Rosary

“If you say the Holy Rosary every day, with a spirit of faith and love, our Lady will make sure she leads you very far along her Son's path.” (Saint Josemaria).

Our Lady of the Rosary (Andrea Chisesi)

The Rosary is such an extraordinary prayer.

In the early twentieth century, the Blessed Virgin – Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of the Rosary – appeared to the three shepherd children of Fatima.  She brought them a message from Heaven.  And the most important part of that message was an instruction on how to pray.  She told them that they needed to pray the Rosary every day and to offer sacrifices for sinners.

Those children were very young, Saint Jacinta, who was the youngest of the three children, was only six years old when she received this instruction.  They were not well-educated children.  They were not terribly popular or strong – in fact they were very weak.  Saint Lucia, for example, was continually criticised by her mother who was worried that she was making up stories about the Blessed Virgin out of pride and wanted to humble her child.  She was terrified that Saint Lucia would go to hell for her sins and was determined to do everything in her power to punish her child so as to redirect her to a life of goodness and prayer.  To this end, she often beat the child and allowed others to ridicule the girl, as a disincentive to continue in what she perceived to be a lie.  And yet, the child continued to pray.  She continued to visit the place where the Blessed Virgin appeared and later – she became a Carmelite nun and devoted herself to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience in reparation of sinners and for love of God.

Saint Josemaria said, “If you say the Holy Rosary every day, with a spirit of faith and love, our Lady will make sure she leads you very far along her Son's path.”

And I have been reflecting on that.  You see the Rosary is quite literally a recounting and reminiscing of the life of Christ – as seen through the eyes of the Blessed Virgin.

It is an opportunity to reflect on the various events in Christ’s life.  Pope Saint John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries to the Most Holy Rosary.  These mysteries of Light allow us to better reflect on the Divine nature of God, just as the Joyful Mysteries allow us to reflect on the joy in Christ’s life, and the Sorrowful Mysteries on Christ’s Sacrifice, and the Glorious Mysteries allow us to reflect on the fruits of that Divine and Perfect Sacrifice.

And as we consider the various events of Christ’s life as witnessed by His Own Mother, we can consider what part we play in witnessing Christ’s life in our own lives.  Am I even recognisable as a Catholic in this world?  Can anyone tell that I am Catholic by the way that I speak and the things that I say and the actions that I do and the performance that I give?

Is there a mark of Christ in my life?  Do I imitate Him as I see the events of His life in the Most Holy Rosary?  Honestly…  I doubt it.  I am weak, and in my weakness, people will not see how extraordinary a prayer the Holy Rosary really is.  And that is why I prayer for the Grace that the Rosary gives – because that is the ONLY want I could ever please God.

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.