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Pope St. John Paul II’s
Letter on the Rosary
Rosarium Virginis Mariae
[Excerpts]
The timeliness of this proposal is evident from a number of
considerations. First, the urgent need to counter a certain crisis of
the Rosary, which in the present historical and theological context can
risk being wrongly devalued, and therefore no longer taught to the
younger
generation. ...
[T]he family, the primary cell of society, increasingly menaced by
forces of disintegration on both the ideological and practical planes,
so as to make us fear for the future of this fundamental and
indispensable institution and, with it, for the future of society as a
whole.
The revival of the Rosary in Christian families, within the context of a
broader pastoral ministry to the family, will be an effective aid to
countering the devastating effects of this crisis typical of our age.
“Behold, your Mother!” (Jn 19:27) ...
Hence the most perfect of all devotions is undoubtedly that which
conforms, unites and consecrates us most perfectly to Jesus Christ.
Now, since Mary is of all creatures the one most conformed to Jesus
Christ, it follows that among all devotions that which most consecrates
and conforms a soul to our Lord is devotion to Mary, his Holy Mother,
and that the more a soul is consecrated to her the more will it be
consecrated to Jesus Christ.”
22. Never as in the Rosary do the life of Jesus and that of Mary appear
so deeply joined. Mary lives only in Christ and for Christ! ...
The history of the Rosary shows how this prayer was used in particular
by the Dominicans at a difficult time for the Church due to the spread
of heresy.
Today we are facing new challenges. Why should we not once more have
recourse to the Rosary, with the same faith as those who have gone
before us?
The Rosary retains all its power and continues to be a valuable pastoral
resource for every good evangelizer. ...
[I]t becomes natural to bring to this encounter with the sacred
humanity of the Redeemer all the problems, anxieties, labors and
endeavors which go to make up our lives.
“Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you” (Ps 55:23). To
pray the Rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of
Christ and his Mother ...
Obviously these mysteries neither replace the Gospel nor exhaust its
content. The Rosary, therefore, is no substitute for lectio divina; on
the contrary, it presupposes and promotes it. ...
38. ... Where might the “mysteries of light” be inserted? If we consider
that the “glorious mysteries” are said on both Saturday and Sunday, and
that Saturday has always had a special Marian flavour, the second weekly
meditation on the “joyful mysteries”, mysteries in which Mary’s presence
is especially pronounced, could be moved to Saturday.
Thursday would then be free for meditating on the “mysteries of light”.
...
The Rosary is by its nature a prayer for peace, since it consists in the
contemplation of Christ, the Prince of Peace, the one who is “our peace”
(Eph 2:14).
Anyone who assimilates the mystery of Christ – and this is clearly the
goal of the Rosary – learns the secret of peace and makes it his life's
project. …
The family: parents...
41. As a prayer for peace, the Rosary is also, and always has been, a
prayer of and for the family. At one time this prayer was particularly
dear to Christian families, and it certainly brought them closer
together.
It is important not to lose this precious inheritance. We need to return
to the practice of family prayer and prayer for families, continuing to
use the Rosary. …
The family that prays together stays together. The Holy Rosary, by
age-old tradition, has shown itself particularly effective as a prayer
which brings the family together.
Individual family members, in turning their eyes towards Jesus, also
regain the ability to look one another in the eye, to communicate, to
show solidarity, to forgive one another and to see their covenant of
love renewed in the Spirit of God.
Many of the problems facing contemporary families, especially in
economically developed societies, result from their increasing
difficulty in communicating.
Families seldom manage to come together, and the rare occasions when
they do are often taken up with watching television. To return to the
recitation of the family Rosary means filling daily life with very
different images, images of the mystery of salvation: the image of the
Redeemer, the image of his most Blessed Mother.
The family that recites the Rosary together reproduces something of the
atmosphere of the household of Nazareth: its members place Jesus at the
center, they share his joys and sorrows, they place their needs and
their plans in his hands, they draw from him the hope and the strength
to go on. ...
In a society of advanced technology, of mass communications and
globalization, everything has become hurried, and the cultural distance
between generations is growing ever greater.
The most diverse messages and the most unpredictable experiences rapidly
make their way into the lives of children and adolescents, and parents
can become quite anxious about the dangers their children face.
At times parents suffer acute disappointment at the failure of their
children to resist the seductions of the drug culture, the lure of an
unbridled hedonism, the temptation to violence, and the manifold
expressions of meaninglessness and despair.
To pray the Rosary for children, and even more, with children, training
them from their earliest years to experience this daily “pause for
prayer” with the family, is admittedly not the solution to every
problem, but it is a spiritual aid which should not be underestimated.
It could be objected that the Rosary seems hardly suited to the taste of
children and young people of today. But perhaps the objection is
directed to an impoverished method of praying it. …
If the Rosary is well presented, I am sure that young people will once
more surprise adults by the way they make this prayer their own and
recite it with the enthusiasm typical of their age group. … through your
own personal experience of the beauty of the Rosary, may you come to
promote it with conviction.
[End quotation]
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