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The
Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles,
which is said on the crucifix of the rosary, is a holy summary of all
the Christian truths. It is a prayer that has great merit, because
faith is the root, foundation and beginning of all Christian virtues,
of all eternal virtues, and of all prayers that are pleasing to God.
"Anyone who comes to God must believe," and the greater his
faith the more merit his prayer will have, the more powerful it will
be, and the more it will glorify God.
The holy Rosary contains many mysteries of Jesus and Mary, and since
faith is the only key which opens up these mysteries for us, we must
begin the Rosary by saying the Creed very devoutly, and the stronger
our faith the more merit our Rosary will have.
This faith must be lively and informed by charity; in other words, to
recite the Rosary properly it is necessary to be in God's grace, or at
least seeking it. This faith must be strong and constant, that is, one
must not be looking for sensible devotion and spiritual consolation in
the recitation of the Rosary; nor should one give it up because the
mind is flooded with countless involuntary distractions, or because
one experiences a strange distaste in the soul or an almost continual
and oppressive fatigue of the body. Neither feelings, nor consolation,
nor sighs, nor transports, nor the continual attention of the
imagination are needed; faith and good intentions are quite enough.
Sola fides sufficit.
The
Our Father
contains all the duties we
owe to God, the acts of all the virtues and the petitions for all our
spiritual and corporal needs. We should say the Our Father with the
certitude that the eternal Father will hear us because it is the
prayer of his Son, whom he always hears, and because we are his
members. God will surely grant our petitions made through the Lord's
Prayer because it is impossible to imagine that such a good Father
could refuse a request couched in the language of so worthy a Son,
reinforced by his merits, and made at his behest.
St. Augustine assures us that whenever we say the Our Father devoutly
our venial sins are forgiven. The just man falls seven times, and in
the Lord's Prayer he will find seven petitions which will both help
him to avoid lapses and protect him from his spiritual enemies. Our
Lord, knowing how weak and helpless we are, and how many difficulties
we endure, made his prayer short and easy to say, so that if we say it
devoutly and often, we can be sure that God will quickly come to our
aid.
The
Angelic Salutation, or Hail Mary,
is so heavenly and so beyond us in its depth of meaning, that Blessed
Alan de la Roche held that no mere creature could ever understand it,
and that only our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, can
really explain it.
By the Angelic Salutation God became man, a virgin became the Mother
of God, the souls of the just were delivered from Limbo, the empty
thrones in heaven have been filled, sin has been pardoned, grace been
given to us, the sick been made well, the dead brought back to life,
exiles brought home, the Blessed Trinity has been appeased, and men
obtained eternal life. Finally, the Angelic Salutation is the rainbow
in the sky, a sign of the mercy and grace which God has given to the
world (Blessed Alan).
Although this new hymn is in praise of the Mother of God and is sung
directly to her, it is nevertheless most glorious to the Blessed
Trinity, for any honour we pay to our Lady returns inevitably to God,
the source of all her perfections and virtues. God the Father is
glorified when we honour the most perfect of his creatures; God the
Son is glorified when we praise his most pure Mother; the Holy Spirit
is glorified when we are lost in admiration at the graces with which
he has filled his spouse. When we praise and bless our Lady by saying
the Angelic Salutation, she always refers these praises to God in the
same way as she did when she was praised by St. Elizabeth. The latter
blessed her in her high dignity as Mother of God and our Lady
immediately returned these praises to God in her beautiful Magnificat.
Just
as the Angelic Salutation gave glory to the Blessed Trinity, it is
also the very highest praise that we can give to Mary.
One day, when St. Mechtilde was praying and was trying to think of
some way in which she could express her love of the Blessed Virgin
better than before, she fell into ecstasy. Our Lady appeared to her
with the Angelic Salutation written in letters of gold upon her breast
and said to her, "My daughter, I want you to know that no one
can please me more than by saying the greeting which the most adorable
Trinity presented to me and by which I was raised to the dignity of
the Mother of God. "By the word Ave, which is the name of
Eve, Eva, I learned that God in his infinite power had preserved me
from all sin and its attendant misery which the first woman had been
subject to. "The name Mary, which means 'lady of light,'
shows that God has filled me with wisdom and light, like a shining
star, to light up heaven and earth. "The words, full of grace,
remind me that the Holy Spirit has showered so many graces upon me
that I am able to give these graces in abundance to those who ask for
them through my mediation. "When people say, The Lord is with
thee, they renew the indescribable joy that was mine when the
eternal Word became incarnate in my womb. "When you say to me,
Blessed art thou among women, I praise the mercy of God who has
raised me to this exalted degree of happiness. "And at the words,
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, the whole of heaven
rejoices with me to see my Son Jesus adored and glorified for having
saved mankind."
Brief
explanation of the Hail Mary
Are you in the miserable state of sin? Then call on Mary and say to
her, "Ave," which means "I greet thee with the
most profound respect, thou who art without sin," and she will
deliver you from the evil of your sins.
Are you in sorrow? Turn to Mary, for her name means also "Sea of
Bitterness which has been filled with bitterness in this world but
which is now turned into a sea of purest joy in heaven," and she
will turn your sorrow into joy and your affliction into consolation.
Have you lost the state of grace? Praise and honour the numberless
graces with which God has filled the Blessed Virgin and say to her, Thou
art full of grace and filled with all the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, and she will give you some of these graces.
Are you alone, having lost God's protection? Pray to Mary and say,
The Lord is with thee, in a nobler and more intimate way than he
is with the saints and the just, because thou art one with him. He is
thy Son and his flesh is thy flesh; thou art united to the Lord
because of thy perfect likeness to him and by your mutual love, for
thou art his Mother. And then say to her, "The three persons of
the Godhead are with thee because thou art the Temple of the Blessed
Trinity," and she will place you once more under the protection
and care of God.
Have you become an outcast and been accursed by God? Then say to our
Lady, "Blessed art thou above all women and above all
nations by thy purity and fertility; thou hast turned God's
maledictions into blessings for us." She will bless you.
Do you hunger for the bread of grace and the bread of life? Draw near
to her who bore the living Bread which came down from heaven, and say
to her, "Blessed be the fruit of thy womb, whom thou hast
conceived without the slightest loss to thy virginity, whom thou didst
carry without discomfort and brought forth without pain. Blessed be
Jesus who redeemed our suffering world when we were in the bondage of
sin, who has healed the world of its sickness, who has raised the dead
to life, brought home the banished, restored sinners to grace, and
saved men from damnation. Without doubt, your soul will be filled with
the bread of grace in this life and of eternal glory in the next.
Amen."
Conclude
your prayer with the Church and say, "Holy Mary,"
holy because of thy incomparable and eternal devotion to the service
of God, holy in thy great rank as Mother of God, who has endowed thee
with eminent holiness, in keeping with this great dignity.
"Mother of God, and our Mother, our Advocate and
Mediatrix, Treasurer and dispenser of God's graces, obtain for us the
prompt forgiveness of our sins and grant that we may be reconciled
with the divine majesty.
"Pray for us sinners, thou who art always filled with
compassion for those in need, who never despise sinners or turn them
away, for without them you would never have been Mother of the
Redeemer.
"Pray for us now, during this short life, so fraught with
sorrow and uncertainty; now, because we can be sure of nothing except
the present moment; now that we are surrounded and attacked night and
day by powerful and ruthless enemies.
"And at the hour of our death, so terrible and full of
danger, when our strength is waning and our spirits are sinking, and
our souls and bodies are worn out with fear and pain; at the hour of
our death when the devil is working with might and main to ensnare us
and cast us into perdition; at that hour when our lot will be decided
forever and ever, heaven or hell. Lead us to thy Son's judgment-seat
and remain at our side. Intercede for us and ask thy Son to pardon us
and receive us into the ranks of thy elect in the realms of
everlasting glory. Amen."
No
one could help admiring the excellence of the holy Rosary, made up as
it is of these two divine parts: the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic
Salutation. How could there be any prayers more pleasing to God and to
the Blessed Virgin, or any that are easier, more precious, or more
helpful than these two prayers? We should always have them in our
hearts and on our lips to honour the most Blessed Trinity, Jesus
Christ our Saviour and his most holy Mother.
In addition, at the end of each decade it is good to add the Gloria
Patri, that is: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen
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