The Rosary is a Path to Contemplation

Today’s memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary was originally known as Our Lady of Victory. Pope St. Pius V instituted this feast in 1572 following the Battle of Lepanto the previous year in which European Christian forces prevailed over the Muslim Turks. Before the battle commenced, the Catholic armed forces, known as the Holy League, joined many other Catholics in praying the rosary. In 1573, Pope Gregory XIII changed the name of the feast from Our Lady of Victory to Our Lady of the Rosary, which shifted the focus of the feast from a commemoration of victory in physical battle to having a more spiritual significance. The words of St. Paul to the Ephesians are appropriate here when he says that “our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers, the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Pope Leo XIII would later describe the rosary as an effective spiritual weapon against the evils that afflict society.

Pope St. John Paul II teaches in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae: “The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium.” The saintly pope teaches that the Rosary is essentially a path to contemplation. In his Letter, he says: “The most important reason for strongly encouraging the practice of the Rosary is that it represents a most effective means of fostering among the faithful that commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery…a genuine ‘training in holiness.’” Pope St. Paul VI expands on this notion of the rosary as a form of contemplation and even responds to a common non-Catholic Christian objection to the rosary being “vain repetition.” Paul VI teaches: “Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without a soul, and its recitation runs the risk of becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas, in violation of the admonition of Christ: ‘In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think they will be heard for their many words.’ By its nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord’s life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this way, the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are disclosed.” This is a crucial point from Paul VI. The rosary should never become a mere repetition of prayers, but should include the soul, that is, its purpose, which is meditation/contemplation of the mysteries of the rosary. Otherwise, we risk turning the rosary into a form of superstition, especially if we attribute somewhat magical properties to it. By its nature, the rosary is a means through which the Blessed Mother might lead us closer to her Son through meditation on the mysteries of his life.

To better understand how the Rosary is an instrument for contemplation, Pope Paul VI invokes the imagery of a loom on which a tapestry is woven. The loom consists of strands that run vertically, called the warp, along with strands that are woven horizontally between the strands of the warp, called the weft or the woof. Paul VI says that “the succession of Hail Marys constitutes the warp on which is woven the contemplation of the mysteries. The Jesus that each Hail Mary recalls is the same Jesus whom the succession of mysteries proposes to us now as the Son of God, now as the Son of the Virgin.” So, the ten Hail Marys are the backdrop, the warp, upon which we weave our own meditation of the mysteries of the Rosary. Our meditation is of primary importance while the Hail Marys act as the support structure for our meditation.

The rosary is a unique way for us to contemplate Christ through the eyes of Mary. John Paul II says, “The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary.” Blessed Bartolo Longo, who was a Satanic priest for several years before his conversion to the Catholic Faith, sees the rosary in terms of a conversation between close friends. He says: “Just as two friends, frequently in each other’s company, tend to develop similar habits, so too, by holding familiar converse with Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, by meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary and by living the same life in Holy Communion, we can become, to the extent of our lowliness, similar to them and can learn from these supreme models a life of humility, poverty, hiddenness, patience and perfection.”

The prayer that often concludes the Rosary sums everything up nicely. The last line of the prayer is, “Grant, we beseech Thee, that while meditating on these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may both imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise.” If we wish to avoid reducing the rosary to a mere repetition of prayers and make our praying of it more meaningful and effective, then we ought to strive to imitate the mysteries that we have just contemplated so that we might obtain the fruits that they promise. The power of the Rosary is most effective when we strive to implement the virtues of Jesus and Mary in our own daily lives.

– Fr. Matthew Mary, MFVA