WHY RECITE THE ROSARY?

Download the full PDF – Why Recite The Rosary

1. St. Dominic’s Advice to Recite the Rosary
There was a certain pious but self-willed lady who lived in Rome during the time of Saint Dominic. She was so devout and so fervent that she put to shame by her holy life even the strictest religious in the Church.
Having decided to ask Saint Dominic’s advice about her spiritual life, she asked him to hear her confession. For her penance, he gave her one whole Rosary to say, and advised her to say it every day. She said that she had no time to say it, excusing herself on the grounds that she made the Stations of Rome every day, that she wore sack-cloth and also a hair shirt, that she gave herself the discipline several times a week, that she carried out so many other penances and fasted so much. Saint Dominic urged her over and over again to take his advice and say the Rosary, but she would not hear of it. She left the confessional horrified at the tactics of this new spiritual director who had tried so hard to persuade her to take on a devotion that was not at all to her liking.
Later on when she was in prayer, she fell into ecstasy and had a vision of her soul appearing before Our Lord’s Judgment Seat. Saint Michael put all her penances and other prayers onto one balance of the scales, and all her sins and imperfections onto the other. The tray of her good works was greatly outweighed by that of her sins and imperfections.
Filled with terror, she cried for mercy, imploring the help of the Blessed Virgin, her glorious Advocate, who took the one and only Rosary that she had said for her penance and dropped it onto the tray of her good works. The one Rosary was so heavy that it weighed more than all her sins as well as all her good works. Our Lady then reproved her for having refused to follow the counsel of Her servant Dominic, and for not saying the Rosary every day.
As soon as she came to herself, she rushed and threw herself at the feet of Saint Dominic and told him all that had happened, begged his forgiveness for her unbelief, and promised to say the Rosary faithfully every day. By this means, she rose to Christian perfection, and finally to the glory of everlasting life.

2. Saint Gertrude’s Vision
One day, Saint Gertrude had a vision of Our Lord counting gold coins. She summoned the courage to ask Him what He was doing. He answered: “I am counting the Hail Mary’s that you have said; this is the money with which you can pay your way to Heaven.”

3. Blessed Alan de la Roche Explains her Experience
Blessed Alan de la Roche says that a nun who had always had a great devotion to the Holy Rosary appeared after death to one of her sisters in religion, and said to her: “If I were allowed to go back into my body to have the chance of saying just one single Hail Mary — even if I said it quickly and without great fervor — I would gladly go through the suffering that I had during my last illness all over again in order to gain the merit of this prayer.” This is all the more compelling because she had been bedridden and had suffered agonizing pains for several years before she died.

WHY RECITE THE ROSARY?