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APOSTOLIC LETTER
ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE
OF THE SUPREME
PONTIFF
JOHN PAUL II
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY
AND
FAITHFUL
ON THE MOST HOLY ROSARY
INTRODUCTION
1. The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form
in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a
prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple
yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a
prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of
holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian
life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of
its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the
deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry
out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and
the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), “the goal of human history and
the point on which the desires of history and civilization
turn”.1
The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart
a Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the
depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be
said to be a compendium.2 It is an echo of the prayerof Mary,
her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redemptive Incarnation
which began in her virginal womb. With the Rosary, the Christian people
sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on
the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the
Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands
of the Mother of the Redeemer.
The Popes and the Rosary
2. Numerous predecessors of mine attributed great importance
to this prayer. Worthy of special note in this regard is Pope Leo XIII who
on 1 September 1883 promulgated the Encyclical Supremi
Apostolatus Officio,3 a document of great worth, the
first of his many statements about this prayer, in which he proposed the
Rosary as an effective spiritual weapon against the evils afflicting
society. Among the more recent Popes who, from the time of the Second
Vatican Council, have distinguished themselves in promoting the Rosary I
would mention Blessed John 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” (2Cor 3:18).
Mary, model of contemplation
10. The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model
in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was
in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance
which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever
devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully
as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation,
when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that
followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features. When
at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze
tenderly on the face of her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling cloths,
and laid him in a manger” (Lk2:7).
Thereafter Mary's gaze, ever filled with adoration and
wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning
look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have
you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating
gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of
perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana
(cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow,
especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of a
mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her
Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple
(cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze
radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of
Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf.
Acts 1:14).
Mary's memories
11. Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring his
every word: “She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart”
(Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51). The memories of Jesus, impressed upon her
heart, were always with her, leading her to reflect on the various moments
of her life at her Son's side. In a way those memories were to be the
“rosary” which she recited uninterruptedly throughout her earthly
life.
Even now, amid the joyful songs of the heavenly Jerusalem,
the reasons for her thanksgiving and praise remain unchanged. They inspire
her maternal concern for the pilgrim Church, in which she continues to
relate her personal account of the Gospel. Mary constantly sets before
the faithful the “mysteries” of her Son, with the desire that the
contemplation of those mysteries will release all their saving power. In
the recitation of the Rosary, the Christian community enters into contact
with the memories and the contemplative gaze of Mary.
The Rosary, a contemplative prayer
12. The Rosary, precisely because it starts with Mary's own
experience, is an exquisitely contemplative prayer. Without this
contemplative dimension, it would lose its meaning, as Pope Paul VI
clearly pointed out: “Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without
a soul, and its recitation runs the risk of becoming a mechanical
repetition of formulas, in violation of the admonition of Christ: 'In
praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think
they will be heard for their many words' (Mt 6:7). By its nature
the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering
pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord's
life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this
way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are
disclosed”.14
It is worth pausing to consider this profound insight of
Paul VI, in order to bring out certain aspects of the Rosary which show
that it is really a form of Christocentric contemplation.
Remembering Christ with Mary
13. Mary's contemplation is above all a remembering.
We need to understand this word in the biblical sense of remembrance
(zakar) as a making present of the works brought about by God in
the history of salvation. The Bible is an account of saving events
culminating in Christ himself. These events not only belong to
“yesterday”; they are also part of the “today” of salvation. This
making present comes about above all in the Liturgy: what God accomplished
centuries ago did not only affect the direct witnesses of those events; it
continues to affect people in every age with its gift of grace. To some
extent this is also true of every other devout approach to those events:
to “remember” them in a spirit of faith and love is to be open to the
grace which Christ won for us by the mysteries of his life, death and
resurrection.
Consequently, while it must be reaffirmed with the Second
Vatican Council that the Liturgy, as the exercise of the priestly office
of Christ and an act of public worship, is “the summit to which the
activity of the Church is directed and the font from which all its power
flows”,15 it is also necessary to recall that the spiritual
life “is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy. Christians,
while they are called to prayer in common, must also go to their own rooms
to pray to their Father in secret (cf. Mt 6:6); indeed, according
to the teaching of the Apostle, they must pray without ceasing
(cf.1Thes 5:17)”.16 The Rosary, in its own particular
way, is part of this varied panorama of “ceaseless” prayer. If the
Liturgy, as the activity of Christ and the Church, is a saving action
par excellence, the Rosary too, as a “meditation” with Mary on Christ,
is a salutary contemplation. By immersing us in the mysteries of
the Redeemer's life, it ensures that what he has done and what the liturgy
makes present is profoundly assimilated and shapes our existence.
Learning Christ from Mary
14. Christ is the supreme Teacher, the revealer and the one
revealed. It is not just a question of learning what he taught but of
“learning him”. In this regard could we have any better teacher
than Mary? From the divine standpoint, the Spirit is the interior teacher
who leads us to the full truth of Christ (cf. Jn 14:26; 15:26;
16:13). But among creatures no one knows Christ better than Mary; no one
can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his mystery better than his
Mother.
The first of the “signs” worked by Jesus – the changing of
water into wine at the marriage in Cana – clearly presents Mary in the
guise of a teacher, as she urges the servants to do what Jesus commands
(cf. Jn 2:5). We can imagine that she would have done likewise for
the disciples after Jesus' Ascension, when she joined them in awaiting the
Holy Spirit and supported them in their first mission. Contemplating the
scenes of the Rosary in union with Mary is a means of learning from her to
“read” Christ, to discover his secrets and to understand his message.
This school of Mary is all the more effective if we consider
that she teaches by obtaining for us in abundance the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, even as she offers us the incomparable example of her own
“pilgrimage of faith”.17 As we contemplate each mystery of her
Son's life, she invites us to do as she did at the Annunciation: to ask
humbly the questions which open us to the light, in order to end with the
obedience of faith: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to
me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
Being conformed to Christ with Mary
15. Christian spirituality is distinguished by the
disciple's commitment to become conformed ever more fully to his Master
(cf. Rom 8:29; Phil 3:10,12). The outpouring of the Holy
Spirit in Baptism grafts the believer like a branch onto the vine which is
Christ (cf. Jn 15:5) and makes him a member of Christ's mystical
Body (cf.1Cor 12:12; Rom 12:5). This initial unity, however,
calls for a growing assimilation which will increasingly shape the conduct
of the disciple in accordance with the “mind” of Christ: “Have this mind
among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5). In the
words of the Apostle, we are called “to put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (cf.
Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27).
In the spiritual journey of the Rosary, based on the
constant contemplation – in Mary's company – of the face of Christ, this
demanding ideal of being conformed to him is pursued through an
association which could be described in terms of friendship. We are
thereby enabled to enter naturally into Christ's life and as it were to
share his deepest feelings. In this regard Blessed Bartolo Longo has
written: “Just as two friends, frequently in each other's company, tend to
develop similar habits, so too, by holding familiar converse with Jesus
and the Blessed Virgin, by meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary and
by living the same life in Holy Communion, we can become, to the extent of
our lowliness, similar to them and can learn from these supreme models a
life of humility, poverty, hiddenness, patience and
perfection”.18
In this process of being conformed to Christ in the Rosary,
we entrust ourselves in a special way to the maternal care of the Blessed
Virgin. She who is both the Mother of Christ and a member of the Church,
indeed her “pre-eminent and altogether singular member”,19 is
at the same time the “Mother of the Church”. As such, she continually
brings to birth children for the mystical Body of her Son. She does so
through her intercession, imploring upon them the inexhaustible outpouring
of the Spirit. Mary is the perfect icon of the motherhood of the
Church.
The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is
busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth.
This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until
Christ is “fully formed” in us (cf. Gal 4:19). This role of Mary,
totally grounded in that of Christ and radically subordinated to it, “in
no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather
shows its power”.20 This is the luminous principle expressed by
the Second Vatican Council which I have so powerfully experienced in my
own life and have made the basis of my episcopal motto: Totus
Tuus.21 The motto is of course inspired by the teaching of
Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, who explained in the following
words Mary's role in the process of our configuration to Christ: “Our
entire perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to
Jesus Christ. Hence the most perfect of all devotions is undoubtedly
that which conforms, unites and consecrates us most perfectly to Jesus
Christ. Now, since Mary is of all creatures the one most conformed to
Jesus Christ, it follows that among all devotions that which most
consecrates and conforms a soul to our Lord is devotion to Mary, his Holy
Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to her the more will it be
consecrated to Jesus Christ”.22 Never as in the Rosary do the
life of Jesus and that of Mary appear so deeply joined. Mary lives only in
Christ and for Christ!
Praying to Christ with Mary
16. Jesus invited us to turn to God with insistence and the
confidence that we will be heard: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek,
and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Mt 7:7).
The basis for this power of prayer is the goodness of the Father, but also
the mediation of Christ himself (cf. 1Jn 2:1) and the working of
the Holy Spirit who “intercedes for us” according to the will of God (cf.
Rom 8:26-27). For “we do not know how to pray as we ought”
(Rom 8:26), and at times we are not heard “because we ask wrongly”
(cf. Jas 4:2-3).
In support of the prayer which Christ and the Spirit cause
to rise in our hearts, Mary intervenes with her maternal intercession.
“The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary”.23
If Jesus, the one Mediator, is the Way of our prayer, then Mary, his
purest and most transparent reflection, shows us the Way. “Beginning with
Mary's unique cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the
Churches developed their prayer to the Holy Mother of God, centering it on
the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries”.24 At the
wedding of Cana the Gospel clearly shows the power of Mary's intercession
as she makes known to Jesus the needs of others: “They have no wine”
(Jn 2:3).
The Rosary is both meditation and supplication. Insistent
prayer to the Mother of God is based on confidence that her maternal
intercession can obtain all things from the heart of her Son. She is
“all-powerful by grace”, to use the bold expression, which needs to be
properly understood, of Blessed Bartolo Longo in his Supplication to
Our Lady.25 This is a conviction which, beginning with the
Gospel, has grown ever more firm in the experience of the Christian
people. The supreme poet Dante expresses it marvellously in the lines sung
by Saint Bernard: “Lady, thou art so great and so powerful, that whoever
desires grace yet does not turn to thee, would have his desire fly without
wings”.26 When in the Rosary we plead with Mary, the sanctuary
of the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 1:35), she intercedes for us before the
Father who filled her with grace and before the Son born of her womb,
praying with us and for us.
Proclaiming Christ with Mary
17. The Rosary is also a path of proclamation and
increasing knowledge, in which the mystery of Christ is presented
again and again at different levels of the Christian experience. Its form
is that of a prayerful and contemplative presentation, capable of forming
Christians according to the heart of Christ. When the recitation of the
Rosary combines all the elements needed for an effective meditation,
especially in its communal celebration in parishes and shrines, it can
present a significant catechetical opportunity which pastors should
use to advantage. In this way too Our Lady of the Rosary continues her
work of proclaiming Christ. The history of the Rosary shows how this
prayer was used in particular by the Dominicans at a difficult time for
the Church due to the spread of heresy. Today we are facing new
challenges. Why should we not once more have recourse to the Rosary, with
the same faith as those who have gone before us? The Rosary retains all
its power and continues to be a valuable pastoral resource for every good
evangelizer.
CHAPTER II
MYSTERIES OF CHRIST –
MYSTERIES OF HIS
MOTHER
The Rosary, “a compendium of the Gospel”
18. The only way to approach the contemplation of Christ's
face is by listening in the Spirit to the Father's voice, since “no one
knows the Son except the Father” (Mt 11:27). In the region of
Caesarea Philippi, Jesus responded to Peter's confession of faith by
indicating the source of that clear intuition of his identity: “Flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven”
(Mt 16:17). What is needed, then, is a revelation from above. In
order to receive that revelation, attentive listening is indispensable:
“Only the experience of silence and prayer offers the proper
setting for the growth and development of a true, faithful and consistent
knowledge of that mystery”.27
The Rosary is one of the traditional paths of Christian
prayer directed to the contemplation of Christ's face. Pope Paul VI
described it in these words: “As a Gospel prayer, centred on the mystery
of the redemptive Incarnation, the Rosary is a prayer with a clearly
Christological orientation. Its most characteristic element, in fact, the
litany- like succession of Hail Marys, becomes in itself an
unceasing praise of Christ, who is the ultimate object both of the Angel's
announcement and of the greeting of the Mother of John the Baptist:
'Blessed is the fruit of your womb' (Lk 1:42). We would go further
and say that the succession of Hail Marys constitutes the warp on
which is woven the contemplation of the mysteries. The Jesus that each
Hail Mary recalls is the same Jesus whom the succession of mysteries
proposes to us now as the Son of God, now as the Son of the
Virgin”.28
A proposed addition to the traditional pattern
19. Of the many mysteries of Christ's life, only a few are
indicated by the Rosary in the form that has become generally established
with the seal of the Church's approval. The selection was determined by
the origin of the prayer, which was based on the number 150, the number of
the Psalms in the Psalter.
I believe, however, that to bring out fully the
Christological depth of the Rosary it would be suitable to make an
addition to the traditional pattern which, while left to the freedom of
individuals and communities, could broaden it to include the mysteries
of Christ's public ministry between his Baptism and his Passion. In
the course of those mysteries we contemplate important aspects of the
person of Christ as the definitive revelation of God. Declared the beloved
Son of the Father at the Baptism in the Jordan, Christ is the one who
announces the coming of the Kingdom, bears witness to it in his works and
proclaims its demands. It is during the years of his public ministry that
the mystery of Christ is most evidently a mystery of light: “While
I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jn 9:5).
Consequently, for the Rosary to become more fully a
“compendium of the Gospel”, it is fitting to add, following reflection on
the Incarnation and the hidden life of Christ (the joyful
mysteries) and before focusing on the sufferings of his Passion
(the sorrowful mysteries) and the triumph of his Resurrection
(the glorious mysteries), a meditation on certain particularly
significant moments in his public ministry (the mysteries of
light). This addition of these new mysteries, without prejudice to any
essential aspect of the prayer's traditional format, is meant to give it
fresh life and to enkindle renewed interest in the Rosary's place within
Christian spirituality as a true doorway to the depths of the Heart of
Christ, ocean of joy and of light, of suffering and of glory.
The Joyful Mysteries
20. The first five decades, the “joyful mysteries”, are
marked by the joy radiating from the event of the Incarnation. This
is clear from the very first mystery, the Annunciation, where Gabriel's
greeting to the Virgin of Nazareth is linked to an invitation to messianic
joy: “Rejoice, Mary”. The whole of salvation history, in some sense the
entire history of the world, has led up to this greeting. If it is the
Father's plan to unite all things in Christ (cf. Eph 1:10), then
the whole of the universe is in some way touched by the divine favour with
which the Father looks upon Mary and makes her the Mother of his Son. The
whole of humanity, in turn, is embraced by the fiat with which she
readily agrees to the will of God.
Exultation is the keynote of the encounter with Elizabeth,
where the sound of Mary's voice and the presence of Christ in her womb
cause John to “leap for joy” (cf. Lk 1:44). Gladness also fills the
scene in Bethlehem, when the birth of the divine Child, the Saviour of the
world, is announced by the song of the angels and proclaimed to the
shepherds as “news of great joy” (Lk 2:10).
The final two mysteries, while preserving this climate of
joy, already point to the drama yet to come. The Presentation in the
Temple not only expresses the joy of the Child's consecration and the
ecstasy of the aged Simeon; it also records the prophecy that Christ will
be a “sign of contradiction” for Israel and that a sword will pierce his
mother's heart (cf Lk 2:34-35). Joy mixed with drama marks the
fifth mystery, the finding of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple.
Here he appears in his divine wisdom as he listens and raises questions,
already in effect one who “teaches”. The revelation of his mystery as the
Son wholly dedicated to his Father's affairs proclaims the radical nature
of the Gospel, in which even the closest of human relationships are
challenged by the absolute demands of the Kingdom. Mary and Joseph,
fearful and anxious, “did not understand” his words (Lk 2:50).
To meditate upon the “joyful” mysteries, then, is to enter
into the ultimate causes and the deepest meaning of Christian joy. It is
to focus on the realism of the mystery of the Incarnation and on the
obscure foreshadowing of the mystery of the saving Passion. Mary leads us
to discover the secret of Christian joy, reminding us that Christianity
is, first and foremost, euangelion, “good news”, which has as its
heart and its whole content the person of Jesus Christ, the Word made
flesh, the one Saviour of the world.
The Mysteries of Light
21. Moving on from the infancy and the hidden life in
Nazareth to the public life of Jesus, our contemplation brings us to those
mysteries which may be called in a special way “mysteries of light”.
Certainly the whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of light. He is the
“light of the world” (Jn 8:12). Yet this truth emerges in a special
way during the years of his public life, when he proclaims the Gospel of
the Kingdom. In proposing to the Christian community five significant
moments – “luminous” mysteries – during this phase of Christ's life, I
think that the following can be fittingly singled out: (1) his Baptism in
the Jordan, (2) his self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana, (3) his
proclamation of the Kingdom of God, with his call to conversion, (4) his
Transfiguration, and finally, (5) his institution of the Eucharist, as the
sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery.
Each of these mysteries is a revelation of the Kingdom
now present in the very person of Jesus. The Baptism in the Jordan is
first of all a mystery of light. Here, as Christ descends into the waters,
the innocent one who became “sin” for our sake (cf. 2Cor 5:21), the
heavens open wide and the voice of the Father declares him the beloved Son
(cf. Mt 3:17 and parallels), while the Spirit descends on him to
invest him with the mission which he is to carry out. Another mystery of
light is the first of the signs, given at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1- 12),
when Christ changes water into wine and opens the hearts of the disciples
to faith, thanks to the intervention of Mary, the first among believers.
Another mystery of light is the preaching by which Jesus proclaims the
coming of the Kingdom of God, calls to conversion (cf. Mk 1:15) and
forgives the sins of all who draw near to him in humble trust (cf. Mk
2:3-13; Lk 7:47- 48): the inauguration of that ministry of
mercy which he continues to exercise until the end of the world,
particularly through the Sacrament of Reconciliation which he has
entrusted to his Church (cf. Jn 20:22-23). The mystery of light
par excellence is the Transfiguration, traditionally believed to have
taken place on Mount Tabor. The glory of the Godhead shines forth from the
face of Christ as the Father commands the astonished Apostles to “listen
to him” (cf. Lk 9:35 and parallels) and to prepare to experience
with him the agony of the Passion, so as to come with him to the joy of
the Resurrection and a life transfigured by the Holy Spirit. A final
mystery of light is the institution of the Eucharist, in which Christ
offers his body and blood as food under the signs of bread and wine, and
testifies “to the end” his love for humanity (Jn 13:1), for whose
salvation he will offer himself in sacrifice.
In these mysteries, apart from the miracle at Cana, the
presence of Mary remains in the background. The Gospels make only the
briefest reference to her occasional presence at one moment or other
during the preaching of Jesus (cf. Mk 3:31-5; Jn 2:12), and
they give no indication that she was present at the Last Supper and the
institution of the Eucharist. Yet the role she assumed at Cana in some way
accompanies Christ throughout his ministry. The revelation made directly
by the Father at the Baptism in the Jordan and echoed by John the Baptist
is placed upon Mary's lips at Cana, and it becomes the great maternal
counsel which Mary addresses to the Church of every age: “Do whatever he
tells you” (Jn 2:5). This counsel is a fitting introduction to the
words and signs of Christ's public ministry and it forms the Marian
foundation of all the “mysteries of light”.
The Sorrowful Mysteries
22. The Gospels give great prominence to the sorrowful
mysteries of Christ. From the beginning Christian piety, especially during
the Lenten devotion of the Way of the Cross, has focused on the
individual moments of the Passion, realizing that here is found the
culmination of the revelation of God's love and the source of our
salvation. The Rosary selects certain moments from the Passion, inviting
the faithful to contemplate them in their hearts and to relive them. The
sequence of meditations begins with Gethsemane, where Christ experiences a
moment of great anguish before the will of the Father, against which the
weakness of the flesh would be tempted to rebel. There Jesus encounters
all the temptations and confronts all the sins of humanity, in order to
say to the Father: “Not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42 and
parallels). This “Yes” of Christ reverses the “No” of our first parents in
the Garden of Eden. And the cost of this faithfulness to the Father's will
is made clear in the following mysteries; by his scourging, his crowning
with thorns, his carrying the Cross and his death on the Cross, the Lord
is cast into the most abject suffering: Ecce homo!
This abject suffering reveals not only the love of God but
also the meaning of man himself.
Ecce homo: the meaning, origin and fulfilment of man
is to be found in Christ, the God who humbles himself out of love “even
unto death, death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). The sorrowful mysteries
help the believer to relive the death of Jesus, to stand at the foot of
the Cross beside Mary, to enter with her into the depths of God's love for
man and to experience all its life-giving power.
The Glorious Mysteries
23. “The contemplation of Christ's face cannot stop at the
image of the Crucified One. He is the Risen One!”29 The Rosary
has always expressed this knowledge born of faith and invited the believer
to pass beyond the darkness of the Passion in order to gaze upon Christ's
glory in the Resurrection and Ascension. Contemplating the Risen One,
Christians rediscover the reasons for their own faith (cf. 1Cor
15:14) and relive the joy not only of those to whom Christ appeared –
the Apostles, Mary Magdalene and the disciples on the road to Emmaus – but
also the joy of Mary, who must have had an equally intense
experience of the new life of her glorified Son. In the Ascension, Christ
was raised in glory to the right hand of the Father, while Mary herself
would be raised to that same glory in the Assumption, enjoying beforehand,
by a unique privilege, the destiny reserved for all the just at the
resurrection of the dead. Crowned in glory – as she appears in the last
glorious mystery – Mary shines forth as Queen of the Angels and Saints,
the anticipation and the supreme realization of the eschatological state
of the Church.
At the centre of this unfolding sequence of the glory of the
Son and the Mother, the Rosary sets before us the third glorious mystery,
Pentecost, which reveals the face of the Church as a family gathered
together with Mary, enlivened by the powerful outpouring of the Spirit and
ready for the mission of evangelization. The contemplation of this scene,
like that of the other glorious mysteries, ought to lead the faithful to
an ever greater appreciation of their new life in Christ, lived in the
heart of the Church, a life of which the scene of Pentecost itself is the
great “icon”. The glorious mysteries thus lead the faithful to greater
hope for the eschatological goal towards which they journey as members
of the pilgrim People of God in history. This can only impel them to bear
courageous witness to that “good news” which gives meaning to their entire
existence.
From “mysteries” to the “Mystery”: Mary's way
24. The cycles of meditation proposed by the Holy Rosary are
by no means exhaustive, but they do bring to mind what is essential and
they awaken in the soul a thirst for a knowledge of Christ continually
nourished by the pure source of the Gospel. Every individual event in the
life of Christ, as narrated by the Evangelists, is resplendent with the
Mystery that surpasses all understanding (cf. Eph 3:19): the
Mystery of the Word made flesh, in whom “all the fullness of God dwells
bodily” (Col 2:9). For this reason the Catechism
of the Catholic Church places great emphasis on the mysteries of
Christ, pointing out that “everything in the life of Jesus is a sign of
his Mystery”.30 The “duc in altum” of the Church of the
third millennium will be determined by the ability of Christians to enter
into the “perfect knowledge of God's mystery, of Christ, in whom are
hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:2-3). The
Letter to the Ephesians makes this heartfelt prayer for all the baptized:
“May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, so that you, being rooted
and grounded in love, may have power... to know the love of Christ which
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”
(3:17-19).
The Rosary is at the service of this ideal; it offers the
“secret” which leads easily to a profound and inward knowledge of Christ.
We might call it Mary's way. It is the way of the example of the
Virgin of Nazareth, a woman of faith, of silence, of attentive listening.
It is also the way of a Marian devotion inspired by knowledge of the
inseparable bond between Christ and his Blessed Mother: the mysteries
of Christ are also in some sense the mysteries of his Mother,
even when they do not involve her directly, for she lives from him and
through him. By making our own the words of the Angel Gabriel and Saint
Elizabeth contained in the Hail Mary, we find ourselves constantly
drawn to seek out afresh in Mary, in her arms and in her heart, the
“blessed fruit of her womb” (cf Lk 1:42).
Mystery of Christ, mystery of man
25. In my testimony of 1978 mentioned above, where I
described the Rosary as my favourite prayer, I used an idea to which I
would like to return. I said then that “the simple prayer of the Rosary
marks the rhythm of human life”.31
In the light of what has been said so far on the mysteries
of Christ, it is not difficult to go deeper into this anthropological
significance of the Rosary, which is far deeper than may appear at
first sight. Anyone who contemplates Christ through the various stages of
his life cannot fail to perceive in him the truth about man. This
is the great affirmation of the Second Vatican Council which I have so
often discussed in my own teaching since the Encyclical Letter Redemptor
Hominis:
“it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man
is seen in its true light”.32 The Rosary helps to open up the
way to this light. Following in the path of Christ, in whom man's path is
“recapitulated”,33 revealed and redeemed, believers come face
to face with the image of the true man. Contemplating Christ's birth, they
learn of the sanctity of life; seeing the household of Nazareth, they
learn the original truth of the family according to God's plan; listening
to the Master in the mysteries of his public ministry, they find the light
which leads them to enter the Kingdom of God; and following him on the way
to Calvary, they learn the meaning of salvific suffering. Finally,
contemplating Christ and his Blessed Mother in glory, they see the goal
towards which each of us is called, if we allow ourselves to be healed and
transformed by the Holy Spirit. It could be said that each mystery of the
Rosary, carefully meditated, sheds light on the mystery of man.
At the same time, it becomes natural to bring to this
encounter with the sacred humanity of the Redeemer all the problems,
anxieties, labours and endeavours which go to make up our lives. “Cast
your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you” (Ps 55:23). To
pray the Rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of
Christ and his Mother. Twenty-five years later, thinking back over the
difficulties which have also been part of my exercise of the Petrine
ministry, I feel the need to say once more, as a warm invitation to
everyone to experience it personally: the Rosary does indeed “mark the
rhythm of human life”, bringing it into harmony with the “rhythm” of God's
own life, in the joyful communion of the Holy Trinity, our life's destiny
and deepest longing.
CHAPTER III
“FOR ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST”
The Rosary, a way of assimilating the mystery
26. Meditation on the mysteries of Christ is proposed in the
Rosary by means of a method designed to assist in their assimilation. It
is a method based on repetition. This applies above all to the
Hail Mary, repeated ten times in each mystery. If this repetition is
considered superficially, there could be a temptation to see the Rosary as
a dry and boring exercise. It is quite another thing, however, when the
Rosary is thought of as an outpouring of that love which tirelessly
returns to the person loved with expressions similar in their content but
ever fresh in terms of the feeling pervading them.
In Christ, God has truly assumed a “heart of flesh”. Not
only does God have a divine heart, rich in mercy and in forgiveness, but
also a human heart, capable of all the stirrings of affection. If we
needed evidence for this from the Gospel, we could easily find it in the
touching dialogue between Christ and Peter after the Resurrection: “Simon,
son of John, do you love me?” Three times this question is put to Peter,
and three times he gives the reply: “Lord, you know that I love you” (cf.
Jn 21:15-17). Over and above the specific meaning of this passage,
so important for Peter's mission, none can fail to recognize the beauty of
this triple repetition, in which the insistent request and the
corresponding reply are expressed in terms familiar from the universal
experience of human love. To understand the Rosary, one has to enter into
the psychological dynamic proper to love.
One thing is clear: although the repeated Hail Mary
is addressed directly to Mary, it is to Jesus that the act of love is
ultimately directed, with her and through her. The repetition is nourished
by the desire to be conformed ever more completely to Christ, the true
programme of the Christian life. Saint Paul expressed this project with
words of fire: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil
1:21). And again: “It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in
me” (Gal 2:20). The Rosary helps us to be conformed ever more
closely to Christ until we attain true holiness.
A valid method...
27. We should not be surprised that our relationship with
Christ makes use of a method. God communicates himself to us respecting
our human nature and its vital rhythms. Hence, while Christian
spirituality is familiar with the most sublime forms of mystical silence
in which images, words and gestures are all, so to speak, superseded by an
intense and ineffable union with God, it normally engages the whole person
in all his complex psychological, physical and relational reality.
This becomes apparent in the Liturgy. Sacraments and
sacramentals are structured as a series of rites which bring into play all
the dimensions of the person. The same applies to non-liturgical prayer.
This is confirmed by the fact that, in the East, the most characteristic
prayer of Christological meditation, centred on the words “Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”34 is
traditionally linked to the rhythm of breathing; while this practice
favours perseverance in the prayer, it also in some way embodies the
desire for Christ to become the breath, the soul and the “all” of one's
life.
... which can nevertheless be improved
28. I mentioned in my Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio Ineunte that the West is now experiencing a renewed
demand for meditation, which at times leads to a keen interest in
aspects of other religions.35 Some Christians, limited in their
knowledge of the Christian contemplative tradition, are attracted by those
forms of prayer. While the latter contain many elements which are positive
and at times compatible with Christian experience, they are often based on
ultimately unacceptable premises. Much in vogue among these approaches are
methods aimed at attaining a high level of spiritual concentration by
using techniques of a psychophysical, repetitive and symbolic nature. The
Rosary is situated within this broad gamut of religious phenomena, but it
is distinguished by characteristics of its own which correspond to
specifically Christian requirements.
In effect, the Rosary is simply a method of
contemplation. As a method, it serves as a means to an end and cannot
become an end in itself. All the same, as the fruit of centuries of
experience, this method should not be undervalued. In its favour one could
cite the experience of countless Saints. This is not to say, however, that
the method cannot be improved. Such is the intent of the addition of the
new series of mysteria lucis to the overall cycle of mysteries and
of the few suggestions which I am proposing in this Letter regarding its
manner of recitation. These suggestions, while respecting the
well-established structure of this prayer, are intended to help the
faithful to understand it in the richness of its symbolism and in harmony
with the demands of daily life. Otherwise there is a risk that the Rosary
would not only fail to produce the intended spiritual effects, but even
that the beads, with which it is usually said, could come to be regarded
as some kind of amulet or magic object, thereby radically distorting their
meaning and function.
Announcing each mystery
29. Announcing each mystery, and perhaps even using a
suitable icon to portray it, is as it were to open up a scenario on
which to focus our attention. The words direct the imagination and the
mind towards a particular episode or moment in the life of Christ. In the
Church's traditional spirituality, the veneration of icons and the many
devotions appealing to the senses, as well as the method of prayer
proposed by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises, make use
of visual and imaginative elements (the compositio loci), judged to
be of great help in concentrating the mind on the particular mystery. This
is a methodology, moreover, which corresponds to the inner logic of the
Incarnation: in Jesus, God wanted to take on human features. It is
through his bodily reality that we are led into contact with the mystery
of his divinity.
This need for concreteness finds further expression in the
announcement of the various mysteries of the Rosary. Obviously these
mysteries neither replace the Gospel nor exhaust its content. The Rosary,
therefore, is no substitute for lectio divina; on the contrary, it
presupposes and promotes it. Yet, even though the mysteries contemplated
in the Rosary, even with the addition of the mysteria lucis, do no
more than outline the fundamental elements of the life of Christ, they
easily draw the mind to a more expansive reflection on the rest of the
Gospel, especially when the Rosary is prayed in a setting of prolonged
recollection.
Listening to the word of God
30. In order to supply a Biblical foundation and greater
depth to our meditation, it is helpful to follow the announcement of the
mystery with the proclamation of a related Biblical passage, long
or short, depending on the circumstances. No other words can ever match
the efficacy of the inspired word. As we listen, we are certain that this
is the word of God, spoken for today and spoken “for me”.
If received in this way, the word of God can become part of
the Rosary's methodology of repetition without giving rise to the ennui
derived from the simple recollection of something already well known. It
is not a matter of recalling information but of allowing God to speak.
In certain solemn communal celebrations, this word can be
appropriately illustrated by a brief commentary.
Silence
31. Listening and meditation are nourished by
silence. After the announcement of the mystery and the proclamation of
the word, it is fitting to pause and focus one's attention for a suitable
period of time on the mystery concerned, before moving into vocal prayer.
A discovery of the importance of silence is one of the secrets of
practicing contemplation and meditation. One drawback of a society
dominated by technology and the mass media is the fact that silence
becomes increasingly difficult to achieve. Just as moments of silence are
recommended in the Liturgy, so too in the recitation of the Rosary it is
fitting to pause briefly after listening to the word of God, while the
mind focuses on the content of a particular mystery.
The “Our Father”
32. After listening to the word and focusing on the mystery,
it is natural for the mind to be lifted up towards the Father. In
each of his mysteries, Jesus always leads us to the Father, for as he
rests in the Father's bosom (cf. Jn 1:18) he is continually turned
towards him. He wants us to share in his intimacy with the Father, so that
we can say with him: “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). By
virtue of his relationship to the Father he makes us brothers and sisters
of himself and of one another, communicating to us the Spirit which is
both his and the Father's. Acting as a kind of foundation for the
Christological and Marian meditation which unfolds in the repetition of
the Hail Mary, the Our Father makes meditation upon the
mystery, even when carried out in solitude, an ecclesial experience.
The ten “Hail Marys”
33. This is the most substantial element in the Rosary and
also the one which makes it a Marian prayer par excellence. Yet
when the Hail Mary is properly understood, we come to see clearly
that its Marian character is not opposed to its Christological character,
but that it actually emphasizes and increases it. The first part of the
Hail Mary, drawn from the words spoken to Mary by the Angel Gabriel
and by Saint Elizabeth, is a contemplation in adoration of the mystery
accomplished in the Virgin of Nazareth. These words express, so to speak,
the wonder of heaven and earth; they could be said to give us a glimpse of
God's own wonderment as he contemplates his “masterpiece” – the
Incarnation of the Son in the womb of the Virgin Mary. If we recall how,
in the Book of Genesis, God “saw all that he had made” (Gen 1:31),
we can find here an echo of that “pathos with which God, at the dawn of
creation, looked upon the work of his hands”.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.
JOHN PAUL II
1 Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 45.
2 Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Marialis
Cultus (2 February 1974), 42: AAS 66 (1974), 153.
3 Cf. Acta Leonis XIII, 3 (1884),
280-289.
4 Particularly worthy of note is his Apostolic
Epistle on the Rosary Il religioso convegno (29 September 1961):
AAS 53 (1961), 641-647.
5 Angelus: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo
II, I (1978): 75-76.
6 AAS 93 (2001), 285.
7 During the years of preparation for the
Council, Pope John XXIII did not fail to encourage the Christian community
to recite the Rosary for the success of this ecclesial event: cf. Letter
to the Cardinal Vicar (28 September 1960): AAS 52 (1960), 814-816.
8 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 66.
9 No. 32: AAS 93 (2001), 288.
10 Ibid., 33: loc. cit., 289.
11 It is well-known and bears repeating that
private revelations are not the same as public revelation, which is
binding on the whole Church. It is the task of the Magisterium to discern
and recognize the authenticity and value of private revelations for the
piety of the faithful.
12 The Secret of the Rosary.
13 Blessed Bartolo Longo, Storia del Santuario
di Pompei, Pompei, 1990, 59.
14 Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus
(2 February 1974), 47: AAS (1974), 156.
15 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10.
16 Ibid., 12.
17 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 58.
18 I Quindici Sabati del Santissimo
Rosario, 27th ed., Pompei, 1916, 27.
19 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 53.
20 Ibid., 60.
21 Cf. First Radio Address Urbi et Orbi
(17 October 1978): AAS 70 (1978), 927.
22 Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed
Virgin Mary.
23 Catechism of the Catholic Church,
2679.
24 Ibid., 2675.
25 The Supplication to the Queen of the Holy
Rosary was composed by Blessed Bartolo Longo in 1883 in response to
the appeal of Pope Leo XIII, made in his first Encyclical on the Rosary,
for the spiritual commitment of all Catholics in combating social ills. It
is solemnly recited twice yearly, in May and October.
26 Divina Commedia, Paradiso XXXIII,
13-15.
27 John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001), 20: AAS 93 (2001), 279.
28 Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus
(2 February 1974), 46: AAS 6 (1974), 155.
29 John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001), 28: AAS 93 (2001), 284.
30 No. 515.
31 Angelus Message of 29 October 1978 :
Insegnamenti, I (1978), 76.
32 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes,
22.
33 Cf. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus
Haereses, III, 18, 1: PG 7, 932.
34 Catechism of the Catholic Church,
2616.
35 Cf. No. 33: AAS 93 (2001), 289.
36 John Paul II, Letter to Artists (4
April 1999), 1: AAS 91 (1999), 1155.
37 Cf. No. 46: AAS 66 (1974), 155. This custom
has also been recently praised by the Congregation for Divine Worship and
for the Discipline of the Sacraments in its Direttorio su pietà
popolare e liturgia. Principi e orientamenti (17 December 2001), 201,
Vatican City, 2002, 165.
38 “...concede, quaesumus, ut haec mysteria
sacratissimo beatae Mariae Virginis Rosario recolentes, et imitemur quod
continent, et quod promittunt assequamur”. Missale Romanum 1960, in
festo B.M. Virginis a Rosario.
39 Cf. No. 34: AAS 93 (2001), 290.
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