Our Lady is such a good Mother. She knows we want to become saints. She knows that if we are not proactively doing something towards that end, we feel as though nothing is being done. So She gives us something to do.
Pray the Rosary.
“You do not know what to do to convert those Albigensians? Here, Dominic — pray the Rosary.” “You do not know what to do to help procure peace for the world, the conversion of poor sinners, and grace for the Holy Father? Here, little Jacinta — pray the Rosary.” “You do not know what to do to go to Heaven? Here, Francesco — pray many Rosaries.” “You do not know what to do to convert your spouse, your child, your parent? Here,” Our Lady says lovingly to each one of us, “pray the Rosary.”
“But,” you might counter, “I already say the Rosary. Nothing is changing.”
Yet. If we are serious about drawing down truckloads of graces on ourselves and our loved ones through this incomparable prayer, we might do better not to just say the Rosary but to truly savor it; that is, strive to appreciate the very design of the Rosary, along with its importance, power, and convenience.
Made in China Heaven
First of all, the Rosary is a flawlessly fashioned prayer, hand-tailored by our Blessed Mother to meet the needs of Her children in every circumstance. We should appreciate that, as a vocal prayer, it may be said in common with others, so that the spouses, families, and societies that pray together stay together. Let us appreciate that, as a mental prayer, it may be said interiorly, thus fostering the initmate union of our hearts with God’s. In its mysteries, Mary’s Rosary connects the faithful with liturgical prayer of Holy Mother Church. Finally, we should value its various constituent parts: the Ave (so beautiful!), the Pater Noster (so profound!), the Gloria (so exalted!), and the Fatima Prayer (so relevant!).
Remember the Austrians
Next, we are enriched with even deeper insights when we set about savoring the importance of the Rosary. On the natural level, the repetitiveness of the Rosary is highly therapeutic. I once met a gentleman while out doing our missionary work who started trying to sell me on the calming, pyschological benefits of saying, “Ommm.” When I found out the poor fellow was a lapsed Catholic, I chided him with a cheerful, “Don’t be silly. Reciting the Hail Mary does all that for you and worlds more besides!” We could speak also of the Rosary’s historical importance, such as in the well-known victory of Lepanto and the miraculous withdrawal of the communists from Austria in 1955.
But even if none of these points existed, the mere fact that the Queen of Heaven’s constant refrain for the last 800 years has been “Pray the Rosary, pray the Rosary, pray the Rosary” should at least be enough to make us ask ourselves, “Why, dear Mother? Why is such an ancient prayer of such current significance?” “Because it is so powerful, my child,” we can almost hear Her replying.
Power to Please, Power to Protect
Ah, Catholics, let us savor the power of the Virgin’s Rosary.
Do we truly love Our Lady? Do we genuinely wish to please Her? She told St. Mechtilde: “I want you to know that no one can please me more than by saying the salutation which the Most Adorable Trinity sent to me, and by which He raised me to the dignity of the Mother of God.” “The Hail Mary,” St. Louis Marie de Montfort tells us, “is a chaste and loving kiss which we give to Mary; a vermilion rose we present to Her; a precious pearl we offer to Her.”
Do we honestly want to become holy? Sr. Lucia of Fatima assures us that “with the Holy Rosary we will sanctify ourselves.” And again we learn from St. Louis Marie: “The Hail Mary is a blessed dew that falls from Heaven upon the souls of the predestinate. It gives them a marvelous spiritual fertility so that they can grow in all the virtues. The more the garden of the soul is watered by this prayer, the more enlightened one’s intellect becomes, the more zealous his heart, and the stronger his armor against his spiritual enemies.”
Do we really want to save souls, snatch them away from the devils who are hell-bent on destroying them? Pope Adrian VI says that “the Rosary is the scourge of the devil.” St. Louis Marie says, “The Hail Mary, said with attention, devotion, and modesty, is…the enemy of the devil which puts him to flight and the hammer which crushes him.”
No Problem Too Great
Do we crave the assurance that your prayers will be answered for any and every intention dear to our hearts? St. Bernadette promises us, “You will never pray the Rosary in vain.” Our Lady Herself gave us Her word that we shall obtain all we ask of Her by the recitation of this prayer.
The Rosary is every bit as powerful today as it has been for the last eight centuries. Actually, according to Ven. Lucia do Santos — more so.
The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, temporal or especially spiritual, in the personal lives of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world or of religious communities, or even of the lives of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the recitation of the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.
No matter how many times we hear this quote, it should always strike us as spectacularly encouraging. There is no problem, Catholics, the Rosary cannot solve. Would that we really believed this!
Satisfaction Guaranteed
Finally, we should savor the fact that the tremendous power of this prayer should be so convenient, so unspeakably accessible to us. In a world cursed with constant motion and busyness, the Rosary is not only short, but segmentable! One decade takes three minutes. The words are easy; any child can learn them (indeed, every child should learn them). Think about that. Our Lady could have attached Her power to anything She wished — bread-and-water fasts, pious pilgrimages, excessively generous donations to needy organizations such as Saint Benedict Center. But no. For three minutes a day, prayed while walking your dog, driving to work, on your coffee break, kneeling by your bedside in the evening, She promised to grant whatever you ask.
How like a Mother to make things so easy for Her children — even at the risk of them taking it for granted.
But let us not be the ones who do that. Let us, for the love of Her Immaculate Heart, out of compassion for Her sorrows, and in reparation for those who should be heeding Her maternal admonitions far more than they do — let us, at least, not just say the Rosary but savor it.
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May we recommend something to help you savor the Holy Rosary? Here it is: The Liturgical Rosary, by Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Photo by Alex Proimos
