The Rosary - Getting closer to Jesus through Mary

 

THE ROSARY – GETTING CLOSER TO JESUS THROUGH MARY

Mario D’Couto

            We just celebrated the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary about a week ago and in as much as praying the rosary can seem a bit challenging to some (if not to most people), it is a prayer that is most cherished by Our Blessed Mother. No doubt there are many beautiful prayers in honour of Our Lady like the Angelus, the Memorare, the Litany of Loretto and so on but nothing quite matches up to the holy rosary. The rosary is not a single prayer but rather a collection of prayers with special significance, recited in a precise framework to the accompaniment of meditation on the mysteries of the life of our divine Saviour.

            Non – Catholics may be surprised at the appeal of the rosary for on the surface, it may seem repetitious, wearisome and replete with possible distractions for the average mind. Even Catholics at times avoid the rosary for the same difficulties. Yet the rosary remains and always will remain a most beloved prayer, simply because Our Lady has made it known that She loves it with a very special love. In addition, the rosary is most comforting and reassuring in the sorrows as well as the joys of life, when prayed well by meditating on its mysteries. Countless souls have been strengthened by it. Christianity and civilizations have been saved through it and at Fatima, Portugal, Our Blessed Mother offered it as the spiritual weapon by means of which true lasting peace could come to the world and Russia might be saved.

            Praying the rosary presents an opportunity for us to re-examine our understanding and personal love for this magnificent prayer as well as an occasion to look into the manner in which we recite it. One learns the rosary and acquires a love for it by saying it, not theoretically discussing its difficulties and possible distractions. Praying the rosary is the habit of saying it each day. It is far better simply to take the rosary quietly in hand and actually say it rather than being alarmed as to how long it may take to say the rosary. By saying it humbly, prayerfully, lovingly, with a childlike spirit, recalling that our heavenly Mother loves this prayer, alone suffices. 

            The rosary is something like a chain of gold which binds us to the most loving and tenderest of mothers – Mary, Queen of the Rosary. In times of trial, of suffering, of temptation, the rosary in hand is a solace and protection. The rosary which we now hold will rest in our hands when the hands become still in the sleep of death. It is a good habit to carry the rosary always on one’s person (by wearing it around the neck), to hold it from time to time and whisper Hail Marys to our Blessed Mother, even if we do not have the time for the complete recitation of it. In this way, the rosary soon becomes a constant companion and source of grace.

            It may be asked as to how can one recite with attention and profit from praying the rosary? The answer is prayerful effort renewed over and over again. It will not be accomplished at once but if we seek it day – in and day – out, to pray the rosary humbly, endeavouring to reduce distractions and keeping in mind and meditating on the mysteries, great strides will be made towards a more prayerful recitation. We might consider the Hail Marys of each decade as individual flowers which, at the end of the rosary, we will put together in the form of a bouquet to present to our Blessed Mother, as an expression of love and devotion. If we say the prayers of each decade with humble effort and attention, these flowers will be fresh and fragrant. If we allow the mind to wonder and if we are far away in spirit, the flowers will be dead and worthless.

            With that being said, it would seem that what we have seen so far is solely focused on Our Lady but here’s something I would like to point out. One need not fear an exaggeration of love for Our Blessed Mother to the detriment of love for Our Blessed Lord. In fact, the reverse takes place. As one grows in true devotion, Our Lady seems to step aside and point to her Divine Son, as the Way, the Truth and the Life. She never intrudes but rather always fosters in us a love for Our Blessed Lord. He came to us through Mary and surely it must be His wish that we return to Him through Her. He has made Her the mediatrix of all graces and distributes all the blessings and graces through Her loving intercession.

            In addition to knowledge and love of Our Lady, there is another necessary requisite for prayer to Her and that is an interior spirit of dependence on Her. By this is meant a consciousness of Our Lady in the nitty – gritty of everyday life – a seeking to imitate Her virtues, a desiring to live in Her and to do all that you do with Her and through Her assistance. This consciousness and love of Our Lady will in no way interfere with our love of Our Blessed Lord. As a matter of fact, we will find that the greater our love and dependence on Our Lady, the greater will be our devotion and prayer to Jesus. The basic principle to keep in mind when speaking of Our Lady or meditating upon Her life is Her closeness to Our Blessed Lord. Some have lost their way because they have lost Mary, the Mother of Jesus. A child without a Mother is considered a lost child.

            It’s funny that many Protestants think of Mary as just a medium or a ‘vessel’ to bring forth Our Blessed Lord but if that were the case, we would not be respecting Our Blessed Lord either for Who He truly is. How? To answer the question, perhaps, we could ask another question that if Jesus being the Son of God, were born of a woman who was conceived in sin, would it not be like He is contradicting His nature? To illustrate this point, think of the nice suit or dress that you cherish. I suppose because you like that particular piece of cloth, you are not going to keep it in a trash-can or in the basement or the attic but instead you would make sure to keep it in a place that is clean, dust-free and so on. This mundane example goes to illustrate the same point that Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, could not be conceived in a woman who was Herself born with sin. That is why She was immaculately (without sin) conceived.

            For God, there is no past or future. Everything is eternally present to Him including the complete chain of events which will take place, is foreseen by Him. It is by the divine will that Our Lady was chosen to fulfil a specific mission entrusted to Her by the Almighty. By this, it is obvious that this mission is a positive act on the part of God from all eternity, which the Predestination of Our Lady is all about.

            The Predestination of Our Lady was absolutely a gratuitous act on the part of God which is to say that Our Lady did not merit this Maternity in the order of intention (in other words, what this implies is that it was not like Our Lady chose to be the Mother of God where She willed it Herself. Rather She co-operated and accepted God’s will in choosing Her to be the Mother of His Son) This also implies that Our Lady’s Divine Maternity was the very source of all Her merit and hence could not be the object of merit on Her part, which in turn implies that once God had decreed to make Our Lady the Mother of His Son, He gave Her the grace to merit that high degree of sanctity and purity which would render Her worthy to be the Mother of God.

            In St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he writes, “When the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a Woman …… so that we may become His adopted Sons” (Galatians 4:4). Christologically, it is a rich text which asserts that Christ is true man because He was born of a Woman and true God because God is His Father.

            When we speak of Our Lady as the Mother of God, we are speaking of two principles neither of which may be sacrificed to the other. As Mother of God, Our Lady is the privileged daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit; as fully human, redeemed, She is a member of the Church. She occupies a place in the Church which is the highest after Christ and also the closest to us. Mary’s role was to play Her unique part in Her Son’s work, yet Her role was by no means clear to Her. She was the one who lived by faith and who entered with faith into the saving work of Christ. It is by entering like Her into the faith and love of Christ that we are redeemed.

            The relationship of Mary to the Church is twofold: She is the spiritual mother of all Christians and She is the archetype of the Church. In 1 Timothy 2:5-6, it is written, “for there is but one God and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a redemption for all” but Mary’s function as Mother of humankind in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ but rather shows its power. In virtue of the grace that She, the first of the redeemed, received from Christ has become, in turn a source of salvation for Her children. Mary’s share in the redemptive work of Christ continues in Her intercession before God. For as She was connected with Christ and His work on earth, She, now in heaven is able to act as an intercessor for us. It is true that Christians here on earth have to battle with sin where Mary is the pattern of virtue whom they strive to imitate. But, in the end, they will be transformed, not into Her likeness but into the likeness of Christ. Thus, St. Louis de Montfort’s quote “To Jesus through Mary” fits well in this context.

            It is not enough for us to admire Our Lady or to praise God for Her privileges. She is our Mother who can lead us to Jesus if we let Her. Devotion to Her is not something we can take up or not as we choose; She is too intimately linked to the saving plan of God. As Mother of God, She is so close to Christ that we cannot ignore Her without the risk of ignoring Our Blessed Lord or forgetting Him.

            In this regard, I am reminded of a story where one day, a person entered a bus on a hot summer day where the weather was humid and he was getting agitated and even the other people in the bus were feeling the same way. Just then a woman entered the bus along with her son. The child was so adorable that he caught the attention of all the people in the bus and thus there was no more grumbling or swearing where a mysterious warmth softened their numb hearts. Likewise, when humankind was going through a chaotic life, Christ brought peace to people’s hearts through the Virgin Mary.

            Non – Catholics sometimes are misled into thinking that Catholics worship Mary, that they make Her a God. This a gross misunderstanding and is certainly not Catholic teaching. Mary is a creature like ourselves, a child of Adam and Eve but free from sin. We respect, love and honour Her because of Her position as the Mother of God.

            Jesus is the Son of God from all eternity. His divine nature and person He always possessed but His human nature, He took of the pure flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary. She gave birth in a miraculous manner, without the intervention of man and She in every sense of the word is therefore the Mother of God in His human nature. A devoted son will never refuse a request from his mother whom he loves. Jesus is a devoted Son of Mary. He is the Lord of the Universe, the all – powerful and almighty God. If Mary goes to Him on behalf of us poor creatures and especially prays and intercedes on our behalf for a spiritual favour to be given to you or me, He will not refuse Her. Here’s a clip from an interview of Fr. Steven Scheier’s near death experience where he was condemned to hell but Our Lady intervened pleading to Our Blessed Lord to give him a second chance which goes to show Our Lady as a powerful intercessor,

            When we pray to Our Blessed Mother, it is through Her intercession that we come close to Her Son, Jesus. She certainly would not want to take any credit for Herself as She Herself declares, “I am the Lord’s servant” (Luke 1:38). It is therefore obvious that all praise is to be directed to Our Blessed Lord. In praying the rosary, we are actually welcoming Jesus, the Father’s Gift, through Mary with joy, gratitude and acceptance of His will.

            For nine months, a mother and the child she carries in her womb live the same life – a symbiosis. The health of the foetus depends on the health of the mother. Its heart, brain and muscle are all formed from the substance of the mother and nourished by it. Biologically and affectively the greatest and the closest relationship is the one that exists between the mother and her child. Applying this to the relationship between Our Lady and Our Blessed Lord, we can say that He learnt His first lessons of life from His Mother. The same Jesus has given His Mother to be our Mother (John 19:27). Mary is, indeed, after Jesus, the most beautiful manifestation of God’s love and mercy towards the human race.

            Being a meditative prayer, it is quite possible that we could face distractions while praying the rosary. However what’s important is to not get perturbed by it but to calmly bring those distractions to Our Lady and offer it up to Her. In this regard, I am reminded of the words of the Jesuit priest and theologian, Karl Rahner who wrote, “I would strongly recommend that you try reciting the rosary just once by yourself alone. Provided that one does not become impatient and that one tries to adjust to the practice slowly, the quite, automatic repetition of the words and a consideration of the mysteries of the life of Jesus recalled in the rosary can summon forth that true stillness in which one dwells before God” (taken from the book, “Prayers for a lifetime”). Being aware of our distractions is half the battle won.

            If you want here are a few things you can incorporate while praying the rosary to help you stay focused and pray the rosary better, 

Ø  Placing an intention at every mystery

Ø  Incorporating Bible readings before praying each mystery of the rosary

Ø  Listening to, reading or watching brief homilies or reflections based on the mystery you are going to pray

Ø  Silent pauses and hymns

Ø  Having a soft background music to facilitate a prayerful atmosphere (I sometimes play Gregorian chant or the Byzantine hymns while praying the rosary)

            However in as much as these are helpful, care should be taken not to make it or keep it as the main focus so as to deter the spirt of praying the rosary; it is meant to help.

            If it is a question about not finding time to pray the rosary, the rosary is a prayer that need not be prayed only in the Church, in the Chapel or in front of the Altar. It can be prayed elsewhere as well like when you’re travelling, when you’re going for a walk and so on. The thing is that there is no hard and fast rule as to where or when to pray the holy rosary. Given the fast-paced lives that we live and trying to make ends meet, finding the time or making the time can seem challenging but not impossible. You can also try and get creative when trying to pray the rosary.

            There is a story of a certain Roman gentleman by the name Giuseppe Rivella. This man was very devoted to Our Blessed Mother but since he was working as a waiter, he could not find the time to pray the rosary as he was continuously busy. Hence, he invented a new way of saying the rosary. He would count the Hail Marys he said with his customers’ heads who were seated two by two. Every ten customers made up a decade of the rosary. When he died, the Vatican radio made the announcement, “A holy man has died in Rome”. Besides this, another tip is to pray the rosary in parts instead of praying it at a stretch if you are hard pressed for time.

            The rosary is not merely a Marian devotion for it is not right to put Jesus and Mary in isolation from each other. Jesus cannot but be pleased if anyone pays attention also to His Mother and Mary cannot be pleased if anyone pays attention to Jesus Her Son. That is how a good mother and a good son should be. Is this not true even of our ordinary families? Besides, Our Lady said to Blessed Alan de la Roche, “When you say the rosary, the angels rejoice, the Blessed Trinity delights in it, My Son finds joy in it too and Myself am happier than you can possibly guess. After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, there is nothing in the Church that I love as much as the rosary.”

            Jesus and Mary are Son and Mother and therefore theirs is the closest possible relationship at the human, affective and biological level. The Word that became flesh in Mary’s womb was also in Her heart; She welcomed the Father’s Word and ‘kept’ it. She is therefore also in the best spiritual relationship with Jesus Her Son, the Word made flesh.

            The point therefore to note is that talking to Jesus and Mary are not two separate or contrary things like for example, when we visit a family to meet one particular person and if we are a good friend of the family, we will be interested in meeting the members also. This will only please the person we are going to meet and strengthen the mutual friendship with that person. It’s the same when we honour and venerate Our Blessed Mother which pleases our Blessed Lord. Yet, we should keep in mind that in doing so, Our Lord comes first but since it was Our Blessed Mother, who obedient to the will of God, brought forth Our Lord into the world, we venerate Her in a special way.

            With that being said, while Our Lady is spoken of in lofty terms, She did not have it easy. She too had to carry Her own cross. The fear of the unknown can be daunting and that’s precisely due to the fact that we are not sure of what the future can be. We all have experienced moments in life when we have to take a step toward the unknown whether that is moving to a new city, going through a job restructuring or shifting careers, starting a new business or a new project, getting into a new relationship and so on. Walking or going through unchartered territory often comes with a bit of fear and trembling.

            Similarly, walking with God can have unsettling elements. If we truly allow him to guide our lives, we will be challenged to step out in the unknown, give up control and rely more completely on Him and that is something we do not easily do. It may be comforting to think, however, that while our Heavenly Father invites His people to follow Him with even greater levels of trust and surrender, He calls them to take only step at a time.

            We see a similar thing in the life of Abraham from the Old Testament. God promised him many blessings and descendants but Abraham first had to leave his house and move to a distant land, trusting that God would bless him there. Similarly, Moses had to take those first steps out of Egypt into a barren desert, unsure of what trials he would face as he led the Israelites toward the Promised Land.

            We see this also in the lives of the saints throughout the Christian era. These holy men and women did not become saintly figures overnight. They all had to learn to walk with Lord one step at a time and at each step, they were confronted with new opportunities to grow in love and service. St. Anthony of the Desert was drawn to sell all his possessions and give his money to the poor. St. Augustine was called to give up a quite life of prayer and study to serve as a busy bishop administering Church affairs and attending to his people’s daily needs. St. Therese of Liseux was inspired to seek out the people who hurt her and frustrated her the most and show them small acts of kindness.

            Some of the saints were drawn to give up something they liked, move to a new place or let go of something comfortable and familiar. God called St. Francis Xavier, for example, to leave Europe and bring the Gospel to the Far East. He prompted the extroverted St. Teresa of Avila to give up extra socializing in order to cultivate a deeper interior silence and union with Him. Sometimes God drew His saints closer to Him through intense trials and darkness, persecutions and misunderstandings. For example, consider the life of St. John of Cross who was mistreated and imprisoned in a dark, cramped dungeon for nine months by his fellow Carmelites. It was precisely through this experience where being deprived of all worldly security and comfort that he gained a deeper mystical understanding of the spiritual life and experienced a profound encounter, in the very core of his being, with a God who lovingly pours Himself out to fill our emptiness and give inner strength to souls amid the darkness. Mother Teresa faced decades of painful spiritual darkness in which she did not sense God’s closeness in her life but eventually came to see that her feeling unwanted and forsaken, allowed her to identify herself more with the loneliness and isolation of the poor and with Jesus Himself who experienced suffering and rejection on Good Friday. Like a toddler learning to let go of the chair and walk, the saints gradually, through many ordeals, learned to abandon themselves over more completely to God and walk in His ways. The same is true of Our Blessed Mother.

            We all know about Her from sacred art, sacred music and sacred theology but how much do we know about Her ‘humanness’ (if I could use the word), about the struggle that She Herself had to go through? While the amount of information found in Scripture about Our Lady is not extensive, with the information that we have, we shall try to delve a little deeper into it so as to understand it better about what it means and what we can learn from it.

            As seen earlier, in as much as Our Lady was endowed with unique graces and privileges in Christ’s Kingdom, She was still a woman who had Her own faith journey to make; She was still human, which is why Her personality is one we can relate to in many ways. So while She experienced the joys of parenthood and the blessing of following God’s plan, She also experienced the devastation of watching Her Son be misunderstood, rejected and killed on the Cross. Sometimes She was treated with dignity and honour. Other times She was humbled and oppressed. On some occasions God made His will clear for Her and She wholeheartedly committed Himself to what the Lord was asking in that moment. But there were other times when it was not so apparent what the Lord was doing in Her life and what She was supposed to do next.

            When Our Lady was confronted with God’s call at pivotal moments in Her life, She chose to remain open to the Lord’s plan for Her every step of the way, even though what lay ahead for Her was not always clear. Not everything was revealed to Her all at once. There were moments when Our Lady did not understand what was happening and moments when She was not in control, moments when all She could do was prayerfully keep all these things and ponder them in Her heart, awaiting God’s fuller revelation to Her (Luke 2:19,51). Like all followers of Christ, Our Lady had to walk by faith and not by sight. She surrendered that control. She placed Her life completely at God’s disposal. She was willing to do whatever the Lord might want Her to do and go wherever He might lead Her. She viewed human freedom not as something to be grasped at but instead as something to be used for His plan. She then fully chose to surrender control over Her life and live as a servant of the Lord, trusting totally in His plan for Her. In other words, She freely chose to limit Her freedom and live completely dedicated to God’s will. She lived Her life as a total gift to God.

            Archbishop Fulton Sheen once described Mary’s gift of self as “the freedom of total abandonment to God”. He wrote, “Our free will is the only thing that is really our own. Our health, our wealth, our power – all these, God can take away from us. But our freedom He leaves to us….. Because our freedom is our own, it is the only perfect gift that we can make to God” and when we offer our freedom back to God as a gift, when we live as servants of the Lord like Mary did, our lives are not deprived but are rather enriched. Left to our own navigation, we tend to make decisions based on a limited vision of life. We pursue our fallen, disordered lives. We are enslaved by a hundred fears, insecurities and weaknesses. Yet we think we are free and in control of our lives.

            It is only in learning to give up our freedom to do whatever we, in our fallen human nature, want and by entrusting our lives entirely to a God who knows what is truly best for us and desires our happiness that we discover the deeper freedom to live life to the fullest – a freedom that is possessed only when we live totally in the Lord’s plan.

            It would be good to ask ourselves therefore how many of us want to serve God with our lives but only on our terms, setting up all sorts of limits, parameters and conditions for where we allow God to lead us? How many of us are willing to do the Lord’s will where in reality, a large part of us wants to make sure we can still pursue certain dreams and desires while avoiding what may be scary or demanding, wanting to remain in the realm of control? Our Lady desires that we, Her children, share in the fruits of Her Son’s redemption, to know Him and to hope in Him, to love Him, to listen to His teachings and to follow His commands of love, ever pointing us to Him, the Way, the Truth and the Life, where by praying the rosary, we draw closer to Him through meditating on His life, being accompanied by Our Lady in each mystery of the rosary.