The feast of the Holy Rosary is a good time to reflect on this centuries old Christian prayer. Many people may have a rosary, but where did it come from, and what about praying the rosary? 

The icon pictured above was brought home from the Holy Land in the 6th century by a pilgrim who visited the holy places where Jesus was born, died and rose again. It was folded into a travel bag and placed in a honored place on returning home. The pilgrim was probably well-off to afford such a souvenir. Historians say there are many like this brought by pilgrims after the Holy Land was opened to Christians in the 4th century.

The icon pictures two great mysteries of Jesus. His birth and his death. Mary appears in both presentations. In the first, she holds on her lap the One who created her, yet he is her Son. In the second, she stands at his side as he goes to his Father and her Father. Mary knows the mysteries of his life, death and resurrection better than any other creature.

Pilgrims to the Holy Land saw Mary as their guide. She made them aware of the promises of Christ. The rosary, much simpler in form than the icon, is a way of remembering the promises of Jesus with Mary as our guide.

When we take a rosary in our hand we remember Mary, the mother of Jesus. “Hail Mary, full of grace,” we say, words the angel said when he came to her in Nazareth. She comes with her grace to us now.

Mary believed the words of the angel at Nazareth. She believed in the One who was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. She raised him as a child. She knew the great things he did. She was with him when he was put to death on a cross and rose from the dead. Mary kept all these things in her heart. Now she shares those mysteries with us. 

When we ask her to pray for us now, she does, by leading us of the mysteries of her Son, whom she knows so well. She knew them first through the joys and sorrows of  faith. “How can this be?” she said more than once.  She believed then, she helps us believe now.

Mary helps us to believe in the promises of Christ, her Son. From her place at his side, she calls us to come to that feast Cana foretold, a feast of unending joy, where death is no more.

“Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

When we pray the rosary It doesn’t matter if we know all the prayers or get them exactly right. The rosary is a flexible prayer. With Christmas, there are the joyful mysteries when the angel came, when Mary visited Elizabeth, when the Child was born and she raised at Nazareth..

During Lent and Fridays through the year she leads us into sorrowful mysteries that pierced her heart. At Easter and all the Sundays of year she shares the glory of the Risen Jesus and promises are meant to best ours.

Pope John Paul recommended we join the luminous mysteries to the traditional joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries. Jesus was baptized; he went to Cana in Galilee for a wedding feast. He was transfigured on the mountain and taught patiently in the towns of Galilee. He gave himself as bread broken for us to eat and wine to be drunk. 

Pope John Paul called the rosary a “school of Mary.” She is a good teacher who intercedes for us with her Son. 

Here’s St. Bernard speaking of her:

“The child to be born of you will be called holy, the Son of God, the fountain of wisdom, the Word of the Father on high. Through you, blessed Virgin, this Word will become flesh, so that even though, as he says: I am in the Father and the Father is in me, it is still true for him to say: ‘I came forth from God and am here.’

By nature incomprehensible and inaccessible, invisible and unthinkable, God wished to be understood, to be seen and thought of. 

But how, you ask, was this done? He lay in a manger and rested on a virgin’s breast, preached on a mountain, and spent the night in prayer. He hung on a cross, grew pale in death, and roamed free among the dead and ruled over those in hell. He rose again on the third day, and showed the apostles the wounds of the nails, the signs of victory. Finally in their presence he ascended to the sanctuary of heaven.

Wisely meditate on these truths; rightly recall the abundant sweetness, given by the fruits of this priestly root. And Mary, drawing abundantly from heaven, will cause this sweetness to overflow for us.”

The Feast of the Holy Rosary entered the Roman calendar in the 16th century when the Ottoman Turks were repelled at the borders of Europe. The victory was ascribed to divine intervention and trust in Mary’s prayers. In 1572, the year after the battle, Pius V established the Feast of “Our Lady of Victories” , later changed to “Our Lady of the Rosary”.

The Rosary helps us know Jesus and the power of his resurrection.