I would like to introduce a new rosary devotion derived from the Church's Sacred Liturgy.

The New Rosary Florilegium is a scriptural rosary gathered from the Liturgy of the Hours. As a rosary devotion to Mary's pondering heart, it is also called the Florilegium of the Heart: "Mary kept in mind all these things, pondering them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). Like the Angelus, the Florilegium Rosary offers a verse of scripture for each Hail Mary. It also offers a weekly cycle of seven Mysteries of the Lord, one for each day of the week, as well as three florilegia of scriptures for different liturgical seasons: the Florilegium Joyful for Ordinary Time; the Florilegium Sorrowful for Lent and Advent; and the Florilegium Glorious for Easter and Christmas.

This Florilegium of the Heart answers the call of the Vatican Council to draw Catholic devotions closer to the Sacred Liturgy: Popular devotions of the Christian people are to be highly recommended ... but such devotions should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the Sacred Liturgy, are in some way derived from it and lead the people back to it, since in fact the Liturgy by its very nature is far superior (Sacrosanctum Concilium I.1,V).

The Rosary originated in the Middle Ages in just such a desire of the faithful to imitate the chanting in churches of the Hours. The faithful began to pray an Ave for each of the 150 Psalms of the Psalter, the heart of the Divine Office. They called it Mary's Psalter at first. The Hail Mary consisted at the time only of the verses from Luke. To these scriptural verses the devotion of the faithful added praises and petitions of Mary and Jesus, one for each bead of the rosaries with which they kept count. In the early 1400's the Carthusian Dominic of Prussia assigned 50 scriptural clausulae to each Ave; then in the 15th century the Dominican Blessed Alan of Roche simplified it into 15 mysteries.

Inspired anew by the renewed Liturgy of the Hours, the New Rosary Florilegium aims to bring forth both new and old (Matthew 13:52) out of the treasure of Mary's pondering heart, as the primordial witness to the Mystery of Christ: His mother kept all these things in her heart (Luke 2:51). The three seasonal florilegia gather from the Liturgy of the Hours its most moving scriptural verses and arrange them for meditation on the beads of the rosary, integrating the Holy Rosary with the Divine Office in the ancient tradition of Lectio Divina. A new lay breviary for the contemplative Catholic.

The free website at NewRosary offers a free download of the Florilegium as well as various other devotionals, such as meditations on the mysteries by saints from the Office of Readings and papal teachings on Mary. The Facebook page offers a decade a day, with a link to the webpage for the full rosary of the day. 

There is a separate website at NovumRosarium for the Latin prototype of the New Rosary Florilegium, the Novum Rosarium Florilegium taken directly from the canonical texts of the Church's Novus Ordo and Nova Vulgata. This Florilegium in the mother tongue of the Church is likewise the motherlode of all the English translations based on a modernized Douay Rheims, corrected in light of the Nova Vulgata and New American.

Sanctum Rosarium floribus floret denuo, plantatum secus decursus aquarum de Liturgia Horarum, cum novo hebdomadario mysteriorum in singulos hebdomadae dies, tribusque florilegiis Scripturae ad quodque granum, secundum tempora anni liturgici gaudiosa, dolorosa, et gloriosa.

Quasi ex oleastro excisum et in sacram olivam Liturgiae insertum, sociusque factum radicis et pinguedinis eius, novum rosarium floribus floreat denuo. Verbo Domini plantato ab Ecclesia in sua sancta liturgia, rigante Sancto Spiritu, det Deus Pater incrementum huic Florilegio in cordibus fidelium.

Like a wild olive shoot ingrafted into the olive tree of the Sacred Liturgy, may the Holy Rosary bloom anew, being made a partaker of the root and fatness of that olive. And by the Lord's word planted by the Church in her sacred liturgy, with the Holy Spirit watering, may God the Father give the growth to this Florilegium in the hearts of the faithful.

MIGRATION UPDATE: To manage the New Rosary Florilegium on REDDIT under a proper identity, I am migrating away from this randomized default username. Please find all of our free Rosary resources directly at my new personal profile page: u/SharonRose-Rosary

I went over to visit the plant in Italy to check on production. Books are looking fantastic!

I'd like to offer a decade of today's Rosary Florilegium as an example of this new rosary devotion's liturgical sourcing and architecture.

The Florilegium's Mysteries of the Lord expand upon the Luminous Mysteries of Pope St. John Paul II, both in order to fill out a liturgical cycle of one week (like Compline) and to include more liturgical texts from the Office. The new Luminous Mysteries had precedents in the private devotion of St. George Preca, who wanted to fill in the gap between the canonical Joyful and Sorrowful mysteries with the Lord's public ministry.

The name Luminous evokes Epiphany, Greek for to shine upon or manifest. The Revelation of the Lord on Monday takes its scriptural verses from the offices of Christmastide and Epiphanytide, which conclude with the Baptism of the Lord. These liturgical sequences interrelate the birth of Jesus not only with the epiphany to the Magi but also the miracle at Cana and the Baptism in the Jordan. They are interrelated as revelations of the Lord's divine origin and mission. His transfiguration is a natural fifth to fill out a set of five.

The names of the Florilegium mysteries are all Christocentric biblical phrases. The new Luminous mysteries give only one to the Eucharist. On Sunday the Florilegium's Mystery of Faith devotes a set of five to it, taken from the offices for the Paschal Triduum. On Monday comes the Revelation of the Lord. Tuesday and Wednesday expand upon the "Proclamation of the Kingdom" with the Call of the Lord, taken from the Commons of Apostles, Martyrs, and Holy Men and Women, and the Work of Lord, inspired by the five miracles enumerated by the Lord himself: "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them" (Lk. 7:22).

Below I have pasted in the first decade of today's Revelation of the Lord. It reflects the way that the Office distills the mystery by selecting and juxtaposing verses. The Office's way of digesting biblical narratives is to highlight key verses in antiphons, responsories, and pericopes. The Florilegium imitates this by isolating each verse to ponder for the length of a Hail Mary. The Liturgy's juxtapositions of verses taken from different books of the bible is an implicit explication and illumination of the mystery. The Sacred Liturgy thus traces lines between stars, as it were, to reveal a divine constellation in Sacred Scripture. Today's Revelation In the Manger attempts to convey the power of the Liturgy's doing so.

Each day's Mystery of the Lord has its own Marian doxology which highlights Mary's relation to that mystery of the Lord. The primordial doxology is the one for Thursday's Joy of the Lord:

Vs. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
Mary kept in mind all these words, *
and she pondered them in her heart.

Rs. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
Vs. She wondered at the things spoken of him, *
Rs. And she pondered them in her heart.

Rs. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
Vs. Mary kept in mind all these words, *
Rs. And she pondered them in her heart.

In imitation of the responsories of the Office, biblical verses are interwoven in an antiphonal call-and-response with the Gloria Patri. The whole Florilegium is in fact thus divided up for praying in common, where a leader reads only the scriptural verse and the first line of the Hail Mary, and the rest respond with the bulk of the prayer. In the Marian doxologies, the leader likewiswe takes the lead in reciting verses, and the rest answer with the Gloria Patri and a one-line antiphon easy to repeat, as with the Psalm antiphon at Mass. With this antiphonal framework, only the leader need have the text of the Florilegium; all the rest need only their rosaries, responding with familiar prayers or simple repetitions.

One novelty of the Florilegium is a slight elaboration of the Hail Mary, both for rhythmic and theological reasons: Vs. Hail Mary, hail Full of Grace . . . Rs. Holy Mary, holy Mother of God. The verses of the Hail Mary are taken from the Annunciation narrative in Luke, and it is profoundly important that the angel Gabriel does not greet Mary by her name, but rather renames her: O most graced! In the original Greek text, this is a very odd use of the perfect participle--which always carries a superlative connotation of "the most possible"--used as a substantive in the vocative voice, i.e., as a proper name: O most graced! It's strange enough that even Mary remarks upon it: "She was deeply disturbed by this greeting and ask herself what it could mean." Indeed!

The Latin translators understood the implication of God's renaming Mary in this way--as He did Abraham and Sarah before, and would Peter and Paul later--and they tried to capture the force of the Greek perfect participle with the adjectival phrase Plena gratia, hence our English O Full of grace. The Florilegium attempts to recapture the singularity of this divine salutation in a simple repetition: Hail Mary, hail Full of Grace; and then to reecho it in the responsory with the Church's canoncial title for Mary: Holy Mary, holy Mother of God. These slight repetitions also have the advantage of slowing the rhythm of recitation a bit for even more reverent thoughtfulness.

MONDAY OF THE JOYFUL

The Revelation of the Lord

Let us ponder in our hearts the revelations of the Lord's divinity, kept for us in the heart of Mary, the Mother of God.

FIRST, IN THE MANGER 

A leader begins the Our Father on the large bead.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Rs. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done ... 

(On each small bead, a leader reads the verses only, and the rest respond antiphonally.)

Vs. 1   Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: * for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.  Hail Mary, hail Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Rs. Blessed art thou …

Vs. 2  And gentiles shall walk in your light, * and kings in the brightness of your rising.  Hail Mary, hail Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Rs. Blessed art thou …

Vs. 3  Behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying Where is he that is born the King of Jews? * For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to adore him.  Hail Mary, hail Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Rs. Blessed art thou …

Vs. 4  For it is written: And you Bethlehem, land of Judah, are not least among the princes of Judah: * for out of you shall come forth the Captain who shall rule my people Israel.  Hail Mary, hail Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Rs. Blessed art thou …

Vs. 5  Behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, * until it came and stood over where the child was.  Hail Mary, hail Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Rs. Blessed art thou …

Vs. 6  And seeing the star, * they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.  Hail Mary, hail Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Rs. Blessed art thou …

Vs. 7  And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary, his mother. * And falling down they adored him.  Hail Mary, hail Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Rs. Blessed art thou …

Vs. 8  And opening their treasures, they offered him gifts: * gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Hail Mary, hail Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Rs. Blessed art thou …

Vs. 9  Manifestly great is the mystery of our devotion,* which was revealed in the flesh.  Hail Mary, hail Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Rs. Blessed art thou …

Vs. 10  He has appeared to angels, and been preached among gentiles; * he has been believed in in the world, and assumed in glory.  Hail Mary, hail Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Rs. Blessed art thou …

Vs. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth cried out: *
How is it that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?

Rs. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
Vs. At the sound of Mary’s voice, the infant leaped in her womb, 
and filled with the Holy Spirit she cried out:
Rs. How is it that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?

Rs. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
Vs. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth cried out: *
Rs. How is it that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?

N.B. On the NewRosary website, the verse numbers are live links to Biblehub, to the scriptural texts, context, subtexts, and supertexts.

MIGRATION UPDATE: To manage the New Rosary Florilegium on REDDIT under a proper identity, I am migrating away from this randomized default username. Please find free Rosary resources directly at my new personal profile page: u/SharonRose-Rosary