On October 16, 2002, then reigning Pope John Paul II declared a year of the Rosary, and in conjunction with which, he added 5 Mysteries [the Luminous Mysteries], which were to be optional, because no Pope can mandate a break with Tradition, binding the faithful under pain of sin.

Pope Paul VI thought of doing the same but changed his mind because even he realized that such a course would be unwise and an abuse of his plenary powers. Unfortunately, he did not retain this wisdom regarding the Holy Mass, although he never abrogated the Immemorial Roman Mass, since he had no such authority. The Mass is not man-made it is Christ-given, and safeguarded through the ages from Apostolic times, and the Rosary in the form we know today was given to Saint Dominic by Our Lady. Like the "new Mysteries" the Novus Ordo was designed to be an Indult or a permissive option, but because modernists were in charge, the Immemorial Roman Mass became the "Indult" and the New Mass mandatory de facto if not de jure or the norm. And so it has gone with the Luminous "Mysteries". In most Rosary sodalities and circles they have become mandatory and if a Catholic, such as myself, and perhaps you, maintain Tradition and refuse to say the man-made Luminous "Mysteries", one is told that she is being disobedient. The state of the laity is such today that those who used to know better no longer do, refusing to take the pontiff at his own word, that is, he said, optional! As John Vennari, editor of Catholic Family News, observed, Pope John II, the "Pope of Unity" as he was sometimes called, "served to again further divide Catholics". Speak of irony, not to say an insult to Heaven. You see, Our Lady called the Rosary, which she gave to St. Dominic her "Psalter", in reference to the 150 Psalms and the custom of monks and the Saints of writing corresponding Marian Psalms to honor Our Lady and to chant or pray over the course of the liturgical year. The ancient Irish monks divided the Biblical Psalms into three groups of 50, as did St. Thomas Aquinas, for the three stages of a pious man's life: penance, justice, glory. Each Hail Mary of the 15 decades corresponds to both the long ago Marian Psalter as well as to the Psalms of David. Later the Marian Psalms were replaced by the common people with the Hail Mary, which had always been a devotion in of itself. When she appeared to St. Dominic the Blessed Virgin Mary said, preach "my Psalter" meaning the recitation of the 150 Hail Marys of three groups of 50, which the pious faithful who loved her so had recited but the practice had so dwindled in St. Dominic's time that souls were in great peril.

When Pope John Paul II issued the new "Mysteries", he said that the depth of Christology in the traditional Rosary was not complete! Imagine this, Our Lady was so lacking in Christology [knowledge of Christ] she was unable to impart the full Rosary to Dominic! Imagine the Mother of God, deficient in understanding her own Son, she who is Mediatrix of all graces, she to whom Jesus Christ has given full plenary powers over sinners as the Mother of Refuge!

The pope is not in the Chair of Peter "for the purpose of being an innovator", or "change agent", but to safeguard Tradition, as John Vennari further wrote. For 800 years the newly consecrated pope took an oath wherein he promised to hold to received Tradition and vowed to avoid adding anything new that would constitute a break with Tradition. If he would do so he stated that God would not be merciful to him. This means that it is humanly speaking a possibility that a pope could so depart from the patrimony of the Church, or such an oath would not have been necessary. The modern popes did not take this oath and we know the sorry results.

The purpose of this directory, The Secret of Mary, is three-fold:

To render honor to the Mother of God, and our Mother, by holding to Tradition and defending the Rosary as given by Our Lady to Saint Dominic;

To make reparation for a blasphemous web site that appears to have borrowed one of our Marian images and then used it for their page on which they call the Ever Virgin Mother of God such an ugly name I refuse to repeat it here;

The Secret of the Rosary is already on line in text format or partially on line in graphic format, but no where is the full book on line as a Gallery of Mary, that is, until now. I have worked hard for weeks to render this little offering as beautiful as possible, recognizing that no efforts can possibly be worthy of the majesty of Our Lady's Psalter, let alone the resplendent glory that is Mary's alone, above all other creatures, in Heaven, and on earth.

The above image appears in the Christmas directory, but we are reusing it here, slightly altered in the background, for the following reasons:

It depicts the newly born Infant King in His Mother's arms, Our Lady in tender adoration: the Joyful Mysteries; the coming Passion of Christ and Mary's Sorrows are prefigured by the red in Our Lady's robes and in the background: the Sorrowful Mysteries; and the gold in the nimbus, halo, and trim: the Glorious Mysteries----this too, by way of reparation for that hideous web site. Gazing at the sweetness of the above image, can anyone with an ounce of faith, that is the true religion, ever think of calling the Immaculate Mother of God such a calumny, which begins with the letter that comes before X in the English alphabet? The person who designed the card from which our image is taken may not be a Catholic, we have no idea, but this is a distinct possibility, and if this is the case, then even a non-Catholic can recognize our Lady's dignity.

You would be amazed at the e-mail received decrying devotion to Mary, mainly from Protestants who are ignorant and on occasion from Catholics who are even more so or of actual bad will! The latter always demoralizes me. I rarely answer this kind of e-mail because the tone of the writers indicates, from long experience, that their minds are already made up and they are merely "venting spleen." Almost as if they are more afraid of the truth convicting their hearts and are trying to convince themselves, not me. Since they tell me they have read various articles, etc., I decided to post pages like this directory, instead. Devout Catholics tell me how much they appreciate them.

O Mary Immaculate, I, a woeful sinner, presume to love thee and to defend thy honor, I, who am most in need of thy patronage, acknowledge my bounden service to thee, I proclaim thy sublime perfections, and I offer this directory for the salvation of sinners destined for Hell otherwise . . . May the most beautiful creature in all of God's creation, and her great gift to her spiritual children, after her Fiat in becoming the Mother of God, the 15 decade Rosary or "Psalter", be once more cherished and prized as the key to Heaven by Catholics [and non-Catholics] everywhere for all time. I can never weary of saying HAIL MARY, and may these be the last two words of my dying breath . . .