Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “Today, together we confirm that the Holy Rosary is not a pious practice banished to the past, like prayers of other times thought of with nostalgia. Instead, the Rosary is experiencing a new Springtime. Without a doubt, this is one of the most eloquent signs of love that the young generation nourish for Jesus and his Mother, Mary.(…) The Rosary, when it is prayed in an authentic way, not mechanical and superficial but profoundly, it brings, in fact, peace and reconciliation. It contains within itself the healing power of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, invoked with faith and love at the centre of each "Hail Mary". (…)Especially in these days that prepare us for the Solemnity of Pentecost, let us remain united with Mary, invoking for the Church a renewed effusion of the Holy Spirit.” (Benedict XVI, 3 May 2008). These intense lines are taken from an address given by Benedict XVI after leading the recitation of the Holy Rosary on the first Saturday in this month of May at the Papal Basilica of St Mary Major.
The Holy Father, in the unbroken line of his Predecessors, wished to underline the importance of this prayer for the whole Church and for every Christian, recalling how effective and consoling it is. The prayer of the Rosary puts us in “communication” with Jesus and Mary, helping us to meditate the great mysteries of our redemption. Already as we take the rosary beads in our hands, in a way, we enter that special spiritual atmosphere which surrounds and penetrates the recitation of the rosary, so old and yet so new.
As we pray the Rosary we make a sort of visitation: we go to Jesus through Mary, “ad Jesum per Mariam”, and we also draw nearer to Mary accompanied by Jesus, led by Him, “ad Mariam per Jesum”. Who better than the Son can present us the Mother, can lead us to know and love her, teach us to respect and honour her with all our heart! To each of us today He says again what he said to his disciple John, “Behold your mother” (Jn 19, 27).
Every time we pray the Holy Rosary it is as if we hear again this Word, most timely today, His testament of love, making space in our life for the health-giving presence of Mary our Mother. “Ave Maria” we repeat, because this is how she was addressed by God, who loved her "full of grace" and gave her to us through the Son, to be our Mother. He chose her out of his love that we might find in her consolation in our troubles, light in our darkness, strength in our fragility.
The history of Christianity reveals unbroken testimony from the times of the catacombs, of this Marian devotion which flows like water from the source, from the hearts of the faithful guided by the love of God. Wherever there is sincere love for Mary, faith and love for Jesus grow. Proof of this are the many Marian Shrines all over the world! The peoples of the world bear testimony to this maternal presence of Mary, so strong and powerful. Indeed we can speak of a 'Marian geography' in the Church, as the Servant of God John Paul II said to the faithful of the diocese of Albano, on the occasion of the Marian Year: “there is truly a Marian geography in this world and this Marian geography is very dense here in your diocese ” (John Paul II, 5 September 1987).
Love for Mary is a natural part of the Catholic faith, it could not be otherwise. How could the Mother of the Redeemer be forgotten or belittled if God himself raised her to her lofty state! The proclamation of Marian Dogmas is the eloquent proof that the Mother "walks" beside her Son, protecting the people of God from straying from the faith, leading them to profound friendship with Jesus.
A man deeply in love with Our Lady, Saint Luigi Maria Grignion de Montfort, whom many hope one day to see as a Doctor of the Church, wrote these enlightened words on one of the reasons for which the Holy Spirit wishes to make Mary known: “since she is the sure means and straight and immaculate path to walk towards Christ and find him perfectly. Through her therefore holy souls find Him in order to shine with holiness. Whoever finds Mary finds life, that is Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life. Now, we cannot find Mary unless we search for her and unless we know her; since one does not search for something that is not known and desired. This is why Mary must be ever more widely known, for the greater knowledge and glory of the Most Holy Trinity”. (Treaty of True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, n. 50).
As we wait for Pentecost, let us invoke with confidence “Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni per Mariam”: “Come Holy Spirit. Come through Our Lady”. This ejaculation, Mgr. Luigi Giussani once said, “from the Christian point of view is the most complete formula possible ”. (Agenzia Fides 7/5/2008; righe 56, parole 790)
