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The Secret of the Rosary

to do the same so that, by means of this holy practice of the Rosary, you may draw all people to
the real science of the virtues."
Briefly, then, this is the history of how Saint Dominic established the Holy Rosary and of how
Blessed Alan de la Roche restored it.

Fifth Rose

Confraternity

STRICTLY SPEAKING, there can be only one kind of Con­ fraternity of the Rosary one whose members
agree to say the entire Rosary of one hundred and fifty Hail Marys every day. However, considering
the fervor of those who say it, we may distinguish three kinds: Ordinary membership which entails
saying the complete Rosary once a week; Perpetual membership which requires it be said only once a
year; Daily membership which obliges one to say it all every day, that is, the fifteen decades made
up one-hundred and fifty Hail Marys.
None of these Rosary memberships binds under pain of sin. It is not even a venial sin to fail in
this duty because such an undertaking is entirely voluntary and supererogatory. Needless to say,
people should not join the Confraternity if they do not intend to fulfill their obligation by
saying the Rosary as often
as is required, without, however, neglecting the duties of their state in life.
So whenever the Rosary clashes with a duty--Of one's state in life, holy as the Rosary is, one must
give preference to the
duty to be performed. Similarly; sick people are not obliged to
say the whole Rosary or even part of it if this effort might tire
them and make them worse.
If you have been unable to say it because of some duty
required by obedience or because you genuinely forgot, or
because of some urgent necessity, you have not committed
even a venial sin. You will then receive the benefits of the
Confraternity just the same, sharing in the graces and merits
of your brothers and sisters in the Holy Rosary who are saying it throughout the world.
And, my dear Catholic people, even if you fail to say your Rosary out of sheer carelessness or
laziness, as long as you do
not have any formal contempt for it, you do not sin, absolutely

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