The Rosary

Fr. Leo Pabayo

First of two parts

“Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and Blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus.”

REPEATEDLY we recite these words whenever we pray the Rosary. Saints, like Padre Pio, Pope John Paul and others have spoken of the Rosary as a very powerful prayer in overcoming evil and cultivating or strengthening our spiritual life.

The praying of the Rosary is so important a prayer so that the month of October is given for the daily praying of the Rosary in parishes, Catholic schools, the neighborhood and other places where Catholics are devoted to the Blessed Mother. Why is the praying of the Rosary greatly helpful in the spiritual life? This is because the Rosary is one of the best ways of remembering the most important mysteries in the life of Our Lord. As the Lord’s disciples we remember these together with Mary His Mother. In his Gospel John writes, “Now there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary of Cleopas and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus, therefore saw his mother and the disciple John whom he loved, standing by, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold thy son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” (John 19:25-27).

The life of Jesus began with his mother Mary. This was when the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to Mary to tell her that would become the mother of Jesus the Savior of the world. It would end in his crucifixion but began again in a totally new way in his Resurrection and his giving of the Holy Spirit to us. 

Before this, we met Mary time and again in the Gospel. The apostle and Evangelist St. John tells us that of the many things that Jesus did, Mary was there. She was certainly there when Jesus was conceived in her womb. She was with him as he was born in Bethlehem and then throughout his life as he lived his life with Mary and St. Joseph his foster father in Nazareth. She was there at the beginning of his ministry. In a way it was her who first asked him to begin his proclamation of the Kingdom of God although he said that his “time has not yet come.” This was when Mary asked him to perform his first public miracle by changing water into wine which he did at the wedding feast at Cana. (John 2:6-10)

The storytellers and then the writers of the Gospel tell us that in the significant events in the life of Christ Mary would “ponder all these things in her heart.” In other words she meditated on these events and contemplated them. In other words she was the one who first understood best what Jesus did. Although we rely on the Gospel to tell us the saving works of Christ we can presume that Mary was closest to these events, most of all in her heart and mind. A good if not a better way for us to be acquainted with and to understand the things that Jesus did is to learn of these things from the point of view of Mary. This is what the praying of the Rosary is meant to do for us.

The apostles and the Church that Jesus established with Peter as the leader must have also learned the meaning of the things that Jesus did with the help of Mary. She was the first one to tell them about her being made the mother of Christ, the Son of God the Father that was told her by the Angel Gabriel.

They then included these in their preaching, teaching and in their prayers, acts of adoration. 

In meditating the Like of Christ it is good to remember that while the Gospel writings came from different sources, what are written there were firsts handed down by word of mouth, by the oral teaching of the apostles and disciples. It was only later that these would be recorded in writing.

When the Evangelists, the apostles and St. Paul wrote of these, they wrote meticulously under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Of these witnesses of the life of Christ John Apostle and Evangelist said, “Now there were also many other things that Jesus did, which, if each if these were written down the world itself , I suppose, would not be able to contain the books that would be written.” (John 21, 25) 

These would be contained in the Tradition of the Church. Tradition of the Church are developments on the acts of Christ as they would be replicated in the Acts of the Apostles and their successors through the ages. A prominent place of these should be the witness of Our Blessed Lady who was the closest to Jesus. (to be concluded)

(Fr. Leo Pabayo is a member of the Society of Jesus.)