Rosary devotions and spirituality
There are differing views on the origin of the rosary, with some traditions attributing it to Dominic who integrated it into Dominican devotion, but evidence shows its existence prior to his time, and a gradual development over centuries of practice.
[5][6] The practice of meditation during the praying of repeated Hail Marys goes back at least to the 1400s in Germany and the Carthusian monk Dominic of Prussia who died in 1461, just as the Dominicans Alanus de Rupe and James Sprenger had started to promote the rosary.
In contrast to written rosary meditations, the picture texts changed little and the same set of images appeared in woodcuts, engravings, and devotional panels for over a hundred and fifty years.
We begin by thinking of the favor which God bestowed upon us by giving us His only Son; and we do not stop there but proceed to consider the mysteries of His whole glorious life.
[14] Scriptural meditations on the rosary build on the Christian tradition of Lectio Divina (divine reading) as a way of using the Gospel to start a conversation between the soul and Christ.
[15] The word contemplation (coming from the Latin root templum, i.e. to cut or divide) means to separate oneself from the environment.
"[19] The rosary may be prayed anywhere, but as in many other devotions its recitation often involves some sacred space or object, such as an image or statue of the Virgin Mary.
[20] Anyone can begin to pray the rosary, but repeated recitations over a period of time result in the acquisition of skills for meditation and contemplation.
He stated that it is not the length of a prayer that matters, but the fervor, purity, and respect with which it is said, e.g. a single meditatively said Hail Mary is worth many that are badly said.
[25] In the eighteenth century, Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church, also emphasized the need for proper devotion when praying the rosary.
...The person who meditates and turns his mind to God, who is the mirror of his soul, seeks to know his faults, tries to correct them, moderates his impulses, and puts his conscience in order.
[31] In Laetitiae sanctae Leo XIII wrote that he was "convinced that the rosary, if devoutly used, is of benefit not only to the individual but society at large.
"[32] Pope Pius XII emphasized the benefits of rosary meditations in his encyclical Ingruentium Malorum and wrote: And truly, from the frequent meditation on the Mysteries, the soul little by little and imperceptibly draws and absorbs the virtues they contain, and is wondrously enkindled with a longing for things immortal, and becomes strongly and easily impelled to follow the path which Christ Himself and His Mother have followed.
However, in 1974 in his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, Pope Paul VI focused more on its traditional meditative, Christocentric nature and stated: "The rosary is therefore a prayer with a clearly Christological orientation.
[44][45][46][47] In the reported messages of Our Lady of Akita, Agnes Sasagawa stated that in 1973 she was told by the Virgin Mary: "Pray very much the prayers of the rosary.
