Saint Michael Center - Catholic Teachings

THE ROSARY

MY ROSARY BEADS

A little pair of Rosary Beads,
As plain as plain can be,
But only God in Heaven knows
How dear they are to me.

I have them always with me
At every step I take,
At evening when I slumber
At morn when I awake.

In bright and cloudy weather,
In sunshine or in rain,
In happiness or sorrow,
In pleasure or in pain.

It helps me in my struggle,
It reproves me when in sin,
Its look of gently patience
Rebukes the strife within.

In days of pain and anguish,
The greatest help I knew
Was to hold my Rosary Beads
Until I calmer grew.

So when the time approaches
When I will have to die,

That the holy name of Jesus
May be the last I say,
And kissing my sweet Rosary Beads,
My soul may pass away.

-author unknown

POPE PAUL VI AND THE ROSARY

If evil increases, the devotion of the People of God should also increase. And so, we want to take the lead in urging people to pray ardently to our most merciful Mother Mary by praying the Rosary. This prayer is well suited to the People of God, most pleasing to the Mother of God, and most efficacious in gaining heaven’s blessings. The Second Vatican Council recommended use of the Rosary to all the faithful not in express words but in unmistakable fashion in this phrase: “Let them value highly the pious practices and exercises directed to the Blessed Virgin and approved over the centuries by the magisterium.”

As the history of the Church makes clear, this very fruitful way of praying is not only efficacious in warding off evils and preventing calamities, but is also of great help in fostering the Christian life. It nourishes the Catholic faith which readily takes on new life from a timely commentary on the sacred mysteries, and it turns minds toward the truth that have been taught us by God.

-Encyclical “Christi Matri”

WHY PRAY TO MARY

Why do we pray to Mary, asking her to pray for us and with us to God? Is it just because we love her, we believe that God hears her prayers, and we have experienced receiving help through her? Personally, I pray to Mary for all these reasons. But I have noticed recently that, more often, I ask Mary to pray for me and with me at times when previously I would have gone to God all by myself. I began to wonder why.

I believe it is because I have been thinking a lot recently about the Church’s teaching on the Incarnation. The wording of that doctrine, as it was defined in the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople in 325 and 381 A.D., has moved me to seek the intercession of Mary more consciously than I did before.

At that time in the Church’s history, some wanted to say that Jesus was made flesh in Mary but not of Mary. They didn’t feel God would have “degraded” Himself by taking flesh from a member of the human race. Their theory was that the body of Jesus was prefabricated in heaven and placed in Mary’s womb.

In answer, the Church defined as dogma that Jesus took flesh of Mary rather than in Mary. God became human in our flesh, real human flesh, taken, from one of us. He was conceived, not just in Mary but of Mary.

Centuries later, it became a theme of the Protestant Reformation that human nature has no part to play in salvation. Martin Luther taught that we are saved “by the grace of God alone and the sole working of the Holy Spirit, without any human action” at all. This explains the Protestant difficulty with many Catholic things. To say that grace can be given through human actions in the sacraments, for example, is to give human beings a role in redemption, which is contrary to protestant belief.

Protestants also have trouble with the honor we Catholics give to the Saints, because they believe that the holiness of the Saints was all God’s work. Thus, they feel that to give the Saints any credit at all is to rob God of glory. If Luther was right, then to give corrupt human nature any role in God’s work is to take away from God the glory of being the only one in the universe who is good or can do anything good.

But Catholics believe that the victory of Jesus consists in actually making us good – and able to share, through the power of His grace, in His divine work.

Catholic veneration of Mary is rooted in the fact that she became the Mother of God by freely consenting to give flesh to God. We believe that God is glorified by the fact that Jesus won! Through His death, the human race has actually been healed of sin and purified.

Through Jesus, the Father used the human nature He created to restore completely the human nature that had fallen. And God’s choice to take flesh “from” Mary, with her free consent, was the beginning of it all.

Every time I ask Mary to pray for me, I am joining God in His choice to let the human race have a part in redeeming the world. When I go to God, not directly, but through Mary, I am echoing God’s choice to come into the world, not directly, but through a human being.

When I ask Mary to pray with me, it also reminds me that I have a part to play. Because God respects human beings, He wants us to have a part in healing the human race. As He used Mary, He also wants to use me. When I pray, “Lord, have mercy,” I hear an echo, “Be My mercy made flesh!”

-Fr. David M. Knight is pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Memphis, TN. He is the author of 29 books, including the parish spiritual growth program Respond.

(from The Association of Marian Helpers Bulletin)

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St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do you, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

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