On 16 October 2002, Pope Saint John Paul II published a beautiful apostolic letter in which he explained to Catholics the meaning and profound meaning of the prayer of the Holy Rosary.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of his pontificate, the Holy Father published the letter entitled Rosarium Virginis Mariae on the Holy Rosary, because by understanding its “full meaning”, this prayer “leads to the very heart of Christian life” and contributes to “the new evangelization”.
Here is the Apostolic Letter of Pope Saint John Paul II:
INTRODUCTION
1. The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, gradually spread in the second Millennium under the breath of the Spirit of God, is a prayer appreciated by numerous Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. In its simplicity and depth, it continues to be also in this barely begun Third Millennium a prayer of great significance, destined to produce fruits of holiness. It fits well into the spiritual path of a Christianity that, after two thousand years, has not lost any of the novelty of its origins, and feels pushed by the Spirit of God to “put out into the deep” ( duc in altum! ) , to announce, even more, ‘proclaim’ Christ to the world as Lord and Savior, “the Way, the Truth and the Life” ( Jn 14, 6), the “end of human history, the point at which they converge the desires of history and civilization. 1
The Rosary, in fact, although it is distinguished by its Marian character, is a prayer centered on Christology. In the sobriety of its parts, it concentrates within itself the depth of the entire evangelical message, of which it is like a compendium. 2 Mary’s prayer resounds in him, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redeeming Incarnation in her virginal womb. With him, the Christian people learn from Mary to contemplate the beauty of Christ’s face and experience the depth of her love. Through the Rosary, the believer obtains abundant graces, as if receiving them from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.
2. Many of my Predecessors have attributed great importance to this prayer. A particular merit in this regard belongs to Leo society. Among the most recent Popes who, in the conciliar era, have distinguished themselves by the promotion of the Rosary, I wish to remember Blessed John XXIII 4 and, above all, PaulVI, who in the Apostolic Exhortation Marialis cultus, in consonance with the inspiration of The Second Vatican Council underlined the evangelical character of the Rosary and its Christological orientation.
Later, I myself have not missed the opportunity to exhort people to pray the Rosary frequently. This prayer has had an important place in my spiritual life since my young years. My recent trip to Poland reminded me of this a lot, especially the visit to the Kalwaria Shrine. The Rosary has accompanied me in moments of joy and in moments of tribulation. I have confided so many worries to him and in him I have always found comfort. Twenty-four years ago, on October 29, 1978, two weeks after the election to the See of Peter, as if opening my soul, I expressed myself like this: «The Rosary is my favorite prayer. Wonderful prayer! Marvelous in his simplicity and deepness. […] It can be said that the Rosary is, in a certain way, a prayer commentary on the final chapter of the Lumen Gentium Constitution of Vatican II, a chapter that deals with the admirable presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and the Church. In fact, against the background of the Hail Marys, the main episodes of the life of Jesus Christ pass before the eyes of the soul. The Rosary as a whole consists of joyful, painful and glorious mysteries, and they put us in vital communion with Jesus through – we could say – the Heart of his Mother. At the same time our heart can include in these tens of the Rosary all the facts that make up the life of the individual, the family, the nation, the Church and humanity. Personal experiences or those of others, especially those closest to us or those whom we carry most in our hearts. In this way the simple prayer of the Rosary tunes in with the rhythm of human life.
With these words, my dear Brothers and Sisters, I introduced my first year of Pontificate into the daily rhythm of the Rosary. Today, at the beginning of the twenty-fifth year of service as Successor of Peter , I want to do the same. How many graces I have received from the Blessed Virgin through the Rosary in these years: Magnificat anima mea Dominum! I wish to raise my gratitude to the Lord with the words of his Most Holy Mother, under whose protection I have placed my Petrine ministry: Totus tuus!
3. Therefore, in accordance with the considerations made in the Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte, in which, after the jubilee experience, I have invited the People of God “to walk from Christ”, 6 I have felt the need to develop a reflection on the Rosary, in a certain way as a Marian coronation of said Apostolic Letter, to exhort the contemplation of the face of Christ in the company and example of his Most Holy Mother. Reciting the Rosary, in fact, is actually contemplating with Mary the face of Christ. To give greater emphasis to this invitation, on the occasion of the upcoming one hundred and twentieth anniversary of the aforementioned Encyclical of Leo XIII, I hope that throughout the year this prayer will be proposed and valued in a particular way in the various Christian communities. I therefore proclaim the year from this October to October 2003 Year of the Rosary.
I leave this pastoral indication to the initiative of each ecclesial community. With it I do not want to hinder, but rather integrate and consolidate the pastoral plans of the particular Churches. I trust that it will be received promptly and generously. The Rosary, understood in its full meaning, leads to the very heart of the Christian life and offers an ordinary and fruitful spiritual and pedagogical opportunity for personal contemplation, the formation of the People of God and the new evangelization. I am pleased to reiterate this by also remembering with joy another anniversary: the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (October 11, 1962), the “great gift of grace” dispensed by the spirit of God to the Church of our time.
4. The timeliness of this initiative is based on several considerations. The first refers to the urgency of facing a certain crisis of this prayer that, in the current historical and theological context, runs the risk of being unfairly undervalued and, therefore, little proposed to new generations. There are those who think that the centrality of the Liturgy, rightly emphasized by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, necessarily results in a decrease in the importance of the Rosary. In reality, as Paul VI pointed out, this prayer not only does not oppose the Liturgy, but rather supports it, since it introduces and remembers it, helping to live it with full interior participation, thus reaping its fruits in daily life.
Perhaps there are also those who fear that it may not be ecumenical due to its markedly Marian character. In reality, it is placed in the clearest horizon of the cult of the Mother of God, as the Council has established: a cult oriented to the Christological center of the Christian faith, so that “while the Mother is honored, the Son is duly known, loved, glorified. 8 Properly understood, the Rosary is a help, not an obstacle, to ecumenism.
5. But the most important reason to re-propose with determination the practice of the Rosary is that it is an extremely valid means to promote in the faithful the demand for contemplation of the Christian mystery, which I have proposed in the Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte as true and own ‘pedagogy of holiness’: “a Christianity is necessary that distinguishes itself above all in the art of prayer.” 9 While in contemporary culture, even among so many contradictions, a new demand for spirituality emerges, also driven by the influence of other religions, it is more urgent than ever for our Christian communities to become “authentic schools of prayer.”
The Rosary is part of the best and most recognized tradition of Christian contemplation. Initiated in the West, it is a typically meditative prayer and corresponds in some way to the “prayer of the heart”, or “Jesus prayer”, arising from the humus of the Christian East.
6. Some historical circumstances help give new impetus to the spread of the Rosary. Above all, the urgency of imploring God for the gift of peace. The Rosary has been proposed many times by my Predecessors and by myself as a prayer for peace. At the beginning of a millennium that has opened with the horrific scenes of the attack of September 11, 2001, and that sees every day in many parts of the world new episodes of blood and violence, promoting the Rosary means immersing ourselves in the contemplation of the mystery of that that “is our peace: he who made the two peoples one, breaking down the wall that separated them, the enmity” ( Eph 2:14). One cannot, therefore, recite the Rosary without feeling involved in a concrete commitment to serve peace, with particular attention to the land of Jesus, even now so tormented and so dear to the Christian heart.
Another crucial area of our time, which requires urgent attention and prayer, is that of the family , the cell of society, increasingly threatened by disintegrating forces, both ideological and practical in nature, which raise fears for the future of this fundamental and inalienable institution and, with it, for the destiny of the entire society. Within the framework of a broader family ministry, promoting the Rosary in Christian families is an effective help to contrast the devastating effects of this current crisis.
7. Numerous signs show how the Blessed Virgin also exercises today, precisely through this prayer, that maternal concern for all the children of the Church that the Redeemer, shortly before dying, entrusted to her in the person of the favorite disciple: « Woman, there’s your son!” ( Jn 19, 26). The different circumstances in which the Mother of Christ, between the 19th and 20th centuries, have in some way made her presence and voice known to exhort the People of God to resort to this form of contemplative prayer are known. I particularly wish to remember, for the incisive influence they retain in the lives of Christians and for the accredited recognition received from the Church, the apparitions of Lourdes and Fátima, 11 whose Sanctuaries are the destination of numerous pilgrims, in search of consolation and hope.
8. It would be impossible to cite the countless multitude of Saints who have found in the Rosary an authentic path of sanctification. It will be enough to remember Saint Louis Maria Grignion de Montfort, author of a beautiful work on the Rosary 12 and, closer to us, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, whom I recently had the joy of canonizing. Blessed Bartolomé Longo also had a special charisma as a true apostle of the Rosary. His path of holiness is based on an inspiration felt in the depths of his heart: “Whoever spreads the Rosary is saved! ». 13 Based on this, he felt called to build a temple in Pompeii dedicated to the Virgin of the Holy Rosary adjacent to the remains of the ancient city, barely influenced by the Christian proclamation before being covered by the eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79 and rescued from its ashes centuries later, as a testimony of the lights and shadows of classical civilization.
With all his work and, in particular, through the “Fifteenth Saturdays”, Bartolomé Longo developed the Christological and contemplative core of the Rosary, which has had particular encouragement and support in Leo XIII, the “Pope of the Rosary.”
9. “And he was transfigured before them: his face became bright as the sun” ( Mt 17, 2). The evangelical scene of the transfiguration of Christ, in which the three apostles Peter, James and John appear as if entranced by the beauty of the Redeemer, can be considered an icon of Christian contemplation . Fixing our eyes on the face of Christ, discovering the mystery of him in the ordinary and painful path of his humanity, until perceiving his divine radiance definitively manifested in the glorified Risen Lord at the right hand of the Father, is the task of all the disciples of Christ. ; Therefore, it is also ours. Contemplating this face we prepare to embrace the mystery of Trinitarian life, to experience again the love of the Father and enjoy the joy.