TOTUS TUUS
APOSTOLIC LETTER
ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE
ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE
OF
THE SUPREME PONTIFF
JOHN PAUL II
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY
AND FAITHFUL
ON THE MOST HOLY ROSARY
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 Christo centric 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 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 Christo centric
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
Millenio Ineunte,Novo 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
MYSTERIE 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” (Jn9:5).
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 (cfLk 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” (Jn2:5). 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 theCatechism 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 theHail 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 (Phil2:7).
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. Jn14:27; 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 Millenio 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
-----------------------------------------------------------
(4)
Particularly worthy of note is his Apostolic Epistle on the Rosary Il religioso convegno(29
September 1961): AAS 53 (1961), 641-647.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(27)
John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio Ineunte (6 January
2001), 20: AAS 93 (2001), 279.
(29)
John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio Ineunte (6 January
2001), 28: AAS 93 (2001), 284.
(32)
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World Gaudium et Spes,
22.
(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.
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