Rosary Reflection – Contemplating the Face of Christ While Praying For Peace
God willing, every Saturday in the month of May, I will share some short reflection on the Rosary.
I begin with this insightful and prophetic excerpt from St. John Paul II’s 2002 Apostolic Letter on The Rosary of the Virgin Mary:
“The Rosary is a way of contemplating the face of Christ seeing him – we may say – with the eyes of Mary. For this reason, it is a prayer that drawing upon the core of the Gospel is in full accord with the inspiration of the Second Vatican Council and very much in keeping with the direction I gave in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte: the Church has to launch out "into the deep" in the new millennium beginning with the contemplation of the face of Christ…
I wish once again to entrust the great cause of peace to the praying of the Rosary. We are facing an international situation that is full of tensions, at times threatening to explode. In some parts of the world, where the confrontation is harsher – I think particularly of the suffering land of Christ – we can realize that, even though they are necessary, political efforts are worth little if one remains exacerbated in his mind and no one cares to demonstrate a new disposition of heart in the hope of reviving the struggle and effort of dialogue.
Who but God alone can infuse such sentiments? It is more necessary than ever that from every part of the earth prayer for peace be made to Him. In this perspective, the Rosary turns out to be the form of prayer most needed. It builds peace because, while it appeals to the grace of God, it sows in the one praying it the seed of good from which we can expect the fruit of justice and solidarity for personal and community life.”
Now is the time to heed these words which are but a repetition of the plea made by our Blessed Mother to the children at Fatima nearly 100 years ago.
An African bishop recently, while praying before the Blessed Sacrament, had a vision of Christ who held out a rosary and told him that Boko Haram would be defeated by the rosary.
ReplyDeleteThe rosary is a lifeline for me...it pulls me into safety, a secure place of assurance under the manthe of my Sweet Mother and not just me but the whole world!
ReplyDeleteThe Eucharist and the Rosary are the two unbeatable weapons we have been given but so few employ them. Thanks Anne and Barb for commenting.
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