Rosaries

In the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, the Holy Father John Paul II urged Catholic families to pray in their home by reciting the Rosary: “We need to return to the practice of family prayer and prayer for families, continuing to use the Rosary”. The Rosary, in its simplicity and depth, goes to the heart of Christian
experience in the dialogue of faith expressed in prayer. It has a strong evangelizing impact. The members of the family can contemplate the central events at the heart of the faith through the mysteries. The recitation of the Rosary enables people to recover the ability to look one another in the eye, to communicate, to show solidarity, to forgive one another and to see their covenant of love renewed in the spirit of God. The Rosary prayer in the family captures something of the spiritual atmosphere of the household at Nazareth, because family members place Jesus at the center of their life, they share his joys and sorrows, they put their needs and their plans in his hands.

The Rosary also serves to neutralize the disorienting messages and unpredictable experiences that are rapidly making their way into children’s lives. These experiences are a source of anxiety to parents because young people are exposed to dangers while they are growing up. Praying the Rosary is certainly a spiritual aid in finding the solution to many problems, and is a protection against many temptations and difficulties. As the Holy Father says: “only by praying together with their children can a father and mother-exercising their royal priesthood-penetrate the innermost depths of their children’s hearts and leave an impression that the future events in their lives will not be able to efface”.

An important purpose of the prayer of the domestic church is to serve as the natural introduction for children to the liturgical prayer of the whole Church. Thus family prayer is not an escape from social commitment, but a strong incentive to the Christian family to assume fully all its responsibilities as the primary and basic cell of human society. The rosary prayer reinforces the spiritual soundness and solidity of the family, helping to ensure that it shares in the strength of God. As John Paul II has said, ” In reciting the rosaries, the domestic church savors its own unity, enjoys the sharing of affections, is elevated to the contemplation of the divine, places its own needs, concerns and the conquests of daily living in this higher dimension”. One writer said that in the evangelized nations in every family, at nightfall, the recitation of the Rosary rose like a symphony. We should strive to restore this witness.