About

The Brookline Rosary Society is a group of Brookline residents seeking to increase devotion to the Holy Rosary in daily life, first of all in their own families, and secondly in the neighborhood we share.

Three precepts guide the group. The first is simple, though not unchallenging: the group’s members make a best-effort commitment to recite the rosary daily. While few would deny that daily prayer is a positive good, most people do not pray daily; most who do not pray daily fail to by failing to make a commitment to do so.

The second precept is that, in their daily rosaries, Society members must remember the growth in holiness, good intentions, and general welfare of the other members of the Society. By praying mutually in this manner, members of the Society are guaranteed to have the full weight of the Society’s prayers behind their good intentions.

The third precept is one of spreading devotion to the Holy Rosary. By virtue of our baptism, we are all called to spread the Gospel; the rosary has been called, by many saints, the “Gospel on one’s knees” or the “Gospel on beads.” In ways too numerous to mention, spreading devotion to the rosary is an ideal way to increase devotion generally. To fulfill this third precept, the Brookline Rosary Society organizes public recitations of the Holy Rosary periodically, inviting all nearby to join in prayer.

First of all, let the other members know that you want to join, so that your intentions, growth in holiness, and welfare are remembered in the rosary intentions of the other members. Then commit to fulfilling the three precepts: offer a daily rosary, remember the Society’s membership in your daily rosary, and spread devotion to the rosary in your daily life (particularly right here in Brookline).

With cell phones, the internet, and other means of mass communication at everyone’s fingertips, it may seem odd to limit ourselves to only those nearest us. But the most meaningful human interactions are the ones we have in person, face to face, on the human scale. The third precept -- that of promoting devotion to the rosary -- is the principal motivator behind keeping the Society specific to our neighborhood. Evangelical efforts are most effective in face-to-face settings; for this reason, we begin in the neighborhood in which we live, and in which we are invested. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, though all things are possible with God.