Holy Rosary

Today is the feast of the Holy Rosary.  Instituted by Pope St Pius V, first as the feast of Our Lady of Victories, and then as Our Lady of the Rosary, the feast invites us to meditate on the mysteries of Our Lord's life, the intercession of Our Lady - seen most powerfully in her assistance of the Christian forces at the Battle of Lepanto on the 7th October 1571, and to reflect on the place prayer has in our lives.  

There are many traditions associated with the Rosary, the most famous being the Rosary Vision. According to tradition Our Lady appeared to St Dominic, founder of the Dominicans, in 1214, asking him to propagate the prayer.  St Dominic and his sons and daughters have been faithful to that request ever since.  Whenever Our Lady appears, she tends to carry the rosary, and often includes the recitation of the prayer in her messages.  So it is a prayer she likes us to say, and that is good enough for us Christians to make it part of our daily lives.

To celebrate the feast, a few meditations on the rosary from the popes:

Leo XIII (the Rosary Pope):

"The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine grace; being by worthiness and by merit most acceptable to Him, and, therefore, surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven. Now, this merciful office of hers, perhaps, appears in no other form of prayer so manifestly as it does in the Rosary. For in the Rosary all the part that Mary took as our co-Redemptress comes to us, as it were, set forth, and in such wise as though the facts were even then taking place; and this with much profit to our piety, whether in the contemplation of the succeeding sacred mysteries, or in the prayers which we speak and repeat with the lips."

Venerable Pius XII:

"And truly, from the frequent meditation on the Mysteries, the soul little by little and imperceptibly draws and absorbs the virtues they contain, and is wondrously enkindled with a longing for things immortal, and becomes strongly and easily impelled to follow the path which Christ Himself and His Mother have followed. The recitation of identical formulas repeated so many times, rather than rendering the prayer sterile and boring, has on the contrary the admirable quality of infusing confidence in him who prays and brings to bear a gentle compulsion on the motherly Heart of Mary."

Servant of God, Paul VI:

“If evils increase, the devotion of the People of God should also increase. And so, venerable brothers, We want you to take the lead in urging and encouraging people to pray ardently to our most merciful mother Mary by saying the Rosary during the month of October, as We have already indicated. This prayer is well-suited to the devotion of the People of God, most pleasing to the Mother of God and most effective in gaining heaven's blessings. The Second Vatican Council recommended use of the Rosary to all the sons of the Church, not in express words but in unmistakable fashion in this phrase: "Let them value highly the pious practices and exercises directed to the Blessed Virgin and approved over the centuries by the magisterium."… As the history of the Church makes clear, this very fruitful way of praying is not only efficacious in warding off evils and preventing calamities, but is also of great help in fostering Christian life. "It nourishes the Catholic faith which readily takes on new life from a timely commentary on the sacred mysteries, and it turns minds toward the truths that have been taught us by God.''

Venerable John Paul II:

"This popular Marian prayer is a precious spiritual means to grow in intimacy with Jesus, and to learn at the school of the Blessed Virgin always to fulfil the divine will. It is contemplation of the mysteries of Christ in spiritual union with Mary.."

Benedict XVI:

"The Rosary is a way of contemplating the face of Christ seeing him - we may say - with the eyes of Mary. For this reason, it is a prayer that drawing upon the core of the Gospel is in full accord with the inspiration of the Second Vatican Council and very much in keeping with the direction I gave in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte: the Church has to launch out "into the deep" in the new millennium beginning with the contemplation of the face of Christ."