When frère Ludger Pauzé sought to pray in solitude surrounded by the forest on Mount Rigaud 150 years ago, it is safe to assume that the Rosary was his most treasured prayer.
After all, it was his great devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes, the Immaculate Conception, that had captured his heart and inspired him to place her statue and build a humble altar in her honor.
He created a personal and hidden sanctuary where he could enter, undisturbed, into deeper meditation of the love of God, as revealed through the mysteries of the Rosary. Without a doubt, Mother Mary led frère Pauzé closer to Jesus and it is fair to say that Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Lourdes was born of the Rosary.
Indeed, the New Covenant began with the Angel’s salutation “Hail full of Grace” and recognition of Our Lady’s holiness began with Elizabeth’s greeting “Blessed are you among women”.
The Angelic Salutation and Elizabeth’s greeting form the oldest Christian prayer, older than Christianity itself, since they were uttered before the birth of Christ.
So, from the beginning of Christianity, Our Lady was sought as a privileged intercessor. The Blessed Mother’s intervention at the wedding feast of Cana revealed her exalted status when, at her request, Jesus began his public ministry earlier with his first miracle of turning water into wine. Belief in Our Lady’s Assumption into heaven only enhanced the devotion and great dignity given to her by early Christian communities (which belief was declared a dogma of faith by Pope Pius XII in 1950).
Over the centuries, the Rosary blossomed and grew into the prayer we know today. In the year 430, the Council of Ephesus explicitly confirmed the Virgin Mary as Mother of God, and to the Angelic Salutation was added “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death”.
In 1261, Pope Urban IV added the name of Jesus to the end of Elizabeth’s greeting “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus”.
Through the ages, many saints have championed the Rosary both in season and out. Countless people have been blessed with miracles which were received through this devotion to the Blessed Mother, whose sole purpose is to draw us closer to her Divine Son.
The Rosary has been credited with assisting St. Dominic in battling the Albigenses heresy and helping lost souls return to the faith. The Rosary was also a powerful help to St. Louis de Montfort as he battled the Jansenists heresy. St. John Bosco’s vision of the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady with the Rosary as two pillars anchoring and protecting the Church through turbulent times, still holds true today.
The Rosary is more than a means of petition and thanksgiving; it is also an offering, a gift, a most sublime way to enter into the presence of God through meditating on the life of Jesus. Unfortunately, of the many forms of prayer that exist today, the Rosary is underestimated by many Christians; too often regarded as a simple pious practice from another era.
St. John Paul II called us to again value this treasure which comes to us from heaven. He recognized the “urgent need to counter a certain crisis of the Rosary, which in the present historical and theological context can risk being wrongly devalued, and therefore no longer taught to the younger generation.”
It is true that we live in an era of ultra-stimulation, making it difficult to slow down, to be still and search for God. For too many people, prayer is viewed as an arduous burden intruding upon their day, already fraught with challenges, worries and countless activities; an unfulfilling and empty exercise rather than the road to freedom.
Because of life’s busyness, we can easily fall into the trap of saying the Rosary in an inattentive manner, with the Rosary becoming a mindless repetition of sacred words, simply mentioning the mystery before rushing through the decade.
Pope Paul VI said “without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without soul. By its nature, praying of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace; helping one to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord’s life.”
Assisted by Our Lady, praying the Rosary is seeking the face of God in and through the life of Jesus and so “the life of Jesus Christ passes before the eyes of the soul.” St. John Paul II RVM. Those souls who pray the Rosary daily with contemplation have Christ Jesus constantly on their minds.
St. John Paul II further extolled us to rediscover the treasure of the Rosary. There exists a “custom in certain regions of highlighting the name of Christ by the addition of a clause referring to the mystery being contemplated. It gives forceful expression to our faith in Christ, directed to the different moments of the Redeemer’s life. It is at once an expression of faith and an aid in concentrating our meditation, since it facilitates the process of assimilation to the mystery of Christ inherent in the repetition of the Hail Mary”. St. John Paul II RVM. This manner of praying the Rosary goes back millennia, long before St. Louis de Montfort, who spoke of it in The Secrets of the Rosary.
Prayer and meditation are unique to each of us. When we are open to God’s grace, we will discover, at different moments in life, that our meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary often reveals what it is we most need at that time.
Examples of praying the Rosary in this manner are below.
Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus …
Joyful Mystery (the Annunciation) – the Word becomes flesh
Luminous Mystery (Baptism of Jesus) – God’s Beloved Son
Sorrowful Mystery (the Crucifixion) – who died for me
Glorious Mystery (the Resurrection) – risen from the dead
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
St. Padre Pio said : “Pray the Rosary frequently. It costs so little and it is worth so much … Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today”.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Peter and Linda Krushelnyski
Source :
Voix du sanctuaire 2024 (PDF).