Why Catholics pray the Rosary and how to get started
By William Van de Planque | On Mission
“Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother. You must always hold fast to the Rosary. When you do so, the Blessed Mother will wrap you in her mantle and draw you closer to the Sacred Heart of her Son.”
The above quote is attributed to St. Padre Pio, an Italian Capuchin friar who was canonized in 2002.
Many saints, popes and Christian leaders encourage the faithful of the Church to pray this powerful prayer. But why? It seems to many that this prayer, this “marathon of Catholic devotions” as they call it, is something reserved for those in religious vocations or priests.
The truth is that, according to tradition, Mary revealed the Rosary to St. Dominic in 1214, and in 1917, she appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal, telling them, “Pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.” Mary herself desires that we, all Christians, be drawn closer to her Son through her intercession and by meditating on the mysteries of his life.
The Church dedicates the month of October to the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this series, we will examine each of the four sets of mysteries of the Rosary while exploring different ways to pray it and incorporate it into daily life. This week, we begin with an invitation to turn our attention to the words themselves of the prayers of the Rosary.
Focusing on the words
One way to pray the Rosary is by focusing on the words of the Our Father, a central prayer for Christians given to us by Jesus, and the Hail Mary, a Christ-centered prayer rooted in Scripture.
Mary demonstrates what it means to live out the words of the Our Father, “Thy will be done,” with her fiat — or yes — to be the Mother of God. What earthly or material attachments do we have that may be preventing us from saying yes to God’s will for our lives, just as Mary did?
The Hail Mary, the beginning words of which are taken directly from the Gospel of Luke, is not just a prayer to Mary but also a prayer centered around the Most Holy Name of Jesus. In addition to placing ourselves in the scenes of the Annunciation and the Visitation while praying the Hail Mary, we can also simply focus on the name of Jesus in the center of the prayer. Without rushing through it, we can take time to say his name with love and a desire to be close to him.
There are many other words in the prayers of the Rosary on which we can meditate and use as launchpads for self-examination. It can seem difficult at times to meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary, and simply focusing on the words of the prayers themselves with an open heart can be incredibly fruitful.