This simple prayer is very dear to the Dominicans

It may seem odd that a prayer as simple as the Rosary is particularly linked to the Dominican Order. Dominicans are not thought to be simple people. We have the reputation of writing long and complex theological works. Yet, we fought to keep the Rosary. It is our holy inheritance…

But why is this simple prayer so dear to the Dominicans? Perhaps because at the heart of our theological tradition lies an aspiration to simplicity. St Thomas Aquinas said that we cannot understand God because God is perfectly simple…

There is a false simplicity, which we must get rid of. It is the simplification of those who always have an easy answer to everything, who know everything in advance. Those who are either too lazy or unable to think. And there is a true simplicity, that of the heart, the simplicity of clear gazes. And we can reach it only by going slowly, with God's grace, as we approach the blinding simplicity of God.

The Rosary is simple indeed, very simple. But it belongs to the wise and profound simplicity to which we aspire, and in which we will find peace.

Timothy Radcliffe, o.p. Pray the Rosary, Talk given in Lourdes, October 1998