A Remarkable and Powerful Prayer

We have seen already how God, knowing the great need we have to pray, but also that everyone cannot be asked to pray in the same way because the possibilities and situations in each one’s life are so different, called for the daily recitation of the Rosary, thus condescending to the simple level which is common to all of us. During the very first apparition, on 13th May, 1917, Our Lady asked: "Pray the Rosary every day" and this request was to be repeated by her every month until October.

So, calling to mind the insistence with which God, by means of the Fatima Message, recommends the prayer of the Rosary, and also all that the Church’s Magisterium has said about it over the years, we can conclude that the Rosary is a form of vocal prayer which, in general, suits all of us, for which we should have the highest regard, and which we should make the greatest effort never to abandon.

Unfortunately, in these confused times, there are those who venture to criticize the Rosary, saying, for example, that it is not a liturgical prayer. Some time ago, I heard about an article of this nature and was greatly saddened by it. Someone asked the author of it how he had dared to write and publish such nonsense, to which he replied: I was forced to do it! Did he not know, then, that there is no authority in the world which can force us to go against our own conscience? It is the mystery of human weakness, which, in many cases, in order to please creatures, perhaps for earthly reasons, does not mind incurring God’s anger and the penalties with which He punishes sin. Contrary to what this person, and others of the same mind, have written, I assure you that the Rosary is a biblical prayer and that it is part of the sacred Liturgy.

We begin the Rosary with the words: Deus in adjutorium meum intende, Domine ad adjuvandum me festina or, in English: "O God, come to our aid, Lord, make haste to help us." This is the prayer we say at the beginning of the different parts of the Liturgy of the Hours.

Then we pray: Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper, et in saecula saeculorum, Amen. Or, in English, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen." This prayer of praise, which we recite at the end of each decade of the Rosary, is the same as that with which we end the psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours, and it is also used at Mass, whether in the Gospel Acclamation on the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, or in the longer form of the hymn: "Glory to God in the highest," begun by the Angels in Bethlehem.

The Our Father, which we recite at the beginning of each decade, was taught to us by Jesus Christ when his disciples asked Him to teach them to pray: "Pray then like this: 'Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'" (Mt 6, 9-13). This prayer, which we say in all the decades of the Rosary, is a biblical prayer and is part of the Liturgy; it is recited daily in the Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours.

The next prayer is the Hail Mary, which we repeat ten times, thus forming a decade of our Rosary. It, too, is a biblical prayer. It begins with the words which the Angel Gabriel addressed to Mary when he was sent by God to announce to her the Incarnation of the Word: "The angel Gabriel was sent from God... to a virgin... and the virgins name was Mary. And he came to her and said, 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!'" (Lk 1,26-28). I think that when He was sending the Angel, God must have suggested to him the words with which he was to salute Mary, announcing to her, on the part of God, the mystery of the incarnation of the Word.

And St. Elizabeth, moved by the Holy Spirit, said: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" (Lk 1, 42).

Thus, the Hail Mary was formed under God’s inspiration: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus."

We must regard this salutation as having been addressed to the Virgin Mary by God Himself, on the natural level insofar as the words of the heavenly messenger are concerned, and supernaturally in the case of the words which were spoken by St. Elizabeth under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: "And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb'" (Lk, 41-42). If St. Elizabeth was moved by the Holy Spirit when she uttered these words, as Sacred Scripture tells us; then this praise comes from the Holy Spirit.

But it is more praise of God than of Mary: You are blessed because the fruit of your womb is blessed; and it is in this fruit, and by this fruit, that the blessing of God has come to you and that you are blessed among all women. And this was how the Virgin Mary understood it when she sang: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation" (Lk 1, 46-50). As we see, all praise of Mary rises up to God; He looked with mercy on his lowly handmaid.

So the Ave Maria is indeed a biblical prayer. But it is also part of the Liturgy, being recited on various feasts of the year, both in the Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Later on, the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit Who enlightens and helps it, rounded off the formula of the Ave Maria with the humble supplication: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

This prayer, in which we ask Mary to intercede for us with the Lord, does not contradict in any way the truth taught by St. Paul: "There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tm 2, 5). There is only one Mediator endowed with the divine nature and possessing natural access to God, namely: Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, "an intermediary implies more than one; but God is one" (Gal 3, 20) which means that there is a second party to be served and represented by the Mediator, namely humanity.

And "Jesus Christ, Man" is our Mediator by nature - the human nature which He assumed in the womb of the Virgin Mary. But Christ did not become man to be the one and only survivor of humanity, but to be "the first born among many brethren" (Rom 8, 29) whom He saved, restoring to them the access to the presence of God and intimacy with Him which they had enjoyed in the earthly paradise. In fact He did more: He bound us to Himself as members of his Mystical Body which is the Church, the saving presence of Jesus until the end of time and to the ends of the earth, sharing, by grace and calling, the Savior’s threefold mission - that of prophet, priest and king.

There is, thus, only one divine Mediator: Jesus Christ; but as suppliant intercessors we have Mary, the Saints, and each one of us, if we so wish. St. Paul himself, in various passages in his letters, asks people to pray both for him and for one another. "To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that utterance may be given in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak" (Eph 6,18-20).

So, if the Apostle tells us to pray for one another, we have much more reason to ask Mary to pray for us, because her prayer will be much more pleasing to the Lord in view of her dignity as Mother of God and her closer union with Christ, true God and true Man, by reason of her mission of Co-redemptrix with Christ as well as of her great sanctity.

Returning, now, to the biblical and liturgical dimension of the Rosary, let us consider the prayer which the Message taught us to pray at the end of each decade. A similar request occurs in the Mass, since the rubrics order us to begin the Holy Sacrifice by confessing our sins, and the prayer taught us by Our Lady leads us to ask pardon for these same sins: "Oh my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need. (Apparition of 13th July, 1917).

"Those who are most in need." I think this refers to those in greatest danger of damnation. With this prayer, we ask God to apply to us the fruit of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that is, the salvation of souls, together with forgiveness for our own sins.

Thus, I believe that, after the liturgical prayer of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the prayer of the holy Rosary, because of its origin and the sublime nature of the prayers which compose it and also on account of the mysteries of our redemption which we recall and contemplate in each decade, is the most pleasing prayer we can offer to God, and the one most beneficial to our own souls. If this were not so, Our Lady would not have recommended it to us with such insistence.

The saying of the Rosary is the form of prayer which has been most recommended by all the Popes who have served the Church in recent centuries, beginning with Gregory XIII who, in the Bull "Monete Apostolos," calls it "the Psalter of the Most Holy Virgin which we pray in order to placate God’s anger and implore her intercession" (1st April, 1573).

Sixtus V also, in the Bull "Dum ineffabilis" of 30th January, 1586, calls the Rosary the "Psalter of the glorious and ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God, instituted by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."

Before these two Popes, St. Pius V had also governed the Church. He attributed the victory obtained by the Christians against the Turks at Lepanto on 7th October, 1571 to the praying of the Rosary. In thanksgiving, he ordered the Feast of Our Lady of Victories to be celebrated annually on that day, a feast which one of his successors changed to that of Our Lady of the Rosary.

About three hundred years after that war, Pope Pius IX was serving the Church. On his death bed, he said to those around him: "The Rosary is a compendium of the Gospel, and gives to those who pray it those rivers of peace of which the Scriptures speak; it is the most beautiful devotion, the most abundant in grace, and the most pleasing to the Heart of Mary. My sons, let this be the testimony by which you remember me on earth" (February, 1878). It is marvelous to see how this great Pope linked the prayer of the Rosary to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But was he not the Pope of Mary Immaculate, the one who proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary by the Bull "Ineffabilis Deus" in 1854?

Leo XIII, in the Encyclical "Fidentem piumque," of 20th September, 1896, said:

This affirmation of Pope Leo XIII is admirable. He is telling us that the Most Holy Trinity and the saving work of Christ are at the center of this great prayer, the Rosary, making it a profession of faith in these central mysteries of Catholic doctrine. The faith which we profess, and exercise, in this prayer, is of great spiritual value. Hence, the same Pope, using the words of the Apostle St. Paul, says: "'For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and is saved' (Rom 10, 10). Therefore, the Rosary provides us with the opportunity for this external profession of faith." In his Encyclical "Ingravescentibus malis" of 29th September 1937, Pope Pius XI says: "The Holy Rosary is not only a weapon to put to flight the enemies of God and of Religion but, above all, it fosters and nourishes the Gospel virtues. And, in the first place, it reanimates the Catholic faith by contemplation of the divine mysteries and improves our understanding of the truths revealed by God." And he granted a plenary indulgence for the recitation of the Rosary in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

On 16th October, 1940, His Holiness Pius XII said, "The Rosary is, as its name signifies, a necklace of roses; not those roses with which the ungodly adorn themselves insolently, according to the words of Scripture—'Let us crown ourselves with roses before they wither!' (Wisdom 2:8)—but roses whose freshness is ceaselessly renewed in the hands of those devoted to Mary."

Pope John XXIII in his Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, dated 29th September, 1961, says: