“The Holy Rosary is made up of both body and soul” (St. Pope John Paul II). The body of the Rosary is the crucifix with the attached string of beads we hold in our hands to count the Our Father and Hail Mary prayers. The word “bead” comes from an old English word that means prayer. When we pray the Rosary, we pray through Mary. We present to God our prayers in mystical and meditative union with Mary. The soul of the Rosary is the prayer itself, which is the raising up of our intellect and will to God in prayer through Mary. As Jesus came to us bodily through Mary, so we go spiritually to Jesus through Mary. In our devotion to her, she forms us spiritually to Jesus’ image, as she formed Jesus physically in her womb to our image. The Rosary has been called a compendium of Sacred Scripture, a Gospel in miniature. The Gospel is a synthesis of Jesus Himself. The Rosary is therefore Christological as it is Marian.
The word “Rosary” means garland of roses, or crown of roses. In our recitation of the Holy Rosary we crown our Heavenly Mother. Just as the head of the Mystical Body, Christ, honors His mother by crowning her as Queen of Heaven, so do we as members of the Mystical Body, the Church, honor Mary. Even as the honor we ourselves give to Mary is a mere faint shadow in comparison to that honor which Jesus Himself gives to her, we can still strive to give the greatest honor we can give, by allowing the Spirit of Christ in us to honor her through us.
When we pray the Rosary, we are to picture in our minds each scene depicted in the mysteries we pray, as they reflect actual biblical events in the lives of our Blessed Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. Each Rosary mystery reflects holiness lived out perfectly. A holiness that we are not only to contemplate, but also to imitate and live out in our own lives. Although recitation of the Rosary is as a vocal prayer, it is also a prayer of meditation. We meditate upon the mysteries of the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it were, through the eyes of Mary, Mary, who is the greatest of all mystics, having lived in the most intimate mystical union with the life of Christ and His Pasqual mystery. It is to a more profound union with her Son, Jesus, that Mary draws us to, through the motherly formation of our souls as her children, by the devout recitation of the Holy Rosary.