TIME LINE OF THE STEP-BY-STEP ROSARY PRAYERS
- to close the Wreath as we never use the freemasonary 'circle' -
2024
The Step-by-Step Commander Cross Rosary© is our contribution to men praying the Rosary. We are trying to fill our website with material useful for men, regardless of your age. Bishop Athanasius asked for more knights in 2019, and most knights were men.
We need loads of men who pray the Rosary, who will lead and who will guide their families in prayer and in life!
The beginning of 2024 was, in one way, a resting period as we reached our targets at the end of 2023. We managed to finish our work with our Step-by-Step Rosary booklet, which is to be printed. It currenly exist in eleven languages and there are some small bits and pieces that need to viewed.
We did fail improving our websites - or more so - we knew that we have not yet completed our products and therefore, why waste time and money on our web until we do have a proper product?
At the same time, the structural changes clearly showed us the way forward and why bother until we were fully on board?.
One of our aims was to have all our booklets for sale by Easter 2024. (unfortunately, or maybe there is a meaning) it was a rather early Easter in 2024 and we did not managed to complete our aim.
At the same time, the the booklets are in a final touch so we reather have all corrections amended before printing.
2023
At the end of 2023, the Step-by-Step Rosary Community have prayed more than 410 consecutive Saturday Rosaries since February 2016. It is in total more than 420 Saturday Rosaries since the foundation of the prayer group during Summer 2015.
Suddenly, all points, and all questions were solved and the authors level of perfection had been reached. The idea of perfection had been reached many years ago, and the three words had been said several times: It is finished.
The Sorrowful mysteries was printed and it was perfect. For the first time in seven years, we held in our hand something we had no idea then, that this was the result.
Why are prayers in Latin included in the booklets or webpages?
In today's world, it may seem strange to include Latin, a "dead" language, into the modern world. Latin is not a "dead" language, it is a language that ceased to develop which is a difference. As Latin ceased to develop, it remained intact over the centuries of modernization of languages. Here below, are some of the key points why our founder has been clear all through the years of why we are to keep the Latin prayers in all our material.
2022
And then, 2022, a year in which we were at the finish line, with some slight amendments but all products were in order. We had quite cleary two different products that previous year were three. Our consequtive "300-saturday-rosaries" booklet led us the way. We went back to our roots, and came up with a retro-edition.
Commander Cross Rosary and the Battlefield Rosary decided to join forces and will merge its products during the year. We had clients in France, the US and in Sweden. Our patron was invited to give presentations. We went from a "data-collecting" entity to start getting out and talk with priests and parish priests. Booklets were printed and handed out for people to test. The season of Lent invited us to our now standard-fasting and March 25, (or the week before) gave us a surprise with the Pope Francis I having decided that Russia was to consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary together with Ukraine.
A Rosary was produced to fill the day with prayers for a successful consecration. It was a long but also an exiting day to spend in prayers.
On the birthday of Virgin Mary, Sept. 8, we believe we cracked the code concerning the "O my Jesus ... prayer and its location or more so, the reason for the location. This has been bothering us for several years.
2021
Lockdowns were still in play in 2021,even though many countries eased up. We had come to a point where we felt that we had reached the finish line. We had more printed copies out in various sizes to test to see what worked. Our updates became more of "cosmetic" with a few occations with larger important changes. We were all in a country that did not lockdown. The police presence were minimum even if the police force tried to stop demonstrations. Gyms were open. Bars were open. Restaurants were open. We could actually commence our planning for 2022 in time to have a lot of material ready.
There was a change politically, and immediately we could see that the government had waited to impose a wee tougher restrictions which it had failed earlier.
Lucky for us, and for the world, the O-variant appeared, and it did not become as deadly as the government/s had hoped or planned for. We could see Austria introducing forced vaccination. Germany also wanted to force vaccinate its tax paying people. But, the UK not-so-prime-minister had been boozing and the UK failed to introduce another lockdown ...
The 40-day St. Martin fast (a traditional Fast until Dec 21) was a success as it was only our second year.
2020
It was quite clear of what was going on early 2020, and we realized that it was a results from the Amazon Synod and the introduction of idolatry, the parading of the ugly wooden idol into the heart of the St. Peters Basilica.
The plantation of the tree with a priestess in the Vatican Garden (The tree must in due time be removed and burnt and the ground must be exorcised) was quite a shock to watch in 2019.
This was going to be a rough ride.
In January 2020, the founder was at a meeting with the head of a family who have a large art collection to see if we had a chance to use the illustrations of the art collection in our work. This resulted in a cooperation where we were allowed to use the illustrations. 'The Art of Christianity' (reg:2020/01379) was registered in March 2020. The various websites in our Step-by-Step community released its content online during 2020 as we all realized that churches were locking its doors. None of us had intented to focus on our websites but as all were released for people in need, we decided to do so.
Shortly before Palm Sunday, when images of chained church doors travelled through the social media channels, we released online; all our Rosary material, in three languages, and all for free.
We even had a website we called 'Battlefield Rosary' ( www.battlefieldrosary.com ) which years later on were merged into the Commander Cross Rosary. The Battlefield Rosary was to participate in the various US Grace Force battle missions led by Father Rick Heilman.
The good thing as we were locked out from churches and the hierarchy tried to tell people to watch Mass online etc, was that you suddenly had so many opportunties to find useful websites, but also online churches. Sweden tried to stand-alone against the idea of lockdowns.
Suddenly, priests became household names, priests that had his flock to care for, suddenly had millions of people becoming part of the flock. Suddenly, you heard wise words from wonderful priests, and private individuals like
Mr. Michael Matt and The Remnant . Their websites were suddenly another source for information and inspiration. All to keep sane in the upside-down world.
Shortly before the 40-days Easter fasting starting on Ash Wednesday 2021, we (again) believed that we had now closed the the Wreath and our job was finished with the Rosary. Commander Cross Rosary starts its pure and simple and straight to the point Step-by-Step Rosary. No fuzz - just straight to the point Rosary!
We were then swinging like crazy all over the place trying to come up with Rosaries that could be useful:
There are add-ons such as litanies, novenas, chaplets etc.
It was a hectic period indeed.
2019
In 2019, our own little community prayed, still every Saturday, our "Extended Step-by-Step Rosary" version.
By May 2019, we thought;
"This is it! (again - our remark)
It cannot be improve any further, it is complete, it is ready to go into production!"
Again, it ... "but we should wait for the high quality photos ... but the material and structure is all set. Artwork is in place..." etc.
The name of one of the Step-by-Step Rosary community members, 'The Society of the Holy Rosary', registered in October 2019, comes from the text of the Augustissimae Virginis Mariae , and it was written by Pope Leo XIII, as an Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary on 12 September 1897.
"This is exactly what I want to create. This is the way forward!"
"7. We do not hesitate to assign a pre-eminent place among these societies to that known as the Society of the Holy Rosary. If we regard its origin, we find it distinguished by its antiquity, for St. Dominic himself is said to have been its founder. If we estimate its privileges, we see it enriched with a vast number of them granted by the munificence of our predecessors. The form of the association, its very soul, is the Rosary of Our Lady, of the excellence of which We have elsewhere spoken at length. Still the virtue and efficacy of the Rosary appear all the greater when considered as the special office of the Sodality which bears its name. ... Those who practise this manner of prayer will never fail to obtain certain fruit. Such is certainly the case with members of the Rosary Sodality."
Commander Cross Rosary launched its first website on September 13, 2019 acting on per request from Cardinal Leo Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider concerning prayers before the Amazon synod.
Shortly before we launched our first Step-by-Step Rosary website as an answer to the call from Cardinal Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider, on Sept 13, 2019, our Step-by-Step Rosary prayer package consisted of 44 pages.
The Commander Cross Rosary community participated in the worldwide Rosary prayers on Dec. 6, 2019. Our founder was on his way back from Tokyo, and prayed the Dec. 6 Rosary flying across Russia.
The foundation of the Eight Days Rosary for the Deceased was, in a sad moment, born while praying the Rosary in Tokyo for a deceased.
We decided early on in our work with the Step-by-Step Rosary that the sacred language Latin was to be present as much as possible, regardless if you as a user use it or not.
After the launch in 2019, we developed three stand-alone and seperate structures of our Step-by-Step Rosary.
The idea of these three formats, is that it allows our users to hopefully grow in their Rosary prayers.
2018
During 2018, our "basic" version was 20 pages but all the Step-by-Step Rosary's were structured in a "format". By August 2018, we had a permission from a Princely family to use parts of its art collection. We then structured the Step-by-Step Rosary's in different versions.
The "free" version was something we could easily give away - for free. Then we had a basic version which was quite simple. It continued with several versions building up the prayer material, still in a Step-by-Step format.
2017
By 2017, our Step-by-Step Rosary prayer package consisted of 16 pages. We had it in English, German, French, Swedish, Latin and Spanish. In August, the name Rosenkransens Vänner was officially registered.
2016
In January 2016, the un-named prayer group moved from a local church to a chapel to continue its Rosary prayers. A few weeks later, the name Rosenkransens Vänner ('Friends of the Rosary') became the official name of the prayer group, as it was put on the 24 page broschure, for the first time on the birthday (Feb. 21) of one of the co-founders of the original prayer group - but now became a co-founder with his brother of Rosenkransens Vänner.
The devotion, the "First Saturday" are actually several devotions depending on which one that is in focus. Today, many websites call the Fatima "Five First Saturdays" as "First Saturday's when there is a way older "First Saturday..." which in return is linked to the "First Friday ..." and is the first Saturday in each month all year through.
The Fatima "First Saturday..." is actually the first Saturday in May, June, July, August, Sept and October.
Somehow, and it is at the time of writing this text, unclear why the prayer group was to commence a "Five First Saturday's devotion" but it is for sure connected to the research around Fatima.
Said and done - it was decided to commence the "Five first Saturdays ..." in the new chapel, as a good intention now when we had a new location.
The un-namned prayer group prayed the Rosary on the first Saturday in January, the second Saturday in January, the third Saturday in January, then the first Saturday in February and the second Saturday in February.
Then, we had a discussion of how great it was to do the first five Saturdays - shall we continue? It was decided to continue to pray the Rosary every Saturday.
And, lucky us!
Here follows a small note in the Five First Saturdays success:
Our 100th in a row Saturday Rosary was shortly before Christmas Eve in 2017.
Our 200th in a row Saturday Rosary was around All Saints Day in Nov. 2019.
Our 250th consecutive Saturday was the day before Palm Sunday in 2021.
Our 395th Saturday in a row was Aug. 12, 2023 ... and still counting.
2015
Our first Step-by-Step version of the Rosary came into play in August 2015 when a un-named prayer group was formed.
2014
In February 2014, the Rosary broschure was now prepared and structured so it could be used by the community on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. One mystery per broschure, still 16 pages. By March 2015, the Stations of the Cross broschure was introduced to the community while on pilgrimage. It contained 20 pages.
2013
By March 2013, imagine the joy of the author to an A5-booklet, 16 pages in total (with six pages being "I-should-add-useful-prayers-to fill-the-gap) when all the work now resulted in a printable 'broschure'.
The foundation of the Step-by-Step Rosary was marked.
One of the problems early on was that all the online-rosary material showed only the headline of the mystery, or just a reference or a link to the scripture of the mystery. This was odd in the perspective of learning of how to pray the Rosary, as you had to either be a 'bible scholar' or carry along your Bible to able to pray the Rosary. This did not help a beginner!
And, even if you have knowledge about the passage in the Bible, why not actually have the entire text infront of you?
2012
In early 2012, the original Step-by-Step Rosary commenced its journey because our founder had realized that, in his religious community, people did actually not know how to pray the Rosary. And, if they, who consider themselves 'religious' cannot lead the Rosary, how are they going to be the role models they ought to be. He always heard the noise of "I know how to pray the Rosary", but no one committed leading the community in Rosary prayers. He, himself, at time, had no idea of how to pray the Rosary, even though attempts to construct a form of "guide" had started in 2008.
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