Praying the Rosary

Pilgrims present a rosary to Our Lady outside the original monastery bulding, 1950

“Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” As faithful Catholics, we recognize these words as the Angelic Salutation, the words spoken to Mary in greeting by the Archangel Gabriel, sent by God to announce the Incarnation. When you add the words of St. Elizabeth, just a few verses later in the same chapter of the Gospel of Luke, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,” you get the familiar prayer, “the Hail Mary”. Before Christ taught us to pray to our Father, that same Father, through the Holy Spirit, taught us to how to pray to Christ’s mother, our own mother, Mary. Now, when you string 50 of those Hail Mary’s with 5 Our Father’s and 5 Glory Be’s, you get the Rosary, a secret that we can’t keep to ourselves behind these cloister walls.

“Before Christ taught us to pray to our Father, that same Father, through the Holy Spirit, taught us to how to pray to Christ’s mother...Mary.”

Pious tradition holds that Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic after three days (and nights!) of unceasing prayer in Prouille and revealed to him that she desired to lead many souls to her Son through his preaching of her Psalter, and thus the rosary became a truly Dominican instrument of preaching and the salvation of souls. It was in Prouille, also, where St. Dominic founded the first monastery of nuns, knowing that it was only by their unceasing prayer that the brethren’s preaching would prove fruitful. In keeping with this rich patrimony, the Dominican nuns at Our Lady of Grace wear the 15-decade Rosary on the left side as an essential element of the Dominican habit and pray the Rosary in common daily, and one can often find a nun or two with her Rosary in hand as she walks or works.

But what does a Dominican nun do while she says all those Hail Mary’s, and how can something so simple lead to the salvation of souls, including her own? To put it simply, the Dominican nun, and anyone who prays the Rosary devoutly, meditates on the mysteries of Christ’s life through the eyes of Our Lady while reciting the vocal prayers of the Rosary, and such meditation begins to transform her more and more into the image of the One on whom she meditates. We will consider a few of those mysteries here and invite you to meditate further on these and all of the mysteries of the Rosary.

Consider the third Joyful Mystery, the Nativity of Our Lord. Look at it through the eyes of Our Lady. Allow yourself to be immersed in the joy, the peace, and the awe which Mary must have felt as she held her newborn Son, the Savior and Redeemer of the entire world – as she held God – in her arms and gazed into His eyes for the first time. Adore the Lord as she must have adored Him that day. Love Him as she loved Him that day. Be humbled by the sight of God, a tiny baby, come to save the world. Next, consider the fourth Sorrowful Mystery, the Carrying of the Cross. Let us look at this mystery, too, through the eyes of Our Lady. Allow Christ’s life to flash before your eyes the way it must have flashed before the eyes of Our Lady on that day. The happy memories, the sad, and everything in between. Those shared moments of a mother and her divine Son. Consider the agony she experienced meeting her Son’s eyes as He carried the Cross on which He would be crucified for the sake of the world. Surrender yourself to the Lord with the same peace and resignation that Mary did, even in this most difficult moment. Finally, consider the fifth Glorious Mystery, the Coronation of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven and Earth. Allow yourself to be flooded with immense joy as all of heaven rejoices at Mary’s crowning. She is united with her Son, the Prince of Peace, and with all three Persons of the Trinity, and she is crowned as Queen. Look at Jesus, the way she must have looked at Him that day. As you see Him looking back at you, allow yourself to be loved by Him, the King of the Universe.

These are just a few examples of what may be going through a Dominican nun’s mind and heart as she prays the Rosary. She carries these memories with her throughout the day, allowing them to penetrate deeper and deeper into her soul until eventually they become a part of her. Our Lady’s memories in some way become her own, and as she becomes more and more like Mary, she also becomes more and more like Mary’s Son. In this way, the Rosary becomes a means of both her own sanctification and that of others, those for whom she offers the prayers, those who are influenced by her witness, and those for whom Our Lady wishes to bestow her Son’s graces on as a fruit of those prayers. That is the secret of the Rosary which we wish to reveal to you.

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