Praying The Fifteen Decades of the Rosary by Fr. Paul Sretenovic @ TraditionInAction.

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Praying the Fifteen Decades of the Rosary

Fr. Paul Sretenovic

While driving home from the chapel last week, I

was praying the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.
My plan was to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries in the
afternoon and the Glorious Mysteries in the
evening before going to bed. For many years, I
had simply prayed the five decades designated for
the day in order to fulfill Our Lady’s request at
Fatima that her children pray the Rosary every
day for the Consecration of Russia and the peace
of Christ in the world. At least I thought that was
the nature of her request. More on that
misunderstanding will be clarified momentarily.

Then, one evening in December, one of our

parishioners in Southern California mentioned to
me that he prays the whole Rosary every day
because if Our Lady said that Francisco would go
to Heaven only after praying many Rosaries, and
he died at the tender age of ten, then how many
more would we have to pray to get there! That
struck a chord with me.

I now believe that it is good to pray the entire

Rosary daily for three reasons.

Our Lady asked for the full Rosary

of 15 decades
The first reason is that when the Virgin Mary
asked us at Fatima to pray the Rosary every day,
she was not asking for five decades. She was
asking for fifteen. When Our Lady says “Pray the Madonna of the Rosary, seated beneath scenes
Rosary,” she is speaking of what has been termed depicting the 15 mysteries
her Psalter, a word referring to the Book of
Psalms, which contains one hundred and fifty Psalms of David. From the time of St. Dominic, “Mary’s

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Praying The Fifteen Decades of the Rosary by Fr. Paul Sretenovic @ TraditionInAction.org

Psalter” was the 150 Hail Marys. In 1569 St. Pope Pius V, himself a Dominican, issued an apostolic letter
establishing the fifteen-decades as the official Church-authorized Rosary.

For some, if not many, it may seem like too much to

ask, given so many other daily responsibilities, to
pray the whole Rosary. They will say that even one
of the Mysteries, that is, a set of five decades, is
difficult.

I would respond that each one of us is awake at

least fifteen hours of the day. Some are awake a few
hours longer, but for the sake of argument, we will
use the figure fifteen hours. Yes, it would be very
nice to get nine hours of sleep at night! If each of us
prayed one decade of the Rosary each waking hour,
which amounts to five minutes out of every sixty of
our day, we would pray the entire Rosary every day.

Oh sure, some days we could get tied up for two to

three hours at a time at work and subsequently “fall
behind” in this commitment. But then there is always
the ride home, which for most people is more than
five to ten minutes, so decades can be made up for
in the drive. It does take a little bit of planning ahead
and at times those unexpected circumstances do
arise. Hard working mothers who are home with
their children also face varying circumstances. But,
as the old saying goes, “Where there is a will, there
Pope St. Pius V established the 15-decade Rosary in 1569 is a way.”

A special efficacy in praying the full Rosary

This leads to the second reason why I believe this is a very important commitment for us as Catholics to
make. Our Lady said that she had obtained from God a special efficacy to be attached to the praying of
the Rosary so that there was nothing that we could request from her that we could not obtain through the
daily Rosary. If we believe our Mother when she speaks to us, then this statement alone should fill us
with great confidence and the desire to ask Our Lady’s intercession for our spiritual and temporal welfare
by praying the Rosary. It is like what Jesus said to His Apostles on the night before He died, “Whatever
you ask for in My Name, it will be given to you.”

The Virgin Mary at Fatima was God’s last olive branch for peace in the world today. Is it any wonder that
there is such an overlap between the generosity of Jesus and His Mother Mary? In fact, Jesus revealed
to Sister Lucia in the 1930s that He wanted Mary’s Immaculate Heart to be honored alongside His, and
hearts that love the same things share the same dispositions towards others. In fact, His request simply
reiterated what Our Lady herself had already revealed on July 13, 1917: that God wants to establish
devotion to her Immaculate Heart in the world.

Making reparation for past sins and for an increase of grace

The third reason why I believe it is a good and holy practice to pray all fifteen decades of the Rosary
daily is two-fold: to make reparation for our own past sins and for an increase of actual grace in our souls
that will make us more powerful intercessors for others. “The prayer of a just man is powerful indeed,”
wrote St. James in his Epistle.

There is a temptation to think that after we have confessed our sins and completed the prescribed

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Praying The Fifteen Decades of the Rosary by Fr. Paul Sretenovic @ TraditionInAction.org

penance, the slate is wiped completely clean and we can go on with life as if those sins have been
entirely taken care of and are part of the past. This is not the attitude of the saints. They grieved over
their sins for the entire course of their lives, never laying aside the mattock of mortification or losing their
humility before God and their companions. They also understood that there are temporal penalties due to
sin, and these will come down upon us either on earth or after death in Purgatory. Therefore, they
wanted to make reparation on this earth, even for venial sins.

Therefore, it is very important that we hold ourselves

accountable before God for each sin that we have ever
committed, and not simply rely on those three Hail
Marys we were given by that “nice priest” in the
Confessional. I think I should instruct the people to
pray fifteen decades of the Rosary for every mortal sin
they have ever committed, or at least those that they
can remember after making a good examination of
conscience.

At Judgment, God does not simply look at the “big

picture,” or the term coined by one progressivist
theologian, Joseph Fuchs, our “fundamental option.”
He examines every single decision we have made in
our lifetime, and demands an account for each one.
Even if we die in a state of grace, our Purgatory can be
very long, especially for the mortal sins forgiven in the
tribunal of God’s mercy, but not fully expiated. In his
book Purgatory Explained, Fr. F.X. Schouppe, S.J.,
wrote that on an average, a person suffers seven
years in Purgatory for every mortal sin. If that is Our Lady told Francisco at Fatima he would have to say
accurate, some might have a few centuries to think "many Rosaries" to enter Heaven
about and repair for what they have done.

Given what we have seen about Our Lady’s statement on the power of the Rosary in these days, taking
particular account of each mortal sin we have committed by praying fifteen decades of the Rosary is a
wonderful means of appeasing God’s Justice and shortening our time in Purgatory, and perhaps even
eliminate it entirely.

Plenary indulgences, it is true, can be obtained by doing much less, but actually receiving that
indulgence presupposes a detachment from sin that most of us do not yet possess. If we are faithful to
praying the whole Rosary every day, in one year’s time we would have prayed 365 Rosaries to cover for
a multitude of sins. That’s not too bad for a year’s work.

One can also, it should be noted, offer Rosaries in

the same manner for relatives and friends,
especially for one’s family. If we are Our Lady’s
consecrated slaves, every Rosary we pray is prayed
first and foremost for her intentions, and then we
may ask for particular intentions. This works very
well – we give everything to Our Lady, but that does
not prevent us from asking her for some personal
intentions. For example, as a priest, I have one
Mass intention for every Mass that I offer. However,
there are many other daily intentions that can be
included at the Mass without actually being the
primary intention for that Mass. The same goes for
the Rosary.
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Praying The Fifteen Decades of the Rosary by Fr. Paul Sretenovic @ TraditionInAction.org

We have seen the connection between the

dispositions of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and
Mary, and I conclude with this. It is said that God is
never outdone in generosity. Cannot the same be
said about Our Lady? Praying the entire Rosary
everyday in the midst of our daily duties will make
the Virgin Mary very happy with us and maybe, just
maybe, if we persevere, we will hear her say to Our
Lord at Judgment, “He has prayed many Rosaries.”

This exhortation to pray the entire Rosary does not

pretend to say that persons who pray only a third
part of the Rosary – the Joyful, Sorrowful or Glorious
Mysteries – are doing something wrong or that their
prayer is without merit. It is very good to pray a third
of the Rosary, and one should continue this pious
practice even if the entire Rosary cannot be prayed.
Also, I don’t want to discourage those who only pray
one decade a day. They should continue. My words
should be considered a stimulus to reach a most
perfect form of prayer – the entire Rosary – and until
a person can achieve this goal, he should do
whatever he can. Our Lady will be pleased with his
efforts to obey her request, and if he asks, will give
him the grace to do more.

Our Lady of Lepanto

St. Pius V instituted the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary to
commemorate the miracle she worked in Lepanto Related Topics of Interest

Our Lady of the Rosary

The Rosary and the Scapular: Weapons Against Pride and Sensuality

Fatima and the Last Time Remedies

Don’t Forget Sacramentals - Aids to the Spiritual Life

Remember Lepanto!

Problems and Solutions regarding Natural Marriage and Civil Marriage

La Conquistadora - Our Country's Oldest Madonna

The Symbol of the Crown in the Reign of Mary

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Praying The Fifteen Decades of the Rosary by Fr. Paul Sretenovic @ TraditionInAction.org

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