The Holy Family Rosary: Mary’s School of Prayer

                                     THE HOLY FAMILY ROSARY BROCHURE  [Printable PDF file]

INTRODUCTION

The purpose for this work is to encourage a sure and steady means to know, love and serve the Lord Our God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength in the image of Jesus Christ through Mary’s Immaculate Heart.

It is offered in direct response to the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae of Blessed Pope John Paul II (b.1920, Papacy:1978-d.2005) that was published on October 16, 2002 when His Holiness introduced the Luminous Mysteries, asking the clergy, religious and faithful lay Catholics to promote greater use of the Rosary as “Mary’s school of prayer.”

You will find that what is presented here advances the “New Evangelization” and “Year of Faith” in validation of the importance of our participation with the sacramental life within Christ’s Church. This proposed work accentuates a week of holy reflection when employed with the three original Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary in addition to the Luminous Mysteries introduced by Blessed Pope John Paul II.  They are designed to support our prayers beyond daily Mass and inspire us in the manner of the psalmist’s proclamation: “Every day will I bless thee: and I will praise thy name for ever; yea, for ever and ever”[1] for each day of every week.

From this intent the meditations help us to recognize that God ordained seven days as the perfect natural reflection of His spiritual order as Jesus, Son of Mary, compels us to study how the mysteries of faith, hope, and charity are dispensed to man from God the Father, through God the Son, in the unity of God the Holy Ghost as the Holy Trinity, Three in One.

With the introduction of the Luminous Mysteries it was easier to recognize how three sets of meditations based upon the Mother of God’s Mercy, Grace, and Faith could be combined with the original Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary as a direct response to his Apostolic Letter in which His Holiness said: “What is needed is a Christian life distinguished above all in the ‘art of prayer.’  Inasmuch as contemporary culture, even amid so many indications to the contrary, has witnessed the flowering of a new call for spirituality, due also to the influence of other religions, it is more urgent than ever that our Christian communities should become `genuine schools of prayer.’”

Because of the timeliness of the Luminous Mysteries, we readily discern how the Light of Christ acts as our contemporary bridge between the Old Testament and New Testament in the Person of Jesus Christ and gives us a renewed perspective through His teachings – much in the same way that we see the newly unfolding practical acceptance of the ordinary and extraordinary (assigned names of the old and new) forms of the Sacrifice of the Mass that His Holiness Benedict XVI desired to become accessible and not hidden from stable faithful Catholics who are attached to the traditional “Tridentine” Roman rite.  Christ Himself insisted on teaching that He came – not to abolish – but to fulfill the law.

LEX ORANDI, LEX CREDENDI

In the Apostolic Letter “Summorum Pontificum” issued Motu Propio, Pope Benedict XVI has stated: “Since time immemorial it has been necessary – as it is also for the future – to maintain the principle according to which each particular Church must concur with the universal Church, not only as regards the doctrine of the faith and the sacramental signs, but also as regards the usages universally accepted by uninterrupted apostolic tradition, which must be observed not only to avoid errors but also to transmit the integrity of the faith, because the Church’s law of prayer corresponds to her law of faith.”  With instructions that we are “church,” we are all personally held bound by this same reasoning of our faith.

He continued: “The Roman Missal promulgated by Paul VI is the ordinary expression of the ‘Lex orandi’ (Law of prayer) of the Catholic Church of the Latin rite.  Nonetheless, the Roman Missal promulgated by St. Pius V and reissued by Bl. John XXIII is to be considered as an extraordinary expression of that same ‘Lex orandi,’ and must be given due honor for its venerable and ancient usage.  These two expressions of the Church’s Lex orandi will in no way lead to a division in the Church’s ‘Lex credendi’ (Law of belief).  They are, in fact two usages of the one Roman rite.”

LEX VIVENDI

In response to the spiritual needs of the pilgrim members of our one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, these meditations are in support of Pope Benedict’s encyclical and are given to encourage living our personal responsibilities within this “law of prayer” and “law of belief.”  By making an accounting of ourselves and our faith to all men of all nations, the year dedicated to the Apostle St. Paul was concluded in renewed anticipation of the beginning of the Year of Priests in “Lex vivendi” for the restoration of personal holiness in our “law of living.”

Recently, according to an online post of the National News Agency (CNA/EWTN News) in Palermo, Italy, on October 3rd, 2010, it was reported: “At noon on Sunday, Pope Benedict prayed that all people might be strengthened in faith, hope and charity through the intercession of Mary.  He asked in particular, that she lead the faithful to ‘walk quickly and joyfully on the way of holiness.”’

The Catholic News Agency also included: “Remembering the concurrent celebration of the beatification of Anna Maria Adorni in Parma, Italy on Sunday, her devotion to saying the Rosary and the beginning of the Marian month of October, the Holy Father prayed that the ‘daily meditation of the mysteries of Christ in union with Mary, the “praying Virgin”, might fortify us all in faith, hope and charity.’”

And more recently in Assisi, Italy, on November 9, 2010 (Zenit.org), Pope Benedict XVI urged greater appreciation of the liturgy as a source of education about the “good life of the Gospel.  The rites speak through their intrinsic rationality,” the Pontiff noted, “and educate to a conscious, active and fruitful participation” and, as in earlier directives, he continued, “The correspondence of the prayer of the Church (lex orandi) with the rule of the faith (lex credendi) molds the thought and the feelings of the Christian community, giving shape to the Church, Body of Christ and Temple of the Spirit.”

“No human word can do without time, even when, as in the case of the liturgy, it constitutes a window that opens beyond time,” the Holy Father affirmed. “Hence, to give voice to a perennially valid reality calls for the wise balance of continuity and novelty, of tradition and actualization.”  And explained, “The whole Church is present in every liturgy: to adhere to its form is the condition of the authenticity of what is celebrated.”

“May this reason drive you,” he continued, “in the changing conditions of the time, to make ever more transparent and practicable that same faith that dates back to the age of the nascent Church.”  [For this reason alone, he is encouraging that what is new must co-exist in a living respect of the older traditions to maintain an harmonious accord within a world of progressively rapid change.]

“The genuine believer, in every age, experiences in the liturgy the presence, the primacy and the work of God,” the Pontiff said, and continues to speak of the Mass as, “…veritatis splendor, nuptial event, foretaste of the new and definitive city and participation in it; it is a link of creation and of redemption, open heaven above the earth of men, passage from the world to God; it is Easter, in the cross and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ; it is the soul of the Christian life, called to follow, to reconciliation that moves to fraternal charity.”

The Holy Father then affirmed that, “The holiness of the Eucharist exacts that this mystery be celebrated and adored conscious of its greatness, importance and efficacy for Christian life, but it also calls for purity, coherence and holiness of life from each one of us, to be living witnesses of the unique sacrifice of love of Christ.” [Hence tradition, scriptures, and the Magisterium must be co-equally valued in faithful participation with the image of God.]

What will be seen as “new” within the practice of these meditations is their expansion of the use of the holy rosary as a catechesis tool and within this same well-intentioned expression for both prayer and belief, they draw closer contemplation of God’s forgiveness and mercy by the charitable reconciliation offered through the faithful image of Christ in His Church – all viewed through Mary – and all neatly accomplished and summarized within a holy week in exposition and participatory explanation of the Sacramental Church.

This being said with the acknowledgment that there is no coincidence in God, we pray that one day His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will find these meditations worthy of his approval and confirm to the world that what we believe to be Mary’s perspective and example of faith, hope, and charity as reviewed here is truly in fact, a Glorious perspective of God through Mary’s Immaculate Heart – miraculously prepared for by her Immaculate Conception – to promote all of mankind in belief of Jesus Christ and to help quicken this ages’ tumultuous restoration to renew personal sanctity in true reconciliation from within self-controlled views to live in God’s world without end.  Amen, amen! Amen indeed![2]

[1] Ps. 144:2. (Douay-Rheims English Translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible.)
[2] Excerpt from The Holy Family Rosary; Copyright © 2002 by John of the fallen cross.

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