L S F (Laudetur Sacra Familia)
October 2002
Dearly Beloved Brothers and Sisters,
Our beloved Holy Father John Paul II published an apostolic letter called Rosarium Virginis Mariae on Wednesday 16 October 2002, the beginning of the twenty fifth year of his Pontificate. It is on 16 October 1978 that Pope John Paul II was elected to be the 264 successor of Peter to govern and guide the mystical Body of Christ, the Church and to lead her to the bosom of the Father where Christ is seated at His right hand. The Holy Father also has proclaimed the year from October 2002 to October 2003 the year of the Rosary, for he writes: "… I invited the people of God to start afresh from Christ, I have felt drawn to offer a reflection on the Rosary, as a kind of Marian complement to he apostolic Letter "Novo Millenio Ineunte" and an exhortation to contemplate the face of Christ in union with and at the school of His most Holy Mother. To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ. As a way of highlighting this invitation, promoted by the forthcoming 120th anniversary of the Encyclical of Leo XIII, I desire that during the course of this year the Rosary should be especially emphasized and promoted in the various Christian communities. I therefore proclaim the year from October 2002 to October 2003 the year of the Rosary" (R.V.M. 3, 1).
This Apostolic Letter "Rosarium Virginis Mariae" is our Holy Father’s jubilee gift to the Church, which coincides with the 120th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's Encyclical "Supremi Apostolatus Officio" (1 September 1883) on devotion to the Holy Rosary, its place, significance and importance in the life of the Christian faithful.
Pope John Paul II goes further and deeper in his reflections on the Rosary and joins it with the most basic document of the II Vatican Council "Lumen Gentium", Chapter VIII: "The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in Mystery of Christ and the Church" (No. 52-69). The Holy Father writes: "It can be said that the Rosary is, in some sense, a proper commentary on the final Chapter of the Vatican II Constitution Lumen Gentium, a chapter which discusses the wondrous presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and the Church" (R.V.M. 2).
The Holy Father shares with us like a real loving father, his own personal devotion and love for Our Lady; and how he kept it growing over the years producing fruit in abundance for himself, for the good of the Church and for world peace. For he says: "From my youthful years this prayer held an important place in my spiritual life. I was powerfully reminded of this during my recent visit to Poland and in particular at the Shrine of Kalwaria.
The Rosary has accompanied me in moments of joy and in moments of difficulty. To it I have entrusted any number of concerns; in it I have always found comfort. Twenty-four years ago, on 29 October 1978, scarcely two weeks after my election to the See of Peter, I frankly admitted: The Rosary is my favorite prayer. A marvelous prayer! Marvelous in its simplicity and its depth" (R.V.M. 2).
The Holy Father goes on to say that our heart can embrace and include all the events of our daily life in serenity and peace, if we faithfully pray the Rosary: "At the same time our heart can embrace in the decades of the Rosary all the events that make up the lives of the individuals, families, nations, the Church and all mankind. Our personal concerns and those of our neighbor, especially those who are closest to us, who are dearest to us. Thus the simple prayer of the Rosary marks the rhythm of human life" (R.V.M. 2)
.The Holy Father John Paul II not only exhorts the Christian faithful to pray the Rosary with love and devotion but also invites all to enter more deeply into the mysteries of the whole life of Jesus through contemplation, reflection and meditation. He says that "The Rosary, precisely because it starts with Mary’s own experience, is an exquisitely contemplative prayer. Without this contemplative dimension, it would lose its meaning, as Pope Paul VI clearly pointed out in his apostolic Exhortation "Marialis Cultus" (2 Feb. 1974) that ‘Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without a soul…’" (R.V.M. 12). To pray the Rosary without this contemplative dimension will become simply "a mechanical repetition of formulas", which may be reduced to a collection of empty phrases and may not have any real effect on our daily life. In the church we may be saying: "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit" and when we come out our life may continue to be "as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen".
Our Lady also told our Beloved Mother Teresa back in 1947: "Fear not. Teach the people to pray the Rosary, the family Rosary - all will be well. Fear not". Frequent praying and not simply saying or reciting the Rosary will lead us to be contemplatives like Jesus and Mary. They both were real contemplatives. Only a contemplative can go through severe trials, temptations and hardships and even martyrdoms without being sunk and drowned. Only a contemplative will have the courage and the humility to transform the world and see everything in it as the arena of God. Only a contemplative can live in this world and possess things without being possessed by them. This world is to be seen and taken as a preparation for and not as a permanent abode for us. God has not created this world as our last destiny nor has he created us to be stuck and lost here. Contemplation strengthens both our wings: The wing of the commandment of the love of God, i.e. to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and the equally important wing of "loving our neighbor as we love ourselves". Both these wings must balance if we have to fly to God. Without contemplative prayer no one can do active charity for a long time for the glory of God. Our fourth vow of wholehearted free service is the fruit of our wholehearted free love for God. Like the eternal Father loves so much and so totally His Son and the Son in turn loves his Father in the same intensity and depth that the fruit of their subsisting love is the Holy Spirit. In other words the Holy Spirit is the fruit of their love. In the same way our wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor is the subsisting love of Jesus for us and our love for Him. From this spousal love, souls are being born. This spousal love is eternal; and that is why saints continue to do good on earth even after their death. Our Lady’s relationship to Jesus and Jesus’ relationship to Mary was not only physical but also spiritual and mystical
(cf. M.C. Brothers Contemplative, Constitutions R. 16, 4).This spousal union and communion of the soul with Jesus becomes a powerful source to beget souls for heaven. The saints never stop doing good on earth. How can they? They have become inseparably one with their spouse for all eternity. "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!…how inscrutable His ways!…For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?" (cf. Rm 11, 33-36)
."Of the many mysteries of Christ’s life, only a few are indicated by the Rosary…"
writes the Holy Father, "I believe however that to bring out fully the Christological depth of the Rosary it would be suitable to make an addition to the traditional pattern…, to include the mysteries of Christ’s public ministry between the Baptism and His Passion. In the course of those mysteries we contemplate important aspects of the person of Christ as the definitive revelation of God" (R.V.M. 19).For this reason immediately after the five joyful mysteries the Holy Father has added another five more mysteries from the public life of Jesus. They are known as the Mysteries of Light or Luminous Mysteries. They are:
"Each of these mysteries is a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus. The Baptism in the Jordan is first of all a mystery of light. Here, as Christ descends into the waters, the innocent one who became "sin" for our sake (cf. 2 Cor 5, 21), the heavens open wide and the voice of the Father declares him the beloved Son (cf. Mt 3, 17 and parallels), while the Spirit descends on him to invest him with the mission which he is to carry out.
Another mystery of light is the first of the signs, given at Cana (cf. Jn 2, 1-12), when Christ changes water into wine and opens the hearts of the disciples to faith, thanks to the intervention of Mary, the first among believers.
Another mystery of light is the preaching by which Jesus proclaims the coming of the Kingdom of God, calls for conversion (cf. Mk 1, 15) and forgives the sins of all who draw near him in humble trust (cf. Mk 2, 3-13; Lk 7, 47-48): the inauguration of that ministry of mercy which he continues to exercise until the end of the world, particularly through the sacrament of reconciliation, which he has entrusted to his Church (cf. Jn 20, 22-23).
The mystery of light par excellence is the Transfiguration, traditionally believed to have taken place on Mount Tabor. The glory of the Godhead shines forth from the face of Christ as the Father commands the astonished Apostles to "listen to Him" (cf. Lk 9, 35 and parallels) and to prepare to experience with him the agony of the Passion, so as to come with him to the joy of the Resurrection and a life transfigured by the Holy Spirit.
A final mystery of light is the institution of the Eucharist, in which Christ offers his body and blood as food under the signs of bread and wine, and testifies "to the end" his love for humanity (cf. Jn 13, 1), for whose salvation he will offer himself in sacrifice
(R.V.M. 21).In these mysteries, apart from the miracle at Cana, the presence of Mary remains in the background. The Gospels make only the briefest reference to her occasional presence at one moment or other during the preaching of Jesus (cf. Mk 3, 31-5; Jn 2, 12), and they give no indication that she was present at the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. Yet the role she assumed at Cana in some way accompanies Christ throughout his ministry. The revelation made directly by the Father at the Baptism in the Jordan and echoed by John the Baptist is placed upon Mary’s lips at Cana, and it becomes the great maternal counsel which Mary addresses to the Church of every age: ‘Do whatever he tells you’ (Jn 2, 5). This counsel is a fitting introduction to the words and signs of Christ’s public ministry and it forms the Marian foundation of all the ‘mysteries of light’" (R.V.M. 21).
The main purpose of this letter, which has become already too long, is to inform you of the importance of this document on the Rosary as the Holy Father expresses it. He invites us to pray the Rosary with contemplation, a contemplation that can transform our lives into Jesus’ and Mary’s lives. I would like all of you to take the trouble to read meditatively the whole document "Rosarium Virginis Mariae" - "The Most Holy Rosary" (R.V.M.) consisting of:
Chapter I – Contemplating Christ with Mary
Chapter II - Mysteries of Christ. Mysteries of His Mother
Chapter III – "For me, to live is Christ"
Conclusion
From the above index we see how important and significant this document is and to read it slowly and meditatively the whole document. Let us take time to read it attentively and then translate it into life. "The duc in altum" of the Church of the third millennium will be determined by the ability of Christians to enter into the "perfect knowledge of God’s mystery of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"…. By making our own the words of the Angel Gabriel and St. Elizabeth contained in the Hail Mary, we find ourselves constantly drawn to seek out afresh in Mary, in her arms and in her heart, the "blessed fruit of her womb" (cf. Lk 1, 42). The Holy Father hopes that his appeal to Our Lady goes not in vain but produces much fruit. He concludes his letter with a prayer to our Lady of the Rosary:
"O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God, bond of love which unites us to the Angels…May you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in heaven " (R.V.M. 43).
Love and prayers. God bless you.
Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala M.C.