Our Lady and the Holy Rosary

OUR LADY AND THE HOLY ROSARY

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

            There is an intimate link between the Rosary and our Lady for in as much as we speak about the Holy Rosary, one cannot ignore the personhood of our Lady and vice versa. Although apparently it would seem that it is Marian in character, the Holy Rosary is very much a Christo – centric prayer. It is a meditation on the Gospels which is nothing but the life of our Lord. During the recitation of the Rosary,

We remember Christ with Mary
We learn Christ from Mary
We conform ourselves to Christ with Mary
We pray to Christ with Mary
We proclaim Christ with Mary
We listen to Christ with Mary

            Our Lady is considered to be the perfect and incomparable model when it comes to the contemplation of Christ, for in as much as She was His perfect disciple, She was also His Mother. In a unique way, the face of Her Son belongs to Her’s. This is what we call, in biological terms, a symbiosis. 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 faithful 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 clothes and laid Him in a manger.’ (Luke 2:7)
            Mary lived with Her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring His every word: ‘She kept all these things, pondering them in Her heart’ (Luke 2:19; 2:51). The memories of Jesus, impressed on 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.
            Besides this, the Rosary is also very much an ‘anthropological’ prayer and the encyclical ‘Redemptor Hominis’ shows it. The words are as follows, “It is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of the human person is seen in its true light.” The Rosary helps us to open up this way to this Light. Following in the path of Christ, in whom the human person’s path is ‘recapitulated,’ revealed and redeemed, believers come face to face with the image of the true human person. 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 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 the each mystery of the Rosary, when carefully meditated upon, sheds light on the mystery of the human person.
            Today, the holy Rosary has sometimes been avoided as it was felt that this kind of prayer could become monotonous. The main problem in this kind of attitude is that when such people pray the holy rosary this way, they do not contemplate on it. True, no doubt, sometimes saying the “Hail Mary” can at times become monotonous but this will happen only if one is not meditating on the mysteries. In this connection we should note that although the repeated ‘Hail Mary’ is addressed directly to Mary, it is actually, as mentioned before, directed to Jesus; it is to Jesus that the act of love is ultimately directed, with and through our Blessed Mother. The reputation is nourished by the desire to be conformed ever more completely to Christ, the true programme of the Christian life. St. Paul expressed this project with words of fire, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21) and again, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) The Rosary helps us to be conformed even closer to Christ until we can attain true holiness.
            The Holy Rosary could become a ‘scandal’ for our brethren of other denominational sects. Most of them regard us as ‘idol worshippers.’ But is it really true? Absolutely not! We venerate the image. We should not be surprised that our relationship with Christ makes use of a method. God communicates Himself to us respecting our human emotions and its vital rhythm. Hence, while Christian spirituality is familiar with the most sublime form of mystical silence in which images, words and gestures are all, so to speak, suspended by an intense and ineffable union with God, it normally engages the whole person in all his complex psychological, physical and rational 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 prayers. This is confirmed by the fact that, in the East, the most characteristic prayer of Christological meditation, centered on the words, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner” is traditionally linked to the rhythm of breathing, while the 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.

            On the whole, the Holy Rosary is simply a method of contemplation and as a method it serves as a means to an end and cannot become an end in itself. The Rosary is by nature a prayer for peace, since it consists in the contemplation of Christ, the Prince of Peace, the one who is ‘our peace’ (Ephesians 2:14). Anyone who assimilates the mystery of Christ learns the secret of peace and makes it his life’s project. It is for this reason that families are encouraged to pray this simple yet profound prayer for as the famous saying goes, “The family that prays together, stays together.” The family that prays the Rosary together reproduces something of the atmosphere of the atmosphere at the household at Nazareth: its members place Jesus at the centre, they share His joys and sorrow, they place their needs and their plans in His hands, they draw from Him the hope and the strength to go on. 

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