The relevance of the Rosary
Many people resist the Rosary because, as they say, it is simply a robotic prayer. For them, the Rosary boils down to a series of monotonous, boring and repetitious Hail Marys.
Others say that the Rosary is a custom from a bygone age. So, why not reading the Bible instead? Unfortunately, others went to the extreme of saying that if one prays the Rosary one goes directly to hell. Really amusing and farcical such a view! How can one go to hell if one prays the Our Father, the Haily Mary, the Glory be to God and meditating on the Gospel, as the Rosary does?
As it has been just referred to, the Rosary offers us the splendid opportunity to meditate Christ’s life under the gaze of Mary. In fact, in his apostolic letter on the Holy Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae of October 16 2002, precisely at the beginning of his twenty-fifth year of his pontificate, St. John Paul II described the Rosary as “a typically meditative prayer” (no.5). In this instructive apostolic letter he went further as to explain that the Rosary is a powerful means through which we learn Christ through Mary.
“Contemplating the scenes of the Rosary in union with Mary is a means of learning from her to ‘read’ Christ, to discover his secrets and to understand his message. This school of Mary is all the more effective if we consider that she teaches by obtaining for us in abundance the gifts of the Holy Spirit, even as she offers us the incomparable example of her own ‘pilgrimage of faith’. As we contemplate each mystery of her Son's life, she invites us to do as she did at the Annunciation: to ask humbly the questions which open us to the light, in order to end with the obedience of faith: ‘Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word’ (Lk 1:38)” (no. 14).
The Rosary reminds us of the great power that only meditation can offer. As a matter of fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: “Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilisation of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him” (CCC 2708).
A quick look at what many popes and saints said about this great marian prayer suffices to make us realize how important the Rosary is for our individual, familial and communal lives. A great quote that really says much about the transforming power of the Rosary is that coming from the French priest and Confessor, St. Louis de Montford.
“Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if—and mark well what I say—if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.”
There are four reasons which magnificiently portray the value of the Rosary. First, in itself the Rosary gives us a familial and communitarian “God pause”. By praying the Rosary we grow more closer and stronger as a family and community. In the letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae St. John Paul II said: “To pray the Rosary for children, and even more, with children, training them from their earliest years to experience this daily ‘pause for prayer’ with the family … is a spiritual aid which should not be underestimated” (no. 42). Hence, the Rosary calm the family by bringing it in God’s presence. And, being in God’s presence with Mary, is so fruitful not only spiritually but also psychologically and emotionally.
Second, the prayer of the daily Rosary equips the family with tremendous spiritual power in the battles we, as human beings, are engaged in against sin. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explained it so well when it said:
“The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity” (CCC 409).
Third, in these turbulent times that are assailing the Church praying the Rosary is surely the greatest thing, after the Mass, we can all do. How powerful is this story, narrated by Pope Francis, regarding when he was a bishop and it happened to him to join a group that were praying the Rosary with St. John Paul II!
“I was praying in the middle of the people of God to which I and all those there belonged, led by our pastor. I felt that this man, chosen to lead the Church, was following a path back to his Mother in the sky, a path set out from his childhood. I understood the presence of Mary in the life of the pope, a witness he never ceased to give. From that moment, I recite the 15 mysteries of the Rosary every day.”
Bishop Bergoglio was captivated by the Church leader who drew all the faithful together into one single act of worship and petition. Amid the current great disunity within the Church the Rosary unites us together since it takes us back to our common mission and purpose, in other words to Jesus, our Founder, and Mary, our model. The Rosary unites us to all other believers throughout the world, as one army of prayer warriors under the guidance of Francis, our Pope.
Fourth, when we pray the
Rosary the Lord uses us to save the world. At Fatima Our Lady said: “Say the Rosary and every day, to bring peace to the world”. At Medjugorje Our Lady says: “Even the rosary alone can work miracles in the world and in your lives”. If we want peace, joy, love in the heart and unity let us go back to the Rosary and pray it daily!
Pope Francis said: “The Rosary is a prayer that always accompanies me; it is also the prayer of the ordinary people and the saints... it is a prayer from my heart”. Let us let the Lord change my and your heart! Let us let him revolutionise our world by a very simple prayer of the heart, the Rosary! That is why then that the Rosary keeps being all the more relevant in and to our world, craving as it is for real love and peace!