Follow-up Question: How did she do this?
How should I know? One thing I don’t like about our Catholic faith is how some legends get treated as fact (Veronica’s veil, for instance). Maybe they are true, and maybe they are not, and I wish the Church would leave it at that,
The reason I asked my question is because there are Traditional Catholics on Twitter who reject the Luminous Mysteries, because it “came from John Paul II and not from our Blessed Mother.” Which may be true, but when I ask how Mother Mary gave St. Dominic these Prayers, crickets.
Other Traditional Catholics simply reject the Luminous Mysteries out of protest of Vatican II. I asked these individuals if this makes them (small “P”) protestants. A few of them answered, “No.”
My goal is not to throw shade, but get individuals to think, rather than simply regurgitate what they have been told to believe about something.
The Holy Rosary is a meditation on the Gospels. And Mary may have given St. Dominic these Prayers (I’m not claiming she didn’t) AND St. John Paul II (who had a great devotion to our Blessed Mother) based the Luminous Mysteries on the same idea, that we are to reflect on the Holy Gospels and Pray with them in mind, hearts, and with our lips.
I do the same thing with Protests who claim that Catholics have added to the Bible. I point out how the early manuscripts of the Gospel of John (one is from the first century and another from the second century if my memory is correct) did not have the story of the Woman caught in adultery, but the one found from the fourth century did included this story. Protestant Bibles include it. Am I to assume that Protestants have added to the Word of God? No, we believe this story to be true, even though it might not have been (for whatever reason) not included originally, though it likely was passed on audibly prior to. I am simply trying to get Protestants to think about what they are claiming and their reasoning for protesting.
I’m not claiming to have all the answers, but I believe in, “So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter” — 2 Thessalonians 2:15. This includes the successor of the Apostles.
I agree (as does the Church) that we are not to add to the Scriptures. Like how the Chinese Government was going to come out with their own version of the Bible (I’m sure removing chunks and making revisions to the Word of God, which is prohibited).
Sorry, I got off topic. My point is that I have no ill-will toward Traditional Catholics who protest the Luminous Mysteries, nor do I have any ill-will towards St. Dominic, our Blessed Mother Mary, nor for big “P” Protestants. Maybe I shall Pray a Luminous Mystery for each of them ; )
Meditations on the Gospels? The mysteries of light, all of them. The glorious mysteries, only three of them. The assumption and coronation aren’t in the Gospels.
P:eace to all,
So true Literalman and we know is everything were written not even the world could contain the books.
John took Mary home from the cross, “Ecce Mater tua” just as all Disciples do, and was with Mary for perhaps 40 years. John wrote the Book of Revelation and The Gospel According to John and allusions of the Asumption is in Revelation 12:1 describes a woman “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head,”
It is a traditional belief in the Catholic Church that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Dominic in 1208 and gave him the prayers and devotion of the Rosary. This tradition is particularly well-supported within the Dominican Order, which St. Dominic founded. The Dominicans have played a central role in promoting the Rosary throughout history.
Even with these points, the tradition of Mary’s revelation to St. Dominic remains a strong belief within the Catholic Church, especially for the Dominicans. It highlights Mary’s role in guiding the Church to fight heresy and spread the Gospel through prayer.
“My dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity has used to reform the world?”
“My Lady,” replied St. Dominic, “you know better than I because next to your son Jesus Christ you were the chief instrument of our salvation.”
Our Lady added: “I want you to know that the principal means has been the Angelic Psalter, which is the foundation of the New Testament. That is why, if you want to win these hardened hearts for God, preach my Psalter.”
St. Dominic returned to the Church and rang the bells to call the people of Toulouse and he began preaching to them about the Holy Rosary. In a very short time, a great change was seen in the city: people renounced their bad habits and began living truly Christian lives. It was by these extraordinary means that God wanted to spread the new devotion of the Holy Rosary and make it more widely known. (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary)
Logically we see Mary returned to earth and confirmed by St Dominic Mary’s co-Redeption as The New Eve through Her Son in the New Adam through The Christ in the New Eve through the salvific process becoming into the Chruch of Christ becoming again immortally glorified incorruptibly transfigured in One Holy Spirit Family One God in being in all generalization.
Luke 12:08
8 “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God.
Peace always,
Stephen
I chose “I do not know”, as I can see most other did also.
I read the book “champions of the rosary” some years ago, and it was a fantastic read. The dominicans was a force in Europe in the 1300s and 1400s, and they did much good for christianity. however, the specifics of the revelation I do not know.
With a tradition so big and varied as the catholic tradition, there is so much to choose from. So one can certainly have a cake and eat it.
blessings, Peter
Valid point. You are not wrong : )
How exactly Our Lady gave the structure of the rosary to St. Dominic isn’t really the issue here, but the fact that the 150 Hail Marys correspond to the 150 Psalms. The customary designation of which group of mysteries are to be recited on which days of the week also forms somewhat of a parallel to how different days during the week at Matins in the Roman Office utilize different texts for the absolutio before the readings. It isn’t an exact parallel depending on what the readings are, but it was significant enough not to escape my notice when I first started reciting the Office.
While the rosary is a private devotion, and it was not necessarily wrong for John Paul II to establish the Luminous Mysteries, the conformity of the 150 Hail Marys within 15 decades to the public liturgical prayer of the Church is important. This is why I personally do not use the Luminous Mysteries. I’m not going to stop someone else from praying them, but it is reasonable to regard them as a distinct devotion from the rosary because the organic flow of the week is disrupted by artificially fitting in the Luminous Mysteries on Thursdays, only once a week, while the others are recited twice a week with Sundays varying depending on the liturgical season.
Unless these people are sedevacantists, the argument that everything that came after Vatican II is bad simply because it came after Vatican II is ridiculous. However, there are certain attitudes that may rightly be said to proceed from the general ecclesiastical climate that dominated the conciliar and post-conciliar period. One of these trends was downplaying Marian devotion in the name of promoting more “Christo-centric” devotion, as though Our Lady could somehow be a “distraction” from Our Lord. This trend reflects attitudes of false ecumenism, and some of the people present at the Council, as recounted by Yves Congar, opposed efforts to uphold Our Lady’s traditionally exalted status because they feared that this would negatively impact “dialogue” with Protestants.
With the exception of the wedding at Cana, Mary isn’t even present at the other events contained in the Luminous Mysteries: “In these mysteries, apart from the miracle at Cana, the presence of Mary remains in the background” (John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 21). Now one could argue that she remains “in the background” during the Sorrowful Mysteries as well, but we know that she was there when almost all the Apostles had abandoned Jesus, witnessing and suffering with him as Mother and Co-Redemptrix, which is why the Stabat Mater is customarily sung between the Stations of the Cross.
The Luminous Mysteries emphasize the masculine function of preaching the Gospel and celebrating the Eucharist, whereas Mary’s presence during the Passion emphasizes the feminine aspect of contemplation and the uniting of oneself to the sacrifice of Christ. And this “feminine” aspect really applies to all members of the Church, the Bride of Christ, who is a feminine being, and most perfectly represented by Our Lady. The desire for a more “Christo-centric” devotion ultimately prioritizes the masculine aspects of the faith ahead of the feminine aspects, by stating things overtly and directly to your face instead of revealing “mystery” gradually and implicitly, something that tends to be associated with the feminine.
I appreciate your point-of-view. You speak very clearly and elegantly. Glad you are here : )
“the 150 Hail Marys correspond to the 150 Psalms”:
How do they correspond to the Psalms besides in their quantity? For example, I don’t see a relationship between Psalms 1 through 10 and the first joyful mystery.
That’s exactly how they correspond. The rosary used to be called the “poor man’s psalter” because back in the day, books were expensive, and most people didn’t know how to read. Edified by how religious recited the psalms, and not up to memorizing all of them, the laity substituted a Hail Mary for each psalm.
You flatter me, sir. 
Well, I guess it’s a little late now, since nearly all Catholics today can read, I think. But for those of us not up to memorizing 150 Psalms, I would suggest a different substitute: memorize the first lines of some of them and use them as prayers—for example, “The Lord is my shepherd” and “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”
Or we could pray the parts of the Office that fit into our schedules as laypeople. 
This is getting slightly off-topic here, but I believe that one of the less frequently-discussed causes of the dechristianization of society came from the loss of the habitual public celebration of the canonical hours. Not that the masses necessarily said the whole Office, but life was governed by bells, and people joined in to whatever extent they could. The “fixed” structure of the Roman Psalter with Psalm 118 being divided amongst the minor day hours and the psalms at Compline being the same every night did facilitate memorization. It was also a reminder that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever—and that the sun rises and sets according to His Providence.
I was replying to the idea of a substitute for the psalms, and the rosary as a substitute means not praying the psalms at all. I also was presuming that the rosary as a substitute was especially for people who could not read, and if they could not memorize psalms, they could pray some one-line prayers taken from the psalms. If they could not read, I don’t know how far they would get with a breviary. But I thought of another way that people could pray the psalms without reading them. I’m sure I know the words and music to more than 150 songs, sacred and not. I understand that many, maybe all, psalms were written to be sung. Even for people who could not read, if someone had provided musical versions of the psalms, I suspect that a lot of people could have memorized some entire psalms if not all 150. This is mostly moot nowadays, because, as I mentioned above, nearly all Catholics can read, I think.
