The Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary

To Jesus, through Mary, for the greater glory of God.

After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Divine Office, the most effective prayer is the Most Holy Rosary. For 800 years it has been the cause of innumerable miracles, conversions, and victories. The rosary brings peace; not a false peace, illegitimately gotten through compromise, but a true peace, won honestly by directly opposing evil with good. The rosary, when prayed with humility and a simple confidence in the good God Who lavishes his wonders on his children, saves nations from annihilation. It is a sure vehicle of salvation, to save us from that ultimate annihilation, the only one that really matters in the end–hell.

The enemies of Christ hate the rosary. These pawns of Lucifer have contempt for it. Their malice is a wonderful testimony to the irresistible power arrayed against them. Christians, though, love the rosary; not just for what it accomplishes–that it dispels the darkness of heresy, appeases the wrath of God, and drives away those that hate Christ. They love it simply because of who it leads them to. The 20th century saint, Padre Pio, said, “The rosary is the weapon.” Who is behind it? Who gives it its power? Indeed, “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?” That person is Mary.

It’s tremendous power comes from the exalted position of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God. Pope Leo XIII explains, “The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fulfills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine grace; being by worthiness and by merit most acceptable to Him, and therefore, surpassing in power all the angels and saints in heaven” (Iucunda Semper Expectatione). “The power thus put into her hands is all but unlimited…. Among her many other titles, we find her hailed as ‘our Lady, our Mediatrix,’ ‘the Reparatrix of the whole world,’ ‘the dispenser of all heavenly gifts’” (Adiutricem).

It was Our Lady herself who gave us the rosary eight centuries ago. She called it “her psalter,” indicating the 150 Hail Marys that followed the pattern of the 150 Psalms in the Church’s psalter. She gave it to St. Dominic for the express purpose of finally crushing the depraved Albigensians. “Guided, in fact, by divine inspiration and grace, he foresaw that this devotion, like a most powerful warlike weapon, would be the means of putting the enemy to flight, and of confounding their audacity and mad impiety” (Pope Leo XIII, Supremi Apostolatus Officio).

In our own age, at Fatima, Portugal, Mary–the “Lady of the Rosary,” as she identified herself–urged us to take up the rosary with renewed confidence. Our Queen and Mother told us to rely on the power of her rosary to save souls otherwise bound for hell, to dispel the diabolical confusion that afflicts her Son’s Holy Church, and to protect ourselves from the apostasy and perversion of our own anti-Catholic civilization, infected as it is with rank materialism, Marxism, and rebellion against Jesus Christ, True God and True Man. The rosary then is a prayer that carries special significance for our times. Sister Lucia Santos, the soul chosen by Mary at Fatima to carry Her message, said,

The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Holy Rosary. She has given this efficacy to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.

When we pray the Holy Rosary, we enter, mind, body, and soul into a rich storehouse of spiritual treasure. It is made up of 150 Hail Marys, a number which significantly corresponds to the 150 Psalms; 15 mysteries of the life of Jesus and Mary, divided organically into 3 cycles; the Our Father, which introduces each mystery; and the Doxology, which concludes them. These different parts make up such a harmonious, inter-related, indivisible, and integral whole that Pope Pius XII called the Rosary, the “compendium of the entire gospel.” It is simple enough for the most unlearned yet inexhaustible in mystical and theological depth. It can be recited at any time by anybody. Moreover, it is one of the richest sources of plenary and partial indulgences.

With so many benefits, the only sensible thing to do is to hear and follow the words of Pope Pius XI: “The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin…. If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the Rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors.” Follow that advice, and you have the assurance of St. Louis de Montfort: “If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins, you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory.”

The Albigenses believed… “in the existence of dual forces—good and evil—neither being necessarily triumphant,” but they believed in a great deal more, and they vigorously applied their beliefs to practical life…. They believed in the existence of dual forces, good and evil, but they conceived these forces as matter and spirit. In consequence matter and especially the human, body—the flesh as they called it—was intrinsically evil. Thus earthly life was evil, and above all, marriage, the perpetuation of life, was intrinsically evil.

The wild fanaticism wrought anarchy in the South of France. Some people unable to bear the total abstention of marriage held that it was permissible if the bride was a virgin and if the couple separated after the birth of the first child. Others again argued that since the material body was the creation of the Evil One and not of the good God, it did not matter what one did with the body, and thus gave way to all their passions. Others thinking flesh evil abstained from all animal food except fish and so on, and so on. The supreme act of heroism, suggested by the leaders of the sect was to starve oneself to death and so to have done with matter altogether.

The great Innocent III, one of the soundest, sanest, most enlightened men of his time, was about he last man in the world to countenance persecution. At first the greatest leniency was used; only when the Albigenses had assassinated the Papal legate were stricter measures used. Secular princes rather than ecclesiastical leaders favoured the forcible suppression of the movement, though at last they persuaded the Pope to call a crusade.

(Arendzen, J.P. “The Albigenses,” The Philosopher, Volume. III, 1925. Reprinted online here.)

The Liturgy, or official public worship of the Church, comprises the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacraments and Sacramentals, and the canonical hours, or official daily prayer of the Church. It is the latter which is contained in the Roman Breviary, par excellence, the prayer-book of the Church. There are prayers outside the Breviary, approved by the Church, enriched by her with indulgences, beloved as private devotions, but the Divine Office, contained in the Breviary, is the great official prayer recited daily by the Church as the mystical body of Christ, divine Head and human members together, to pay worship to God only second in importance to that supreme act of religious cult, the sacrifice of the Mass.

(Lalou, Rev. W. J. The Roman Breviary In English.)