"Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus..."
I think perhaps, the most beautiful thing about the rosary is it gives you the words when you have none. When you are on your knees and you can’t pick yourself up and all the words that seem to come are “Oh Lord…” You search for the right words, search for any words at all, but you find yourself as inarticulate as you used to be when you ran to your Mom with some hurt and all you could do was cry out “Mama!” as you clutched at her knees.
Just as your Mother used to understand exactly what you needed without your saying it does God know what is truly in your heart, only more so. Sometimes you need to voice those words though, voice those feeling you perhaps don’t understand completely yourself, and suddenly you have the right words…
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, Amen.”
How much comfort is there in those words that you repeat again and again as you finger the round beads of your rosary; how much comfort in being able to voice those feelings into words, and yet be listening at the same time. So often when I am simply sitting trying to pray my mind wanders unconsciously, from this to that it flutters, but the prayers of the Rosary always bring it back again.
There is such a feeling of peace while saying the rosary, by yourself, or with a crowd of others. Over the course of the World Youth Day trip we said the rosary many times as a group, at least once a day. On the bus, in shrines and cathedrals, while walking, and I think it really brought us closer together as a group. There is something about praying the rosary together that will always bring people together, perhaps because often when we go to pray the rosary together we are at our most vulnerable.
You are vulnerable and your soul is suddenly opened to growth, alone or with others, vulnerable at the same time and you pray the rosary together.
You have gone to the rosary because you are suddenly mercilessly knocked to the ground. You are sitting in the hospital waiting room, your hands shaking and tears blurring your eyes; you know suddenly there is no hope but you can’t seem to let go. You know you will have to, yet your fingers won’t loosen their clutched grasp: that is when you go to the rosary.
You have gone to the rosary because you are filled to the bursting with a complete joy and thanksgiving, so much so you simply have to pray. You have to say thank you, have to find some way of expressing your complete and utter joy in that moment or burst: that is when you go to the rosary.
You have gone to the rosary because you are left completely confused. No one understands what you are going though, you can’t blame them, you don’t quite understand this flood of mixing emotions that go spinning through you, but there is someone who understands. He understands you when you don’t understand yourself, He understands, that is when you go to the rosary.
Vulnerable, all your defenses and put together fronts are wiped away in those moments when you have gone to the rosary as a refuge.
Even in those times when you are simply at peace and the words of the rosary only add to that peace and quiet sense of calm, in those moments also you grow together praying the rosary with others.
Praying the rosary is a reminder too, a reminder of how truly Catholicism is Universal. I had one of those moments on the WYD trip, and I think perhaps for me it was one of the most memorable moments of the entire trip. We were kneeling before the incorrupt body of St. Bernadette in Nevers praying the rosary. Our words had taken that steady rhythm you get into after a while, that steady flow of words and then that quick pause for breath and a steady flow or words once again. After a while I noticed a voice that went on through our pauses and who, though speaking with us, was praying to a complete different rhythm than ours. I glanced over and there was kneeling a lady who was fingering her rosary in time with us, yet her words were in French whilst ours English.
For me this made a bigger impression than even when we were saying the rosary with hundreds of others in different languages. Probably because it was the first time, it was if suddenly I had come in contact with something I had thought about and marveled at for a long time, and suddenly I was part of. A realization of how our Faith truly does cross countries, language differences, differences of opinion and lifestyles, and one of the many ways we were brought together was by those simple words; the words of the rosary.
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| The Rosary I brought to World Youth Day with me to be blessed by the Holy Father |
“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 unfolded.”
–Pope Paul VI
“Pray, hope and don’t worry.”
–Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
