The Importance of the Rosary and Divine Office

The Importance of the Rosary and Divine Office

I have just come back from spending a few days at Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Abbey, a beautiful Abbey situated in the Ozark Mountains. It was a well overdue sabbatical from my busy life to refocus myself in the Benedictine Spirituality that I love. In July of last year I became a Benedictine Oblate and have spent the last year in a novitiate in preparation to give my Promises to the Order. Yesterday, I wrote out my Oblation Charter and the ceremony was performed for my entry in to the Order of St. Benedict as a Lay Oblate. This does not make me a monk; however, it does entail a resolution to reform my life in accord with the Rule of St. Benedict and in relation to Clear Creek Abbey. Needless to say, I am very proud to be officially associated with the Abbey, the Benedictine Order and the Spirituality which has done so much for Western Civilization.

The main purpose of this post is to briefly compare the importance of the Rosary and the Divine Office. I have been praying both prayers ever since my conversion in 2004, but I had always wondered which takes precedence.

Once I became an Oblate last year, the drive to pray the Benedictine Office had increased; although, I have no specific charge to pray this as a Oblate or a layman, its centrality to the Benedictine charism is paramount. This brought up the question which prayer in my busy schedule takes precedence? Great arguments can be had on how important both are.

One the one hand, the Divine Office is the public, universal and official prayer of the Church and is chiefly comprised of Divinely Inspired Scripture. An acquaintance of mine from Mater Dei Parish just gave talk on the importance of the Office and how to pray it, which I am referencing a little from. It isn't published, therefore I will not cite it. He however pulled most of his material from the book, "The Divine Office. How to Say it Devoutly. How to Make it A Pleasure." by E.D.M. (Rev. Father Paul O'Sullivan). Here a few excerpts from his presentation:

The public, universal, official prayer of the Church.

The prayer of loving adoration, praise and thanksgiving to God in which Earth and Heaven form         one great choir.

Prayers of the Holy Ghost Himself being that the great bulk of the Office is taken from Sacred             Scriptures.

A prayer that can be united in intention with the Masses being celebrated all over the world. 

A prayer that also increases in efficacy when recited in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

We are uniting our voices with the voices of hundreds of thousands of bishops and priests, monks       and nuns, all over the world.

He states a handful more items that are associated with the office, but these I feel have the most weight. 

On the other hand you have the Holy Rosary, a.k.a. the poor mans Psalter. This post is nowhere near adequate to give due praise to the benefits of the Rosary. Numerous books have been written about the Rosary; Saints and Doctors of the Church praise it, many miracles have been wrought by it and Popes have written encyclicals about it.The Rosary has been given to us by the Blessed Virgin herself through St. Dominic. She says;

"Realize the power in your hand with the Rosary, for in your hands you hold the power of God. If you do not recognize the Rosary, can you expect to be recognized by My Son? How much can you expect? Why do you hide My Rosary? It was with a Mother's loving heart that I chose to give you these pearls of Heaven that you reject.
"Woe to all dedicated who seek to remove these from the little ones' hands, for their punishment will be metered in accordance to it!
"Why has sophisticated man cast aside these tokens of My love? Those who remain true to My Rosary will not be touched by the fires. Gather these treasures, My children, for the time will come that you will not find them on the counters of your stores." - Our Lady of the Roses, October 6, 1970

The Rosary is completely scriptural, it is the layman's Divine Office, and it has indulgences attached to it, The promises given to St. Dominic for those who pray it:

1. Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.

2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.

3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.

4. It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for Eternal Things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.

5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.

6. Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life.

7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.

8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.

9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.

10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.

11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary.

12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.

13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.

14. All who recite the Rosary are my Sons, and brothers of my Only Son Jesus Christ.

15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

Cool fact: Some Catholics say if you fall asleep while praying the Rosary, the Angels finish it for you.

That was quite a list and with all that said, both prayers are the nuclear missiles of intercession — you cant go wrong praying either. That brings us back to square one. Which prayer takes priority? I asked a good priest from my parish this same question and he clearly said the Rosary is better for layman since we do have an obligation to pray the Divine Office. Just this weekend I asked one of the Monks at Clear Creek and without hesitation he said the Rosary. Another diocesan priest who was present for the conversation added that, he has never known anyone who has fallen away from the faith that prayed the Rosary. The answer to this question may have been apparent to some from the start, but for me it wasn't. I don't know if the Church has officially placed the Rosary anywhere in a hierarchy, but my guess is the Sacrifice of the Mass takes the cake and close behind is the Rosary.