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”.(1)
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.(2) 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,(3) 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(4) 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”.(5)
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”,(6) 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.(7)
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”.(8) 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”.(9)
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”.(10)
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;(11) 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,(12) 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!”.(13) 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”.(14)
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”,(15) 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)”.(16) 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”.(17) 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”.(18)
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”,(19) 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”.(20) 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.(21) 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”.(22) 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”.(23) 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”.(24) 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.(25) 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”.(26) 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”.(27)
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”.(28)
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!”(29) 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”.(30) 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”.(31)
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”.(32) The Rosary helps to open
up the way to this light. Following in the path of Christ, in whom
man's path is “recapitulated”,(33) 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”(34)
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.(35) 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”.(36) 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.(37) 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”.(38)
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;(39) 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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(1) Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et
Spes, 45.
(2) Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus (2 February
1974), 42: AAS 66 (1974), 153.
(3) Cf. Acta Leonis XIII, 3 (1884), 280-289.
(4) Particularly worthy of note is his Apostolic Epistle on the Rosary
Il religioso convegno (29 September 1961): AAS 53 (1961), 641-647.
(5) Angelus: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, I (1978): 75-76.
(6) AAS 93 (2001), 285.
(7) During the years of preparation for the Council, Pope John XXIII
did not fail to encourage the Christian community to recite the Rosary
for the success of this ecclesial event: cf. Letter to the Cardinal
Vicar (28 September 1960): AAS 52 (1960), 814-816.
(8) Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 66.
(9) No. 32: AAS 93 (2001), 288.
(10) Ibid., 33: loc. cit., 289.
(11) It is well-known and bears repeating that private revelations are
not the same as public revelation, which is binding on the whole
Church. It is the task of the Magisterium to discern and recognize the
authenticity and value of private revelations for the piety of the
faithful.
(12) The Secret of the Rosary.
(13) Blessed Bartolo Longo, Storia del Santuario di Pompei, Pompei,
1990, 59.
(14) Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus (2 February 1974), 47: AAS
(1974), 156.
(15) Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10.
(16) Ibid., 12.
(17) Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church Lumen Gentium, 58.
(18) I Quindici Sabati del Santissimo Rosario, 27th ed., Pompei, 1916,
27.
(19) Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church Lumen Gentium, 53.
(20) Ibid., 60.
(21) Cf. First Radio Address Urbi et Orbi (17 October 1978): AAS 70
(1978), 927.
(22) Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
(23) Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2679.
(24) Ibid., 2675.
(25) The Supplication to the Queen of the Holy Rosary was composed by
Blessed Bartolo Longo in 1883 in response to the appeal of Pope Leo
XIII, made in his first Encyclical on the Rosary, for the spiritual
commitment of all Catholics in combating social ills. It is solemnly
recited twice yearly, in May and October.
(26) Divina Commedia, Paradiso XXXIII, 13-15.
(27) John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (6 January
2001), 20: AAS 93 (2001), 279.
(28) Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus (2 February 1974), 46: AAS 6
(1974), 155.
(29) John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (6 January
2001), 28: AAS 93 (2001), 284.
(30) No. 515.
(31) Angelus Message of 29 October 1978 : Insegnamenti, I (1978), 76.
(32) Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22.
(33) Cf. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus Haereses, III, 18, 1: PG 7,
932.
(34) Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2616.
(35) Cf. No. 33: AAS 93 (2001), 289.
(36) John Paul II, Letter to Artists (4 April 1999), 1: AAS 91 (1999),
1155.
(37) Cf. No. 46: AAS 66 (1974), 155. This custom has also been recently
praised by the Congregation for Divine Worship and for the Discipline
of the Sacraments in its Direttorio su pietà popolare e
liturgia. Principi e orientamenti (17 December 2001), 201, Vatican
City, 2002, 165.
(38) “...concede, quaesumus, ut haec mysteria sacratissimo beatae
Mariae Virginis Rosario recolentes, et imitemur quod continent, et quod
promittunt assequamur”. Missale Romanum 1960, in festo B.M. Virginis a
Rosario.
(39) Cf. No. 34: AAS 93 (2001), 290.
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