THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES

W BY BISHOP
FULTON J. SHEEN





THE MEDITATIONS ON

The Fifteen JWgsteries

of the ftosarg

By BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN

National Director, The Society for the Propagation of the Faith

COVER PAINTING BY E. JOSEPH DREANY

ILLUSTRATED BY MARY ZIMMER

CATECHETICAL GUILD EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA



COPYRIGHT 1944, 1951, 1952

BY CATECHETICAL GUILD EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY,

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

DESIGNED AND PRODUCED BY

ARTISTS AND WRITERS GUILD, INC. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A,

Deadened



-Cite Meaning of

the Rosarg

By BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN
National Director, The Society for the

Propagation of the Faith

59
G^ou have sometimes heard a radio program

in which a voice spoke, while at the same time

music was playing in the background. When

we say the Rosary, something like that occurs.

Our lips say the Our Father, Hail Mary, and

Glory Be to the Father, but our mind, think-

ing about the life of our Lord, creates a sound-

less background symphony of thoughts.

The Rosary is psychologically one of the

greatest of prayers, because it draws all our scat-

tered human energies, mind, lips, and finger-

tips, into a single, unifying purpose. To those

who find prayer difficult, the rhythmic move-

ment of the fingers induces spiritual thoughts.



4 the fifteen mysteries of the rosary

To those who are used to mental prayer, the

spiritual gains a new dimension when it spills

over into the body and comes out on the tips

of the fingers.

Ours is not an age in which the heavenly

therapy of prayer-by-beads is generally used.

One of the reasons why people today are so fre-

quently worried and fearful is that they keep

their minds too busy and their fingers too idle,

or else tap a jerking syncopation to the noises

of a nervous world. The Rosary, by contrast,

gathers together our dispersed forces and fixes

our minds on holy, simple thoughts, while the

fingers, too, are drawn into the magnetic field

of worship. Because it focuses the whole man

towards a single, uplifting purpose, the Rosary

can be the greatest of all therapies for troubled

modern men.

A faint suspicion of this fact has begun to

penetrate into some hospitals. Nervous and

combat-fatigued patients are taught to knit or

weave, to relax their nervous tension. The dis-

advantage of this treatment is that it is- only

partial; the patient’s mind is not involved. But



THE MEANING OF THE ROSARY 5

in the Rosary, all faculties, mind, will, imagina-

tion, memory, desires, hopes and muscles, are

directed to the Divine.

There is seemingly much repetition in the

Rosary; but actually this is no more wearying

or monotonous than a man’s telling a woman

“I love you” for the 20th time. Since there is a

new moment in time to be redeemed by love,

his words may be the same, but the meaning of

each avowal is slighdy different. So, in the

Rosary, we say over and over to God, “I love

You. I love You. And I love You.”

The beads carry the burden of the prayers,

while the decades record the 15 scenes played

out in the great drama of our Redemption.

Bead by bead, decade by decade, the soul climbs

from one Mystery to the next, to that “Love

we fall short of in all love, that Beauty that

leaves all other beauty pain.”

We need these Mysteries to engage our

thoughts. We are not sufficiently spiritual to

apprehend God as He is Himself. Our natures

are too weak to stand the shock of such sublim-

ity. The sun is so rich in varied brightness that



6 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

it must be shot through a prism before our

weak eyes can see the glory of its seven colors.

So, too, the life of our divine Saviour abounds

in beauties that our frail human hearts cannot

see unless filtered first through the prism of a

prayer such as the Rosary, which breaks them

up into the 15 separate Mysteries.

The Mysteries fall naturally into three

groups, which are also the three divisions of

every ideal Christian life: joy, suffering and

glory.



3op

Masteries



THE ANNUNCIATION



TOie Jogful ftlgsteries

1

THE ANNUNCIATION

the Annunciation, the birth of the Son

of God in the flesh is made to hinge on the con-

sent of a woman, as the fall of man in the gar-

den of Paradise hinged on the consent of a man.

God in His power might have assumed a

human nature by force, as the hand of a man

lays hold of a rose. But He willed not to invade

His great gift of freedom without a creature’s

free response. Through the angel who salutes

Mary in words that have become the first part

of the Hail Mary, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord

is with thee,” Mary is asked if she will give

God a man!

Mary learning that she will conceive without



10 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

human love, but with the overshadowing of

divine Love, consents, and a new humanity be-

gins, with Mary as the new Eve, and Christ the

new Adam.

The Annunciation is the Mystery of the joy

of freedom. Our free will is the only thing in

the world that is our own. God can take away

anything else, our health, wealth, power, but

God will never force us to love Him or to obey

Him. The charm of Yes lies in the possibility

that one might have said No.

Mary has taught us to say Fiat to God. “Be it

done to me according to Thy word.” But God

Himself has taught us that, since He would not

invade the freedom of a woman, then a man

should never do so.

2

THE VISITATION

'<Lhe Gospel tells us, “In the days that fol-

lowed, Mary rose up and went with all haste to



THE VISITATION



12 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

a city of Judea, in the hill country, where

Zachary dwelt; and there entering in she gave

Elizabeth greeting. No sooner had Elizabeth

heard Mary’s greeting, than the child leaped

in her womb; and Elizabeth herself was filled

with the Holy Ghost; so that she cried out with

a loud voice, “Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke

I:39"42)*

The first miracle worked by our Lord on

earth was performed while He was still in His

Mother’s womb. He stirred the unborn John

and brought consciousness of His presence to

Elizabeth, the cousin , of His Mother. Thus,

long before Cana, our Lord shows that it is

through His Mother that He works His un-

seen wonders in the heart and through her

that He is brought into the souls of men.

The joy of the second Joyful Mystery is that

of the Old Testament meeting the New, and

of the young maiden greeting the old woman,

as Mary burst into the most revolutionary song

that was ever sung, the Magnificat, foretelling



THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES 13

the day when the mighty would be unseated

from their thrones, and the poor would be

exalted.

Yet at that moment, when Elizabeth is the

first to call her the Mother of God, even before

our Lord is born, Mary answers in her song

that her greatness is due to Him, and that she

was chosen because she was lowly. It may very

well be that Mary was chosen to be the Mother

of God after she had in her vow renounced the

honor. Though greater than Elizabeth, she

visits her in her hour of need. Only as we be-

come little do we ever become great in the eyes

of God.

\

5

THE NATIVITY

love tends to become like that which

it loves. God loved man; therefore, He became

man. Thanks to His human nature, He could



14 the fifteen mysteries of the rosary

take on our woes and our sorrows, and feel the

effects of sin as if they were His very own.

But all this was conditioned upon Mary’s giv-

ing Him a human nature. Without her He

would never have had eyes to see the multitude

hungry in the desert, or ears to hear the plead-

ing of the lame man of Jericho, or hands to

caress children, or feet to seek the lost sheep.

For nine months, her own body was the

natural Eucharist, in which God shared com-

munion with human life, thus preparing for

that greater Eucharist, when human life would

commune with the Divine.

Mary’s joy was to form Christ in her own

body; her joy now is to form Christ in our

souls. In this Mystery, we pray to become preg-

nant with the Christ spirit, giving Him new

lips with which He may speak of His Father,

new hands with which He may feed the poor,

and a new heart with which He may love

everyone, even enemies.



THE NATIVITY



i6 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

1

THE PRESENTATION

3*
**®wery child is an arrow shot out of the

bow of its mother, but its target is God. Chil-

dren have come through mothers, but they do

not belong to them. Mary acknowledges this

claim of divinity on her Child by presenting

Him back again to God, as she offers the tem-

ple of His Body in the temple made by hands.

Mary here anticipated the joy of every

mother who brings her child to the baptismal

font, where God may claim His own. But in

the case of Mary, the Child was claimed for

sacrifice, as the aged Simeon said that He was a

sign to be contradicted, for the cross is the con-

tradiction.

Mary was even told that a sword her own

soul would pierce. That would happen when

her Son on the cross would have His heart

pierced with a lance. Through His Body and

her soul would go that one stroke of the sword.





18 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

She was the only mother who ever brought a

life into the world to die.

It is not so much our presents that God

wants from us, as it is our presence, as we offer

our life to Him.

THE FINDING OF OUR LORD
IN THE TEMPLE

f:"here are two kinds of souls in the world;
those who hide from God and those from

whom God hides. But when God hides, He

hides in order that He might be sought the

more, as if to draw out a deeper love.

During the three days when the divine Child

was lost, the Blessed Mother became the

mother of sinners. The essence of sin is the loss

of God, and Mary lost God, not spiritually, but

physically. During those three days, she came

to know something of the solitariness of the

sinner, the loneliness of the guilty, and the



THE FINDING OF OUR LORD
IN THE TEMPLE



20 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

aloneness of the frustrated. Her divine Son, 21

years later, would feel it for Himself on the

cross, when He would ask why God had aban-

doned Him.

Let no sinner ever despair of Divine mercy,

because Mary understands the tortures of the

heart, but above all, because she knows where

to find Christ. She also knows how to bring the

sinner to her Divine Son. As the Madonna of

the Empty Arms, she awaits your embrace.



Che

3orrotoful

Mgsteries



THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN



'Che ^orrotoful Mgsttries

)

THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN

91
a kind person in the face of pain seeks

to relieve the sufferings of his friend, so does

moral kindness in the face of evil take on the

punishment which evil deserves. Every mother

would willingly, if she could, bear the aches of

her child. A father will pay the debts of his way-

ward son as if they were his own. Our Lord,

though guilty of no sin, nevertheless in His

agony in the garden permitted Himself to feel

the inner effects of sin, as on the cross He ex-

perienced also the external effects of sin. These

internal effects were sadness, fear, and a sense



24 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

of loneliness. “I looked for one that would

grieve together with Me, and I found none.”

He permits His head to feel blasphemies as

if His lips had pronounced them; His hands to

feel the sins of theft, as if He had stolen; His

body to sense the guilt of defilement, as if it

were the cause. Innocence knows sin better

than the guilty, because the guilty are already

part of it.

Sin is in the blood. The drunkard, the liber-

tine, the tyrant have registered sin not only in

their souls, but in their brains, the cells of their

body, and the very expressions of their faces. If,

therefore, sin is in the blood, to atone for it,

blood must be poured out. Our Lord never in-

tended that any other blood than His own

should be shed in expiation for sins. Because

men have not invoked the blood of Christ for

their sins, they are now at war shedding one

another’s blood.

The agony in the garden is not a triumph of

the plans and the schemes of betrayers and ene-

mies, but is permitted by divine decree. “This



THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES 25

is your hour,” our Lord said to His enemies.

Evil has its hour, but God has His day

!

2 .

THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR

(T^even centuries before, it had been fore-

told that our Lord would be so wounded for

our sins that we would have “thought Him, as

it were, a leper, and as one struck by God and

afflicted.” The time has come for the fulfill-
0

ment of that prophecy. Omnipotence is bound

to a pillar in the hour ohHis death, as He was

bound in swaddling clothes in the very hour of

His birth.

The scourging at the pillar must have been

terrible, because whenever our Lord foretold

His passion, He always made particular refer-

ence to His scourging, as if to emphasize the

outrage of His suffering. St. Peter, after Ihe

Resurrection, recalling how he stood in the

outer court listening to the fall of thongs upon



26 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

His flesh, and yet heard our Lord not complain,

wrote: “Who when He was reviled, did not

revile; when He suffered, did not threaten.”

The scourging is an act of reparation for the

excessive cult of the body. “The body is for the

Lord.” In expiation for self-indulgence, His

body, as the second Ark of the Covenant, is dis-

closed to profane eyes, as the Spouse of souls

now becomes the plaything of mockers. How

many strokes He received, no one knows. The

prophet foretold that He would be so scourged

that the bones of His body would be numbered.

We are saved by other stars and stripes than

those on the flag; namely, by the stars and

stripes of Christ, by whose stars we are illu-

mined—by whose stripes we are healed.

5

THE CROWNING WITH THORNS

d|
the scourging was the reparation for

the sins of the flesh, so the crowning with.





28 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

thorns was the atonement for the sins of the

mind—for the atheists who wish there were no
God, for the doubters whose evil lives becloud

their thinking, for the egotists, centered on

themselves.

The soldiers cursed as the thorns pricked

their fingers. Then they cursed the Lord, as

they drove the crown of thorns into His head,

as a mockery of a royal diadem. Into His hands

they placed a reed, the symbol of His kingdom,

presumed to be false and unstable like the reed.

His flesh, already hanging from Him like pur-

ple rags, is now covered with a purple robe to

ridicule His claim to kingship of hearts and

nations. Blindfolding Him, they struck Him,

asking Him to prophesy, or tell who it was

that delivered the blow. They then bowed

down before Him in mock reverence, spitting

in His face, that all the subsequent Mindszen-

tys, Stepinacs, and martyrs of the world might

have courage in their hour of martyrdom.

In this Mystery is verified the truth of our

Saviour’s warning: “If the world hates you, be

sure that it hated Me before it learned to hate





THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY30

you. If you belonged to the world, the world

would know you for its own and love you; it is

because you do not belong to the world, because

I have singled you out from the midst of the

world, that the world hates you.” He who ex-

pects to preserve His faith without being

mocked by the world is either weak in it, or

else not so bold in goodness as to draw upon

himself the mocking insults of another purple

robe and a torturing circle of thorns.

THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS

arNY cross would be easy to bear if we
could only tailor it to fit ourselves. Our Lord’s

cross was not made by Him, but for Him.

Crosses and burdens are thrust upon us. Our

acceptance makes them personal. Our Lord

even said that there would be at least seven



the carrying of the cross



THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE' ROSARY32

crosses a week: “Take up your cross daily and

follow Me.”

Crosses are of two kinds: pure ones, which

come from the outside, such as pain, persecu-

tion, and ridicule; and inner, or impure crosses,

which come as the result of our sins, such as

sadness, despair, and unhappiness. These latter

crosses can be avoided. They are made by con-

tradicting the will of God. The vertical bar of

the cross stands for God’s will; the horizontal

bar stands for our wills. When one crosses the

other, we have the cross.

Our Lord never promised that we would be

without a cross; He only promised that we

would never be overcome by one. St. Peter so

loved the cross that when the time came for

his execution he asked to be crucified upside

down.

May He who was found guilty of no other

crime than that of the excess of love make us

hate the load of sin that made His cross. The

whole cross borne in union with His will and

following in His footsteps is easier to bear than

the splinters against which we rebel.



THE CRUCIFIXION



34 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

5

THE CRUCIFIXION

ur Lord spent 30 years of His life obey-

ing, three years teaching, three hours redeem-

ing! But how did He redeem? Suppose a

golden chalice is stolen from an altar and

beaten into a large ash tray. Before that gold

can be returned to the altar, it must be thrown

into a fire, where the dross is burned away;

then the chalice must be recast, and finally

blessed and restored to its holy use.

Sinful man is like that chalice which was de-

livered over to profane uses. He lost his God-

like resemblance and his high destiny as a child

of God. So our blessed Lord took unto Himself

a human nature, making it stand for all of us,

plunged it into the fires of Calvary to have the

dross of sin burned and purged away. Then, by

rising from the dead, He became the new head

of the new humanity, according to which we

are all to be patterned.



THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES 35

The cross reveals that unless there is a Good

Friday in our lives, there will never be an Eas-

ter Sunday. Unless there is a crown of thorns,

there will never be the halo of light. Unless

there is the scourged body, there will never be a

glorified one. Death to the lower self is the

condition of resurrection to the higher self.

The world says to us, as it said to Him on

the cross: “Come down, and we will believe!”

But if He had come down, He never would have

saved us. It is human to come down; it is di-

vine to hang there. A broken heart, O Saviour .
of the world, is love’s best cradle! Smite my

own, as Moses did the rock, that Thy love may

enter in!





%he

(Blorious

Mysteries



THE RESURRECTION



'Che (Slorioos Mysteries

i

THE RESURRECTION

ur blessed Lord compared Himself to a

seed, saying that unless the seed fell to the

ground and died, it would not spring forth to

life. He now by the power of God rises with

the flowers of springtime in the newness of life,

and gives to the earth the only serious wound it

ever received—the irreparable wound of an
empty grave.

The birth of the Son of God in the form of

man was announced to a Virgin; the first an-

nouncement of His Resurrection was made to

a repentant sinner, Magdalen, that none of us

would be without hope. Thomas the Apostle



40 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

would not believe until he had put his hand

into His side, and his fingers into our Lord’s

hands. Thus do we know that our Lord kept

not His wounds but His scars as proof of His

love: “With these was I wounded in the house

of those who love Me.”

The Resurrection begins to affect our lives

the day of Baptism. When baptized, we are

plunged into the waters as if “buried in the

sepulcher to sin and death; emerging from the

waters clothed with grace as the principle of

Divine Love, we are like the Christ rising from

the tomb in the glory of the Resurrection.”

Though we are risen in spirit with Christ, so

that “our conversation is in heaven,” our bodies

will not share that glory until our own final

resurrection. In the meantime our body must

be crucified with Christ’s that we may rise with

Christ.

On the road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday,

our Lord said to His disciples, “Was it not to

be expected that the Christ should undergo

these sufferings, and enter so into His glory?”



THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES 41

But if that be the law of Innocence, then how

shall we, the guilty, hope to escape from it?

THE ASCENSION

ur blessed Lord did not ascend to heaven

immediately after the Resurrection but re-

mained on earth for 40 days, speaking to the

Apostles about the Kingdom of God. It was

during these days that He gave the details of

His Church, which He said would have its

visible manifestation on Pentecost.

“And so the Lord Jesus, when He had fin-

ished speaking to them, was taken up to heaven,

and is seated now at the right hand of God.”

“Seated” is a figurative expression of eternal re-

pose, which He has merited by His victory over

sin. “At the right hand” is a symbol of His

power of eternal intercession before His heav-

enly Father on our behalf.



42 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

The Ascension of Christ is the assurance of

our own ascension into heaven after the Last

Judgment. Not yet ascended in body, we never-

theless enjoy the ascension of our minds in

union with Him. We find our true home in

heaven. It is to heaven that we look expectantly

for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to save

us; He will form this humbled body of ours

anew, modeling it into the image of His glori-

fied body, so effective is His power to make all

things obey Him.

O heavenly Magnet, in each Communion

draw our body and blood to Thy own, that

already following Thee in heart, we may later

ascend with Thee in the flesh

!

5

THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY
GHOST UPON THE APOSTLES

m any have wished that Our Blessed Lord
had remained on earth, that we might have





44 THE fifteen mysteries of the rosary

heard His voice, seen His compassionate eyes,

and brought our children to be blessed by His

hands. But He said, “I can say truly that it is

better for you I should go away; He who is to

befriend you will not come to you unless I do

go, but if only I make my way there, I will

send Him to you.”

If our Lord had remained on earth, He would

have been only a symbol to be copied—not a
life to be lived. By returning to His heavenly

Father, He could then send both from the

Father and Himself the Holy Spirit that would

make Him live on earth in His new Body,

which is the Church.

The human body is made up of millions of

cells, and yet is one because vivified by one soul,

presided over by a visible head, and governed

by an invisible mind. So on Pentecost, the Apos-

tles, who were like the cells of a body, became

Christ’s Mystical Body, because vivified by His

Holy Spirit, governed by one visible head,

Peter, and presided over by one invisible head,

Christ in heaven. Our glorious Church is not



THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST

UPON THE APOSTLES

///

*//•



THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY46

an organization, but an organism. As our Lord

once thought, governed, and sanctified through

a human body, which He took from the womb

of His blessed Mother, so now He teaches, gov-

erns, and sanctifies through His Mystical Body,

the Church, which He took from the womb of

humanity overshadowed by His Holy Spirit.

Christ was infallible when He talked through

a human body; He is still infallible when He

teaches through a mystical Body. Christ sanc-

tified when He forgave sins with human lips;

He sanctifies still when He forgives sins

through the power of His priests. Christ gov-

erned through His human Body, and He gov-

erns still. “He that heareth you, heareth Me.”

As a drop of blood can five in the body, but

cannot live apart from the body, so neither can

any of us live the fullness of the Christ Life ex-

cept in His Mystical Body, the Church.



THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES 47

1

THE ASSUMPTION

aim
what the Ascension was to our Lord, that
the Assumption is to our Lady. Certainly she,

the new Garden of Paradise, in which grew the

Lily of divine sinlessness and the red Rose of

the Church, should not be delivered over and

forgotten by the heavenly Gardener. She, in

whose womb was celebrated the nuptials of

eternity and time is more of eternity than time.

If husband and wife in marriage are made two

in one flesh, then shall not she, who is the new

Eve of the new Adam, be also made two in one

spirit with Him?

As Christ ascended into heaven to the unity

of the divine nature, so Mary is assumed into

heaven in the unity of Christ’s human nature.

Her mystical flight is the event to which our

whole generation moves.

Our age of carnalities, which loves the “body

beautiful,” is lifted out of its despair by the



48 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

Assumption, to honor a body that is beautiful

because it is a temple of God, a gate through

which the Word of heaven passed to earth, a

Tower of Ivory up which climbed divine Love

to kiss upon the lips of His Mother a mystic

rose.

To this daughter of the new Eve goes up our

prayer:

\

The celestial traitress play

And all mankind to bliss betray;

With sacrosanct cajoleries

And starry treachery of your eyes,

Tempt us back to Paradise.



THE ASSUMPTION



50 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

5

THE CORONATION

Our Lady went into a strange country,

Our Lady, for she was ours

And had run on the little hills behind the houses

And pulled small flowers;

But she rose up and went into a strange country

With strange thrones and powers.

And there were giants in the land she walked in,

Tall as their toppling towns.

With heads so high in heaven, the constellations

Served them for crowns;

And their feet might have forded like a brook the

abysses

Where Babel drowns.

And moving in innocence and in accident,

She turned the face

That none has ever looked on without loving

On the Lords of Space;

And One hailed her with her name in our own

country

That is full of grace.



THE CORONATION



52 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

Our Lady went into a strange country

And they crowned her for a queen,

For she needed never to be stayed or questioned

But only seen;

And they were broken down under unbearable beauty

As we have been.

But ever she walked till away in the last high places

One great light shone

From the pillared throne of the king of all that

country

Who sat thereon;

And she cried aloud as she cried under the gibbet

For she saw her Son.

Our Lady wears a crown in a strange country,

The crown He gave,

But she has not forgotten to call to her old com-

panions,

To call and crave;

And to hear her calling a man might arise and

thunder

On the doors of the grave.

—REGINA ANGELORUM by G. K. Chesterton



Encyclical tetter

of pope pas XII

on the Hosarg

—September 15, 1951

XII, Pope, Greets and Gives His Apos-

tolic Blessing to the Venerable Brethren:

Since We were raised to the supreme Chair

of Peter, by design of Divine Providence, see-

ing the advancing evils, We have never ceased

to intrust to the most powerful protection of

the Mother of God the fate of the human fam-

ily, and, for this aim, as you know, several times

We have written letters of exhortation.

It is known to you, Venerable Brethren, with

what zeal and how much spontaneous and

unanimous approval the Christian people every-

where have answered Our invitation.

It has been magnificently testified many

times by the great demonstration of faith and



THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY54

love towards the august Queen o£ Heaven, and

above all, that manifestation of universal joy

which, last year, Our eyes had the pleasure to

behold, when, in St. Peter’s Square, surrounded

by an immense multitude of believers, We

solemnly proclaimed the Assumption into

Heaven of the Virgin Mary.

The recollection of these things comes back

pleasantly to Us and encourages Us to trust

firmly in Divine Mercy.

However, at present, We do not lac\ reasons

for profound sorrow which torment and sad-

den Our paternal heart.

You know vvell, Venerable Brethren, the sad

conditions of our times. Fraternal union among

nations, broken for such a long time, has not

yet been re-established everywhere. Yet, every-

where we see souls upset by hatred and rivalry,

while threats of new bloody conflicts still hover

over the peoples. To this, one must add the

violent form of persecution, which, for a long

time, has been unleashed against the Church,

saddening it very cruelly with calumnies and



ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE PIUS XII 55

miseries of all kinds, making the blood of mar-

tyrs flow again.

To what and to how many snares are the

souls of so many of Our sons submitted in those

areas to make them reject the Faith of their

fathers, and to make them break, with the ut-

most disgrace, the tie of union which links

them to this Apostolic See. Nor can We pass

over in silence a new crime to which, with

utmost sorrow, We want earnestly to draw not

only your attention, but the attention of the

clergy, of parents, and even of public authori-

ties.

We refer to the iniquitous campaign that the

impious lead everywhere to harm the shining

souls of the children.

Not even the innocent age has been spared.

On the contrary, audacious efforts are unfor-

tunately made to snatch, with a gesture, from

the mystical garden of the Church even the

most beautiful flowers, which constitute the

hope of religion and society. Considering this,

one cannot be surprised if peoples groan under



56 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

the weight of the Divine punishment, and live

under the nightmare of even greater calamities.

However, consideration of a situation so preg-

nant with dangers must not depress your souls,

O Venerable Brethren. Instead, that Divine

teaching: “Ask and it shall be given to you;

seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be

opened to you” (Luke 11:9) spontaneously

raises your hearts with greater hope towards the

Mother of God. There, the Christian people

have always sought refuge in the hour of

danger, because “she has been constituted the

cause of salvation for the whole human race”

(St. Irenaeus).

In the light of the above, we look forward

with joyful expectation and revived hope to

the coming month of October, during which

the faithful flock in larger numbers to the

churches to raise their supplications to Mary

by means of the Holy Rosary.

O Venerable Brethren, We desire that this

prayer should be offered with such greater fer-

vor of heart as is demanded by the increased

urgency of the need.



ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE PIUS XII 57

We well know the Rosary’s powerful efficacy

to obtain the maternal aid of the Virgin.

y

By no means is there only one way to pray to

obtain this aid. However, We consider the

Holy Rosary the most convenient and adequate

means, as is clearly suggested by the very origin

of this practice and of its nature, more divine

than human. What prayers are more adapted

and more beautiful than the Lord’s prayer and

the angelic salutation, which are the flowers

with which this mystical crown is formed?

Adding to the vocal prayers the meditation on

the Sacred Mysteries, there emerges another

very great advantage, that all, even the most

simple and least educated, have in this a prompt

and easy way to feed and keep their own faith.

And truly, from the frequent meditation on

the Mysteries, the soul draws and impercepti-

bly absorbs the virtues they contain, and lights

up with extraordinary hope of the immortal

virtues, and becomes strongly and easily im-

pelled to follow the path which Christ Him-

self and His Mother have followed. The reci-



58 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

tation of identical formulas, repeated so many

times, rather than rendering the prayer sterile

and boring, has on the contrary the admirable

quality of infusing confidence in -him who

prays and makes a sweet compulsion toward

the maternal heart of Mary.

Endeavor with particular care, O Venerable
Brethren, that the Faithful, on the occasion of

the coming month of October, should perform

this rite with the utmost possible zeal, and that

the Holy Rosary become always more esteemed

and more diligently recited.

Through your effort, the Christian people

should be led to understand the excellence, the

value and the salutary efficacy of the Rosary.

But it is above all in the bosom of the family

that We desire the custom of the Holy Rosary

to be everywhere adopted, religiously preserved

and ever more intensely practiced.

In vain is a remedy sought for the wavering

fate of civil life if the family, the principle and

foundation of the human community, is not

brought back to the norms of the Gospel.



ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE PIUS XII 59

To undertake such a difficult duty, We

affirm that the recitation of the Holy Rosary

is a most efficacious means. What a sweet sight

—most pleasing to God—when, at eventide,
the Christian home resounds with the frequent

repetition of the praises to honor the Queen of -

Heaven ! Then the Rosary, recited in common,

assembles before the image of the Virgin, in an

admirable union of hearts, the parents and their

children, who come back from their daily work.

It unites them piously with those absent and

those dead.

It links them more tightly in a sweet bond of

love, with the most Holy Virgin, who, like a

loving mother, will come among her children

bestowing upon them an abundance of the

gifts of concord and family peace.

Then the home of the Christian family, like

that of Nazareth, will become an earthly abode

of sanctity, and a temple, where the Holy

Rosary will not only be the particular prayer

which every day rises to Heaven in an odor of

sweetness, but will also form the most effica-



6o THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

cious school of Christian life. This meditation

on the Divine Mysteries of the Redemption

will teach the adults to live, admiring daily the

shining examples of Jesus and Mary, and to

draw from these examples comfort in adver-

sity, striving towards those heavenly treasures

“where neither thief draws near, nor moth de-

stroys” (Luke 12:33). This meditation will

bring to the knowledge of the little ones the

main truths of the Faith, making love for the

Redeemer blossom almost spontaneously in

their innocent hearts, while, seeing their par-

ents kneeling before the majesty of God, they

will learn from their very early years how great

is the value of prayers said in common.

We do not hesitate to affirm again publicly

that We put great confidence in the Holy

Rosary for the healing of evils which afflict our

times.

Not with force, not with arms, not with

human power, but with Divine help obtained

through the means of this prayer, strong like

David with his sling, the Church undaunted



ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE PIUS XII 6 1

shall be able to confront the infernal enemy,

repeating to him the words of the young shep-

herd: “Thou comest to me with a sword, and

a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee

in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of

armies . . . and all this assembly shall know

that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear,

for this is his battle, and he will deliver you into

our hands” (i Kings 17:45-47).

For this reason, We earnestly desire, Vener-

able Brethren, that all the faithful, following

your example and your inspiration, should

respond solicitously to Our paternal exhorta-

tion, uniting their hearts and their voices with

the same ardor of charity. If the evils and the

assaults of the wicked increase, so likewise must

the zeal of all good people increase and become

ever more vigorous. Let them strive to obtain

from our most loving Mother, especially

through the means of the Holy Rosary, that

better times may quickly return for the Church

and society.

The very powerful Mother of God, moved



62 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

by the prayers of so many of her sons, should

obtain from her own Child—we all beseech her
—that those who have been miserably led
astray from the path of truth and virtue, should

renewed in their souls find it again.

Grant us that finally hatred and rivalry, the

sources of discord and every sort of mishap,

should shine again upon individuals, families,

peoples and nations.

Grant that finally after the rights of the

Church are secured as is just, the beneficent

influence deriving from her and penetrating

without obstacle the hearts of men, social

classes and the arteries of public life, may join

people among themselves in brotherhood and

lead them to prosperity which regulates, de-

fends and co-ordinates the rights and duties of

all and establishes itself ever more for mutual

and common collaboration.

Venerable Brethren and beloved sons, while

running your fingers over the beads of the

Rosary, do not forget those who languish mis-

erably in prison camps, jails and concentration



ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE PIUS XII 63

camps. There are among them, as you know,

also bishops dismissed from their sees solely

for having heroically defended the sacred rights

of God and the Church. There are sons, fathers

and mothers, wrested from their homes and

compelled to lead unhappy lives far away in

unknown lands and strange climates.

As we embrace them with that particular

charity which derives from the Christian re-

ligion, unite your prayers before the altar of the

Virgin Mother of God and recommend them

to her motherly heart. She doubtlessly will,

with exquisite sweetness, revive in their hearts

the hope of eternal reward and will not fail to

hasten the end of so much sorrow, as We firmly

believe.

We do not doubt that you, O Venerable

Brethren, with your usual burning zeal will

bring to the knowledge of your clergy and peo-

ple these Our paternal exhortations in a way

which will appear most appropriate to you.

We feel certain that our sons throughout the

world will respond earnestly to this Our invi-

tation.



64 THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY

To all of you, to the flock entrusted to each

of you and particularly to those who especially

during the month of October will recite de-

voutly the Holy Rosary according to Our inten-

tions, We impart from the fullness of Our heart

the Apostolic Blessing.

Issued in Rome, near St. Peter’s, the 15th day pf Sep-

tember, the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary,

in the year 1951, the 13th of Our Pontificate.





Published by THE CATECHETICAL GUILD
EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY • ST. PAUL, MINN.

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