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APOSTOLIC LETTER
ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
JOHN PAUL II
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY
AND FAITHFUL
ON THE MOST HOLY ROSARY
INTRODUCTION
1. The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which
gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance
of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and
encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still
remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great
significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It
blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life,
which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness
of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set
out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more
to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus
Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the
life” (Jn 14:6), “the goal of human history and the
point on which the desires of history and civilization turn”.
The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character,
is at heart a Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its
elements, it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its
entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium. It is
an echo of the prayerof Mary, her perennial Magnificat for
the work of the redemptive Incarnation which began in her
virginal womb. With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at
the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on
the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love.
Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as
though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.
The Popes and the Rosary
2. Numerous predecessors of mine attributed
great importance to this prayer. Worthy of special note in this
regard is Pope Leo XIII who on 1 September 1883 promulgated the
Encyclical Supremi Apostolatus Officio, a document of
great worth, the first of his many statements about this prayer,
in which he proposed the Rosary as an effective spiritual weapon
against the evils afflicting society. Among the more recent
Popes who, from the time of the Second Vatican Council, have
distinguished themselves in promoting the Rosary I would mention
Blessed John XXIII and above all Pope Paul VI, who in his
Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus emphasized, in the
spirit of the Second Vatican Council, the Rosary's evangelical
character and its Christocentric inspiration. I myself have
often encouraged the frequent recitation of the Rosary. From my
youthful years this prayer has held an important place in my
spiritual life. I was powerfully reminded of this during my
recent visit to Poland, and in particular at the Shrine of
Kalwaria. The Rosary has accompanied me in moments of joy and in
moments of difficulty. To it I have entrusted any number of
concerns; in it I have always found comfort. Twenty-four years
ago, on 29 October 1978, scarcely two weeks after my election to
the See of Peter, I frankly admitted: “The Rosary is my
favourite prayer. A marvellous prayer! Marvellous in its
simplicity and its depth. [...]. It can be said that the Rosary
is, in some sense, a prayer-commentary on the final chapter of
the Vatican II Constitution Lumen Gentium, a chapter
which discusses the wondrous presence of the Mother of God in
the mystery of Christ and the Church. Against the background of
the words Ave Maria the principal events of the life of
Jesus Christ pass before the eyes of the soul. They take shape
in the complete series of the joyful, sorrowful and glorious
mysteries, and they put us in living communion with Jesus
through – we might say – the heart of his Mother. At the
same time our heart can embrace in the decades of the Rosary all
the events that make up the lives of individuals, families,
nations, the Church, and all mankind. Our personal concerns and
those of our neighbour, especially those who are closest to us,
who are dearest to us. Thus the simple prayer of the Rosary
marks the rhythm of human life”.
With these words, dear brothers and sisters, I
set the first year of my Pontificate within the daily
rhythm of the Rosary. Today, as I begin the twenty-fifth year
of my service as the Successor of Peter, I wish to do the
same. How many graces have I received in these years from the
Blessed Virgin through the Rosary: Magnificat anima mea
Dominum! I wish to lift up my thanks to the Lord in the
words of his Most Holy Mother, under whose protection I have
placed my Petrine ministry: Totus Tuus!
October 2002 – October 2003: The Year of
the Rosary
3. Therefore, in continuity with my reflection
in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, in which,
after the experience of the Jubilee, I invited the people of God
to “start afresh from Christ”, I have felt drawn to offer a
reflection on the Rosary, as a kind of Marian complement to that
Letter and an exhortation to contemplate the face of Christ in
union with, and at the school of, his Most Holy Mother. To
recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with
Mary the face of Christ. As a way of highlighting this
invitation, prompted by the forthcoming 120th anniversary of the
aforementioned Encyclical of Leo XIII, I desire that during the
course of this year the Rosary should be especially emphasized
and promoted in the various Christian communities. I therefore
proclaim the year from October 2002 to October 2003 the Year
of the Rosary.
I leave this pastoral proposal to the initiative
of each ecclesial community. It is not my intention to encumber
but rather to complete and consolidate pastoral programmes of
the Particular Churches. I am confident that the proposal will
find a ready and generous reception. The Rosary, reclaimed in
its full meaning, goes to the very heart of Christian life; it
offers a familiar yet fruitful spiritual and educational
opportunity for personal contemplation, the formation of the
People of God, and the new evangelization. I am pleased to
reaffirm this also in the joyful remembrance of another
anniversary: the fortieth anniversary of the opening of the
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council on October 11, 1962, the
“great grace” disposed by the Spirit of God for the Church
in our time.
Objections to the Rosary
4. The timeliness of this proposal is evident
from a number of considerations. First, the urgent need to
counter a certain crisis of the Rosary, which in the present
historical and theological context can risk being wrongly
devalued, and therefore no longer taught to the younger
generation. There are some who think that the centrality of the
Liturgy, rightly stressed by the Second Vatican Ecumenical
Council, necessarily entails giving lesser importance to the
Rosary. Yet, as Pope Paul VI made clear, not only does this
prayer not conflict with the Liturgy, it sustains it,
since it serves as an excellent introduction and a faithful echo
of the Liturgy, enabling people to participate fully and
interiorly in it and to reap its fruits in their daily lives.
Perhaps too, there are some who fear that the
Rosary is somehow unecumenical because of its distinctly Marian
character. Yet the Rosary clearly belongs to the kind of
veneration of the Mother of God described by the Council: a
devotion directed to the Christological centre of the Christian
faith, in such a way that “when the Mother is honoured, the
Son ... is duly known, loved and glorified”. If properly
revitalized, the Rosary is an aid and certainly not a hindrance
to ecumenism!
A path of contemplation
5. But the most important reason for strongly
encouraging the practice of the Rosary is that it represents a
most effective means of fostering among the faithful that commitment
to the contemplation of the Christian mystery which I have
proposed in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte
as a genuine “training in holiness”: “What is needed is a
Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer”.
Inasmuch as contemporary culture, even amid so many indications
to the contrary, has witnessed the flowering of a new call for
spirituality, due also to the influence of other religions, it
is more urgent than ever that our Christian communities should
become “genuine schools of prayer”.
The Rosary belongs among the finest and most
praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation. Developed in
the West, it is a typically meditative prayer, corresponding in
some way to the “prayer of the heart” or “Jesus prayer”
which took root in the soil of the Christian East.
Prayer for peace and for the family
6. A number of historical circumstances also
make a revival of the Rosary quite timely. First of all, the
need to implore from God the gift of peace. The Rosary
has many times been proposed by my predecessors and myself as a
prayer for peace. At the start of a millennium which began with
the terrifying attacks of 11 September 2001, a millennium which
witnesses every day innumerous parts of the world fresh scenes
of bloodshed and violence, to rediscover the Rosary means to
immerse oneself in contemplation of the mystery of Christ who
“is our peace”, since he made “the two of us one, and
broke down the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2:14).
Consequently, one cannot recite the Rosary without feeling
caught up in a clear commitment to advancing peace, especially
in the land of Jesus, still so sorely afflicted and so close to
the heart of every Christian.
A similar need for commitment and prayer arises
in relation to another critical contemporary issue: the
family, the primary cell of society, increasingly menaced by
forces of disintegration on both the ideological and practical
planes, so as to make us fear for the future of this fundamental
and indispensable institution and, with it, for the future of
society as a whole. The revival of the Rosary in Christian
families, within the context of a broader pastoral ministry to
the family, will be an effective aid to countering the
devastating effects of this crisis typical of our age.
“Behold, your Mother!” (Jn 19:27)
7. Many signs indicate that still today the
Blessed Virgin desires to exercise through this same prayer that
maternal concern to which the dying Redeemer entrusted, in the
person of the beloved disciple, all the sons and daughters of
the Church: “Woman, behold your son!” (Jn19:26).
Well-known are the occasions in the nineteenth and the twentieth
centuries on which the Mother of Christ made her presence felt
and her voice heard, in order to exhort the People of God to
this form of contemplative prayer. I would mention in
particular, on account of their great influence on the lives of
Christians and the authoritative recognition they have received
from the Church, the apparitions of Lourdes and of Fatima;)
these shrines continue to be visited by great numbers of
pilgrims seeking comfort and hope.
Following the witnesses
8. It would be impossible to name all the many
Saints who discovered in the Rosary a genuine path to growth in
holiness. We need but mention Saint Louis Marie Grignion de
Montfort, the author of an excellent work on the Rosary, and,
closer to ourselves, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, whom I recently
had the joy of canonizing. As a true apostle of the Rosary,
Blessed Bartolo Longo had a special charism. His path to
holiness rested on an inspiration heard in the depths of his
heart: “Whoever spreads the Rosary is saved!”. As a result,
he felt called to build a Church dedicated to Our Lady of the
Holy Rosary in Pompei, against the background of the ruins of
the ancient city, which scarcely heard the proclamation of
Christ before being buried in 79 A.D. during an eruption of
Mount Vesuvius, only to emerge centuries later from its ashes as
a witness to the lights and shadows of classical civilization.
By his whole life's work and especially by the practice of the
“Fifteen Saturdays”, Bartolo Longo promoted the
Christocentric and contemplative heart of the Rosary, and
received great encouragement and support from Leo XIII, the
“Pope of the Rosary”.
CHAPTER I
CONTEMPLATING CHRIST WITH MARY
A face radiant as the sun
9. “And he was transfigured before them, and
his face shone like the sun” (Mt 17:2). The Gospel
scene of Christ's transfiguration, in which the three Apostles
Peter, James and John appear entranced by the beauty of the
Redeemer, can be seen as an icon of Christian contemplation.
To look upon the face of Christ, to recognize its mystery amid
the daily events and the sufferings of his human life, and then
to grasp the divine splendour definitively revealed in the Risen
Lord, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father: this is
the task of every follower of Christ and therefore the task of
each one of us. In contemplating Christ's face we become open to
receiving the mystery of Trinitarian life, experiencing ever
anew the love of the Father and delighting in the joy of the
Holy Spirit. Saint Paul's words can then be applied to us:
“Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being changed into
his likeness, from one degree of glory to another; for this
comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2Cor 3:18).
Mary, model of contemplation
10. The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable
model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs
to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving
from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater
spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the
contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The
eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation,
when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the
months that followed she began to sense his presence and to
picture his features. When at last she gave birth to him in
Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of
her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him
in a manger” (Lk2:7).
Thereafter Mary's gaze, ever filled with
adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would
be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding
in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk
2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable
of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving
his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana
(cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of
sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would
still be that of a mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared
the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son
given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27).
On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with
the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of
Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit
(cf. Acts 1:14).
Mary's memories
11. Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ,
treasuring his every word: “She kept all these things,
pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51). The
memories of Jesus, impressed upon her heart, were always with
her, leading her to reflect on the various moments of her life
at her Son's side. In a way those memories were to be the
“rosary” which she recited uninterruptedly throughout her
earthly life.
Even now, amid the joyful songs of the heavenly
Jerusalem, the reasons for her thanksgiving and praise remain
unchanged. They inspire her maternal concern for the pilgrim
Church, in which she continues to relate her personal account of
the Gospel. Mary constantly sets before the faithful the
“mysteries” of her Son, with the desire that the
contemplation of those mysteries will release all their saving
power. In the recitation of the Rosary, the Christian community
enters into contact with the memories and the contemplative gaze
of Mary.
The Rosary, a contemplative prayer
12. The Rosary, precisely because it starts with
Mary's own experience, is an exquisitely contemplative prayer.
Without this contemplative dimension, it would lose its meaning,
as Pope Paul VI clearly pointed out: “Without contemplation,
the Rosary is a body without a soul, and its recitation runs the
risk of becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas, in
violation of the admonition of Christ: 'In praying do not heap
up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think they will be
heard for their many words' (Mt 6:7). By its nature the
recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a
lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the
mysteries of the Lord's life as seen through the eyes of her who
was closest to the Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of
these mysteries are disclosed”.
It is worth pausing to consider this profound
insight of Paul VI, in order to bring out certain aspects of the
Rosary which show that it is really a form of Christocentric
contemplation.
Remembering Christ with Mary
13. Mary's contemplation is above all a
remembering. We need to understand this word in the biblical
sense of remembrance (zakar) as a making present of the
works brought about by God in the history of salvation. The
Bible is an account of saving events culminating in Christ
himself. These events not only belong to “yesterday”; they
are also part of the “today” of salvation. This making
present comes about above all in the Liturgy: what God
accomplished centuries ago did not only affect the direct
witnesses of those events; it continues to affect people in
every age with its gift of grace. To some extent this is also
true of every other devout approach to those events: to
“remember” them in a spirit of faith and love is to be open
to the grace which Christ won for us by the mysteries of his
life, death and resurrection.
Consequently, while it must be reaffirmed with
the Second Vatican Council that the Liturgy, as the exercise of
the priestly office of Christ and an act of public worship, is
“the summit to which the activity of the Church is directed
and the font from which all its power flows”, it is also
necessary to recall that the spiritual life “is not limited
solely to participation in the liturgy. Christians, while they
are called to prayer in common, must also go to their own rooms
to pray to their Father in secret (cf. Mt 6:6); indeed,
according to the teaching of the Apostle, they must pray without
ceasing (cf.1Thes 5:17)”. The Rosary, in its own
particular way, is part of this varied panorama of
“ceaseless” prayer. If the Liturgy, as the activity of
Christ and the Church, is a saving action par excellence,
the Rosary too, as a “meditation” with Mary on Christ, is a
salutary contemplation. By immersing us in the mysteries of
the Redeemer's life, it ensures that what he has done and what
the liturgy makes present is profoundly assimilated and shapes
our existence.
Learning Christ from Mary
14. Christ is the supreme Teacher, the revealer
and the one revealed. It is not just a question of learning what
he taught but of “learning him”. In this regard could
we have any better teacher than Mary? From the divine
standpoint, the Spirit is the interior teacher who leads us to
the full truth of Christ (cf. Jn 14:26; 15:26; 16:13).
But among creatures no one knows Christ better than Mary; no one
can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his mystery better
than his Mother.
The first of the “signs” worked by Jesus –
the changing of water into wine at the marriage in Cana –
clearly presents Mary in the guise of a teacher, as she urges
the servants to do what Jesus commands (cf. Jn 2:5). We
can imagine that she would have done likewise for the disciples
after Jesus' Ascension, when she joined them in awaiting the
Holy Spirit and supported them in their first mission.
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).
Being conformed to Christ with Mary
15. Christian spirituality is distinguished by
the disciple's commitment to become conformed ever more fully to
his Master (cf. Rom 8:29; Phil 3:10,12). The
outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Baptism grafts the believer
like a branch onto the vine which is Christ (cf. Jn 15:5)
and makes him a member of Christ's mystical Body (cf.1Cor 12:12;
Rom 12:5). This initial unity, however, calls for a
growing assimilation which will increasingly shape the conduct
of the disciple in accordance with the “mind” of Christ:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus”
(Phil 2:5). In the words of the Apostle, we are called
“to put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. Rom 13:14; Gal
3:27).
In the spiritual journey of the Rosary, based on
the constant contemplation – in Mary's company – of the face
of Christ, this demanding ideal of being conformed to him is
pursued through an association which could be described in terms
of friendship. We are thereby enabled to enter naturally into
Christ's life and as it were to share his deepest feelings. In
this regard Blessed Bartolo Longo has written: “Just as two
friends, frequently in each other's company, tend to develop
similar habits, so too, by holding familiar converse with Jesus
and the Blessed Virgin, by meditating on the mysteries of the
Rosary and by living the same life in Holy Communion, we can
become, to the extent of our lowliness, similar to them and can
learn from these supreme models a life of humility, poverty,
hiddenness, patience and perfection”.
In this process of being conformed to Christ in
the Rosary, we entrust ourselves in a special way to the
maternal care of the Blessed Virgin. She who is both the Mother
of Christ and a member of the Church, indeed her “pre-eminent
and altogether singular member”, is at the same time the
“Mother of the Church”. As such, she continually brings to
birth children for the mystical Body of her Son. She does so
through her intercession, imploring upon them the inexhaustible
outpouring of the Spirit. Mary is the perfect icon of the
motherhood of the Church.
The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's
side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in
the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold
us with the same care, until Christ is “fully formed” in us
(cf. Gal 4:19). This role of Mary, totally grounded in
that of Christ and radically subordinated to it, “in no way
obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but
rather shows its power”. This is the luminous principle
expressed by the Second Vatican Council which I have so
powerfully experienced in my own life and have made the basis of
my episcopal motto: Totus Tuus. The motto is of course
inspired by the teaching of Saint Louis Marie Grignion de
Montfort, who explained in the following words Mary's role in
the process of our configuration to Christ: “Our entire
perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated
to Jesus Christ. Hence the most perfect of all devotions is
undoubtedly that which conforms, unites and consecrates us most
perfectly to Jesus Christ. Now, since Mary is of all creatures
the one most conformed to Jesus Christ, it follows that among
all devotions that which most consecrates and conforms a soul to
our Lord is devotion to Mary, his Holy Mother, and that the more
a soul is consecrated to her the more will it be consecrated to
Jesus Christ”. Never as in the Rosary do the life of Jesus and
that of Mary appear so deeply joined. Mary lives only in Christ
and for Christ!
Praying to Christ with Mary
16. Jesus invited us to turn to God with
insistence and the confidence that we will be heard: “Ask, and
it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it
will be opened to you” (Mt 7:7). The basis for this
power of prayer is the goodness of the Father, but also the
mediation of Christ himself (cf. 1Jn 2:1) and the working
of the Holy Spirit who “intercedes for us” according to the
will of God (cf. Rom 8:26-27). For “we do not know how
to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26), and at times we are
not heard “because we ask wrongly” (cf. Jas 4:2-3).
In support of the prayer which Christ and the
Spirit cause to rise in our hearts, Mary intervenes with her
maternal intercession. “The prayer of the Church is sustained
by the prayer of Mary”. If Jesus, the one Mediator, is the Way
of our prayer, then Mary, his purest and most transparent
reflection, shows us the Way. “Beginning with Mary's unique
cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Churches
developed their prayer to the Holy Mother of God, centering it
on the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries”. At the
wedding of Cana the Gospel clearly shows the power of Mary's
intercession as she makes known to Jesus the needs of others:
“They have no wine” (Jn 2:3).
The Rosary is both meditation and supplication.
Insistent prayer to the Mother of God is based on confidence
that her maternal intercession can obtain all things from the
heart of her Son. She is “all-powerful by grace”, to use the
bold expression, which needs to be properly understood, of
Blessed Bartolo Longo in his Supplication to Our Lady.
This is a conviction which, beginning with the Gospel, has grown
ever more firm in the experience of the Christian people. The
supreme poet Dante expresses it marvellously in the lines sung
by Saint Bernard: “Lady, thou art so great and so powerful,
that whoever desires grace yet does not turn to thee, would have
his desire fly without wings”. When in the Rosary we plead
with Mary, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 1:35),
she intercedes for us before the Father who filled her with
grace and before the Son born of her womb, praying with us and
for us.
Proclaiming Christ with Mary
17. The Rosary is also a path of proclamation
and increasing knowledge, in which the mystery of Christ is
presented again and again at different levels of the Christian
experience. Its form is that of a prayerful and contemplative
presentation, capable of forming Christians according to the
heart of Christ. When the recitation of the Rosary combines all
the elements needed for an effective meditation, especially in
its communal celebration in parishes and shrines, it can present
a significant catechetical opportunity which pastors
should use to advantage. In this way too Our Lady of the Rosary
continues her work of proclaiming Christ. The history of the
Rosary shows how this prayer was used in particular by the
Dominicans at a difficult time for the Church due to the spread
of heresy. Today we are facing new challenges. Why should we not
once more have recourse to the Rosary, with the same faith as
those who have gone before us? The Rosary retains all its power
and continues to be a valuable pastoral resource for every good
evangelizer.
CHAPTER II
MYSTERIES OF CHRIST –
MYSTERIES OF HIS MOTHER
The Rosary, “a compendium of the
Gospel”
18. The only way to approach the contemplation
of Christ's face is by listening in the Spirit to the Father's
voice, since “no one knows the Son except the Father” (Mt
11:27). In the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus responded to
Peter's confession of faith by indicating the source of that
clear intuition of his identity: “Flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Mt
16:17). What is needed, then, is a revelation from above. In
order to receive that revelation, attentive listening is
indispensable: “Only the experience of silence and prayer
offers the proper setting for the growth and development of a
true, faithful and consistent knowledge of that mystery”.
The Rosary is one of the traditional paths of
Christian prayer directed to the contemplation of Christ's face.
Pope Paul VI described it in these words: “As a Gospel prayer,
centred on the mystery of the redemptive Incarnation, the Rosary
is a prayer with a clearly Christological orientation. Its most
characteristic element, in fact, the litany- like succession of
Hail Marys, becomes in itself an unceasing praise of Christ,
who is the ultimate object both of the Angel's announcement and
of the greeting of the Mother of John the Baptist: 'Blessed is
the fruit of your womb' (Lk 1:42). We would go further
and say that the succession of Hail Marys constitutes the
warp on which is woven the contemplation of the mysteries. The
Jesus that each Hail Mary recalls is the same Jesus whom
the succession of mysteries proposes to us now as the Son of
God, now as the Son of the Virgin”.
A proposed addition to the traditional
pattern
19. Of the many mysteries of Christ's life, only
a few are indicated by the Rosary in the form that has become
generally established with the seal of the Church's approval.
The selection was determined by the origin of the prayer, which
was based on the number 150, the number of the Psalms in the
Psalter.
I believe, however, that to bring out fully the
Christological depth of the Rosary it would be suitable to make
an addition to the traditional pattern which, while left to the
freedom of individuals and communities, could broaden it to
include the mysteries of Christ's public ministry between his
Baptism and his Passion. In the course of those mysteries we
contemplate important aspects of the person of Christ as the
definitive revelation of God. Declared the beloved Son of the
Father at the Baptism in the Jordan, Christ is the one who
announces the coming of the Kingdom, bears witness to it in his
works and proclaims its demands. It is during the years of his
public ministry that the mystery of Christ is most evidently
a mystery of light: “While I am in the world, I am the
light of the world” (Jn 9:5).
Consequently, for the Rosary to become more
fully a “compendium of the Gospel”, it is fitting to add,
following reflection on the Incarnation and the hidden life of
Christ (the joyful mysteries) and before focusing on the
sufferings of his Passion (the sorrowful mysteries) and
the triumph of his Resurrection (the glorious mysteries),
a meditation on certain particularly significant moments in his
public ministry (the mysteries of light). This addition
of these new mysteries, without prejudice to any essential
aspect of the prayer's traditional format, is meant to give it
fresh life and to enkindle renewed interest in the Rosary's
place within Christian spirituality as a true doorway to the
depths of the Heart of Christ, ocean of joy and of light, of
suffering and of glory.
The Joyful Mysteries
20. The first five decades, the “joyful
mysteries”, are marked by the joy radiating from the event
of the Incarnation. This is clear from the very first
mystery, the Annunciation, where Gabriel's greeting to the
Virgin of Nazareth is linked to an invitation to messianic joy:
“Rejoice, Mary”. The whole of salvation history, in some
sense the entire history of the world, has led up to this
greeting. If it is the Father's plan to unite all things in
Christ (cf. Eph 1:10), then the whole of the universe is
in some way touched by the divine favour with which the Father
looks upon Mary and makes her the Mother of his Son. The whole
of humanity, in turn, is embraced by the fiat with which
she readily agrees to the will of God.
Exultation is the keynote of the encounter with
Elizabeth, where the sound of Mary's voice and the presence of
Christ in her womb cause John to “leap for joy” (cf. Lk 1:44).
Gladness also fills the scene in Bethlehem, when the birth of
the divine Child, the Saviour of the world, is announced by the
song of the angels and proclaimed to the shepherds as “news of
great joy” (Lk 2:10).
The final two mysteries, while preserving this
climate of joy, already point to the drama yet to come. The
Presentation in the Temple not only expresses the joy of the
Child's consecration and the ecstasy of the aged Simeon; it also
records the prophecy that Christ will be a “sign of
contradiction” for Israel and that a sword will pierce his
mother's heart (cf Lk 2:34-35). Joy mixed with drama
marks the fifth mystery, the finding of the twelve-year-old
Jesus in the Temple. Here he appears in his divine wisdom as he
listens and raises questions, already in effect one who
“teaches”. The revelation of his mystery as the Son wholly
dedicated to his Father's affairs proclaims the radical nature
of the Gospel, in which even the closest of human relationships
are challenged by the absolute demands of the Kingdom. Mary and
Joseph, fearful and anxious, “did not understand” his words
(Lk 2:50).
To meditate upon the “joyful” mysteries,
then, is to enter into the ultimate causes and the deepest
meaning of Christian joy. It is to focus on the realism of the
mystery of the Incarnation and on the obscure foreshadowing of
the mystery of the saving Passion. Mary leads us to discover the
secret of Christian joy, reminding us that Christianity is,
first and foremost, euangelion, “good news”, which
has as its heart and its whole content the person of Jesus
Christ, the Word made flesh, the one Saviour of the world.
The Mysteries of Light
21. Moving on from the infancy and the hidden
life in Nazareth to the public life of Jesus, our contemplation
brings us to those mysteries which may be called in a special
way “mysteries of light”. Certainly the whole mystery of
Christ is a mystery of light. He is the “light of the world”
(Jn 8:12). Yet this truth emerges in a special way during
the years of his public life, when he proclaims the Gospel of
the Kingdom. In proposing to the Christian community five
significant moments – “luminous” mysteries – during this
phase of Christ's life, I think that the following can be
fittingly singled out: (1) his Baptism in the Jordan, (2) his
self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana, (3) his proclamation
of the Kingdom of God, with his call to conversion, (4) his
Transfiguration, and finally, (5) his institution of the
Eucharist, as the sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery.
Each of these mysteries is a revelation of
the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus. The
Baptism in the Jordan is first of all a mystery of light. Here,
as Christ descends into the waters, the innocent one who became
“sin” for our sake (cf. 2Cor 5:21), the heavens open
wide and the voice of the Father declares him the beloved Son
(cf. Mt 3:17 and parallels), while the Spirit descends on
him to invest him with the mission which he is to carry out.
Another mystery of light is the first of the signs, given at
Cana (cf. Jn 2:1- 12), when Christ changes water into
wine and opens the hearts of the disciples to faith, thanks to
the intervention of Mary, the first among believers. Another
mystery of light is the preaching by which Jesus proclaims the
coming of the Kingdom of God, calls to conversion (cf. Mk
1:15) and forgives the sins of all who draw near to him in
humble trust (cf. Mk 2:3-13; Lk 7:47- 48): the
inauguration of that ministry of mercy which he continues to
exercise until the end of the world, particularly through the
Sacrament of Reconciliation which he has entrusted to his Church
(cf. Jn 20:22-23). The mystery of light par excellence
is the Transfiguration, traditionally believed to have taken
place on Mount Tabor. The glory of the Godhead shines forth from
the face of Christ as the Father commands the astonished
Apostles to “listen to him” (cf. Lk 9:35 and
parallels) and to prepare to experience with him the agony of
the Passion, so as to come with him to the joy of the
Resurrection and a life transfigured by the Holy Spirit. A final
mystery of light is the institution of the Eucharist, in which
Christ offers his body and blood as food under the signs of
bread and wine, and testifies “to the end” his love for
humanity (Jn 13:1), for whose salvation he will offer
himself in sacrifice.
In these mysteries, apart from the miracle at
Cana, the presence of Mary remains in the background. The
Gospels make only the briefest reference to her occasional
presence at one moment or other during the preaching of Jesus
(cf. Mk 3:31-5; Jn 2:12), and they give no
indication that she was present at the Last Supper and the
institution of the Eucharist. Yet the role she assumed at Cana
in some way accompanies Christ throughout his ministry. The
revelation made directly by the Father at the Baptism in the
Jordan and echoed by John the Baptist is placed upon Mary's lips
at Cana, and it becomes the great maternal counsel which Mary
addresses to the Church of every age: “Do whatever he tells
you” (Jn 2:5). This counsel is a fitting introduction
to the words and signs of Christ's public ministry and it forms
the Marian foundation of all the “mysteries of light”.
The Sorrowful Mysteries
22. The Gospels give great prominence to the
sorrowful mysteries of Christ. From the beginning Christian
piety, especially during the Lenten devotion of the Way of
the Cross, has focused on the individual moments of the
Passion, realizing that here is found the culmination of the
revelation of God's love and the source of our salvation.
The Rosary selects certain moments from the Passion, inviting
the faithful to contemplate them in their hearts and to relive
them. The sequence of meditations begins with Gethsemane, where
Christ experiences a moment of great anguish before the will of
the Father, against which the weakness of the flesh would be
tempted to rebel. There Jesus encounters all the temptations and
confronts all the sins of humanity, in order to say to the
Father: “Not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42 and
parallels). This “Yes” of Christ reverses the “No” of
our first parents in the Garden of Eden. And the cost of this
faithfulness to the Father's will is made clear in the following
mysteries; by his scourging, his crowning with thorns, his
carrying the Cross and his death on the Cross, the Lord is cast
into the most abject suffering: Ecce homo!
This abject suffering reveals not only the love
of God but also the meaning of man himself.
Ecce homo: the meaning, origin and
fulfilment of man is to be found in Christ, the God who humbles
himself out of love “even unto death, death on a cross” (Phil
2:8). The sorrowful mysteries help the believer to relive
the death of Jesus, to stand at the foot of the Cross beside
Mary, to enter with her into the depths of God's love for man
and to experience all its life-giving power.
The Glorious Mysteries
23. “The contemplation of Christ's face cannot
stop at the image of the Crucified One. He is the Risen One!”
The Rosary has always expressed this knowledge born of faith and
invited the believer to pass beyond the darkness of the Passion
in order to gaze upon Christ's glory in the Resurrection and
Ascension. Contemplating the Risen One, Christians rediscover
the reasons for their own faith (cf. 1Cor 15:14) and
relive the joy not only of those to whom Christ appeared – the
Apostles, Mary Magdalene and the disciples on the road to Emmaus
– but also the joy of Mary, who must have had an
equally intense experience of the new life of her glorified Son.
In the Ascension, Christ was raised in glory to the right hand
of the Father, while Mary herself would be raised to that same
glory in the Assumption, enjoying beforehand, by a unique
privilege, the destiny reserved for all the just at the
resurrection of the dead. Crowned in glory – as she appears in
the last glorious mystery – Mary shines forth as Queen of the
Angels and Saints, the anticipation and the supreme realization
of the eschatological state of the Church.
At the centre of this unfolding sequence of the
glory of the Son and the Mother, the Rosary sets before us the
third glorious mystery, Pentecost, which reveals the face of the
Church as a family gathered together with Mary, enlivened by the
powerful outpouring of the Spirit and ready for the mission of
evangelization. The contemplation of this scene, like that of
the other glorious mysteries, ought to lead the faithful to an
ever greater appreciation of their new life in Christ, lived in
the heart of the Church, a life of which the scene of Pentecost
itself is the great “icon”. The glorious mysteries thus lead
the faithful to greater hope for the eschatological goal towards
which they journey as members of the pilgrim People of God in
history. This can only impel them to bear courageous witness to
that “good news” which gives meaning to their entire
existence.
From “mysteries” to the “Mystery”:
Mary's way
24. The cycles of meditation proposed by the
Holy Rosary are by no means exhaustive, but they do bring to
mind what is essential and they awaken in the soul a thirst for
a knowledge of Christ continually nourished by the pure source
of the Gospel. Every individual event in the life of Christ, as
narrated by the Evangelists, is resplendent with the Mystery
that surpasses all understanding (cf. Eph 3:19): the
Mystery of the Word made flesh, in whom “all the fullness of
God dwells bodily” (Col 2:9). For this reason the
Catechism of the Catholic Church places great emphasis on
the mysteries of Christ, pointing out that “everything in the
life of Jesus is a sign of his Mystery”. The “duc in
altum” of the Church of the third millennium will be
determined by the ability of Christians to enter into the
“perfect knowledge of God's mystery, of Christ, in whom are
hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:2-3).
The Letter to the Ephesians makes this heartfelt prayer for all
the baptized: “May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith,
so that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have
power... to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”
(3:17-19).
The Rosary is at the service of this ideal; it
offers the “secret” which leads easily to a profound and
inward knowledge of Christ. We might call it Mary's way.
It is the way of the example of the Virgin of Nazareth, a woman
of faith, of silence, of attentive listening. It is also the way
of a Marian devotion inspired by knowledge of the inseparable
bond between Christ and his Blessed Mother: the mysteries of
Christ are also in some sense the mysteries of his Mother,
even when they do not involve her directly, for she lives from
him and through him. By making our own the words of the Angel
Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth contained in the Hail Mary,
we find ourselves constantly drawn to seek out afresh in Mary,
in her arms and in her heart, the “blessed fruit of her
womb” (cf Lk 1:42).
Mystery of Christ, mystery of man
25. In my testimony of 1978 mentioned above,
where I described the Rosary as my favourite prayer, I used an
idea to which I would like to return. I said then that “the
simple prayer of the Rosary marks the rhythm of human life”.
In the light of what has been said so far on the
mysteries of Christ, it is not difficult to go deeper into this anthropological
significance of the Rosary, which is far deeper than may
appear at first sight. Anyone who contemplates Christ through
the various stages of his life cannot fail to perceive in him the
truth about man. This is the great affirmation of the Second
Vatican Council which I have so often discussed in my own
teaching since the Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis:
“it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the
mystery of man is seen in its true light”. The Rosary helps to
open up the way to this light. Following in the path of Christ,
in whom man's path is “recapitulated”, revealed and
redeemed, believers come face to face with the image of the true
man. Contemplating Christ's birth, they learn of the sanctity of
life; seeing the household of Nazareth, they learn the original
truth of the family according to God's plan; listening to the
Master in the mysteries of his public ministry, they find the
light which leads them to enter the Kingdom of God; and
following him on the way to Calvary, they learn the meaning of
salvific suffering. Finally, contemplating Christ and his
Blessed Mother in glory, they see the goal towards which each of
us is called, if we allow ourselves to be healed and transformed
by the Holy Spirit. It could be said that each mystery of the
Rosary, carefully meditated, sheds light on the mystery of man.
At the same time, it becomes natural to bring to
this encounter with the sacred humanity of the Redeemer all the
problems, anxieties, labours and endeavours which go to make up
our lives. “Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain
you” (Ps 55:23). To pray the Rosary is to hand over our
burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and his Mother.
Twenty-five years later, thinking back over the difficulties
which have also been part of my exercise of the Petrine
ministry, I feel the need to say once more, as a warm invitation
to everyone to experience it personally: the Rosary does indeed
“mark the rhythm of human life”, bringing it into harmony
with the “rhythm” of God's own life, in the joyful communion
of the Holy Trinity, our life's destiny and deepest longing.
CHAPTER III
“FOR ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST”
The Rosary, a way of assimilating the
mystery
26. Meditation on the mysteries of Christ is
proposed in the Rosary by means of a method designed to assist
in their assimilation. It is a method based on repetition.
This applies above all to the Hail Mary, repeated ten
times in each mystery. If this repetition is considered
superficially, there could be a temptation to see the Rosary as
a dry and boring exercise. It is quite another thing, however,
when the Rosary is thought of as an outpouring of that love
which tirelessly returns to the person loved with expressions
similar in their content but ever fresh in terms of the feeling
pervading them.
In Christ, God has truly assumed a “heart of
flesh”. Not only does God have a divine heart, rich in mercy
and in forgiveness, but also a human heart, capable of all the
stirrings of affection. If we needed evidence for this from the
Gospel, we could easily find it in the touching dialogue between
Christ and Peter after the Resurrection: “Simon, son of John,
do you love me?” Three times this question is put to Peter,
and three times he gives the reply: “Lord, you know that I
love you” (cf. Jn 21:15-17). Over and above the
specific meaning of this passage, so important for Peter's
mission, none can fail to recognize the beauty of this triple
repetition, in which the insistent request and the corresponding
reply are expressed in terms familiar from the universal
experience of human love. To understand the Rosary, one has to
enter into the psychological dynamic proper to love.
One thing is clear: although the repeated
Hail Mary is addressed directly to Mary, it is to Jesus that
the act of love is ultimately directed, with her and through
her. The repetition is nourished by the desire to be conformed
ever more completely to Christ, the true programme of the
Christian life. Saint Paul expressed this project with words of
fire: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil
1:21). And again: “It is no longer I that live, but Christ
lives in me” (Gal 2:20). The Rosary helps us to be
conformed ever more closely to Christ until we attain true
holiness.
A valid method...
27. We should not be surprised that our
relationship with Christ makes use of a method. God communicates
himself to us respecting our human nature and its vital rhythms.
Hence, while Christian spirituality is familiar with the most
sublime forms of mystical silence in which images, words and
gestures are all, so to speak, superseded by an intense and
ineffable union with God, it normally engages the whole person
in all his complex psychological, physical and relational
reality.
This becomes apparent in the Liturgy. Sacraments
and sacramentals are structured as a series of rites which bring
into play all the dimensions of the person. The same applies to
non-liturgical prayer. This is confirmed by the fact that, in
the East, the most characteristic prayer of Christological
meditation, centred on the words “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of
God, have mercy on me, a sinner” is traditionally linked to
the rhythm of breathing; while this practice favours
perseverance in the prayer, it also in some way embodies the
desire for Christ to become the breath, the soul and the
“all” of one's life.
... which can nevertheless be improved
28. I mentioned in my Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio Ineunte that the West is now experiencing a
renewed demand for meditation, which at times leads to a
keen interest in aspects of other religions. Some Christians,
limited in their knowledge of the Christian contemplative
tradition, are attracted by those forms of prayer. While the
latter contain many elements which are positive and at times
compatible with Christian experience, they are often based on
ultimately unacceptable premises. Much in vogue among these
approaches are methods aimed at attaining a high level of
spiritual concentration by using techniques of a psychophysical,
repetitive and symbolic nature. The Rosary is situated within
this broad gamut of religious phenomena, but it is distinguished
by characteristics of its own which correspond to specifically
Christian requirements.
In effect, the Rosary is simply a method of
contemplation. As a method, it serves as a means to an end
and cannot become an end in itself. All the same, as the fruit
of centuries of experience, this method should not be
undervalued. In its favour one could cite the experience of
countless Saints. This is not to say, however, that the method
cannot be improved. Such is the intent of the addition of the
new series of mysteria lucis to the overall cycle of
mysteries and of the few suggestions which I am proposing in
this Letter regarding its manner of recitation. These
suggestions, while respecting the well-established structure of
this prayer, are intended to help the faithful to understand it
in the richness of its symbolism and in harmony with the demands
of daily life. Otherwise there is a risk that the Rosary would
not only fail to produce the intended spiritual effects, but
even that the beads, with which it is usually said, could come
to be regarded as some kind of amulet or magic object, thereby
radically distorting their meaning and function.
Announcing each mystery
29. Announcing each mystery, and perhaps even
using a suitable icon to portray it, is as it were to open up
a scenario on which to focus our attention. The words direct
the imagination and the mind towards a particular episode or
moment in the life of Christ. In the Church's traditional
spirituality, the veneration of icons and the many devotions
appealing to the senses, as well as the method of prayer
proposed by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises,
make use of visual and imaginative elements (the compositio
loci), judged to be of great help in concentrating the mind
on the particular mystery. This is a methodology, moreover,
which corresponds to the inner logic of the Incarnation: in
Jesus, God wanted to take on human features. It is through his
bodily reality that we are led into contact with the mystery of
his divinity.
This need for concreteness finds further
expression in the announcement of the various mysteries of the
Rosary. Obviously these mysteries neither replace the Gospel nor
exhaust its content. The Rosary, therefore, is no substitute for
lectio divina; on the contrary, it presupposes and
promotes it. Yet, even though the mysteries contemplated in the
Rosary, even with the addition of the mysteria lucis, do
no more than outline the fundamental elements of the life of
Christ, they easily draw the mind to a more expansive reflection
on the rest of the Gospel, especially when the Rosary is prayed
in a setting of prolonged recollection.
Listening to the word of God
30. In order to supply a Biblical foundation and
greater depth to our meditation, it is helpful to follow the
announcement of the mystery with the proclamation of a
related Biblical passage, long or short, depending on the
circumstances. No other words can ever match the efficacy of the
inspired word. As we listen, we are certain that this is the
word of God, spoken for today and spoken “for me”.
If received in this way, the word of God can
become part of the Rosary's methodology of repetition without
giving rise to the ennui derived from the simple recollection of
something already well known. It is not a matter of recalling
information but of allowing God to speak. In certain
solemn communal celebrations, this word can be appropriately
illustrated by a brief commentary.
Silence
31. Listening and meditation are nourished by
silence. After the announcement of the mystery and the
proclamation of the word, it is fitting to pause and focus one's
attention for a suitable period of time on the mystery
concerned, before moving into vocal prayer. A discovery of the
importance of silence is one of the secrets of practicing
contemplation and meditation. One drawback of a society
dominated by technology and the mass media is the fact that
silence becomes increasingly difficult to achieve. Just as
moments of silence are recommended in the Liturgy, so too in the
recitation of the Rosary it is fitting to pause briefly after
listening to the word of God, while the mind focuses on the
content of a particular mystery.
The “Our Father”
32. After listening to the word and focusing on
the mystery, it is natural for the mind to be lifted up
towards the Father. In each of his mysteries, Jesus always
leads us to the Father, for as he rests in the Father's bosom
(cf. Jn 1:18) he is continually turned towards him. He
wants us to share in his intimacy with the Father, so that we
can say with him: “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15; Gal
4:6). By virtue of his relationship to the Father he makes us
brothers and sisters of himself and of one another,
communicating to us the Spirit which is both his and the
Father's. Acting as a kind of foundation for the Christological
and Marian meditation which unfolds in the repetition of the
Hail Mary, the Our Father makes meditation upon the
mystery, even when carried out in solitude, an ecclesial
experience.
The ten “Hail Marys”
33. This is the most substantial element in the
Rosary and also the one which makes it a Marian prayer par
excellence. Yet when the Hail Mary is properly
understood, we come to see clearly that its Marian character is
not opposed to its Christological character, but that it
actually emphasizes and increases it. The first part of the Hail
Mary, drawn from the words spoken to Mary by the Angel
Gabriel and by Saint Elizabeth, is a contemplation in adoration
of the mystery accomplished in the Virgin of Nazareth. These
words express, so to speak, the wonder of heaven and earth; they
could be said to give us a glimpse of God's own wonderment as he
contemplates his “masterpiece” – the Incarnation of the
Son in the womb of the Virgin Mary. If we recall how, in the
Book of Genesis, God “saw all that he had made” (Gen 1:31),
we can find here an echo of that “pathos with which God, at
the dawn of creation, looked upon the work of his hands”. The
repetition of the Hail Mary in the Rosary gives us a
share in God's own wonder and pleasure: in jubilant amazement we
acknowledge the greatest miracle of history. Mary's prophecy
here finds its fulfilment: “Henceforth all generations will
call me blessed” (Lk 1:48).
The centre of gravity in the Hail Mary,
the hinge as it were which joins its two parts, is the name
of Jesus. Sometimes, in hurried recitation, this centre of
gravity can be overlooked, and with it the connection to the
mystery of Christ being contemplated. Yet it is precisely the
emphasis given to the name of Jesus and to his mystery that is
the sign of a meaningful and fruitful recitation of the Rosary.
Pope Paul VI drew attention, in his Apostolic Exhortation
Marialis Cultus, to the custom in certain regions of
highlighting the name of Christ by the addition of a clause
referring to the mystery being contemplated. This is a
praiseworthy custom, especially during public recitation. It
gives forceful expression to our faith in Christ, directed to
the different moments of the Redeemer's life. It is at once a
profession of faith and an aid in concentrating our
meditation, since it facilitates the process of assimilation to
the mystery of Christ inherent in the repetition of the Hail
Mary. When we repeat the name of Jesus – the only name
given to us by which we may hope for salvation (cf. Acts 4:12)
– in close association with the name of his Blessed Mother,
almost as if it were done at her suggestion, we set out on a
path of assimilation meant to help us enter more deeply into the
life of Christ.
From Mary's uniquely privileged relationship
with Christ, which makes her the Mother of God, Theotókos,
derives the forcefulness of the appeal we make to her in the
second half of the prayer, as we entrust to her maternal
intercession our lives and the hour of our death.
The “Gloria”
34. Trinitarian doxology is the goal of all
Christian contemplation. For Christ is the way that leads us to
the Father in the Spirit. If we travel this way to the end, we
repeatedly encounter the mystery of the three divine Persons, to
whom all praise, worship and thanksgiving are due. It is
important that the Gloria, the high-point of
contemplation, be given due prominence in the Rosary. In
public recitation it could be sung, as a way of giving proper
emphasis to the essentially Trinitarian structure of all
Christian prayer.
To the extent that meditation on the mystery is
attentive and profound, and to the extent that it is enlivened
– from one Hail Mary to another – by love for Christ
and for Mary, the glorification of the Trinity at the end of
each decade, far from being a perfunctory conclusion, takes on
its proper contemplative tone, raising the mind as it were to
the heights of heaven and enabling us in some way to relive the
experience of Tabor, a foretaste of the contemplation yet to
come: “It is good for us to be here!” (Lk 9:33).
The concluding short prayer
35. In current practice, the Trinitarian
doxology is followed by a brief concluding prayer which varies
according to local custom. Without in any way diminishing the
value of such invocations, it is worthwhile to note that the
contemplation of the mysteries could better express their full
spiritual fruitfulness if an effort were made to conclude each
mystery with a prayer for the fruits specific to that
particular mystery. In this way the Rosary would better
express its connection with the Christian life. One fine
liturgical prayer suggests as much, inviting us to pray that, by
meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary, we may come to
“imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise”.
Such a final prayer could take on a legitimate
variety of forms, as indeed it already does. In this way the
Rosary can be better adapted to different spiritual traditions
and different Christian communities. It is to be hoped, then,
that appropriate formulas will be widely circulated, after due
pastoral discernment and possibly after experimental use in
centres and shrines particularly devoted to the Rosary, so that
the People of God may benefit from an abundance of authentic
spiritual riches and find nourishment for their personal
contemplation.
The Rosary beads
36. The traditional aid used for the recitation
of the Rosary is the set of beads. At the most superficial
level, the beads often become a simple counting mechanism to
mark the succession of Hail Marys. Yet they can also take
on a symbolism which can give added depth to contemplation.
Here the first thing to note is the way the
beads converge upon the Crucifix, which both opens and
closes the unfolding sequence of prayer. The life and prayer of
believers is centred upon Christ. Everything begins from him,
everything leads towards him, everything, through him, in the
Holy Spirit, attains to the Father.
As a counting mechanism, marking the progress of
the prayer, the beads evoke the unending path of contemplation
and of Christian perfection. Blessed Bartolo Longo saw them also
as a “chain” which links us to God. A chain, yes, but a
sweet chain; for sweet indeed is the bond to God who is also our
Father. A “filial” chain which puts us in tune with Mary,
the “handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38) and, most of
all, with Christ himself, who, though he was in the form of God,
made himself a “servant” out of love for us (Phil 2:7).
A fine way to expand the symbolism of the beads
is to let them remind us of our many relationships, of the bond
of communion and fraternity which unites us all in Christ.
The opening and closing
37.At present, in different parts of the Church,
there are many ways to introduce the Rosary. In some places, it
is customary to begin with the opening words of Psalm 70: “O
God, come to my aid; O Lord, make haste to help me”, as if to
nourish in those who are praying a humble awareness of their own
insufficiency. In other places, the Rosary begins with the
recitation of the Creed, as if to make the profession of faith
the basis of the contemplative journey about to be undertaken.
These and similar customs, to the extent that they prepare the
mind for contemplation, are all equally legitimate. The Rosary
is then ended with a prayer for the intentions of the Pope, as
if to expand the vision of the one praying to embrace all the
needs of the Church. It is precisely in order to encourage this
ecclesial dimension of the Rosary that the Church has seen fit
to grant indulgences to those who recite it with the required
dispositions.
If prayed in this way, the Rosary truly becomes
a spiritual itinerary in which Mary acts as Mother, Teacher and
Guide, sustaining the faithful by her powerful intercession. Is
it any wonder, then, that the soul feels the need, after saying
this prayer and experiencing so profoundly the motherhood of
Mary, to burst forth in praise of the Blessed Virgin, either in
that splendid prayer the Salve Regina or in the Litany
of Loreto? This is the crowning moment of an inner journey
which has brought the faithful into living contact with the
mystery of Christ and his Blessed Mother.
Distribution over time
38. The Rosary can be recited in full every day,
and there are those who most laudably do so. In this way it
fills with prayer the days of many a contemplative, or keeps
company with the sick and the elderly who have abundant time at
their disposal. Yet it is clear – and this applies all the
more if the new series of mysteria lucis is included –
that many people will not be able to recite more than a part of
the Rosary, according to a certain weekly pattern. This weekly
distribution has the effect of giving the different days of the
week a certain spiritual “colour”, by analogy with the way
in which the Liturgy colours the different seasons of the
liturgical year.
According to current practice, Monday and
Thursday are dedicated to the “joyful mysteries”, Tuesday
and Friday to the “sorrowful mysteries”, and Wednesday,
Saturday and Sunday to the “glorious mysteries”. Where might
the “mysteries of light” be inserted? If we consider that
the “glorious mysteries” are said on both Saturday and
Sunday, and that Saturday has always had a special Marian
flavour, the second weekly meditation on the “joyful
mysteries”, mysteries in which Mary's presence is especially
pronounced, could be moved to Saturday. Thursday would then be
free for meditating on the “mysteries of light”.
This indication is not intended to limit a
rightful freedom in personal and community prayer, where account
needs to be taken of spiritual and pastoral needs and of the
occurrence of particular liturgical celebrations which might
call for suitable adaptations. What is really important is that
the Rosary should always be seen and experienced as a path of
contemplation. In the Rosary, in a way similar to what takes
place in the Liturgy, the Christian week, centred on Sunday, the
day of Resurrection, becomes a journey through the mysteries of
the life of Christ, and he is revealed in the lives of his
disciples as the Lord of time and of history.
CONCLUSION
“Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain
linking us to God”
39. What has been said so far makes abundantly
clear the richness of this traditional prayer, which has the
simplicity of a popular devotion but also the theological depth
of a prayer suited to those who feel the need for deeper
contemplation.
The Church has always attributed particular
efficacy to this prayer, entrusting to the Rosary, to its choral
recitation and to its constant practice, the most difficult
problems. At times when Christianity itself seemed under threat,
its deliverance was attributed to the power of this prayer, and
Our Lady of the Rosary was acclaimed as the one whose
intercession brought salvation.
Today I willingly entrust to the power of this
prayer – as I mentioned at the beginning – the cause of
peace in the world and the cause of the family.
Peace
40. The grave challenges confronting the world
at the start of this new Millennium lead us to think that only
an intervention from on high, capable of guiding the hearts of
those living in situations of conflict and those governing the
destinies of nations, can give reason to hope for a brighter
future.
The Rosary is by its nature a prayer for
peace, since it consists in the contemplation of Christ, the
Prince of Peace, the one who is “our peace” (Eph 2:14).
Anyone who assimilates the mystery of Christ – and this is
clearly the goal of the Rosary – learns the secret of peace
and makes it his life's project. Moreover, by virtue of its
meditative character, with the tranquil succession of Hail
Marys, the Rosary has a peaceful effect on those who pray
it, disposing them to receive and experience in their innermost
depths, and to spread around them, that true peace which is the
special gift of the Risen Lord (cf. Jn 14:27; 20.21).
The Rosary is also a prayer for peace because of
the fruits of charity which it produces. When prayed well in a
truly meditative way, the Rosary leads to an encounter with
Christ in his mysteries and so cannot fail to draw attention to
the face of Christ in others, especially in the most afflicted.
How could one possibly contemplate the mystery of the Child of
Bethlehem, in the joyful mysteries, without experiencing the
desire to welcome, defend and promote life, and to shoulder the
burdens of suffering children all over the world? How could one
possibly follow in the footsteps of Christ the Revealer, in the
mysteries of light, without resolving to bear witness to his
“Beatitudes” in daily life? And how could one contemplate
Christ carrying the Cross and Christ Crucified, without feeling
the need to act as a “Simon of Cyrene” for our brothers and
sisters weighed down by grief or crushed by despair? Finally,
how could one possibly gaze upon the glory of the Risen Christ
or of Mary Queen of Heaven, without yearning to make this world
more beautiful, more just, more closely conformed to God's plan?
In a word, by focusing our eyes on Christ, the
Rosary also makes us peacemakers in the world. By its nature as
an insistent choral petition in harmony with Christ's invitation
to “pray ceaselessly” (Lk 18:1), the Rosary allows us
to hope that, even today, the difficult “battle” for peace
can be won. Far from offering an escape from the problems of the
world, the Rosary obliges us to see them with responsible and
generous eyes, and obtains for us the strength to face them with
the certainty of God's help and the firm intention of bearing
witness in every situation to “love, which binds everything
together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:14).
The family: parents...
41. As a prayer for peace, the Rosary is also,
and always has been, a prayer of and for the family. At
one time this prayer was particularly dear to Christian
families, and it certainly brought them closer together. It is
important not to lose this precious inheritance. We need to
return to the practice of family prayer and prayer for families,
continuing to use the Rosary.
In my Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte
I encouraged the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours
by the lay faithful in the ordinary life of parish communities
and Christian groups; I now wish to do the same for the Rosary.
These two paths of Christian contemplation are not mutually
exclusive; they complement one another. I would therefore ask
those who devote themselves to the pastoral care of families to
recommend heartily the recitation of the Rosary.
The family that prays together stays
together. The Holy Rosary, by age-old tradition, has shown
itself particularly effective as a prayer which brings the
family together. Individual family members, in turning their
eyes towards Jesus, also regain the ability to look one another
in the eye, to communicate, to show solidarity, to forgive one
another and to see their covenant of love renewed in the Spirit
of God.
Many of the problems facing contemporary
families, especially in economically developed societies, result
from their increasing difficulty in communicating. Families
seldom manage to come together, and the rare occasions when they
do are often taken up with watching television. To return to the
recitation of the family Rosary means filling daily life with
very different images, images of the mystery of salvation: the
image of the Redeemer, the image of his most Blessed Mother. The
family that recites the Rosary together reproduces something of
the atmosphere of the household of Nazareth: its members place
Jesus at the centre, they share his joys and sorrows, they place
their needs and their plans in his hands, they draw from him the
hope and the strength to go on.
... and children
42. It is also beautiful and fruitful to entrust
to this prayer the growth and development of children.
Does the Rosary not follow the life of Christ, from his
conception to his death, and then to his Resurrection and his
glory? Parents are finding it ever more difficult to follow the
lives of their children as they grow to maturity. In a society
of advanced technology, of mass communications and
globalization, everything has become hurried, and the cultural
distance between generations is growing ever greater. The most
diverse messages and the most unpredictable experiences rapidly
make their way into the lives of children and adolescents, and
parents can become quite anxious about the dangers their
children face. At times parents suffer acute disappointment at
the failure of their children to resist the seductions of the
drug culture, the lure of an unbridled hedonism, the temptation
to violence, and the manifold expressions of meaninglessness and
despair.
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 admittedly not the solution to every problem, but it
is a spiritual aid which should not be underestimated. It could
be objected that the Rosary seems hardly suited to the taste of
children and young people of today. But perhaps the objection is
directed to an impoverished method of praying it. Furthermore,
without prejudice to the Rosary's basic structure, there is
nothing to stop children and young people from praying it –
either within the family or in groups – with appropriate
symbolic and practical aids to understanding and appreciation.
Why not try it? With God's help, a pastoral approach to youth
which is positive, impassioned and creative – as shown by the
World Youth Days! – is capable of achieving quite remarkable
results. If the Rosary is well presented, I am sure that young
people will once more surprise adults by the way they make this
prayer their own and recite it with the enthusiasm typical of
their age group.
The Rosary, a treasure to be rediscovered
43. Dear brothers and sisters! A prayer so easy
and yet so rich truly deserves to be rediscovered by the
Christian community. Let us do so, especially this year, as a
means of confirming the direction outlined in my Apostolic
Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, from which the pastoral
plans of so many particular Churches have drawn inspiration as
they look to the immediate future.
I turn particularly to you, my dear Brother
Bishops, priests and deacons, and to you, pastoral agents in
your different ministries: through your own personal experience
of the beauty of the Rosary, may you come to promote it with
conviction.
I also place my trust in you, theologians: by
your sage and rigorous reflection, rooted in the word of God and
sensitive to the lived experience of the Christian people, may
you help them to discover the Biblical foundations, the
spiritual riches and the pastoral value of this traditional
prayer.
I count on you, consecrated men and women,
called in a particular way to contemplate the face of Christ at
the school of Mary.
I look to all of you, brothers and sisters of
every state of life, to you, Christian families, to you, the
sick and elderly, and to you, young people: confidently take
up the Rosary once again. Rediscover the Rosary in the light
of Scripture, in harmony with the Liturgy, and in the context of
your daily lives.
May this appeal of mine not go unheard! At the
start of the twenty-fifth year of my Pontificate, I entrust this
Apostolic Letter to the loving hands of the Virgin Mary, prostrating
myself in spirit before her image in the splendid Shrine built
for her by Blessed Bartolo Longo, the apostle of the Rosary.
I willingly make my own the touching words with which he
concluded his well-known Supplication to the Queen of the
Holy Rosary: “O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain which
unites us to God, bond of love which unites us to the angels,
tower of salvation against the assaults of Hell, safe port in
our universal shipwreck, we will never abandon you. You will be
our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life
ebbs away. And the last word from our lips will be your sweet
name, O Queen of the Rosary of Pompei, O dearest Mother, O
Refuge of Sinners, O Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted. May
you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in
heaven”.
From the Vatican, on the 16th day of October
in the year 2002, the beginning of the twenty- fifth year of my
Pontificate.
JOHN PAUL II
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