father keep stressing in his writings and speeches not only the need for remaining firm and deeply understanding Marian doctrine but also in partisan Marian devotion and it's here the the Pope singles olds advocating the Holy Rosary because through the rosary says the Pope we can expect from God what we most need in today's world we need lights for a world that is blind to the truth because it is intoxicated with itself and we need strength in a world that is paralyzed with fear which strength can be obtained the COPE hope keeps telling us from the old powerful God indeed but through his loving mother memory a very short prayer Lord Jesus over the centuries you have inspired your church to give the faithful the doctrine of the Holy Rosary has the foundation for devotion to the Rosary help us dear Jesus to grow in our own lives helped us in our own lives to show the progress of our understanding of the mysteries of the rosary and becoming more devoted every day to your mother so that by our growing knowledge of her and of experiencing her help we might be in Our Lives channels of grace to everyone whose life we touch because it is through your mother dear Savior that we hope to reach that destiny for which we remain amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit amen

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Length: 67min 26sec (4046 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 13 2019