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
prayer of 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 XXIII4 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” (2 Cor 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” (Lk 2:7).
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. 2 Cor 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. 1 Cor 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”.36The 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.
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 evelation, 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.
