What is the Rosary? And why should we pray it?
What is the Rosary?
Mental Prayer:
Meditation of the chief mysteries of the life, death, and glory of Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother.
Vocal Prayer:
consists in saying fifteen decades of the Hail Mary, each decade headed by an Our Father, while at the same time meditating on and contemplating the fifteen principal virtues which Jesus and Mary practiced in the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.
Why Pray the Rosary?
In December 2014 in the country of Nigeria, an organization known as Boko Haram had been terrorizing the country. They did horrible things to people, including putting people in cages, burning people alive, kidnapping little girls and children and doing disgusting and evil things to them. Now, there was a bishop living in an area of Nigeria that had really been terrorized by Boko Haram. His name is Bishop Oliver Doeme. One day he was praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament when he received a vision of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this vision, Jesus is carrying a SWORD – a Sword of Steal. Jesus holds out the sword for the Bishop to take it, and as soon as the bishop touched the sword, it was mystically transformed into a Rosary! Then Jesus spoke to His bishop telling him that Boko Haram is gone. After this vision, the bishop immediately consulted other priests and started Rosary crusades throughout Nigeria. In about 2 years, Boko haram was vanquished from the areas where rosary crusades had been done. However, Boko Haram remained in areas where there had been no rosary crusades. So, we can conclude that the single greatest weapon we have in our fight against evil in this world is the ROSARY!
The rosary touches our hearts & inspires virtue.
A Danish priest on his sermons: "I had," he said, "preached as compellingly as I could, touching on many aspects of our holy Faith, and using every argument I could possibly think of to get people to amend their way of life, but in vain. Finally, I decided to preach the holy Rosary. I told my congregations how precious it was and taught them how to say it, and I affirm that having taught them to appreciate this devotion, I saw a manifest change within six months. How true it is that this God-given prayer has a divine power to touch our hearts and inspire them with a horror of sin and a love of virtue!" – from the Secret of the Rosary by St. Louis De Montfort
The consistent and daily recitation of the Rosary will break you away from any evil habit that is holding you back from a virtuous and saintly life of holiness. When you pray the rosary from your heart, and do so every single day, you are asking Our Lady to take your hand and help you break away from sinful habits. You are showing her that you are serious about your faith and that you desire change. And guess what? With the help of Our Lady, you will break away from sin; from slavery. And you will experience the greatest freedom in your entire life. As a person who had been attached to evil habits and desires, I say with 100% confidence that the Rosary successfully broke me away from sin and will do the same for you.
Don’t take my word for it. I included only 2 stories on the power of the Rosary. There is so much more. Do yourself a favor and buy a copy of the Secret of the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort and you will not be disappointed!
What are the origins of the Rosary?
In the year 1214, Saint Dominic had been preaching to the Albigensians to no avail. The gravity of the people’s sins was hindering their conversion, and so St. Dominic withdrew into the wilderness to pray and do penance on behalf of the people. While there, he received a vision from the Blessed Virgin Mary where she said that “in this kind of warfare, the principal weapon has been the Angelic Psalter, which is the foundation-stone of the New Testament. Therefore, if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter [Rosary]."
The Psalter [Rosary] is a weapon given to us by Heaven to fight off heresy, to fight off evil in yourself and in others.