Happy Month of the Holy Rosary! The Holy Rosary is the solution.

To what, you ask? To whatever problem you might have. 

More than that, it has been known to successfully take on wars, invasions, international strife, national emergencies, deathbed conversions, family break-ups, natural disasters, terminal illnesses, crises of all kinds. For centuries, the greatest saints have relied on it and recommended it. I mean, its track record is impeccable. 

Advertisement

So why do so many Catholics not pray the Rosary regularly or at all? Unfortunately, it isn’t taught to young people any more. Our youth may have never witnessed it being prayed around them—and that’s a tragedy.

The Rosary is a Gospel prayer: Our Fathers (the only formal prayer Jesus taught us because the Apostles asked Him how they should pray), Hail Marys (a super Biblical prayer—just oozing Scripture), Glory Bes (an invocation of the Holy Trinity); all punctuated by Scriptural events (except Our Lady’s Assumption and Coronation). More than a rote prayer, the Rosary is a meditation (even if we just reflect for a minute or two on each mystery). We are drawn into the Word of God and some of the most important events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, for our edification and inspiration.

Don’t be fooled by those who quote Jesus against the Rosary (the very idea!) when He said not to rattle on like the pagans do in their prayers. That’s not what we’re doing in the Rosary. We don’t think the repetition, quantity or length of our prayers will impress or move God—we know God wants quality: prayer that engages our whole mind, will and heart. 

Advertisement

It’s too simple? An unassuming chain with 59 beads and a Crucifix that can be held in your hand or tucked in your pocket could never have that much power? Well, it’s not the religious article itself (even if it has been blessed by a priest), but our fervent prayers and intercessions directed to the Virgin Most Powerful that do the heavy lifting. 

God has given His Mother free rein to distribute graces and favours to whomever she wills. The most important gifts we could ever ask for are spiritual ones: final perseverance, the overcoming of stubborn sin, the acquisition of virtues, the salvation of souls. Are you still clinging to the idea that the Rosary is too simple? If Heaven had given us a more complicated and strenuous gift, would that strike your fancy? 

But the Rosary can be so boring! Yes, life is hard. But that which does not kill us makes us stronger.

You object, sir, that the Rosary’s not a manly prayer, that it’s for little old church ladies? Then why did Padre Pio call it his “weapon,” and why did Our Lady tell St. Dominic: “…the battering ram has always been the Rosary.” Furthermore, you must’ve never laid eyes on “Rugged Rosaries.” Some of their styles could double as brass knuckles. Lest it seem that I’m equating masculinity with violence, I’m not—only that man’s role in the Church and the world is to protect, provide, and stand up to evil. We may well find out t the Rosary is the chain binding the devil in Revelation 20:1-3. Just saying.

Advertisement

There’s a video circulating on social media of Jim Carrey quoting his second grade teacher: “Whenever I want something, I ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to ask God for it, I promise to do something in return, and I get it.” Jim asked for a bike, promised to pray the Rosary every night, and two weeks later won a bike in a raffle. Of course, Jim tells this story with utter hilarity, and the Rosary is not a divine ATM machine, but it doesn’t hurt to pray with the faith of a child.

Praying the Rosary is not necessary for salvation, but it’s a great means to it, and to our sanctification. Sacraments are instituted by Christ to give grace. Sacramentals such as the Rosary) are instituted by the Church to prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. In her multitudinous apparitions around the world, the Blessed Mother has implored us to pray the daily Rosary. We’d be foolish to ignore it…and the Heavenly promises attached to it.