The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-10-29
ROSARY OF NARY
Encyclical Letter Recently
Issued by Pope Leo
XIII to Catholics
Everywhere.
THE PRAYERS COMMENDED
Their Advantage as ARGUS
ing Devotion-Among
the Churches.
PRAYERS COMMENDED

The New York ssFreeman's Journal re-
Gently published the following translation
of an ~encyclical letter on the Rosary of
Mary, issued by Our Holy Father, Pope
Leo KILL
To our venerable brothers, the patri-
archs, primates, archbishops. bishops and
other ordinaries in peace and communion
with the Holy See:-
LEO P. F. XIII.
Venerable Brothers-Health and Apostolic
Benediction.
Looking back over the long period
which by the win of God we nave passed
in the Supreme Pontiicate, we cannot but
confess that, all unworthy as we are,
Divine Providence has ever afforded us
protection in time of need. This we deem
mainly due to the united and therefore
most powerful prayers poured forth UNI
ceasingly by the Universal Church for us
as for Peter of old.
In the first place, then, we give thanks
to God, the giver of every good gift, and
as long as life lasts we shall seek to
preserve every blessing we nave received.
comes the sweet remembrance of the
metherly protection of the august Queen
of Heaven and this, too, we shall ever keep
faithful and inviolate with praise and
thanksgiving. From here, as from a copi-
Gus channel, come rich draughts of hea-
venly graces; in her hands are the trea-
sures of the mercies of God d;
God wills that she be the source of all
blessings (2J.
In the love Of this tender Mother
| shiloh, xra hove oeri5,,o,,r 4,;r,1 RI
promote and increase more and more
every day, we put our certain hope for
the last day.
We long desired to intrust the saliva
ton of human society to an increased de-
votion to the Blessed Virgin, as to a
mighty fortress, and we have never
ceased to promote among the faithful Of
Christ the practice of the Rosary of Mary.
We have encyclical letters on the sub
ject since the LIST of SEPTEMBER,
MDCCCLxXxIH., and, as you are duly
aware, published DEGREES on more than
one occasion.
And now by Gods mercy it has been
given US to see again the approach of
the month of October, which we have al
ready dedicated and made sacred to the
Queen of the Rosary. we cannot abstain
from addressing you. Embracing in a
few words all we nave hitherto done to
further this prayer, we shall complete the
work in this latest doctrine in order that
our zeal and our will with regard to his
excellent form of devotion to Mary may
become more manifest and the ardor of
the faithful in piously and integrally pre-
| serving the most holy practice of the ros-
ary be stimulated.
Impelled, therefore, by this constant de-
Sire to increase the force and dignity of
the Rosary of Mary among Christians we
remind them, first, that it owed its origin
to a heavenly rather than to an earthly
source, and showed how this admirable
wreath, woven of the Angelical salutation,
interspersed with the Lod's Prayer, and
joined together by meditation, is a most
potent species of invocation and one
| a~bundantly fruitful, especially for the at
ainmen of eternal life. For in addition
to the excellence of the prayers of which
it is composed, it furnishes a valuable aid
to faith and a shining example of virtue
in the different mysteries proposed for
| contemplation. Moreover, its practice is
easy and it Is adapted to the people for
| whom the thought of the family of Naza-
reth presents the most perfect type of
domestic society. Its value to the Chris
tian people, has, therefore, always been
of the most efficacious kind.
In addition to our frequent e~xhortations
concerning the form of the Most Holy
Rosary. based on the above reasons, we
also turned our attention toward its dig
nifty by giving it a wider extension, fol-
lowing in this the footsteps of our prede-
| cessors. For. as Sixtus ". of happy menu
ory. approved the ancient custom of
~reciting the Rosary, and as Gregory III.
instituted a feast to its honor, which
Clement VIII. caused to be inscribed in
the Martyrology, Clement II. extended to
the whole Church. and Benedict XIII. had
Inserted into the Roman Breviary, SO we
too. in token of our zeal for this devotion,
ordered this feast to be celebrated by the
whole Church as a double of the second
class. We decree that the entire month Of
October should be conseerated to the Ros-
| airy. and finally, we ordain that the invo-
cation, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary,
Pray for U.s. should be added to the
litany of Loreto as a pledge of victory in
our present strife
1t remained to add to the value and
utility of the Rosary Of Mary in the album
dance of rights and privileges with which
it is endowed. and especially in the rich
treasury of ~indulgences attached to it. All
who are solicitous about their eternal SAL
vation will easily see the great benefit
which may thus accrue to them For 1t is
a matter of obtaining remission in whole
or in part Of the temporal punishment re-
maining after the guilt of sin has been
removed, which has to be expiated either
in this world or in the next
This rich treasury has been acquired by
the merits of Christ, His mother, and the
saints, n to 1t our predecessor, Clement
VI, rightly applied the words of Wisdom
VIII. IA: ut is an infinite treasury to men
and Ii who use it are made partakers
Of the friendship of God"
Now. the Roman Pontiffs exercising that
supreme power with which they have been
divinely endowed, nave opened those rich
fountains Of grace to member of the so
dality of the Rosary of Mary, and to those
who d~evoutfy recite this prayer.
50 too. we, OTTER ratifying these bene-
fts and induigences, have matured an idea
long in our mind, of publishing a constf-
tuition on the rights, privileges and indul-
geuces attaching to the sodalities Of the
Most Holy Rosary. Be his constitution
Of ours a pledge OF love TO the most august
Mother Of God and show forth to all the
faithful q stimulus and q reward for de-