October 9 - Organization of the Living Rosary

Pauline Jaricot saw the Living Rosary as a means to help rejuvenate the age-old and solid devotion of the Rosary, in the lives of the children of God. This form of prayer, effected monthly by groups of 15 would allow the Rosary introduced by St. Dominic to become more attractive by offering a new devotion, a precious remedy that various people would practice with eagerness, in France and elsewhere, causing a series of wonders and graces. The organisation of the Living Rosary is precise.

At the time, the Rosary mediations were divided in to three sets of Mysteries: Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious. Each Mystery is divided into five particular moments in the Life of Christ and Mary that corresponded to the Mysteries. The associates, participants in the Living Rosary, are divided into groups of fifteen, one group for the three sets of Mysteries. Each associate must recite a decade of the rosary every day while meditating on the Mystery that he or she drew at random each month. In this way, the entire Rosary is recited and all of the Mysteries are meditated upon in full each day by the group of fifteen. The Rosary is recited as many times each day as there are sections. At the head of each section, there is a zealot. The sections are grouped in divisions, comprising eleven sections, headed by a counsellor.

Pauline’s originality was in her decision to distribute the fifteen tens among fifteen united partners. She placed great emphasis on meditating on the mysteries. She would assert that the Living Rosary was an initiative to make the prayer of the Rosary more accessible to the multitudes, encourage those who were not familiar with mediation to begin imagining the scene from the Gospel of our divine Redeemer and of his Most Holy Mother, while praying the Lord’s Prayer, ten Hail Mary’s and the Doxology. Gazing with one’s heart at one of the Mysteries of the life of Our Lord and Our Lady for one minute becomes a half hour meditation. The gaze of these hearts on one of the mysteries of Our Lady's life for one minute would make half an hour a month of meditation on her divine Son, upon whom one cannot look without warming one’s heart, becoming more fully alive and producing some fruits of salvation. This is one of the ends of the living Rosary. (Pauline Jaricot, Le Rosaire vivant. Cette harpe vraiment divine, Paris, Lethielleux, 2011, p. 21)

In order to strengthen the bonds of charity through frequent contact between people of the same group, the assemblies were divided into smaller sections. In this way, it was also easier to avoid the confusion of numerous assemblies working at the same time.  Pauline wanted to establish deep bonds of fraternal and even supernatural charity among her associates. For, the essential end of the association is to solicit the mercy of God through the intermediary of Our Lady of the Rosary, to vivify more and more the faith in the souls of the faithful, to obtain the conversion of sinners and to preserve the faith in France. Another end of the living Rosary is to establish a union between the associates. Pauline wanted to offer to the Blessed Virgin by the assembly of these fortnights’ true crowns of living rosaries to the Blessed Mother. (Pauline Jaricot, The Living Rosary, op. Cit., P. 21.)

All the hearts devoted to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary are invited to live in the charity of the Lord Jesus and to be one heart. This charity is not an exclusive love concentrated only in the members of the association. On the contrary, it is a vast love of extension. It is gathering the forces that our hearts lend to one another, to love more perfectly all those whom God has created in his likeness, and redeemed like us with his precious blood.  At each meeting, it was planned to share news about the progress or needs of the association, the graces obtained or those to be asked for, without losing sight of the essential end of the association: the conversion of sinners, the preservation of the faith in France and the exaltation of the Holy Church in the whole universe. According to Pauline, given the workers' demands that were beginning to be expressed in various places, mainly in Lyon, the association of the Living Rosary had to devote itself to militating for the salvation of the whole of France.... Through faith and boundless trust in the Queen of Heaven... all powerful over her dear son.(Pauline Jaricot, The Living Rosary, op. Cit., P.23).

The association also engaged in distributing objects of piety, including beneficial books. In fact, the association had to address itself to everyone and to help all classes of society to unite. It was therefore necessary to respect the rules: May Heaven make all our associates understand that the good organization of the fortnights is the condition of life of the association. That their strength is in numbers, that the exactitude of each associate in reciting his or her ten days, in understanding by the spirit and in tasting by the heart the Mystery which he or she is charged to honor, is an assurance of victory. (Pauline Jaricot, The Living Rosary, op. Cit., P. 36)

People of all classes and states of life should feel comfortable in the assemblies: merchants, those of independent means, simple workers or men of the cloth. For Pauline, the gatherings on the first Sunday of the month, like family councils, should be joyful; an opportunity to be simple, humble and regular. By calling the initiative the Living Rosary, Pauline wanted to revive meditation and contemplation of the mysteries of the life of Jesus and Mary and to put them into practice in our daily lives. The union of the fifteen associates forming the living crown of the Holy Rosary is intended to teach the participants to place themselves into the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The Rosary is living because it establishes a union among all who participate; it is a living crown of roses offered to the Lord, the roses being the various mysteries. The Rosary honors both Jesus and his Mother, for Mary is always united to the Rosary; Mary and the Rosary are one. Who prays the Rosary, prays Jesus and Mary (Pauline Jaricot, The Living Rosary, op. Cit., P. 24)