St Dominic receives the Rosary
Catholics traditionally associate the month of May with the Blessed Virgin Mary. This association developed as a way of evangelizing pagan cultures. In the northern hemisphere, May is the last month of spring, a time of fruitfulness and new life. For this reason, many pagan cultures honored false gods of fertility at this time of year. The Greeks venerated Artemis, the goddess of fecundity, whilst the Romans venerated Flora, the goddess of floral blooms. By honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary in May, the Church helped these pagan cultures recognize that the life of sanctifying grace, by which our souls bear the fruit of charity, has come to us from Christ through Mary, not from any false gods.
The main Catholic devotion to Mary is the Rosary. Introduced by the Creed, Our Father, three Hail Mary’s and the Glory be, and concluded by the Hail Holy Queen, the Rosary involves the recitation of five decades consisting of the Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and the Glory be. During this prayer, we meditate on the events of the lives of Our Lord and Mary. For a long time, there were three sets of mysteries (Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious), meaning that the complete rosary involved 150 Hail Marys. Pope St John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries, which focus on the public ministry of Jesus.
The Rosary developed gradually over time. Its earliest predecessor was the 150 psalms (the Psalter). For much of the Church’s history, monks would pray these 150 psalms in Latin in an ordered way each week. The purpose of praying of the psalms in this way was to sanctify time. Since the main prayers of the Rosary are biblical (the Our Father and the first half of the Hail Mary is from the Gospel), the Rosary became a way for the lay faithful to use scripture to sanctify their day. The Rosary can be prayed in the fields and factories, at home and while travelling – anywhere and everywhere!
In its current form, the Rosary was given by Our Lady herself to Saint Dominic in 1214AD. At the time, the Albigensian heresy was becoming popular amongst the lay faithful. It was damaging their faith and moral life. The salvation of many souls was at stake. During a time of intense prayer about this situation, Saint Dominic received a vision of Our Lady. She asked him, “Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?” “Oh, my Lady,” answered Saint Dominic, “you know far better than I do, because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been the chief instrument of our salvation.” Then Our Lady replied, “I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the principal weapon has always been the Angelic Psalter (the Hail Mary), 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 (the Rosary).”
In our day, too, many people to do not acknowledge God, many Catholics have stopped practising their faith, and even some of those who practise reject aspects of the Church’s doctrinal and moral teaching. The negative effects of this rejection of God upon societies, families, and individuals are plain to see. Like Saint Dominic, let us be encouraged to take up the Rosary as our spiritual weapon for the reform of the world.