Prayer To St. Michael / Praying The Rosary

[superblue]

In the early years of the Church, Pope Leo XIII has either stated we should or asked that the prayer to St. Michael be prayed ( I can not remember nor find reference if it was to be said after the mass or before or just in private ) along with a few priests back in history who emphasized praying the Rosary....

 

Why are we not hearing more about praying the Rosary, and was the prayer to St. Michael intended to prayed in private or before or after mass, and if so why is it not being prayed ?   I do know of plenty or Rosary prayer groups but we hear more about the Knights of Columbus than we do hear about being asked to join the Rosary prayer group, and just curious on thoughts...

[Spem in alium]

I'm not the best to answer your question, but just wanted to add my two cents: I've prayed with a Rosary group in my Parish occasionally - they pray together every Tuesday - and as far as I remember they say the Prayer to St Michael after the Rosary. So that's at least one place it's being prayed regularly. :)

[Perigrina]

Many parishes have a time for group recitation of the Rosary before or after weekday Mass.  Some also do the St. Michael prayer.  One parish where I often attend weekday Mass has a Rosary before and the St. Michael prayer immediately after.  And lots of people include the St.Michael in their personal prayers.

 

Anywhere they do the traditional Latin Mass is likely to the St. Michael prayer immediately after Low Mass, according to the original instruction. They would not be likely to say it after High Mass.  Where I usually attend the Latin Mass, it is a High Mass and we do a Rosary before Mass and a few other prayers, include the St. Michael.

[Credo in Deum]

The Leonine prayers ordered By Pope Leo XII to be said after low mass are the: Ave Maria x3, Salve Regina, O'God our refuge and our strength..., prayer to St. Michael, and then the ejaculation "Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us."  I do not remember which part St. Pius X modified.  I believe he added the ejaculation, but I'm not sure. 

 

Why we no longer say them after Mass in the Novus Ordo, I couldn't tell you.  From what I've been able to find is that Paul VI made it so they were no longer mandatory after low mass.  Once the "spirit of V2" was implemented, traditional things which became optional soon found themselves discarded.  

 

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2014 by Credo in Deum

[Perigrina]

Why we no longer say them after Mass in the Novus Ordo, I couldn't tell you.  From what I've been able to find is that Paul VI made it so they were no longer mandatory after low mass.  Once the "spirit of V2" was implemented, traditional things which became optional soon found themselves discarded.  

 

Pope Paul VI recognized this problematic attitude and wrote about it. In Marialis Cultis http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19740202_marialis-cultus_en.html he wrote:

 

In this context we wish to mention two attitudes which in pastoral practice could nullify the norm of the Second Vatican Council. In the first place there are certain persons concerned with the care of souls who scorn a priori, devotions of piety which, in their correct forms have been recommended by the magisterium, who leave them aside and in this way create a vacuum which they do not fill. They forget that the Council has said that devotions of piety should harmonize with the liturgy, not be suppressed.

 

While people may use "the spirit of Vatican II" as a excuse to suppress devotions, Pope Paul was very clear in this quote and throughout the encyclical that they are misunderstanding and misapplying the Council.  Two prayers which specifically mentioned in this encyclical are the Angelus and the Rosary. This is what he wrote about the Rosary:

 

We wish now, venerable Brothers, to dwell for a moment on the renewal of the pious practice which has been called "the compendium of the entire Gospel": the Rosary. To this our predecessors have devoted close attention and care. On many occasions they have recommended its frequent recitation, encouraged its diffusion, explained its nature, recognized its suitability for fostering contemplative prayer-prayer of both praise and petition-and recalled its intrinsic effectiveness for promoting Christian life and apostolic commitment.

We, too, from the first general audience of our pontificate on July 13, 1963, have shown our great esteem for the pious practice of the Rosary. Since that time we have underlined its value on many different occasions, some ordinary, some grave.

 

And, in spite of this, in many places, people were not taught to value the Rosary.  I personally remember being taught in RCIA in the late 70s that the Rosary was not valuable for a modern educated Catholic. It belonged to a time when people were ignorant and illiterate. I was not taught how to pray it.  (I was also not taught how to go to Confession, but that is another story.)

 

Interestingly, Pope Paul VI saw praying the Rosary among families as a logical extension of Vatican II, rather than something the Council had made outmoded, as I was mistakenly taught:

 

We now desire, as a continuation of the thought of our predecessors, to recommend strongly the recitation of the family Rosary. The Second Vatican Council has pointed out how the family, the primary and vital cell of society, "shows itself to be the domestic sanctuary of the Church through the mutual affection of its members and the common prayer they offer to God."(115) The Christian family is thus seen to be a domestic Church"(116) if its members, each according to his proper place and tasks, all together promote justice, practice works of mercy, devote themselves to helping their brethren, take part in the apostolate of the wider local community and play their part in its liturgical worship.(117) This will be all the more true if together they offer up prayers to God. If this element of common prayer were missing, the family would lack its very character as a domestic Church. Thus there must logically follow a concrete effort to reinstate communal prayer in family life if there is to be a restoration of the theological concept of the family as the domestic Church.

[AveMariaPurissima]

In my parish (mostly NO Masses, with a TLM once a week), we pray the St. Michael prayer after all the Masses, between the Dismissal and the closing hymn. :)  We say the Rosary often too...I think the Rosary is prayed either before or after the majority of the Masses.  (and we have many!)

[superblue]

 I have been keeping up with responses and find it interesting thus far, would I be correct in that, the pray to St. Michael, was not a decree by Pope Leo XII or was it and it has been for the most part ignored or is just only on occasion prayed at some parishes ?  And Perig, you have posted some interesting things,  I do wonder why some people would want to suppress such devotions at all ? And to be taught ever that the Rosary was not valuable I find weird,,, I  " teach " ( I use that word lightly more like a volunteer ) 8th grade religious education, and I briefly touched on the importance of the Rosary,  and I hope to better educate myself on the Rosary before I return in the fall, And our religious director even questioned the children on the Rosary as well so we are all trying.  Though I know I didn't really appreciate things until later in life so anyhow, planting the seeds now for later I suppose.