The Rosary

October is the month of the Rosary. My mind runs in a hundred directions about the Rosary in my life. How about you? Have you ever thought back to some of the Rosaries you’ve said?

My namesake is Blessed Alan de la Roche (d Sept. 8, 1475), a successor to St. Dominic in encouraging devotion to the prayer. But that certainly doesn’t make me a Blessed or a saint, particularly when it comes to the Rosary. The Rosary is a devotion to our Lord through the intercession of our Blessed Mother which has fallen on hard times. Used to be, everywhere you turned there was a queue of Catholics praying the Rosary. Today – how does it go – we’ve got one around the house somewhere. Now where did we put it?

Our tradition tells us with alarming simplicity that the Rosary has great power, power enough to effect world peace. We don’t have world peace, but of course we don’t say the Rosary either.

It’s not a little intriguing that one place where the Rosary still has widespread popularity is at wakes.

What a mysterious, inexplicable attraction this prayer holds! I’ve rushed through it empty-headed, persevered through it thoughtfully, begged it, pleaded it, wondered at it.

I’ve turned to it in desperation, interceded for others with it, cried through it.

I’ve been moved to imponderable peace during it, fought my way through it, been flooded with doubt about it. I’ve had deep confidence in its efficacy and let it go unsaid for long periods of time.

Real blessings have come my way in the wake of it. I’ve experienced profound temptations in the midst of it.

I’ve prayed Rosaries in airplanes, cars, hotel rooms, woods, living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms. I’ve prayed it on my fingers, in my mind, out loud in groups and out loud alone.

So much can be said about this prayer. Indeed there are books. Our own second bishop, John Cardinal Carberry, has a volume called “The Book of the Rosary” (1983, OSV). It’s a nice enough work. It takes the reader through the Mysteries with Scripture and has a good introduction on the meaning and value of the prayer.

The enduring classic, however, is “The Secret of the Rosary” by St. Louis de Montfort (Montfort Publications). St. Louis knew the Rosary I know. Consider his words: “One must not be looking for sensible devotion and spiritual consolation in the recitation of the Rosary; nor should one give it up because his mind is flooded with countless involuntary distractions or one experiences a strange distaste in the soul and an almost continual and oppressive fatigue of the body.”

Now there’s a man who has said the Rosary.

I believe in this great prayer. I know in my heart that the devil hates it.

I will do this: I will pray the Rosary each day this month for the readers of the Visitor. If you have a need, a hurt, an ache for solace, a fear, a hope, claim this Rosary as your own.

Please don’t confuse the one praying with the prayer. I’m not puffed up about this. In fact, I have “a strange distaste in the soul and an almost continual and oppressive fatigue of the body” just thinking about it. I’m aware that someone may think I think I’m something special. I’m not. However, it often has helped me to know that somebody’s praying for me. It’s as simple as that.

Also, please don’t expect any assurance of particular fervency or the assiduous attention of my mind. I know from experience you'll have to rely on the great power of the Rosary to help you and not on me.

written by Thomas A. Russell
first published in the Lafayette Sunday Visitor on October 5th of 1986