Praying the Rosary with H. Lyman Stebbins (Part One)
To Live the Faith
“Pray always and never lose heart...” (Lk. 18:1)
by H. Lyman Stebbins

This article originally appeared on page 15 of the March 1982 issue of Lay Witness.

Today, once again, let us speak of the Rosary. All you wonderful CUF people are spread out all over the place. We here in the Central Office wish you were all much closer, wish we could see you more often. For CUF is more than the sum of the individuals who constitute it. It is a thing-in-itself, of which we are members to which we (in a literal sense) belong. We are a family; and the word applies to us too, that the family that prays together stays together.

Widely separated as we are, how can we pray together? With all that we have written here during several years we have been groping towards some degree of praying together. It may well be that the one tangible thing which unites us most often is the Holy Rosary, especially now since we have all consecrated ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.[1] Perhaps that bond could be even stronger if many of us could be united in the same general intention for each of the decades. With that in mind I venture to place before you the general intentions which some of us follow here in New Rochelle.[2]

We start with the express intention of offering the Rosary, as praise and worship, to the Divine Majesty, at the hands of the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God, and with the intercession of our own particular patrons in heaven, some of whom we silently name.

Then, whether we are praying the Joyful or the Sorrowful or the Glorious Mysteries, we invariably offer the first decade for those who have died, especially those who were closest or dearest to us in life, or for whom we have some special responsibility.

The second decade is always for our Holy Father the Pope—together with all bishops and clergy in faithful union with him. The entire Church—one, holy, Catholic and apostolic—is included in this intention, since Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia: Where Peter is, there is the Church!

The third decade is always for Catholics United for the Faith, in the sense and spirit found in the official CUF prayer.

The fourth decade is for all those living whom we have promised to pray for or ought to pray for. They are very numerous as a matter of fact: too numerous to be remembered individually each day (the sick people in our parish; a friend’s nephew who had a bad fall; pathetic victims of misfortune or violence whom we read about in the papers . . . ) Probably we cannot remember them all by name; but God can.

And the fifth decade is for all who are especially near or especially dear to us, for all the members of our immediate families, including (perhaps particularly) ourselves as being among those most in need of the divine mercy.

How do those intentions fit in with the separate mysteries?

The First Decade: For all our beloved dead. Let us recall that each one of them was born a member of our fallen and exiled race: Against each of them, as against each of us, the gates of heaven were eternally shut. Think, then, what a shudder of astonished and joyful hope must shake every human soul when it is witness to the ANNUNCIATION! The Angel of the Lord has announced to Mary, and she by her humility and her unconditional self-donation has conceived Him who will open the gates of heaven to all believers, using the Key of the Cross. Alleluia! Alleluia! Lord, receive them into your joy!

But it is yet only an intimation, a hope. The Key has not yet been forged. A price—the dreadful price—must first be paid; and our beloved dead must be witnesses, with us, of that AGONY IN THE GARDEN where our Savior, inconceivably holy and pure, took up the huge chalice of all the putrid sins of us sinners and in His limitless love, overcoming His revulsion and His dread, offered to drain it for our sakes. Lord, be merciful to us sinners! The Sun of Justice Who just now rose upon us at the zenith, in Bethlehem, seems at once to set in the same manner on the Mount of Olives; and all is again enveloped in darkness. The little flicker of newfound joy seems now to have been extinguished. What will follow? Death; burial; darkness; the seeming end, right at the beginning.

But although we must do all our work while we have the light of life, God frequently does His greatest works in the dark. Darkness was upon the face of the deep when God began His creation, saying, “Let there be light!” He, the Light of the world, was brought forth to us in the darkness of midnight, from the darkness of the womb of the Holy Virgin, within the darkness of the cave in the City of David. And it can be thought that the payment of the great Ransom began when, from the Upper Room, Judas went out; and it was night. (Jn. 13:39) Such was the prelude to the Agony, the Crucifixion, the Burial. Our beloved dead are perhaps not exempted from that darkness which fell upon the world.

Yet, very early in the morning on the third day, while it was yet dark to the bodily eye, the RESURRECTION was disclosed. Again—and forever—the Sun had risen: In very truth the Lord had risen from the dead.

Queen of heaven rejoice, alleluia!
for He whom you were worthy to bear, alleluia!
Has risen as He said, alleluia!
Pray for us to God, alleluia!

In that glory the heavens and the earth rejoice; and our beloved dead join in the jubilation. Alleluia!

(Next time: the second and third decades.)

Go to Part Two
Go to Part Three

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[1] The CUF apostolate was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary on August 22, 1981.
[2] CUF was headquartered in New Rochelle, New York, until the summer of 1994, when CUF moved to its present headquarters in Steubenville, Ohio.