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Rosarium
Virginis Mariae
The Universal Value of Prayer of the Rosary
There are many different forms of prayer in the Christian
tradition with which believers have wished to renew and confirm their
communion with the Lord. However, there is no doubt that all Christian
prayer has a centre represented by the liturgy, the summit of all the
activity of the Church and the source of all her power (cf. Sacrosanctum
Concilium, n. 10) and in which "the Church of Christ is
built" (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III, q. 64, a. 2).
For this reason, Christians know that the prayer of the Church,
constituted by the Eucharistic liturgy and the Liturgy of the Hours,
shapes their life as believers and provides them with the daily
nourishment of the Word and of the Eucharist (cf. Novo Millennio
ineunte, n. 34). As John Paul II recalls, this requires that
"listening to the Word of God ... become a life-giving encounter, in
the ancient and ever valid tradition of lectio divina, which draws
from the biblical text the living Word which questions, directs and shapes
our lives" (ibid., n. 39).
Rosary, support of the liturgy, school of personal prayer
After respecting this primacy, Christiansso
that liturgical prayer may be prolonged so as to become unceasing prayer,
developing and refining the art of conversation with Godcan
turn to other forms of prayer. Among these, in the Western tradition of
the second millennium, the Rosary is the chief form. Many saints indeed
prayed the Rosary and found it an effective means of renewing their way of
close union with the Lord. However, John Paul II precisely reminds us, as
did Paul VI, that the Rosary is a support for the liturgy, it is
ordered to it and by it; can never replace the liturgy, since it really
wishes to be a pedagogy of personal prayer (cf. Rosarium Virginis Mariae,
n. 4).
How has the Rosary developed in the Christian spiritual
tradition over the centuries? The Book of Psalms closes with the verse:
"Let everything that breathes, praise the Lord" (Ps 150,6).
Rabbis like to interpret this as an invitation to glorify the Lord in many
different ways: let every breath of living beings express praise to the
Lord! In his teaching on prayer given by Jesus to his disciples there
resounds the exhortation to "watch at all times, praying..." (Lk
21,36), "always to pray and not lose heart" (Lk 18,1) and the
Apostle Paul also recommends this need to the Christians of the
communities he founded (cf. I Thes 5,17; Eph 6,18). Certainly, these
exhortations do not require an external attitude of prayer, which would be
impossible, but to keep an attitude of heart, ready to listen to the Lord
and ready to speak to him.
Continuous prayer of the monks
For this very reason, the fathers of monasticism applied
themselves to the memoria Dei, remembrance of God tending to a
permanent attitude of prayer that would enable them to renew constantly
their communion with God. St Basil in particular, insisted strongly on
this form of prayer: "We must persevere in the holy thought of God
through ceaseless, pure remembrance of him, impressed upon our souls as an
indelible seal" (Long Rule 5,2). He also said: "We must cling
constantly to the memory of God, as children to their mother" (ibid.,
2,2). Within monastic life an ascetical journey was gradually elaborated
in order to attain continuous prayer: the observance of the commandments,
spiritual combat, the custody of the heart and vigilance lead the monk to
such attendance upon God that he himself becomes a living, continuous
prayer. And to pursue this path effectively, the Desert Fathersin
an age when books and codices were rare and people who could read equally
scarcewould start by practising melete,
meditation or rumination of a verse of Holy Scripture which they had
learned by heart, or the repetition of an invocation to the Lord. Indeed,
this was a simple form of prayer, perhaps even "rudimentary",
but such as could be prayed in the variety of activities and moments of
the day: during manual labour, on a journey, at quiet times of rest....
These invocations asked for help, implored mercy, or were shouts of praise
and thanksgiving to the Lord. Above all, they practiced the invocation of
the Holy Name of Jesus, the Name that God, through the Angel, gave to the
Child who was to be born of the Virgin Mary: "Ieshoua", "IHWH
is salvation"! This beautiful Name invoked by Christians (cf. Jas
5,14), this Name above every other name (Phil 2,9), the only Name in which
there is salvation (cf. Acts 4112) has become for Christians what the Name
of the Lord, IHWH, was for the Jews.
Use of the name of Jesus as personal prayer
From the fifth century, in monastic circles in the East,
the invocation of the name of Jesus was highlighted as a personal prayer
in the conviction that through the saving Name it would be possible to
overcome temptation and unify the whole being in the strong tension of
communion with God. Invocation and meditation were combined and
alternated, harmonizing the lips and the mind, so that the person
succeeded in experiencing the Lord's presence in the depths of his heart:
"Christ in us, the hope of glory" (Col 1,27). This is the "monologhistic"
(monologhistos) prayer which was to be practised by generations of
Eastern monks and which gradually developed almost exclusively into the
invocation "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me!",
excluding other forms of supplication or meditation. When a novice makes
his monastic vows he is given a Rosary, known as "the spiritual
sword", and he learns to pray the Jesus Prayer night and day. This
was to be the characteristic prayer of hesychasm (a spiritual trend that
developed at Mount Athos in the 13th century), in which the elements of a
psychosomatic technique with the intention of involving the body in prayer
were combined with the invocation of the name of Jesus. So this was the
practice of the Christian East: the repetition of an invocation to Jesus,
a short prayer with a biblical content and a deep theological and
spiritual meaning for those who practise it. Indeed, it instills in the
heart of the person praying a sentiment of humility and an experience of
Jesus' merciful presence, making possible the unification of the whole
person in contact with the Lord, which is a humanly possible form of
"continuous prayer".
Jewish tradition of the veneration of the Holy Name of God
In the Hassidean Jewish tradition, veneration of the Holy
Name of God has also used a method of repetition. When someone, through
pure grace, succeeded in formulating it, this personcalled
baal Shem, "lord, possessor of the Name"invoked
it repeatedly, becoming a contemplative and an intercessor.
Non-Christian, Eastern methods of prayer
Nor should we forget that the method of repetitive and
meditative prayer is not unknown in other religious approaches: in them
can be found similarities with the Jesus Prayer and with the Rosary
itself, but they should be understood as a means, as human instruments, in
the search for closeness with God. However, a fundamental difference
remains: whereas in the prayer techniques of the non-Christian East, the
primacy belongs to the method that aims at creating a condition for
contemplation, in Christian prayer the primacy belongs to the action of
the Holy Spirit, "it is the Spirit who prays in us" (cf. Rom
8,15.26; Gal 4,6), without whom there is no genuine Christian prayer.
For example, in the quest for God of the peoples of India,
there is practiced a form of prayer which consists in repeating many times
throughout the day, with the help of a string of beads, a very brief
invocation to the divinity, a mystical formula (mantra), sometimes
associated with psychosomatic techniques (ajapamantra). This
is a prayer to achieve inner peace and to reach a penetrating vision
of reality, a prayer which has also been attested in Chinese (10th
century) and Japanese (12th century) Buddhism as an invocation to Buddha
Amida, and widely practised in our day in Tibetan Buddhism: lamas always
wear the Buddhist rosary (mala) on their left wrist.
Islamic forms of prayer
A form of prayer present in the spiritual tradition of
Islam should also be mentioned: the dhikr, in which,
precisely with a view to unceasing remembrance of God, his Name is
repeatedly spoken and an effort is made to forget everything that is not
God. This practice emerged in Sufism in a relatively late period, the
11th-12th century, and it is well described in a text by al-Ghazali:
"Having sat down in solitude, the Sufi will not cease to say with his
mouth: Allah, Allah, continually, with the presence of his heart".
Thus it is a way of remembering God, triggered by the recitation of
the Name of God (Allah) or his ninety-nine names, as many as the
beads of the Muslim rosary (sebhaa): this practice is both
individual and collective (at least in Sufi confraternities) with a view
to communication with God. It also sometimes makes use of psychosomatic
techniques, which, however, remain purely a vehicle because, as al-Ghazali
teaches, "it is not within the power of the Sufi recollected in dhikra
to attract to himself the mercy of God, the Most High".
Influence of Christian East on West
If it is useful to compare the Rosary with these forms of
repetitive prayer which exist in other religions, the most significant
similarity remains that of the "prayer of the heart" of the
Orthodox East, mentioned above. The two "practices" have
undoubtedly influenced each other in the past. Thus in the second
millennium, the use of "aspirations" (invocations to God,
vibrant as a javelin dart, iaculum) and of litanies, repetitions of
names and attributes of the Lord or of the saints, with requests for their
intercession: among these we find the systematic repetition of the angel's
greeting to Mary.
Greeting to Mary, Jesus, petitions
Now, if we take a closer look at the Rosary, this Western
"prayer of the heart", we see that it is divided into a twofold
movement: the first part in which the praise and joy of the Incarnation
are lived in the repetition of the Angel's greeting to Mary and which
culminates in enunciating the Holy Name of Jesus, followed by the
invocation of the second part. The two essential "themes" of
Christian prayerpraise and
salvationare therefore present, and
at the centre is the Name of Jesus, the one name in which there is
salvation, the Name of the "precious Christian memory". Nor
should it be forgotten that the Hail Mary is in itself an
ecumenical prayer, since the theology of the Reformation never condemned
calling on Mary to pray and intercede for us.
Biblical roots of Hail Mary
The evident biblical matrix of the Hail Mary, which
is repeated in the first part, are the Angel's words ("Hail, full of
grace, the Lord is with you": Lk 1,28), and Elizabeth's words of
rejoicing ("blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of
your womb": Lk 1,42) which are reminiscent of the promises/blessings
of the God of the Covenant (cf. Dt 28,4). So at the origin of the Hail
Mary there is simply the twofold biblical greeting to Mary which is
expressed in the invocation of the Name of Jesus, namely, in a
"prayer to Jesus". The faith of the Church then felt the need
for the invocation "pray for us", pray for us "now",
for us poor "sinners", and pray for us at the eschatalogical
"hour", the hour "of our death", of our exodus from
this world to the Father.
Universal appeal of Rosary
Our experience says that the Rosary is a prayer
that is "precious" also by virtue of that simplicity, that
"poverty" which has been mentioned: to nourish our spiritual
life, it is not always possible to use a prayer that is nourished by the
reading of Scripture, whereas it is easy everywhere and in every situation
to recite the Rosary, even if only part of it, one "decade" or
one "mystery"
It is a prayer that brings peace and
predisposes us to the inner unification of our whole beingbody,
mind and spiritthrough the joyful
praise of the Mother and of the Holy Name of Jesus, and by the invocation
of a prayer of intercession.
With the Rosary, thereforein
the communion of all the saints, who always intercede for uswe
pray to the Mother of the Lord and ask her to pray for us: "ora pro
nobis", pray for us, for us all. And through this formula it is
possible to meditate on the great mystery of salvation brought about in
Jesus Christ, from the Incarnation to the merciful and glorious coming. In
this way in the Rosary meditation, prayer and contemplation are interwoven
around the Holy Name of Jesus: "it is at heart a Christocentric
prayer" John Paul II wrote (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, n. 1),
and this is precisely why it can be a prayer of ordinary people and of
intellectuals, of the elderly and of children, a prayer of all who have a
longing for continuous prayer and know that they are poor sinners.
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