Apart from the Holy Mass itself, the rosary is without a doubt the most iconic form of Catholic prayer. In films, all a director has to do to show that characters are Catholic is place a rosary in their hands. In a roundabout way, I can attribute my own conversion to the rosary.
I was raised without any particular religious upbringing, but as a teenager I developed an interest in history, especially in material culture – things such as historical clothing, tools and instruments. So when I began to date a Catholic girl in college, I became curious about the history of her religion and the material culture associated with it, especially the iconic rosary.
So I did what one did to research a topic in the age before Google. I bought a book. The particular book I stumbled upon was “Rosary: Mysteries, Meditations and the Telling of the Beads” by Kevin Orlin Johnson. I thought it was going to be a history of a religious object, but I quickly learned that the rosary is much more than a string of beads. It is a prayer.
This book started at the very beginning of that prayer, with the sign of the cross. The first chapter, dedicated to this simple gesture invoking the name of the Triune God, ended up being my first introduction to Trinitarian theology. The next chapter was on the Apostles Creed, which is recited at the beginning of the rosary. The creed is a capsule statement of the entire Christian faith, like a catechism in a paragraph. That chapter was my first education in the fundamentals of the Christian faith. The next prayer of the rosary is the Our Father, and so there followed a chapter on that. This prayer that Jesus gave us is like a catechism on how to pray, which was all new to me. There were subsequent chapters on the Hail Mary and the Glory Be, and a whole chapter on the single word, “Amen.”
After all this information covering the basic building blocks of the Christian faith (about 200 pages in!), the author begins to explore the mysteries of the rosary. The events in the life of Christ that we are meant to focus on as we recite each decade are the real heart of this prayer. Like all Marian devotion, the rosary is really Christological. It is a mediation on the life of Christ through the eyes of the Blessed Mother.
The Joyful mysteries begin with the angel announcing to Mary that she would bear in her womb the Son of God. Then follows the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, our Mother already carrying out her mission to bring Christ to others. We meditate upon the birth of Jesus at the Nativity when God’s presence in the world is announced to the shepherds by choirs of angels. Forty days later comes the Presentation of the Lord, when Christ enters the holy Temple in Jerusalem in fulfillment of the law, and Simeon proclaims that he has seen the salvation of the world. We finally find Jesus in the Temple at the tender age of 12, teaching the elders with authority.
This book was written before Pope John Paul II introduced the Luminous mysteries in his 2002 Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, so I didn’t read about Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, his first miracle at Cana, his proclamation of the kingdom of God, his transfiguration in glory, or the institution of the Holy Eucharist. But these mysteries, too, tell of the manifestation of the incarnate Son of God in the world, proclaiming the good news that God is with us.
Instead I next read about the Sorrowful mysteries of Jesus’ life: how He suffered His agony in the garden, was scourged at the pillar like a criminal, was mockingly crowned with thorns, and forced to carry His own cross to Calvary before suffering the worst kind of death the Roman empire could inflict upon Him.
Then come the Glorious mysteries that reveal to us what everything preceding them was pointing toward: Jesus’ rising victorious over death and His Ascension into heaven, where
He sits at the right hand of the Father. But he does not leave us orphans. The descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost animates the Church with the Spirit of God and empowers the Apostles to carry out Christ’s mission to make disciples of all nations. And what is the goal of that mission? For us to share in His glory. This is what the final two mysteries are all about. Mary’s Assumption into heaven and her coronation prefigure what Christ desires for each of us; to bring us to heaven with Him, body and soul, so that we may share in his reign. What we hope for, Mary, conceived without sin, already enjoys in its fullness.
Chapter after chapter of this book opened up to me the mysteries of salvation. My curiosity about a string of beads resulted in my first systematic education in the Christian religion.
This is what the rosary truly is. It’s the whole Christian faith given to us in a form you can carry in your pocket! This is why it is recommended by the saints and by Our Lady herself.
The holy rosary, when it is prayed mindfully, is nothing other than a meditation on the salvific actions of God’s Son in the world for us.
I wish I could say that after reading this book, I immediately developed a devotion to the rosary. I did not. After this initial introduction to the mysteries of the faith, I confess that I felt more intimidated than anything else. It all seemed like too much. But I was hooked. I was inspired to learn more, and, looking back, I can say that it was this introduction to the mysteries of the rosary that set the trajectory for the rest of my life.
The rosary is a private devotion and as such it is not required by the Church that we pray it. But knowing what it is, why would you not want to?
I encourage you during this Month of the Holy Rosary to pick it up – maybe for the first time in a long time, or maybe just with a renewed purpose – to meditate upon its sacred mysteries, engraving them on your heart, so that in your own life you might truly imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, which is nothing short of glory.
Deacon Matthew Newsome, Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and regional faith formation coordinator for the Smoky Mountain Vicariate, is the author of “The Devout Life: A Modern Guide to Practical Holiness with St. Francis de Sales,” available from Sophia Institute Press.