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Rosarium Virginis
Mariae
The Rosary, a contemplative prayer
A Letter under the sign of contemplation
The Pope's Letter on the Rosary gives pride of place to the language
of contemplation. There are more than 30 references in the text to the
contemplative dimension of this Marian prayer. Thus it desires to bring
to the fore both the character of this purely Christian prayer, which
aims directly at communion with the mysteries of the Lord on which it
meditates, as well the very rhythm of the recitation of the prayer,
insistent and persevering, which leads to a closer union with the Lord
and with the Mother of the Lord.
Paragraph n. 12 of the Letter Rosarium
Virginis Mariae (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary) in particular is
entitled: The Rosary, a contemplative prayer. However, the Rosary
is already described in the Introduction as "a path of contemplation",
and "a most effective means of fostering among the faithful that
commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery which I have
proposed in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte,
as a genuine 'training in holiness'" (n. 5).
The word "contemplation" belongs to the language of
Christian prayer. Etymologically, it conveys an echo of the vision of
God in the temple where he dwells (cum templo). Historically, it
calls to mind in spiritual literature a high rung on the ladder of
prayer in the search for and experience of God, almost bordering on
mystical experience, which, however, is a free gift of God. Paul VI, in
his address closing the ninth session of the Second Vatican Council on 7
December 1965, had the fortunate insight to give contemplation, as it
were, a definition for our contemporary age which exalts Christian
humanism. In fact, he said of faith in the living God that it is a
principle of genuine humanism: "The effort to fix the gaze of the
heart on Him, which we call 'contemplation', becomes the most exalted
and complete spiritual act, which still today can and must give priority
to the immense pyramid of human activity". Thus, according to this
definition, contemplation combines the gaze of the mind and the impulse
of the heart, faith that knows and charity that loves. Sometimes it is
the effort of believers, always aided by grace, that comes to fruition;
they are granted the ability to fix the gaze of their intelligence and
love on God and to be enriched by knowledge of him. Sometimes it is God
himself who attracts with his grace those who pray, and unites them with
himself in contemplative prayer of a mystical kind. Contemplation is the
gift and fruit of the Holy Spirit. It has the value of the faith and
love of which Christian prayer must be woven.
The contemplative dynamics of the Holy Rosary
The description of the Rosary as a contemplative prayer raises this
exercise of devotion to the level of true experience of union with God—as
if this were necessary—and lifts
the character of a popular prayer to the heights of intimacy with the
Lord. The faithful person lives that relationship by virtue of his
baptismal priesthood, that qualifies him to listen to the word and for
prayer but also, through the prophetic grace of the baptized, as in the
true prophets of all times, admits the primacy of listening to and of
contemplating the living God and, as a consequence, the proclamation of
his word.
In a beautiful text from Marialis cultus (n. 47) quoted in the
Letter on the Rosary, Paul VI said: "Without contemplation, the
Rosary is a body without a soul, and its recitation runs the risk of
becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas..." (The Rosary of the
Virgin Mary, n. 12). Thus the Pope has desired to keep intact the
genuine meaning of this Marian prayer and to defend it from the easy
accusation of being an excessively mechanical repetition of formulas.
John Paul II adds, "By its nature the recitation of the Rosary
calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to
meditate on the mysteries of the Lord's life as seen through the eyes of
her who was closest to the Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of
these mysteries are disclosed" (ibid.).
However, the contemplative dimension of the Marian prayer is also
full of strong allusions to the Gospel figure of Mary in the way she
relates to the mysteries of her Son. This approach is imitated and
interiorized by the Church in her prayer, and popularized in the
recitation of the Rosary. In Luke, the double reference to Mary who
ponders in her heart on the mysteries of her Son (cf. Lk 2,19.51)
indicates the Virgin's inner, personal relationship with the mysteries
of the Son, the contemplative quality of her life: an attitude the
Church imitates in her prayer and which is a source of light for every
believer, as Dei Verbum recalls (n. 8). Remembering the mysteries
of Christ with Mary is a golden rule of true ecclesial prayer and one of
the fundamental attitudes of the Church's Marian dimension.
In fact, the profound conviction that the Rosary is a contemplative
prayer has even entered the simple language of the people. The faithful
often spontaneously announce the mysteries of each day with these simple
words: "Today let us contemplate ... the joyful,
sorrowful or glorious mysteries...". Yet the temptation to lessen
devotion, the risk of making the repetition mechanical, the lack of an
appropriate atmosphere or place for the recitation of the Rosary,
carelessness about the necessary moments of silence are real, and the
Pope's salutary reminder commits us to restoring to this prayer the full
dynamism and fervour of authentic Christian contemplation. It has also
had the surprising result, experienced by many, not only of encouraging
personal but also community contemplation; in addition, it has rescued
the meaning of contemplation from certain spiritually aristocratic
connotations, thereby enabling all the holy people of God to enjoy it.
Inasmuch as Christian contemplation is the summit of life and
meditation and inner assimilation of the mysteries of Christ are the aim
of prayer, the Rosary becomes a school of prayer, but also an
experience of close communion with the Father, through Christ and in the
Spirit. It helps to deepen the grace of the sacraments and to reach the
goal of fostering a Christian life that may be an assimilation of the
sentiments of Christ and Mary, a vital communion with Christ the
Lord in Christian life, a spiritual devotion, an apostolic mission.
A mystagogy of the art of contemplative prayer
As befits its contemplative character, throughout the Apostolic
Letter, a magnificent exaltation of the way of praying the Rosary is
offered, described, and insistently suggested. It is therefore necessary
to evaluate properly what is possible and essential in order to succeed
in true contemplative prayer. The Pope spells out the requirements and
proposes the means, especially in the third chapter of the Letter which
is a kind of "mystagogy" of the prayer of the Rosary, a noble
introduction to the art of contemplative prayer with the Rosary.
But let us try to illustrate some conditions for this noble work of
contemplation.
First of all, it is necessary to create an atmosphere of silence,
recollection and real awareness of being in the Lord's presence. This is
a preliminary and indispensable condition for encouraging an intense
moment of contemplation that demands of the person praying the
recollection of both mind and heart
In all Marian prayer, and in every individual part of it, the person
praying is asked to pay special attention to what is being said and to
whom he/she is praying. In this way, St Teresa of Jesus, who had a
special devotion to the Rosary, asserted the contemplative nature of the
vocal praying of the Our Father and Hail Mary, based on the simple
pedagogical observation that when we pray we must know what we are
saying and to whom we speak, in order to adhere fully, with our heart
and mind, to the words that are on our lips. The invocation of the Our
Father, the repetition of the Hail Mary, the doxological pause of the
Glory to the Father, are moments that call for an ability to savour what
is being said, to enjoy now one, now another, word or attitude of
prayer: the invocation of the Father, the blessing of his Name, the
request for his Kingdom, the total acceptance of his will ... the
greeting and blessing to Mary, the invocation of the Holy Mother of God
... or the glorification of each of the persons of the Trinity. Simply
letting ourselves be moulded by the biblical and ecclesial formulas, we
enter into communion with the Trinity and with Mary, if our lips express
what our heart dictates or if we allow our heart and mind to be guided
by the words on our lips. The repetition of prayers, sustained by a
simple attention of mind and heart, encourages deepening, sinking into
intimacy, remaining, as in contemplation, conscious that we are living
in spiritual communion with the Lord and with the Virgin Mary.
The announcing of the mysteries of Jesus and Mary is an invitation to
contemplate what the word of God announces, both when the mysteries are
preceded by a biblical passage and when a short sentence effectively
sums them up. Mary who with her motherhood made visible the mystery of
the invisible God, is our guide in this loving interior meditation. At
times, as the Pope often says, in contemplating the mystery of the Son
with the eyes of the Mother, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, from Egypt to
Jerusalem, from Cana to Calvary, from the Mount of Olives to the Upper
Room, in the joyful, sorrowful, glorious mysteries and the mysteries of
light in which she took part, from close at hand or from afar. However
we can also extend the analogy and plunge with Christ's sentiments into
contemplating the mystery of the Mother in certain typically Marian
mysteries in which she is the subject: from the Annunciation to her
Assumption and her coronation in Heaven.
While the prayers of the Hail Mary are flowing, the mind and heart
are invited to fix their gaze on the mysteries as they are described as
if to relive them, remembering the pertinent Gospel passage. Sometimes
pedagogically, we are invited to look at an icon of the mystery, while
continuing to interiorize in our heart the mystery we are now
subjectively appropriating so that it may become ours. Because the
mysteries of Christ and Mary are moments in their lives, the invitation
that every mystery of the Rosary addresses us is to turn our eyes to the
faces of Christ and Mary. We are to do so with one of the simple
formulas of contemplative prayer which St Teresa of Jesus expressed in
the concise mystical formula of being looked at by the Lord even before
we can turn our gaze to him: "Look at who is looking at you"
("Mira que le mira", in Spanish: Libro della vida
[Book of the Life], chapter 13,22). For while we turn our contemplative
gaze to God, we are surprised to encounter the gaze of the Lord who is
already looking at us; just as, moreover, we ask Mary in Hail Holy
Queen to turn her eyes of mercy toward us.
In the same way that the well-known formula of Lectio Divina
invites us to take a logical route through Christian prayer
with the four steps of "lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio",
the Rosary gives us the opportunity for a concentrated "lectio"
of the mystery; it initiates us with a brief meditation; indeed, it
makes us speak the intimate "you" of prayer, addressed to the
Father or to Mary, and it is resolved in the Trinitarian doxology of the
final Gloria of every decade of Hail Mary's; and in the heart it leaves
a synthetic vision, with faith and love, of contemplation.
The ascent of contemplation and the descent of service
If contemplation leads us to enter into the mystery of God as the
goal of our ascent, from God it also looks down on the world and life
with the same divine gaze, so that we may descend from the mountain
peaks of contemplation, as indicated by the logic of the fourth mystery
of light, the Transfiguration of the Lord. Being close to God in
contemplation encourages persons praying to gaze upon man, the world,
the Church, with the same sentiments as those of the mother's heart of
the Virgin Mary. Sometimes, therefore, every mystery of the Rosary can
be prayed with a special intention that brings us back to the Church
today and in the world. This was popular with Pope John XXIII, and to
our world, as John Paul II suggests it when he urges us to pray the
Rosary for peace in the world and for the family.
Thus the Rosary becomes a prayer which contemplates the mystery of
Christ and the mystery of man, as the Pope suggests in n. 25, and an
ecclesial prayer of intercession for the needs of humanity, as in the
practice of groups when they recite the Missionary Rosary with ten Hail
Mary's for each continent. The sensitivity of the persons praying, the
needs of the present, harmonization with the mysteries meditated upon
can offer many suggestions for this prayer, thus making it both
contemplative and apostolic, with the missionary power of praise and of
intercession which are inherent in the prayers of the Our Father and the
Hail Mary, and especially in the last part of the greeting to the
Virgin: "Pray for us sinners ...".
The contemplative character of the Rosary is also revealed in one of
its most genuine values. The prayer of Christian life accompanies the
spiritual journey of the Christian through his bright days and dark
nights, moments of participation in the joy of presence and in the cross
of absence. But the journey of the Christian is none other than the
journey of Christ; and spiritual life, with its struggles and graces, is
the life of Christ in us under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The
contemplative dimension of the Rosary is therefore on a par with the
Christian journey of perfection, which is the way of Christ and the way
of Mary. A life rich in communion with God and of generous service of
the brethren.
We can interiorize every day what revelation and the liturgical
celebration offer us, especially in the context of the liturgical year,
in harmony with our journey on the paths of time through the prayer of
the Rosary. Its personal and ecclesial nature, the possibility of saying
it together, united in the name of the Lord and enjoying his presence,
the commitment it offers us to help one another take this path together,
make it particularly apt for a spirituality of our time suitable for
both the person and the group.
Great good can come to us from the renewed vision which the Pope
offers us of this most popular of all Marian prayers. For this reason it
entails great spiritual demands. For this reason the quality of its
recitation and possibly of a more solemn celebration of it should be
encouraged, based on the theological quality of the prayer itself, that
is, the dedication to and gift of contemplative prayer.
For all these reasons, the Pope can conclude his exposition with his
last, effective appeal which confirms what we have attempted to
describe: "What has been said so far makes abundantly clear the
richness of this traditional prayer, which has the simplicity of a
popular devotion but also the theological depth of a prayer suited to
those who feel the need for deeper contemplation" (n. 39).
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