Each member strives to pray the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary each week¹ (this does not bind under sin²), and must have his/her name inscribed in the register of the Confraternity. There are no meetings, and no dues. As we pray, we pray also for the intentions of all the other members of the Rosary Confraternity worldwide, living and deceased.

Since Pope Saint John Paul II added the five luminous mysteries, we encourage members of the Confraternity to include that extra weekly Rosary. However, we have as yet received no official statement regarding this matter. Those who recite only the fifteen traditional mysteries will continue to share in the benefits of the Rosary Confraternity until some official source declares the contrary.

¹ This means praying one Rosary each of the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries (3 Rosaries) in the course of a week. If you already pray the rosary at least this often you do not need to add any additional rosaries during the week to fulfill this requirement.

² The phrase ‘this does not bind under sin’ means that if you do not fulfill the obligation, it is NOT a sin, not even a venial one. Of course you miss out on the graces and blessings that would have come through your prayers.

1. The special protection of the Mother of God.
2. A share in the prayer of many hundreds of thousands of members the world over, even after death.
3. A share in the prayers, Masses and apostolic works of the entire Order of Preachers.
4. The intercession of the entire heavenly court.
5. Various plenary and partial indulgences.
6. Six times a year the Rosary Center publication THE ROSARY, LIGHT AND LIFE is sent to those members who wish it. Its purpose is to provide sound doctrine and spiritual guidance for readers everywhere.

1. For members of the Rosary Confraternity, a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, is granted:
   1. on the day of enrollment. (When application is made, a certificate of membership is sent, indicating the day of the enrollment.)
   2. on the following feast days: Christmas, Easter, Annunciation, Purification, Assumption, Our Lady of the Rosary, and Immaculate Conception.
2. For those who pray the Rosary, a plenary indulgence is granted under the usual conditions, when the Rosary is prayed in Church, or in a Public Oratory, in a family (family Rosary), Religious Community, or Pious Association. Otherwise a partial indulgence is granted. (EI 48)
3. A partial indulgence is granted to those who use a Rosary blessed by a priest (see below), even if five decades are not recited. The indulgence is plenary on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, if the blessing was performed by the pope or a bishop. (following EI 35)

A few notes on indulgences

1. An indulgence is the cancellation of temporal punishment due for sin, when the sin’s guilt has already been pardoned.
2. An indulgence is partial if it frees the Christian partially from the temporal punishment due for his sins, plenary if it frees him wholly.
3. Both partial and plenary indulgences can always be applied to the dead, but only by way of suffrage.
4. Since the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul VI on Indulgences, a partial indulgence is no longer expressed in reference to time, i.e. days or years.
5. A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day, except by those on the threshold of death.
6. To gain a plenary indulgence the person must perform the indulgenced act, and satisfy these conditions: Sacramental Confession, Holy Communion, prayer for the Pope’s intention, and freedom from all attachment to sin, even venial sin. If this detachment is not present, or if any of the above conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence is partial.

For more information on indulgences, here is an article by Fr. Paul Duffner, OP:
https://rosary-center.org/ll41n6.htm

Blessing of a Rosary by a Priest ^*

Until the promulgation of Inter Oecumenici in 1964, the blessing of Rosaries was a reserved blessing, and only priests of the Dominican Order could bless them. That is why the older Roman Rituals did not contain a blessing for Rosaries. Today any priest or deacon may bless a Rosary using formulas in use from 1964 to 1984 or the formula found in the new Liber Benedictionum of 1984 (LB 506):

May this Rosary and the one who uses it be blessed, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit.
R/. Amen.

Dominican priests, however, may wish to use the blessings proper to our Order. The first of these is a longer formula which is especially suitable when blessing Rosaries for members of the Rosary Confraternity:

BLESSING OF ROSARIES: LONGER FORMULA

The priest wears a white stole, and says:

V/. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R/. Who made heaven and earth.
V/. The Lord be with you.
R/. And with your spirit.

Let us Pray:
Almighty and merciful God, on account of your very great love for us, you willed that your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, should come down from heaven to earth, and at the angel’s message take flesh in the most sacred womb of Our Lady, the most blessed Virgin Mary, submit to death on the cross, and then rise gloriously from the dead on the third day, in order to deliver us from Satan’s tyranny. We humbly beg you, in your boundless goodness to bless + and to sanctify + these rosaries, which your faithful Church has consecrated to the honor and praise of the Mother of your Son. Let them be endowed with such power of the Holy Spirit, that whoever carries one on his person or reverently keeps one in his home, or devoutly prays to you while meditating on the divine mysteries, according to the rules of his holy society, may fully share in all the graces, privileges and indulgences which the Holy See has granted to this society. May he always and everywhere be shielded from all enemies, visible and invisible, and at his death deserve to be presented to you by the most blessed Virgin Mary herself, Mother of God. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.
R/. Amen.

They are then sprinkled with Holy Water. When the blessing is not done for members of the Confraternity or when brevity is more suitable, the shorter formula may be used:

BLESSING OF ROSARIES: SHORT FORMULA

To the honor and glory of Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, in memory of the mysteries of the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, the same Jesus Christ, may this crown of the most holy Rosary be blessed + and sanctified + in the name of the Father, + and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
R/. Amen.

If several Rosaries are blessed the plural is used; use of stole and holy water are optional.

^* http://dominican-liturgy.blogspot.com/2008/10/rosary-blessings-and-indulgences.html, October 12, 2008.

1. Those who faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. The recitation of the Rosary will cause virtue and good works to flourish. It will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God. It will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
6. Those who recite my Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. In his justice, God will not chastise them; nor shall they perish by an unprovided death, i.e., be unprepared for heaven. Sinners shall convert. The just shall persevere in grace and become worthy of eternal life.
7. Those who have a true devotion to the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who faithfully recite the Rosary shall have, during their life and at their death, the light of God and the plenitude of his graces. At the moment of death, they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
11. By the recitation of the Rosary you shall obtain all that you ask of me.
12. Those who propagate the holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of their death.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my beloved children and the brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion for my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.(Given to St. Dominic and Bl. Alan de la Roche)

Nihil Obstat: Rev. Bryan Kromholtz, O.P., Censor Deputatus
Imprimi Potest: Very Rev. Mark C. Padrez, O.P., Provincial, Province of the Holy Name of Jesus