Marian Devotion, the Rosary, and the Scapular

The following article is an excerpt from a chapter in the recently published Marian anthology, Mariology: A Guide for Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, and Consecrated Persons, Seat of Wisdom Books, A Division of Queenship, 2008. Fifteen international Mariology experts contributed to the text. The book features a foreword by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke and has 17 chapters divided into four parts: 1. Mary in Scripture and the Early Church; 2. Marian Dogma; 3. Marian Doctrine; and 4. Marian Liturgy and Devotion. The book is now available from Queenship Publications. To obtain a copy, visit queenship.org. Visit books.google.com and search on "Mariology: A Guide" to view the book in its entirety, or simply click here.
Asst. Ed.

Introduction

Veneration of the Mother of the Lord, which is an integral part of Christian worship, is manifested in an eminent manner in the celebration of the Church’s liturgy, but also by means of other forms of devotion, which are valuable auxiliary practices that harmonize with the liturgy but without becoming confused with it. These are precisely the other forms of Marian devotion—most specifically those of the Rosary and the scapular—which will be dealt with in the present chapter, but not without having first carefully laid the doctrinal foundation, that is to say the profound roots of all authentic veneration of Mary, liturgical or not, in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium. The liturgy, which is the "summit and source of the Church’s life" (SC 10), according to the teaching of the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, "does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church" (SC 9) and consequently "the spiritual life is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy" (SC 12). Such truths are particularly reflected in the Marian dimension of the Christian life and in the various modes of expression of the piety of the faithful towards the Blessed Virgin Mary. That is why chapter 8 of the Constitution Lumen Gentium not only admonishes "all the sons of the Church that the cultus, especially the liturgical cultus, of the Blessed Virgin, be generously fostered" (LG 67) (1), but also "that the practices and exercises of devotion towards her, recommended by the teaching authority of the Church in the course of the centuries be highly esteemed" (LG 67). By the same token, the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (2002) exhorts

Veneration of the Mother of God is at the same time indissociably ecclesial and personal since it is both liturgical and popular, integrating the sacramental life and devotion.

Since "Popular devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is an important and universal ecclesial phenomenon" (Directory 183), it is important that pastors and future pastors of the Church should be instructed in this matter as much by study as by their own lived experience. The People of God expect that their pastors should be credible teachers of an authentic Marian devotion which, as the Constitution Lumen Gentium says, "consists neither in sterile or transitory affection, nor in a certain vain credulity, but proceeds from true faith, by which we are led to recognize the eminent dignity of the Mother of God, and we are moved to a filial love towards our Mother and to the imitation of her virtues" (LG 67). The pastoral practice of true devotion to Mary, in its triple dimension of veneration, invocation and imitation, must then be rooted on solid theological foundations and offer a pedagogy which is simultaneously progressive and universal, in order to respond to the thirst of the faithful with regard to doctrine, to experience and to a mystagogy oriented to the knowledge of the love of Jesus in Mary which surpasses all knowledge. In this perspective the pages that follow would like to propose with clarity and modesty a brief testament complementary to the other chapters of this anthology which deal with the liturgy and Marian consecration.

After a synthetic exposition on the Gospel origins, then on the nature and the "necessity" of Marian devotion, we will briefly present the astonishingly rich relationship of canon law on this matter, before offering specific indications on the prayer of the Rosary and the scapular devotion. In conclusion, we will underline the importance of situating "true devotion to Mary" and the various modes of its expression in a dynamic of spiritual growth which promotes the contemplative discovery of the mystery of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of all men.

As Pope Paul VI recalled in his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus (1974), in presenting in a wonderful manner the plan of God for the salvation of men, the Bible is entirely "replete with the mystery of the Savior, and from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, also contains clear references to her who was the Mother and associate of the Savior" (Paul VI, MC 30). From the third chapter of the book of Genesis, the Protoevangelium (Gen 3:15) announces the mystery of Mary and her role. The Jesuit Mariologist J.B. Terrien asks:

"When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman" (Gal 4:4). It is this verse from the Letter to the Galatians which opens Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Redemptoris Mater (1987), as well as his catechesis of October 15, 1997, on the foundations of Marian devotion, to indicate clearly that this "is based on the wondrous divine decision, as the Apostle Paul recalls, to link forever the Son of God’s human identity with a woman, Mary of Nazareth" (4).

An attentive reading of the angel’s salutation (Lk 1:28), which forms with the salutation of Elizabeth (Lk 1:42) the first part of the Hail Mary, shows that "Marian devotion before being practiced by men, was already practiced by heavenly spirits and by the greatest among them and on the order of God himself" (5), so that as Terrien underscores with reference to St. Thomas Aquinas’ Exposition on the Angelic Salutation:

In the Gospel account of the Visitation, the exclamation of Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit in receiving the visit of Mary, is the translation of a profound veneration in which, with John Paul II, "we can discern the initial expressions of and reasons for Marian devotion" (7): Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? … And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord (Lk 1:42-43, 45). As Brunero Gherardini points out here, this is not a simple matter of courtesy, but a "higher illumination on that which is humanly inconceivable and unintelligible, raises Elizabeth to the knowledge of the divine maternity of Mary and brings back on her lips the same words of the angel, an echo of those formerly pronounced by Uzziah to Judith (cf. Jud 13:18) … Mary emerges as the object of veneration for today, tomorrow and forever" (8).

As to the Magnificat, it contains at once, according to Terrien, "the cause and the prophetic approbation of the homage which the human race should render to Mary" (9) until the end of time: "Traces of a veneration already widespread among the first Christian community are present in the Magnificat canticle: ‘All generations will call me blessed’ (Lk 1:48). By putting these words on Mary’s lips, Christians recognized her unique greatness, which would be proclaimed until the end of time" (10).

On the occasion of the Marian Year of 1987, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger presented a remarkable commentary on this prophecy of Luke 1:28 before an audience of priests and pastoral workers gathered at the shrine of Loreto (Italy):

Nunc et semper the Name of the Lord should be magnified because of Mary, and with her who ought to be proclaimed blessed because the "The Almighty has done great things for me" (Lk 1:49). In Lumen Gentium 66, the development of Marian devotion is interpreted by the Council as the realization of the prophecy of Luke 1:48:

When one goes back to the origins of Marian devotion, one meets the witness of the Magnificat, this word attributed to the Mother of Jesus which resounds as a prophecy and a duty of loving veneration. It is in opening the fourth gospel, however, that we arrive, in the company of the Servant of God John Paul II, at the primordial source of this devotion: "By noting Mary’s presence at the beginning and at the end of her Son’s public life, John’s Gospel suggests that the first Christians were keenly aware of Mary’s role in the work of redemption, in full loving dependence on Christ" (12). It is in the words of Christ on the Cross reported in the fourth gospel: "Woman, behold your son. … Behold, your Mother" (Jn 19:26-27), which he commented on very often, that Pope John Paul II discerned the Christological foundation of the devotion which the Church renders to the Virgin Mary. Among many other treasures of his Marian Magisterium of the venerated Pope, the catecheses of May 7 and October 15, 1997, are particularly significant:

Thus not only does Marian devotion have a Gospel foundation, but it is of divine institution. The consequences of this affirmation are particularly well-presented by the Jesuit Jean Galot in a perspective very harmonious of the Marian Magisterium of John Paul II:

The Gospel foundations of Marian devotion, in its triple dimension of veneration, invocation and imitation, being solidly established, it is now appropriate to examine with the help of the Magisterium and of theology the nature and the necessity of such devotion.