The months of October and May are dedicated in the Church to Mary, our Blessed Mother. Mary’s importance for us, not just as a model, but as a principal instrument in God’s plan of salvation, is why the Church has put such emphasis on devotion to her and has sanctioned many times the praying of the Rosary. Now, there can be a certain temptation toward thinking that the Rosary is just some pious practice which can be weighed just as heavily (or perhaps lightly) as any other such practice, like reciting certain novenas, having devotions to particular Saints, and the like.
Yet, there is a strong recognition by the Church that the Rosary stands above other devotions. Indeed, just as Mary stands above all of the Saints, so too, correspondingly, does the Rosary stand as a devotion above all others. St. John Paul the Second, in his apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, says that “it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium.” The Rosary as a compendium of the Gospels – how? We know what prayers make up the Rosary: The Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, etc. Yet, these do not constitute the soul of the Rosary. The soul of the Rosary is the Mysteries to be meditated upon: The Joyful Mysteries, the Luminous Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries. The repeated prayers are simply a means to enter into deeper reflection on these realities, the mysteries of the life of Christ, from His Conception to His coronation of His mother. It has been said that to simply recite the Rosary, without meditation on the Mysteries, is like presenting a bouquet of roses to the Blessed Mother without any fragrance or any scent. It’s a nice, even meritorious, gesture, but something is missing if the life of Christ is not dwelt on.
With this in mind, there are a couple practical components to this worth considering:
Praying the Rosary with the family is a great way to do some time for family prayer. Both parents and kids can lead different decades, enabling people to be engaged. If a full Rosary is too long, even just one decade before, say, going to bed, or on the way to school, would be a good way to infuse prayer into the life of the family. Salvation, holiness, and devotion to God all start at home, and this is a concrete way to live it out.
It might be helpful to engage in the habit of simply having a Rosary around at all times on your person. It can give you an occasion to pray when you have a few moments to kill (as opposed to constantly pulling out the phone, for example). It can serve as a safeguard against temptation as well, where one can simply grasp it and turn to the Lord in seeking to act well. Finally, it can serve as a reminder of God’s presence throughout the day.
We can see, then, both the benefit and application of praying the Rosary, this prayer which the Church has given us in the hopes we might draw closer to Christ through Mary. May it be so for us.