An indulgence is attached to the work: Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary
For Who: Anyone
For When: Any day of the Year
For Where: In a church, oratory; in a family, a religious community, an association of the faithful; in general when several of the faithful gather for some honest purpose; along with the Supreme Pontiff by live broadcast, radio, or television;(partial)Any location
Partial or Plenary: Both
As written in the Manuel of Indulgences, under Grant 17:
17
PRAYERS TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
§1 A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who1° devoutly recite the Marian rosary in a church or oratory, or in a family, a religious community, or an association of the faithful, and in general when several of the faithful gather for some honest purpose;2° devoutly join in the recitation of the rosary while it is being recited by the Supreme Pontiff and broadcast live by radio or television. In other circumstances, the indulgence will be partial.
The rosary is a prayer formula consisting of fifteen decades of Hail Marys preceded by the Our Father, during the recitation of which we piously meditate on the corresponding mysteries of our redemption.
Regarding the plenary indulgence for the recitation of the Marian rosary, the following is prescribed:
The recitation of a third part of the rosary is sufficient, but the five decades must be recited without interruption.
Devout meditation on the mysteries is to be added to the vocal prayer.
In its public recitation the mysteries must be announced in accord with approved local custom, but in its private recitation it is sufficient for the faithful simply to join meditation on the mysteries to the vocal prayer.
** Grant 17 continues, addressing other Marian Prayer
So, a PLENARY Indulgence is granted to those who, in addition to fulfilling all the other requirements, recite a Marian Rosary in a church or oratory; in a family, a religious community, or an association of the faithful; in general when several of the faithful gather for some honest purpose; or along with the Supreme Pontiff by live broadcast, radio, or television. Further prescriptions alert us that our rosaries may be 5 mysteries long (which many are accustom to) but it must be recited without interruption. Also, devout meditation on the mysteries is to be added to vocal prayer. If done publicly the mysteries are to be announced/meditated on in accord with approved local custom.
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A PARTIAL Indulgence is granted to those who recite a Marian Rosary, who either intending to only obtaining a partial indulgence this way, or to those attempting to gain a plenary indulgence but they fail to obtain it in some way or another. Some examples of what this may look like are:
1) The recitation of the Marian Rosary was not done in the appropriate circumstance
2) The recitation of the Marian Rosary only followed along side the Supreme Pontiff by pre-recording/not live
3) The other conditions necessary to gain a Plenary Indulgence are less than fulfilled.
4) One’s state of heart is contrite, but not fully detached from affections towards sin.
5)Though qualifiable in every other way, a Plenary Indulgence has already been obtained for that day in another way.
Further prescriptions that alert us to additional possibilities are:
6) Less then 5 mysteries were recited
7) The Marian Rosary was interrupted as it was recited
8) No meditation was done on the rosaries' mysteries
These are only a few instances that would lead to a partial indulgence, either by choice or by accident.
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Examining further, please allow me to address portions of is indulgence so that we may ponder deeper as to what are reasonable perimeters and expectations to have when attempting to gain this indulgence:
Addressing “recite.”
Although definitions for this word very slightly, all of them imply a similar theme. Making use of defining words such as repeat, reply, answer, and read aloud it is clear that to recite indicts the use of vocalization. Requirement 2 furthers this assumption by addressing “vocal prayer.”
Why bring this up? Some people, like myself, have made a habit of praying the rosary, but only praying it mentally, or only following along with recited rosaries mentally. However, although I’m not certain 100% about this, everything I’m coming across that defines “reciting” as a verb does not include methods of internal or mental recitation, but rather they seem to be explicitly verbal. Therefore, because of all of this, I speculate that to gain this Plenary Indulgence VOCALIZATION of the rosary is required to some extent.
At what volume? I’m not sure. Will I personally recite the rosary by mouthing the words, but without a sound at times? Very likely. Is a mental rosary still at least a partial indulgence? Yes. If mental rosaries do not qualify for a plenary indulgence it still qualifies as a variation of an incomplete/partial Grant under Marian Prayer, or it would be granted under General Grant I regarding mental invocations.
Addressing “Locations where a rosary may be recited.”
In a church: For all intents and purposes, the church as indicated here is a church building. This ‘church building’ has been built and set apart expressly for the purpose of sacred things. For this Indulgence, one is able to enter a church building and recite a rosary. They may do this communally, or individually.
In an oratory: As a general term Oratory signifies a place of prayer, but technically it means a structure other than a parish church, set aside by ecclesiastical authority for prayer and the celebration of Mass. Similar to above, for this Indulgence, one is able to enter an oratory building and recite a rosary. They may do this communally, or individually.
Anywhere: Good for a partial indulgence, a rosary may be recited at any other location. This would apply to individually recited rosaries, or multi-person rosaries that do not meet the appropriate multi-person qualifications.
Addressing “Groups that a rosary may be recited with.”
Rather then breaking down each group by definition it would be much quicker for us to start with the broadest communal requirement: “in general when several of the faithful gather for some honest purpose.” Why start here? Because this pretty much covers all the other groups. You may recite a rosary “in a family,” and that is a very good thing to do, however, because an Indulgence is able to be obtained by means of several of the faithful gather for some honest purpose, we don’t need to define WHO are considered appropriate family members or if ALL of your family members are expected to participate in order to gain this indulgence. In the same way, we don’t need to quantify HOW MANY members are needed for reciting a rosary in a religious community or an Associations of the Faithful. (Just because not everyone is familiar with what an “Associations of the Faithful” is, I am going to place a define for it at the end of the post.)
So now we know that, in all honestly, any group/gathering of the faithful who recite a Rosary is able to obtain an indulgence. But there is one point left that I want to address. What is meant by “several?” Several is defined as: an indefinite number more than two and fewer than many. This thought of ‘more then two’ is repeated in definitions of the words ‘group,’ ‘association,’ ‘community’ and even ‘family.’ So as far as praying in a group goes it is understood that having only 1 or 2 people will likely not provide the opportunity for a group-related indulgence.
From here, a lot of the addresses are out of my scope of knowledge. Even trying to do research doesn’t produce much information, likely because the specific indulgence information we all are hoping to clarify hasn't been asked often enough or at all! So please bear with me as we ponder and speculate together.
Starting with: Addressing “Reciting with the Supreme Pontiff.”
I admittedly have not watched a lot of rosaries that have been broadcasted and recited by the Supreme Pontiff (that is the Pope). However, even for my lack of knowledge on the subject, I’ve tried to research a thing or two about it. To start off, it looks like this is an occasional event. Unless I'm missing something obvious, I can’t find any outlets that broadcast the rosary with the Pope more than a few times a year at most. Often these rosaries are prayed only for a very special intention (like for the end to an epidemic, or a specific war). The rosary in these past broadcasts are also not lead by the Pope personally, but rather others are leading the rosary as the Pope recites along.
It appears that many times the Vatican website releases a statement about when the Pope plans to live broadcast a rosary. Other then that I haven’t come across many outlets that would notify the public of this unless the public is otherwise looking for this news. (Not to say there aren’t resources and outlets you can follow, just that they haven’t come out in my research). This is all the information I’ve been able to gather about this topic for the moment. If you have any more insight on how this part of the Marian Rosary Indulgence works, please let me know!
Addressing “a third part of the rosary.”
This statement was initially confusing. I have never heard of “a third part of the rosary,” but with a little research it is shown that traditionally the Rosary has been seen as one lump sum of 15 decades. Five decades of the Joyful mysteries, Five decades of the Sorrowful mysteries, and Five decades of the Glorious mysteries all combined into a single unit known as “the rosary.” So, to pray a third part of the rosary, that would have been a very traditional reference to praying a single round of the Joyful mysteries, Sorrowful mysteries, or Glorious mysteries. It has only been in recent times that “the rosary” has alternatively become know as a single round of 5 decades, which thus makes three distinct “rosaries.”
And yet, even with that clarified, there is still some confusion. Back in 2002 Pope John Paul II instituted what is called the Luminous Mysteries or Mysteries of Light. If included this should make 20 mysteries of the rosary, or four distinct “rosaries.” However, for some reason, this goes unmentioned in official indulgence documents. As far as I can tell, these new mysteries have not been rejected by the church, but they have also not been fully endorsed. That’s not totally unexpected, since a mere 22 years is nothing more than a baby as far as time stands in the Church. It is likely that these new mysteries are too young to be included in a world-wide endorsement.
But that does leave a few questions. Are the Luminous Mysteries available for indulgences? The requirement don’t mentions which 15 mysteries they are referring to (though it is implied). I guess I’m just not sure. I also don’t know how best to advise on this. Is it better to avoid the Luminous mysteries until a proper declaration is made? Or is it understood that, in the spirit of being a Marian Rosary, that this rosary type is perfectly sound? Perhaps, if anyone has any contacts with Rome, this would be a good question to bring up. (And then let me know about it please.)
Addressing “meditation on the mysteries.”
To meditate is defined as to: think deeply or focus one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation. But my question here is not what is meditation (I’m sure we’re all familiar with it to an extent), but rather what is ENOUGH meditation for this to satisfy a Plenary indulgence? How deeply do we have to think and ponder over the mysteries of the rosary? Although it is not officially outlined, I believe that announcing what a mystery is as we come to it (ex: “The third Joyful Mystery, Birth of Our Lord.”) is enough. I believe this because in looking up how to publicly pray the rosary in the presence of others (aka. lead a rosary) it is mentioned that this is not required if someone is praying by themselves. If I understand this correctly, this means that if we are praying on our own we are able to pray in the manner of simply addressing a mystery by number. ‘The third Joyful Mystery,’‘the fourth Joyful Mystery,’‘the fifth Joyful Mystery,’ ect. This is an option of praying the rosary that is void of any form of mediation, yet it is still acceptable as a form of praying the rosary in private. So just by simply adding a few words or a short phrase to the mysteries, one not only announces the title of the which mystery they are on but also this initiates meditation. Certainly longer phrases and even bible verses can be added for more material to meditate on, but unless I’m wrong, this should be enough.
Included here is a pdf pamphlet guide on How to Recite the Holy Rosary
Addressing “Requirement 3.”
“3. In its public recitation the mysteries must be announced in accord with approved local custom, but in its private recitation it is sufficient for the faithful simply to join meditation on the mysteries to the vocal prayer.”
For this (again, with no concrete answers) I reference back to the understandings provided in the last address. That it appears that for private recitations, I see no reason why simply addressing a mystery as more than ‘the second, the third, the fourth’ can’t suffice as proper meditation. This would be for privately recited rosaries.
As for public recitation, the mysteries MUST be announced, and in accord with approved local custom. So, regardless of what custom is being used, the mysteries are required to be announced in the same way that would be optional for us in a privately prayed rosary.
That is, as we put the information for both private and public recitations together, we see that addressing the mysteries as ‘first, second, third’ is a valid option for the private prayer, but it’s not associated with an indulgence. It is also NOT an option (it is too little) for a publicly recited rosary. “The annunciation, the visitation, the nativity...” is a meditative option in private (one that opens that person to obtaining an indulgence), but it is a requirement to announcing the mysteries like this for public prayer. Surely, whether public or private, more can be added to the meditation, but for public rosaries this is a required minimum, not an option. Any publicly prayed rosary that does not announce the mysteries would not be seen as a complete rosary at all.
And just to comment on what "local custom"s may look like, this is all about how the mysteries are addressed. Locally, does the announcer say "The Visitation" or "Mary visits Elizabeth"? That would be a local custom.
And I think that’s it. I wish I could have provided more concrete answers to some of these points, but I guess with indulgences being hard to define already, this didn’t go to badly. Again, I remind you that this Grant is one of only a few that can be done every day (it’s not dependent on a special occasion or particular day). For myself, often when I attend Masses on the weekend or occasionally on week days, I find that Praying the Marian Rosary in church (by arriving slightly early or leaving slightly late) is one of my go-to actions to obtain an indulgence. The Catholic Church and many of its saints often recommend that the faithful pray the rosary every day and I to encourage you to do just that. And if you are new to this practice, even a partial indulgence from the rosary (praying parts of the rosary, or praying outside of the listed circumstances) can be very beneficial!
*An Associations of the Faithful is: an association of the Christian faithful or simply association of the faithful, sometimes called a public association of the faithful. It is a group of baptized persons, clerics or laity or both together, who, according to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, jointly foster a more perfect life or promote public worship or Christian teaching, or who devote themselves to other works of the apostolate. Associations of the faithful are distinguished from institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, yet they do have something in common. This group of people intend to become an institute of consecrated life or society of apostolic life, and will normally come together at first as an association of the faithful while they await the decision of the bishop and Holy See to establish them in the desired form.
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