Praying the Rosary During the N.O.

[Avus]

We all have hear the knock against the TLM as encouraging old women to focus on their Rosary beads during the Mass because they don't understand it. Personally, I have never done that but have no problem with anyone who does, provided they do it silently. Even a couple of Popes have said praying the Rosary at Mass was valid and acceptable participation.

On the other hand, I do the same thing on those thankfully rare occasions when I need to be at an NO Mass for whatever reason (Holy Day, wedding, funeral, etc.). So I was wondering if anyone else focuses on their Rosaries during the liturgy. It sure comes in handy at the sign of peace when people stick their hand out at you.
 

[The_Harlequin_King]

I have occasionally seen non-trads pray the Rosary during the NO Mass.

I haven't done it, but I have read my TLM hand Missal before and used that to follow along in the Mass, as far as is possible.


As for the TLM, there's nothing "wrong" with praying the Rosary during Mass as long as one is uniting their prayers with the celebrant. But there are ideals. For example, Rossini or psalm-tone Propers are "okay", but full Gregorian Propers are better. Low Mass on Sunday is "okay", but a higher form is better if possible. Likewise, if you can follow a priest along via a hand Missal and pray the prayers of the Mass itself, that's better than using another devotion.

[StrictCatholicGirl]

At daily Mass the people begin the rosary aloud about 15 minutes before Mass begins. I don't know how you can concentrate on praying the rosary during the New Mass, because the new Mass is designed to occupy your attention; body and mind.

[The_Harlequin_King]

because the new Mass is designed to occupy your attention; body and mind.

While I can see that's definitely true, I'd argue that the ideally celebrated solemn TLM demands just as much.

[StrictCatholicGirl]

because the new Mass is designed to occupy your attention; body and mind.

While I can see that's definitely true, I'd argue that the ideally celebrated solemn TLM demands just as much.

You're right, James. I'd say it does too.

[Credo]

It drives me nuts to see people saying the Rosary during Mass. The Church is assembled to worship as a corporate body, and there's someone off over there doing their own thing. The week is long, some the Rosary sometime else.

For futher reading on this point, I recommend Paul VI's Marialis Cultus:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19740202_marialis-cultus_en.html

I bring attention in particular to the following selection from paragraph 31:

Secondly there are those who, without wholesome liturgical and pastoral criteria, mix practices of piety and liturgical acts in hybrid celebrations. It sometimes happens that novenas or similar practices of piety are inserted into the very celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. This creates the danger that the Lord's Memorial Rite, instead of being the culmination of the meeting of the Christian community, becomes the occasion, as it were, for devotional practices. For those who act in this way we wish to recall the rule laid down by the Council prescribing that exercises of piety should be harmonized with the liturgy not merged into it. Wise pastoral action should, on the one hand, point out and emphasize the proper nature of the liturgical acts, while on the other hand it should enhance the value of practices of piety in order to adapt them to the needs of individual communities in the Church and to make them valuable aids to the liturgy,

and a worthwhile historical note which the pope made in paragraph 48:

Finally, as a result of modern reflection the relationships between the liturgy and the Rosary have been more clearly understood. On the one hand it has been emphasized that the Rosary is, as it were, a branch sprung from the ancient trunk of the Christian liturgy, the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, whereby the humble were associated in the Church's hymn of praise and universal intercession. On the other hand it has been noted that this development occurred at a time-the last period of the Middle Ages-when the liturgical spirit was in decline and the faithful were turning from the liturgy towards a devotion to Christ's humanity and to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a devotion favoring a certain external sentiment of piety. Not many years ago some people began to express the desire to see the Rosary included among the rites of the liturgy, while other people, anxious to avoid repetition of former pastoral mistakes, unjustifiably disregarded the Rosary. Today the problem can easily be solved in the light of the principles of the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium ... In fact, like the liturgy, it is of a community nature, draws its inspiration from Sacred Scripture and is oriented towards the mystery of Christ. The commemoration in the liturgy and the contemplative remembrance proper to the Rosary, although existing on essentially different planes of reality, have as their object the same salvific events wrought by Christ. The former presents new, under the veil of signs and operative in a hidden way, the great mysteries of our Redemption. The latter, by means of devout contemplation, recalls these same mysteries to the mind of the person praying and stimulates the will to draw from them the norms of living. Once this substantial difference has been established, it is not difficult to understand that the Rosary is an exercise of piety that draws its motivating force from the liturgy and leads naturally back to it, if practiced in conformity with its original inspiration.; It does not, however, become part of the liturgy. In fact, meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary, by familiaring the hearts and minds of the faithful with the mysteries of Christ, can be an excellent preparation for the creation of those same mysteries in the liturgical action and an also become a continuing echo thereof,

Paul VI then addressed the point in question in no uncertain terms,

it is a mistake to recite the Rosary during the celebration of the liturgy, though unfortunately this practice still persists here and there.

[Baskerville]

When I go to a Novus Disorder I pray the rosary through the whole thing so I can ignore everything but the consecration part of Mass.

[jovan66102]

When I go to a Novus Disorder I pray the rosary through the whole thing so I can ignore everything but the consecration part of Mass.

Me too, eh? Unless I recite my Breviary for exactly the same reason. (I do neither at the TLM! )

[Baskerville]

When I go to a Novus Disorder I pray the rosary through the whole thing so I can ignore everything but the consecration part of Mass.

Me too, eh? Unless I recite my Breviary for exactly the same reason. (I do neither at the TLM! )

Oh no me too never at a TLM. There is too much going on. I think its the exact opposite off the NO. The NO has the people doing stuff like trying to keep pre-schoolers intersted in something, whereas the TLM has the Priest and the alter boys conducting a what I call symphony in movement. I always pay attention at a TLM and am never bored though there is technicaly nothing for me to do, on the other hand at a NO I am like isnt this over yet.

[DesperatelySeeking]

I haven't seen it "during", but at our Latin ad orientem NO, the Rosary is prayed prior to Mass starting, just as at TLM.

[WilfredLeblanc]

When I go to a Novus Disorder I pray the rosary through the whole thing so I can ignore everything but the consecration part of Mass.

Me too, eh? Unless I recite my Breviary for exactly the same reason. (I do neither at the TLM! )

Me, too. I hear what Credo is saying, but for a good part of the year, I'm at least tacitly obliged to attend mass where I work, and the masses are typically performed by a central-casting NO priest who presides over a central-casting NO musical director and a congregation that's mainly too young to know any better and claps along. The Rosary only takes 25 minutes, anyway. That leaves a perfectly wide window to pay attention to the consecration of the host, etc.

[AveMaria82]

I choose to pray the Rosary at both NO and TLM (always the Sorrowful Mysteries) quite simply because I am at the Holy Sacrifice.  I find the Rosary to be a great help because I am meditating on the sufferings of Christ and calling upon Our Lady for help.  I also make spiritual communions and ask Our Lady to intercede for me before Christ in the Eucharist.

[AlanF]

At the TLM I oftern pray devotions such as the Rosary of the Holy Wounds or the Sorrowful Mysteries during the Offertory to meditate on Christ's Passion, and hence the Sacrifice of the Mass and offer it for my intentions. I also pray the "Devotions for Communion" from my missal.

These may be "private devotions" but they are absolutely proper participation in the Mass, they are united to the Mass and the prayers being offered by the priest. I believe it was Pope Pius XII who said that participation in the Mass must be mostly "internal."

[timoose]

I'm kinda like some you other guys, I recite the rosary at the Ordinary Mass. I try to go along as well using the missal. In a soft voice I recite some of the Extraordinary Form; Ps. xlii, the ordinary,the Levabo etc. in Latin but softly. I like the Rosary to get me through those interminable sermons. On another note Pope Benedict through Bishop Ranjith said the homilies should only be 5-8, minutes, but I haven't seen it yet. 20-30 minute homily equals enough time for a rosary.
tim

[DarkKnight]

because the new Mass is designed to occupy your attention; body and mind.

While I can see that's definitely true, I'd argue that the ideally celebrated solemn TLM demands just as much.

You're right, James. I'd say it does too.

I got to see two different flavors of the Extraordinary Form on All Souls'. The first was our "standard" High Mass. The second was a "sung" Low Mass where the Schola sung almost the entire service. I could easily see using that version for praying and meditation. I would have loved it if it wasn't for the fact that it was much more difficult for me to follow, if only because it was the first time that I had seen it.