Setting An Example
Yesterday was the First Saturday of the month of May. Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI gave an edifying example of pastoral zeal to all the bishops and parish priests of the Church by praying the Rosary with the faithful in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. It was profoundly moving to see the Holy Father on his knees, telling his beads with simplicity, humility, and piety. He recited the prayers of the Rosary in Latin. A suitable antiphon in Gregorian Chant and a passage from Sacred Scripture preceded each decade. The Salve Regina, Litany of Loreto, and Regina Caeli concluded the celebration: a model for every cathedral and parish church in the world. At the end of the prayer, the Holy Father said:
“Today we are demonstrating together that the Holy Rosary is not a pious practice relegated to the past, like a prayer of former times that one thinks of nostalgia. The Rosary is, as it were, coming into a new springtime. This is, without any doubt, one of the most eloquent signs of the love that the young generations nourish for Jesus and for Mary His Mother.
In today’s world so full of distractions, this prayer helps us to place Christ at the centre, as did the Virgin, who meditated inwardly all that was said concerning her Son, and then what He did and said. When the Rosary is recited we relive the important and significant moments of the history of salvation; we journey through the various phases of the mission of Christ. With Mary the heart turns toward the mystery of Jesus. Jesus is placed at the centre of our life, of our time, of our city, by means of the contemplation and meditation of His holy mysteries of joy, of light, of sorrow, and of glory. Mary helps us to receive within ourselves the grace that emanates from these mysteries so that through us they might irrigate society, beginning with our daily relations, and purify it of so many negative forces, while apprising it of the newness of God.
The Rosary, when prayed in an authentic way, one that is not mechanical and superficial, but profound, undeniably confers peace and reconciliation. It contains within itself the healing power of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, invoked with faith and with love at the center of each Ave Maria.”
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He said the Rosary and the Name of Jesus has healing power. Coming from the Pope, I think these statements are very profound. It’s something that appears new, that we didn’t know before.
Juan T: there is a very long tradition in the church of devotion to the holy names of Jesus and Mary. This aspect of the rosary is perhaps not something new, but a central aspect that has been forgotten. To discover afresh this contemplative dimension rooted in the praying of the holy names is at the heart of John Paul’s letter on the rosary and the best of the rosary tradition. in praying the rosary the hail Marys become like a monstrance holding the holy name of Jesus and the mysteries are like healing rays that lead us to gaze with simple faith on the face of the Jesus, son of Mary present in his holy name.
This is an admirable act of pastoral solicitude, since it seems the Holy Father has long had a greater personal attachment to liturgical prayer than to the Rosary of our Lady, and only made the latter his regular practice after his election.