The in-depth exploration of the Holy Rosary by H.E. Monsignor Raffaello Martinelli, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Frascati, continues and concludes.
You can read the first and second parts of the text on our blog.

What is the relationship between the Rosary and everyday life?

“Our heart,” SAINT JOHN PAUL II stated during his first year of pontificate, “can contain in these decades of the Rosary all the events that make up the life of the individual, the family, the nation, the Church, and humanity.” And it is precisely the Rosary’s “anthropological dimension” that the Pope focuses on, defining it as the “secret for opening ourselves more easily to a profound and engaging knowledge of Christ through Mary,” but also as a way of asking Christ for help with “the many problems, worries, difficulties, and plans that mark our lives.” The Rosary is also a response to that “renewed need for meditation” characteristic of our time.

The Rosary is:
• “a precious spiritual means for growing in intimacy with Jesus and for learning, at the school of the Holy Virgin, always to do the divine will;
•  a school of contemplation and silence;
• simple and accessible to everyone;
• entirely woven from elements drawn from Scripture” (BENEDICT XVI, Address, Pompeii, 19-10-2008).

In what sense is the Rosary a prayer for peace and for the family?

Peace and family: for Pope SAINT JOHN PAUL II, these are two particular areas in which the prayer of the Rosary proves capable of “inspiring hope for a less dark future.”
“The Rosary is, by its nature, a prayer oriented toward peace,” writes SAINT JOHN PAUL II in the aforementioned 2002 apostolic letter, “also because of the fruits of charity it produces,” including the “desire to welcome, defend, and promote life, taking responsibility for the suffering of children in every part of the world”; to “bear witness to the Beatitudes in everyday life”; to “become ‘Simons of Cyrene’ for every brother crushed by pain or overwhelmed by despair.” In a word, to become “builders of peace in the world” and to “hope that, even today, a ‘battle’ as difficult as that for peace can be won.”

Another critical area of our time, for which SAINT JOHN PAUL II called for an additional commitment, is the family. According to the Pope, promoting the Rosary in Christian families, within the framework of broader family ministry, can provide an excellent opportunity to:

• nourish family prayer, which remains so important today;
• entrust the children’s journey of growth to the prayer of the Rosary;
• help parents bridge the cultural gap between generations;
• rediscover the value of silence;
• encourage togetherness and communication in prayer among the various members of the family.

Is the Rosary a Marian prayer?

The Rosary is not primarily a prayer addressed to Mary, but a prayer with Mary. It is therefore not a Marian prayer, but an essentially Christ-centered prayer. The mysteries it proposes place the main figure at the center: Christ Jesus. “It is necessary to let ourselves be led by the hand of the Virgin Mary to contemplate the face of Christ: a joyful, radiant, sorrowful, and glorious face. Whoever, like Mary and together with her, faithfully treasures and meditates on the mysteries of Jesus, increasingly assimilates his feelings and conforms to him” (BENEDICT XVI, Address, Pompeii, 19-10-2008).

The Holy Rosary “is a prayer with a Christ-centered heart. In the simplicity of its elements, it concentrates within itself the depth of the entire Gospel message, of which it is almost a compendium… I myself - confessed SAINT JOHN PAUL II - have never missed an opportunity to urge the frequent recitation of the Rosary. From my early years, this prayer has had an important place in my spiritual life… The Rosary has accompanied me in moments of joy and in times of trial. To it I have entrusted many worries; in it I have always found comfort… The Rosary is my favorite prayer. A wonderful prayer! Wonderful in its simplicity and depth… It can be said that the Rosary:

• is, in a certain way, a prayer-commentary on the final chapter of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution Lumen Gentium, the chapter that concerns the wondrous presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and the Church…;
• does not oppose the Liturgy, but supports it, since it both introduces and echoes it well, enabling it to be lived with full interior participation and allowing its fruits to be gathered in daily life” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, nos. 1-2).

Is there also a missionary Rosary?

Yes, and it is very evocative: the white decade is for old Europe, so that it may be able to reclaim the evangelizing strength that generated so many Churches; the yellow decade is for Asia, which is bursting with life and youth; the green decade is for Africa, tested by suffering but open to proclaiming the Gospel; the red decade is for America, a breeding ground for new missionary forces; the blue decade is for the continent of Oceania and Australia, which awaits a more widespread dissemination of the Gospel.

NB: To explore the subject further, read the following papal documents:
–  SAINT PAUL VI, Apostolic Exhortation Marialis cultus (no. 46);
–  SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

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