The Year of the Rosary

Focus on Christ

Rosarium is marked by the same personal meditative quality that marked the first letter we looked at in this series on John Paul's letters: Novo Millennio Ineunte ('As the New Millennium Begins'). That letter, which marked the end of the Great Jubilee, contained an extended invitation to 'contemplate the face of Christ'. In Rosarium, which the Pope describes 'as a kind of Marian complement to [Novo Millennio Ineunte],' he says that 'to recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ.'

Proclaiming the 'year from October 2002 to October 2003 the 'Year of the Rosary',' the Holy Father speaks of an 'urgent need to counter a certain crisis of the Rosary, which in the present historical and theological context can risk being wrongly devalued, and therefore no longer taught to the younger generation.'

John Paul defends the Rosary as proper Christian prayer directed toward Christ Himself and, because of this focus on Christ, not an obstacle to ecumenical relations. In addition, he proposes that the Rosary be prayed especially for the cause of peace and the defence of the family.

The Rosary has been a 'genuine path to growth in holiness' for many saints, notes the Holy Father, specifically mentioning St. Louis de Montfort and Padre Pio. He quotes Blessed Bartolo Longo, a 'true apostle of the Rosary' who said: 'Whoever spreads the Rosary is saved!'

Blessed Bartolo Longo's devotion to the Rosary led him to build the shrine of the Our Lady of Rosary of Pompeii, near Naples, Italy. The image of Our Lady of Pompeii was specially brought to St. Peter's Square from the shrine for the signing of Rosarium, which the Holy Father did at the general audience of 16 October.

'The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth,' writes John Paul. 'This enables her to train us and to mould us with the same care, until Christ is 'fully formed' in us (cf. Galatians 4:19). This role of Mary, totally grounded in that of Christ and radically subordinated to it, in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. This is the luminous principle expressed by the Second Vatican Council which I have so powerfully experienced in my own life and made the basis of my Episcopal motto: Totus Tuus.'

Rosarium is written from the heart of a disciple, priest and pope who has long contemplated the face of Christ through the eyes of His Mother. John Paul, who often prays several Rosaries a day, notes that 'in the course of those mysteries we contemplate important aspects of the person of Christ as the definitive revelation of God.'

Luminous mysteries

In the boldest aspect of Rosarium, the Holy Father proposes five new mysteries for the Rosary: the mysteries of light, or the 'luminous mysteries'. The new mysteries 'bring out fully the Christological depth of the Rosary' according to John Paul, applying the 'luminous principle' of Vatican II that situates Mary within the mystery of Christ.

The five luminous mysteries of Christ's life are: '(1) his baptism in the Jordan, (2) his self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana, (3) his proclamation of the Kingdom of God, with his call to conversion, (4) his Transfiguration, and finally, (5) his institution of the Eucharist, as the sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery.'

These mysteries broaden the Rosary to 'include the mysteries of Christ's public ministry between his baptism and his passion.'

The tradition fifteen mysteries of the Rosary focus on the infancy and childhood of Christ (the joyful mysteries), the passion and death (sorrowful mysteries) and the definitive triumph of the resurrection (glorious). The public life of Christ is absent - a gap that the Holy Father hopes to correct with the new luminous mysteries.

'It is during the years of his public ministry that the mystery of Christ is most evidently a mystery of light: 'While I am in the world, I am the light of the world' (John 9:5),' writes John Paul. 'Certainly the whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of light. Yet this truth emerges in a special way during the years of his public life, when he proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom.'

'In these mysteries, apart from the miracle at Cana, the presence of Mary remains in the background,' writes the Holy Father of his new mysteries. 'The Gospels make only the briefest reference to her occasional presence at one moment or other during the preaching of Jesus, 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.' (John 2:5).'

The rhythm of human life

In the rest of the Rosarium letter, John Paul reflects on how the contemplative prayer of the Rosary leads one to a deeper knowledge of the mystery of Christ, which reveals the mystery of man - with all his Òproblems, anxieties, labours and endeavours - in the mystery of God: 'To pray the Rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and his Mother. Twenty-five years later, thinking back over the difficulties which have also been part of my Petrine ministry, I feel the need to say once more, as a warm invitation to everyone to experience it personally: the Rosary does indeed 'mark the rhythm of human life', bringing it into harmony with the 'rhythm' of God's own life, in the joyful communion of the Holy Trinity, our life's destiny and deepest longing.'

As to the practicalities of the new mysteries, John Paul proposes that the luminous mysteries be prayed on Thursday. The joyful mysteries, traditionally prayed on Monday and Thursday, would now shift to Monday and Saturday - 'Saturday has always had a special Marian flavour [suitable for the joyful mysteries in which] Mary's presence is especially pronounced.' The sorrowful mysteries would remain on Tuesday and Friday, and the glorious mysteries would be prayed Wednesday and Sunday.

John Paul II is not enforcing or legislating these changes, but only proposing them, for Rosarium does 'not intend to limit a rightful freedom in personal and community prayer - what is really important is that the Rosary should always be seen and experienced as a path of contemplation.'

This Marian letter from this Marian pope concludes with him turning to another of his favourite themes: young people.

'To pray the Rosary for children, and even more, with children is admittedly not the solution to every problem, but it is a spiritual aid which should not be underestimated,' he writes. 'Why not try it? With God's help, a pastoral approach to youth which is positive, impassioned and creative - as shown by the World Youth Days! -  is capable of achieving quite remarkable results. If the Rosary is well presented, I am sure that young people will once more surprise adults by the way they make this prayer their own and recite it with the enthusiasm typical of their age group.'

Why not try it? At the beginning of his twenty-fifth year, John Paul asks the world to rediscover what he calls his 'favourite prayer'.