The Church venerates the Mother of God under the title of Queen of the Most Holy Rosary in a very special way by dedicating a special liturgical feast to her.
The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is an expression of love, but also an act of gratitude for the great victories won over the centuries by the Christian people, not only through the weapons of war, but also through that spiritual weapon that is the Holy Rosary.
This feast is the most beautiful official testimony to the power and importance of this prayer. The liturgical texts of this day, especially the hymns of the Divine Office celebrate the various mysteries of the Rosary. In the Matins we read: “As on a spring day, roses surrounded her and the lilies of the valleys”, a clear allusion to the wreaths of mystical roses that Mary’s children place at her feet while reciting the Rosary.
The Church also draws our attention to the lessons of the Mass from the Book of Wisdom: “And now, my sons, hear me: Blessed are those who keep my ways. Listen to my instructions and act wisely, and do not reject them. Blessed is the man who listens to me and watches every day at my door, who stands at the entrance of my house. He who finds me will find life and salvation from the Lord.”
Thus, this feast gives us an important message, namely, that to pray the Rosary fervently is to venerate Jesus and Mary, because this devotion is a reflection on the life of the Mother of God and her beloved Son. Indeed, in the Angelic Salutation we pronounce the two holy names of Jesus and Mary. That is why the Church praises the practice of devotion to the Rosary and recommends it so fervently to the faithful: “O God,” she says in the Collect of the Mass, “let us, in meditating on these mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise.”
The Rosary is also a means of imitation. One can only imitate what one knows. If an artist wants to paint or sculpt something, he must have a plan, an idea, a motif that he wants to express in his work. The same goes for us. If we want to imitate Jesus and Mary, we must know their lives. And the Rosary is the most perfect means for this. For if we give our full attention to this devotion, it allows us to look at the most important events in the earthly life of the Savior and his Mother on earth, and in their glorious life in heaven, and to draw the fruits of it.
Every decade immerses the soul in one of the mysteries of God, which will necessarily leave traces in our hearts. Thus, the Rosary transforms us through each of its mysteries: on the one hand, it strengthens the state of sanctifying grace in our souls, and on the other, it awakens in us repentance for sins and the desire to correct them. In other words, it makes us similar to Jesus and Mary.
Well recited, the Rosary is a true school of Christian spirituality, which can be described as Christocentric Marian devotion. Its mysteries bear witness to the fact that in the life of the Mother of God, everything is directed towards, brought to and summarized in her beloved Son. Her joys and pleasures come only from what pleases Our Lord; her sorrows are, so to speak, fused with the sorrows of the incarnate God who, having become man, assumed suffering to atone for the sins of humanity.
Mary’s only suffering is the Passion of Jesus: to see him betrayed, scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified for our sins. Mary’s only joy is Jesus: to be his Mother, to cradle him in her arms, to show him to the world for praise, to meditate on the glory of his Resurrection, to unite with him in Heaven. The Rosary helps us to penetrate the ineffable humility of the Incarnation, the horror of the Passion, and the greatness of the Savior’s glory.
Picture: Giogo / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
