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1. (5)Apostolic letter of the
supreme pontiff John
Paul II on the Most Holy
Rosary
Rosarium Virginis Mariae Oct. 16. 2002

2. “The Church has always attributed particular efficacy to this prayer,
entrusting to the Rosary the most difficult problems. At times when
Christianity itself seemed under threat, its deliverance was attributed to
the power of this prayer, and Our Lady was acclaimed as the one
whose intercession brought salvation.” In Her many Apparitions on
earth, like in Lourdes and Fatima, the Virgin Mary always recommended
the recitation of the Rosary to obtain peace, and to stop heresies. St.
Dominic received the revelation of the Rosary at a time when the Church
was in a critical battle against the heresy of Albegensians. It was at
Prouille in France in 1208 that Dominic suddenly experienced an
Apparition of the Blessed Mother, who said, “Wonder not that you have
obtained so little fruit by your labors. You have spent them on barren
soil, not yet watered with the dew of Divine grace. When God willed to
renew the face of the earth, He began by sending down on it fertilizing
rain of the Angelic Salutation. Therefore preach my psalter composed
of 150 Angelic Salutations and fifteen Our Fathers, and you will
obtain an abundant harvest.”

3. 1. With the Rosary, the Christian people
sits at the school of Mary, and is led to
contemplate the beauty on the face of
Jesus and to experience the depths of
his love.
2. The Rosary is an effective weapon
against the evil afflicting society.
-------Pope Leo XIII
3. How many graces have I received
these years from the Blessed Virgin
through the Rosary.
My motto: Totus Tuus!(Totally yours)
-----Pope John Paul II
4. The Rosary goes to the very heart of
Christian life; it offers spiritual and
educational opportunity for personal
contemplation, the formation of People
of God, and the new evangelization.

4.  5. The Rosary is a genuine “training in holiness”. What is
needed is a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of
prayer. It is more urgent than ever that our Christian
communities should become “genuine schools of prayer.”
 6. Learning Christ from Mary: No one knows Christ better than
Mary; no one can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his
mystery better than his Mother. The School of Mary is all the
more effective if we consider that she teaches by obtaining for us
in abundance the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
 7. To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with
Mary, the face of Christ. In a unique way, the face of the Son to
belongs to Mary. Mary constantly sets before the faithful, the”
Mysteries” of her Son, with the desire that the contemplation of
those mysteries will release all their saving powers.
 8. The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary’s side. This enables
her to train us and to mould us with the same care, until Christ is
“fully formed” in us.
“Think of Mary, Call on Mary” ------St. Bernard’s homily &
Motto of Oblates of the Virgin Mary

5.  9. The Rosary is both meditation and supplication.
Insistent prayer to the Mother of God is based on
confidence that her maternal intercession can obtain all
things from the heart of her Son. The wedding of Cana
clearly shows the power of Mary’s intercession as she
makes known to Jesus the needs of others: “They have
no wine left.”
 10 .The simple prayer of the Rosary marks the “ rhythm
of human life”. It becomes natural to bring to this
encounter with the sacred humanity of the Redeemer all
the problems, anxieties, labours and endeavours which
go to make up our lives. “Cast your burden on the Lord
and he will sustain you”. To pray the Rosary is to hand
over our burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and his
Mother.
 11. Christians, while they are called to prayer in common,
must also go to their own rooms to pray to their Father
in secret. Indeed, according to the teaching of the
Apostle, they must pray without ceasing.

6. 12.The Rosary has been proposed as a prayer for peace.
To rediscover the Rosary means to contemplate the
mystery of Christ who is “our peace”, since he made
“the two of us one, and broke down the dividing wall of
hostility.” The Rosary has a peaceful effect on those
who pray it, disposing them to receive and experience in
their innermost depths, and to spread around them the
true peace.
The rosary leads to an encounter with Christ in his mysteries and so cannot fail
to draw attention to the face of Christ in others, especially the most afflicted.
How could one possibly contemplate the mystery of the Child of Bethlehem
without experiencing the desire to welcome defend and promote life, and to
shoulder the burdens of suffering children all over the world ? How could one
possibly follow in the footsteps of Christ without resolving to bear witness to his
“Beatitudes” in daily life? How could one contemplate Christ carrying the
Cross and Christ Crucified, without feeling the need to act as a “Simon of
Cyrene” for our brothers and sisters weighed down by grief or crushed by
despair? How could one possibly gaze upon the glory of the Risen Christ or of
Mary Queen of Heaven, without yearning to make this world more beautiful,
more just, more closely conformed to God’s plan ?

7. 13.The Rosary is also a prayer of and for the family. We
need to return to the practice of family prayer and
prayer for families. The family that prays together stays
together. Individual family members, in turning their
eyes towards Jesus. Also regain the ability to look one
another in the eye, to communicate, to show solidarity,
to forgive one another and to see their covenant of love
renewed in the Spirit of God. How beautiful is the
family that recites the Rosary every evening.
14.The family that recites the Rosary together reproduces
something of the atmosphere of the household of
Nazareth: its members place Jesus at the centre; they
draw from him the hope and strength to go on.
15. We need to pray the Rosary for children and even
more, with children.

8. 16. The Rosary is an exquisitely contemplative prayer. Without this
contemplative dimension, it would lose its meaning, as Pope Paul
VI clearly pointed out: “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’.
17. Announcing each mystery, and perhaps even using a suitable icon
to portray it, is as it were to open up a scenario on which to focus
our attention, and direct the imagination and the mind towards a
particular episode or moment in the life of Christ. In the
Church’s traditional spirituality, the veneration of icons and the
many devotions appealing to the senses, as well as the method of
prayer proposed by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual
exercises, make use of visual and imaginative elements, judged to
be of great help in concentrating the mind on the particular
mystery. This methodology moreover, corresponds to the inner
logic of the Incarnation: in Jesus, God wanted to take on human
features. It is through his bodily reality that we are led into
contact with the mystery of his divinity.
--------APOSTOLIC LETTER OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
JOHN PAUL II. 16th October. 2002.

9.  She also taught it to Blessed Alan de la Roche
and said to him in a vision, "When people say
150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to
them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But
they will do better still and will please me more
if they say these salutations while meditating
on the life, death, and passion of Jesus
Christ, for this meditation is the soul of this
prayer."
For the Rosary said without the meditation on
the sacred mysteries of our salvation would
almost be a body without a soul, excellent
matter, but without the form, which is the
meditation, and which distinguishes it from

10.  We learn to imitate the mysteries and the
virtues of the life, death, passion and glory
of Jesus and Mary.
 . For the Rosary teaches people about the
virtues of Jesus and Mary, and leads them
to mental prayer, to the imitation of Jesus
Christ, to the frequentation of the
sacraments, the practice of genuine virtue
and of all kinds of good works. It also helps
us to gain many wonderful indulgences,
which people are unaware of.
St. Louis de Montfort