Rosaries

In this month of October, traditionally consecrated to the Holy Rosary, I wish to dedicate the Angelus address to this prayer, which is so dear to Catholic hearts, so much loved by me and so warmly recommended by my predecessor Popes. In this extraordinary Holy Year of the Redemption, even the Rosary acquires new perspectives and is charged with stronger and broader aims than in the past. Today it’s not a matter of asking for great victories in war, as at Lepanto or Vienna; rather, it’s a matter of asking Mary to make us brave fighters against the spirit of error and evil, with the weapons of the Gospel, which are the Cross and the Word of God.

The prayer of the Rosary is the prayer of man for man: it is the prayer of human solidarity, the joint prayer of the redeemed. It is a prayer for all the people of the world and of history, alive or dead, called to be with us the Body of Christ and to become with him the heirs of the Father’s glory. If we consider the spiritual orientations suggested by the Rosary, which is simple, Gospel prayer, we find again the intentions that St. Cipriano noted in the Our Father. He wrote: “The Lord, Master of peace and unity, did not want us to pray individually and alone. We do not in fact say: “My Father, who art in Heaven”, or “Give me this day my daily bread.” Our prayer is for all, so that when we pray, we do it not for one alone but for all people, because we are one with all people.”

The Rosary is addressed consistently to she who is the highest expression of humanity in prayer, the model of the Church asking and praying, in Christ, for the mercy of the Father. As Christ is “always ready to intercede in our behalf”, Mary, too, continues in Heaven her mission as the Mother and becomes the voice of every man for every man, until the final crowning of the band of the elect. Praying to her, we ask her to assist us through the whole arc of our present life and, above all, in that moment of decision of our eternal destiny, which will be “the hour of our death”. The Rosary is a prayer that points to the prospect of the Kingdom of God and orients man to receive the fruits of Redemption.

John Paul II
October 2, 1983