A popular Rosary prayer was originally written for Mass

October features the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, and the prayer that many recite at the end of the Rosary can be traced to the prayers for this Mass.

The Rosary is one of the most popular devotional prayers in the Catholic Church and when learning how to pray the Rosary, many are taught a variety of additional prayers.

For example, at the end of the Rosary the next prayer is the Hail, Holy Queen. Many will pray this prayer while holding the medal that joins the crucifix extension to the loop of the rosary.

In addition to the Hail, Holy Queen, many Catholics will pray a “concluding prayer.“

Mass prayer for feast of the Holy Rosary

Prior to Vatican II, the opening prayer for the feast of the Most Holy Rosary, traditionally called the “Collect” prayer, was the following prayer translated into English.

O God, whose only-begotten Son,
by His life, death, and resurrection,
has purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation;
grant we beseech Thee,
that meditating upon these mysteries
of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise.
Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

This feast was celebrated on the first Sunday of October.

If those words sound familiar, it is because that prayer is typically given as a “concluding prayer” to the Rosary in many booklets and pamphlets describing how to pray the Rosary.

The prayer perfectly summarizes a central theme of the Rosary, where we hope that in “meditating upon these mysteries,” we may “imitate what they contain.”

After Vatican II the feast was moved to October 7 and given a new opening prayer, which might also sound familar.

Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord,
your grace into our hearts,
that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son
was made known by the message of an Angel,
may, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
by his Passion and Cross
be brought to the glory of his Resurrection.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

For those who are familiar with the Angelus devotion, the above prayer serves as the concluding prayer to that devotion.

It is fascinating how often popular devotion and the Mass are united together and benefit from each other.