Review: 'The Liturgical Rosary' from Arouca Press
You could use a different set of meditations for the Rosary every day of the year – and still not have exhausted this little book from Arouca Press.
You could use a different set of meditations for the Rosary every day of the year – and still not have exhausted this little book from Arouca Press.
(WM Round-Up) Arouca Press has brought out the third edition of their lovely little work The Liturgical Rosary.
It is an unusual book, and to my knowledge, nothing of its kind has been produced before. There are many collections of meditations, but none like this.
This small book (about the size of a hand missal, but just a little more than a centimeter thick, with a proper Smyth-sewn binding) contains hundreds of texts to be announced at the start of each mystery of the Rosary.
These texts are short, typically one sentence long, and I estimate that there are between 300 and 400 sets for each of the 15 mysteries. If you say five decades a day, there are enough to mean that you never use the same set of meditations more than once – unless you so choose – and still not have exhausted it the book.
The third edition has been updated to include a fuller set of meditations for every day in Lent. It was also previously in a hardback edition, whereas the new edition is a leather-type cover and appears slimmer.
But this is not simply a massive collection of Rosary meditations. The texts are drawn from Holy Scripture and liturgical texts, and – crucially – ordered according to the Church’s liturgical days and year.
The Foreword (by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski) and an Introduction explain the principles of the work, and how to use it. They stress the importance of both the Rosary and the Divine Office, and advocate an attempt to unite the laity’s prayer of the Rosary with that of the Church’s liturgical prayer. In a review of an earlier edition, Kwasniewski quoted the now-defunct blog The Rad Trad:
“We should liturgize devotion as far as we can, rather than devotionalize the liturgy.”
The Liturgical Rosary, put together by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, represents an attempt at this goal.
How the book works
The idea is to provide a means for us to unite ourselves and our recitation of the Rosary to the public, liturgical prayer of the Church, as it proceeds each day and hour.
For example, if one says the Rosary at 9am on Friday 23rd January, one can use the set of texts drawn from the psalms, antiphons, hymns and prayers of the hour of Terce for Friday from the Divine Office
Alternatively, one could use the text for Fridays in general – drawn from the texts of the feasts of the Sacred Heart, the Precious Blood, the Holy Cross, or a set of texts about the Passion.
Or one could turn to the Sanctoral section, and use the texts drawn from the feast of the day (The Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
Or one could use the texts for “Various Occasions,” which align with the various votive Masses (For the Election of a Pope, For the Defense of the Church, On the Day of Death or Burial, etc.).
At first, I found the text a little disorienting, as I did not read the instructions. But once understood, it is easy enough: each set of texts are numbered 1-15, with the Joyful Mysteries corresponding to 1-5, and so on.
Here, for example, are the texts for the First Sunday of Lent:
In addition to these texts, which make up the greater part of the book, there is one set of extended meditations for each mystery, as well as a set of 15 Gregorian chant antiphons to sing.
Unfortunately the third edition includes a few incorrect page references – but Arouca have published an errata page to print here.
This book provides a wealth of material, but it might be beneficial for a fourth edition to include at least one set of texts for each Hail Mary, as found in St. Louis de Montfort’s Fourth and Fifth Methods for saying the Rosary, or in Angelus Press’ Rosary Warfare. However, both these sets feature quite long texts, as St. Louis de Montfort’s are not always focused on the mysteries at hand. I have previously published two sets in this style, drawing on the Old Testament and New Testament, with texts of a more manageable length.
Conclusion
I received a review copy towards the end of 2025, and I wanted to use it for a while before reviewing it. Very quickly it became an essential part of my family’s daily Rosary, and we hardly ever say the Rosary without it.
Personally, I like to use the texts for the upcoming Sunday: five decades a day means that we can go through the fifteen texts for the mysteries at least twice before the Sunday itself – helping to make that the spiritual high point towards the rest of the week is directed, and preparing us to celebrate it properly.
About Arouca Press
Arouca Press was founded in 2018 by Alex Barbas, a family man and former seminarian living in Canada. The name refers to a religion in northern Portugal noted for its devotion to the Catholic religion. Their stated mission is:
“… to publish out-of-print Catholic books that re-invigorate the contemplative life and to release original titles that provoke discussion about the contemporary world through the perennial lens of the Catholic faith.”
Their About page reads:
“Our fidelity to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church is grounded by a radical adherence to eternal truths that can never change. These truths, which the Catholic Church proclaims in their beauty and grandeur, challenge our modern inclinations to disassociate ordinary living from sacramental life or reduce religion to mere abstraction.
“To combat these tendencies, we must incarnate these truths in our daily lives and recuperate the ideas that have aided Christians in their pursuit of holiness with integrity, intelligence, and a deep love for the faith.”
Their catalog includes several other important or edifying works, including:
The Church Speaks to the Modern World: The Social Teachings of Leo XIII (ed. Gilson)
Mgr. G. Van Noort’s Dogmatic Theology series:
Vol. I: The True Religion
Vol. II: Christ’s Church: Dogmatic Theology
Vol. III: The Sources of Revelation – Divine Faith
The Life of Christ (Ludolph the Carthusian, 2 vols.)
Christ Wants More: Ignatian Principles and Ideals on Prayer and Action (Fr Holland SJ)
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Great review. Does the ebook have the same errors as the printed version? The shipping is prohibitive outside of the USA and Canada for a single copy.