2/13/2022

This week we intend to ask the question, “Does the Rosary worship Mary?” The short answer is, “NO!” Catholics do not offer sacrifices to Mary, do not look to Mary for salvation, do not adore Mary. The Rosary honors Mary as a privileged human being privileged to be the Mother of Jesus whom we do adore, worship, and offer sacrifices to. Building on last week’s bulletin letter, the Rosary is devotional prayer, not liturgical prayer. It assists those devoted to praying the Rosary to contemplate the life and person of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
What do you have to know to pray the Rosary? The Hail Mary, the Our Father, the Glory Be, and the Memorare, plus the twenty mysteries of the Rosary. These prayers are in essence scriptural. The Hail Mary is a combination of the Angel Gabriel’s greeting, Elizabeth’s greeting, and a petition asking Mary to pray for us at the hour of our death as we would ask anyone to pray for us. Humanly, we do think of Mary as having a privileged position as the Mother of Jesus. As we repeatedly pray the Hail Marys and Our Fathers, they fade into the background as the mysteries of Christ’s life come to the fore. There are four sets of five mysteries: The Joyful which focus on the Incarnation, the Luminous which focus on the preaching of the Kingdom of God by Jesus in His public ministry, the Sorrowful which focus on the passion of Jesus, and Glorious Mysteries which focus on the victory of Jesus over death and sin. The idea is to meditate on the given mystery while saying one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and one Glory Be. While not exhaustive in their coverage of the life of Christ, these mysteries present to us the main aspects of the life of Christ from his conception at the Annunciation to the preaching of the kingdom to the passion, death, and resurrection in short, through the salvation of humanity as God’s plan for our redemption unfolds. While meditating on the twenty mysteries, we can be assimilate and ponder all that Christ did to save us as well as the consequences for us as manifested in Mary.
In a certain sense, it is as if Christ’s mother is taking us on a pilgrimage through the life of Christ, showing us her Son from her perspective, teaching us how Christ’s life may relate to ours. What mother does not have a privileged and intimate perspective of her child? Imagine, for example, the disciples of Jesus, especially the evangelists, seeking out Mary and asking her about Jesus as a baby, as a boy, as a man, seeking insight into who Jesus was and how he acted at different stages of his life. Contemplating the mysteries of the Rosary leads one to focus not on Mary, but on Mary’s Son. That is the experience of those who pray the Rosary devoutly. It is in contemplating the mysteries of her Son that one comes to appreciate the saving power of his life, his teaching Mary’s contemplative gaze, the fruits of her pondering His life, becomes our contemplative gaze through repeatedly pondering these mysteries with her. Mary offers us the unique perspective of one who is both the Mother of Christ and a member of His Church, the Body of Christ. She shows us as one who is both Mother of the Church and the finest Disciple within the Church. Somehow, the closer one gets to Mary, the closer one gets to Christ. That is the experience of those devoted to Mary over many centuries. And the Rosary is the key instrument by which Mary leads us to her Son.
If you want to read a beautiful exposition of the value of the Rosary, look up Rosarium Virginis Mariae by JPII. It is an Apostolic Letter less than 30 pages long, written by one who loved Jesus, Mary, and the Rosary, probably in that order.

Father Albert, O.S.B.