The prayer of the Holy Rosary is a time-honoured Catholic devotion, and the Fatima Message, of all the ecclesiastically approved Marian apparitions, distinguishes itself for its special link with this prayer. During the last apparition, on 13th October 1917, Our Lady revealed Her name as ‘Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.’ This was like a final seal on that supernatural Message. In fact, this revelation of Our Lady’s own name came to be as a completion of the six apparitions, in which the importance of the Holy Rosary was always highlighted. Since the very first, on 13th May 1917, Our Lady exhorted the three little shepherds to pray the Rosary, especially for the end of the war and for the peace in the world.
The Rosary is a devotional prayer, but one that helps efficaciously our participation in liturgical prayer, such as the celebration of the Holy Mass. It gives us that interior awareness to understand, believe and love the mystery celebrated. We should always put the prayer of the Holy Rosary beside the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass and Adoration. While praying it, we beg indeed for a chain of graces, implored and finally received from the One who is the Mediatrix – the giver of all graces.
No form of extra-liturgical devotion to Mary has been recommended more emphatically or frequently by the Popes than the prayer of the Rosary, a garland of roses that we offer to our dearest Mother of Heaven. With perhaps two exceptions, all the Sovereign Pontiffs from Sixtus IV in 1478 down to us – especially Leo XIII, who devoted no less than ten encyclicals to the Rosary – have extolled this form of prayer, which has been the favourite, moreover, of such saints as Teresa of Avila, Francis de Sales, Louis de Montfort, Alphonsus Liguori, Don Bosco, Bernadette Soubirous, Padre Pio, Maximilian M. Kolbe, and many more.
Of the Magisterium of the Popes on the Rosary, it is fitting to quote first Leo XIII’s Encyclical Letter, Iucunda Semper Expectatione, issued on 8th September 1894. The Pope says thus:
“The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine grace; being by worthiness and by merit most acceptable to Him, and, therefore, surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven. Now, this merciful office of hers, perhaps, appears in no other form of prayer so manifestly as it does in the Rosary. For in the Rosary all the part that Mary took as our co-Redemptress comes to us, as it were, set forth, and in such wise as though the facts were even then taking place; and this with much profit to our piety, whether in the contemplation of the succeeding sacred mysteries, or in the prayers which we speak and repeat with the lips.”
The reader here can pay attention to the soteriological vocabulary used by the Pope, especially in respect of two very special expressions: “Mediatrix of Divine Grace” and “co-Redemptress” (helpmate of Christ in our Redemption). From this more doctrinal aspect, Leo XIII comes to speak, in the same Encyclical, about the composition of the Rosary. He adds that the Rosary is made by two parts which hold the same importance: one is the vocal prayer, and the other the meditation upon the mysteries. He writes:
“…the Rosary, if rightly considered, will be found to have in itself special virtues, whether for producing and continuing a state of recollection, or for touching the conscience for its healing, or for lifting up the soul. As all men know, it is composed of two parts, distinct but inseparable – the meditation of the Mysteries and the recitation of the prayers. It is thus a kind of prayer that requires not only some raising of the soul to God, but also a particular and explicit attention, so that by reflection upon the things to be contemplated, impulses and resolutions may follow for the reformation and sanctification of life.”
The reader here also can notice something special: the role of the Rosary, as described by the Pontiff, in healing the conscience, while touching it and producing a state of continuous recollection. This is a very important task of the Rosary, often highlighted by the Popes in their teaching on this beautiful Marian prayer. This will also be very interesting when comparing the Rosary with a very widespread Eastern Christian practice of prayer, as we will see shortly.
To conclude with Leo XIII, let us make our own this beautiful imploration of the Pope in the Iucunda Semper:
“To thee we lift our prayers, for thou art the Mediatrix, powerful at once and pitiful, of our salvation. Oh, by the sweetness of the joys that came to thee from thy Son Jesus, by thy participation in His ineffable sorrows, by the splendours of His glory shining in thee, we instantly beseech thee, listen, be pitiful, hear us, unworthy though we be!”
Another Pope also worth quoting is the Venerable Pius XII. In his words, “the recitation of identical formulas, repeated so many times, rather than rendering the prayer sterile and boring, has on the contrary the admirable quality of infusing confidence in him who prays, and brings to bear a gentle compulsion on the motherly heart of Mary.”(Encyclical, Ingravescentibus Malis, 29th September 1937)
Pius XII is echoed by Benedict XVI, who, in an address at the Basilica of St Mary Major (3rd May 2008), where he prayed the Rosary with the faithful, said:
“The Rosary, when it is prayed in an authentic way, not mechanical and superficial but profoundly, it brings, in fact, peace and reconciliation. It contains within itself the healing power of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, invoked with faith and love at the centre of each ‘Hail Mary’.”
From all this, two points are very important to be highlighted in the Magisterium on the Holy Rosary:
1) The Holy Rosary lets us concentrate on the mystery of Mary as a “divine Bridge” between God and us. It is tied up with Her mystery as Mediatrix of all graces and originates from it. We can have recourse to Our Lady, we can pray to Her, because she is appointed as the giver of grace and graces on God’s behalf.
2) The Holy Rosary, by the attentive repetition of the Angelic Salutation, has a healing effect on our souls. By always repeating the same prayer – the prayer made of those words pronounced by God Himself through the Angel – our soul is purified, enlightened and emptied of its sins, so as to be prepared for a sacramental confession.
In this manner, the Holy Rosary comes to be very similar to the oriental practice of prayer called “the prayer of the heart.” It purifies the heart by the repetition of a brief formula such as, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” In the words of Nicephorus the Solitary, a 13th Century monk and spiritual writer of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the prayer of the heart purifies the mind from all false images and thoughts, so as to establish it in the peace of the Lord. Nicephorus says thus:
“When you thus enter into the place of the heart, as I have shown you, give thanks to God and, praising his mercy, keep always to this doing, and it will teach you things that in no other way you will ever learn. Moreover, you should know that when your mind becomes firmly established in the heart, it must not remain there silent and idle, but it should constantly repeat the Jesus prayer: ‘Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me!’ and never cease. For this practice, keeping the mind from dreams, renders it elusive and impenetrable to enemy suggestions and every day leads it more and more to love and longing for God.”
The Rosary is a prayer of the Catholic Tradition. The Orthodox monastic practice of repetitive prayer in fact confirms the Christian essence and the purifying power of our Marian prayer. (Therefore, it can also be a bond in the ecumenical dialogue with our brethren in the Orthodox Churches.) We turn to Mary – Our Lady of the Holy Rosary – and implore Her to give us wisdom and will to pray every day with dedication this grace-filled prayer.
Please pray 3 Hail Mary's for Fr Serafino.
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