\>He

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By

Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S.

Published by

THE

SOCIETY OF THE DIVINE SAVIOR

(Salvatorian Seminary)

PUBLISHING DEPARTMENT

St. Nazianz Wisconsin



The Rosary

T
HIS pamphlet is all about honoring Our

Lady in the way that pleases her most. I

will tell you anew about the sweetest

devotion to Mary, the dear Mother of God

and our Mother.

But is she really our Mother? Of course

she is! One day in Mary's month I stepped

into some attractive schoolrooms. In each

one I found a lovely altar with a statue of

our Lady surrounded by flowers and decora-

tions. And on one of the blackboards, in

beautiful colored letters, I read the words,

"Angels may call her Queen, but they can-

not call her Mother." We can, though!
Why? Because Jesus gave her to us as our

Mother from the cross when He said, "Be-

hold your Mother!" Yes; He gave us His

last and greatest treasure then. Jesus, we

thank you. It's just as Mary Immaculate

once said to St. Gertrude, "First I gave birth

to Jesus and then to all of you; for you are

His brethren. With a Mother's love and

tenderness I have adopted you."

Yes; she is our Mother. That's why we

run to her in confiding prayer. Father Brid-

gett, C. SS. R., a writer and poet of the last

century, gave expression to a very beautiful

and appropriate sentiment when he penned

the following lines,

The rose when shaken fragrance sheds

around,

The bell when struck pours forth me-

lodious sound;

Descldiffed

2

The heart of Mary, moved by earnest

prayer,

Will scatter grace and sweetness every-

where.

Now, the earnest prayer which above and

before all prayers moves the immaculate heart

of Mary and causes her to scatter grace and

sweetness everywhere is the rosary. The

word "rosary", you know, comes from the

Latin word rosarium, meaning a place where

roses grow, a bed of roses. Has it not often

occurred to you that the chaplet which we

so often press to our lips, whose beads we

devoutly count over and over again in loving

prayer, is indeed like a wreath of roses with

which we adorn Mary's fair hair and her

queenly brow? Ah, these ever-recurring,

never-tiring prayers must be Mary's joy in-

deed! And they never, never cease; they are

ever ascending to heaven in one sweet, un-

broken, melodious strain. Mary is being

ceaselessly crowned with roses of love. Man-

kind is instinctively seeking Jesus through

Mary. And it is so natural. She is a creature

like ourselves, "our tainted nature's solitary

boast"; and she can help us understand and

love things which in our dense darkness we

would not otherwise be able to comprehend.

All of which is sweetly and simply said by

Aubrey de Vere, an Irish Catholic poet of

whom we are justly proud, in the lines,

The mystery high of God made Man,

Through thee to man is easier made:

Pronounce the consonant, who can

Without the softer vowel's aid?



3

Now, of course, you know the divisions

of the rosary. It consists of fifteen decades.

Each decade contains ten Hail Marys, mark-

ed by small beads, preceded by an Our Fa-

ther. marked by a large bead, and concluded

by a Glory be to the Father. Five decades

make a chaplet, a third part of the rosary. This

chaplet, however, we call a rosary; and when

asked to say a rosary, it is understood that

we are to recite but a third part of it. All

this, my friends, you knew long ago didn't

you?

But do you know how to say the rosary?

Are you sure? Well, anyhow, always re-

member that the rosary is vocal prayer, that

in saying it the words must be pronounced

with the lips. Otherwise you cannot gain

the indulgences. Indeed all indulgenced

prayers must be said in this wise. Of course,

you may whisper the prayers, and the whis-

per may be so low that even you yourself

cannot hear it; but the words must be formed

with the tongue and lips.

But, besides this, the rosary is also mental

prayer. To gain the indulgences we must
also meditate. To meditate here means to

think of the mysteries of the rosary during the

recitation of the prayers. There are, you know,

the joyful, the sorrowful, and the glorious

mysteries. Let's take one of the joyful

mysteries, the Annunciation. While saying

the Our Father, the ten Hail Marys, and the

Glory be to the Father, we imagine ourselves,
for instance, in Nazareth. We see the Blessed
Virgin kneeling at prayer. The angel enters.

He speaks. Mary answers. The Holy Spirit



4

overshadows her. God becomes Man. We
think of the angel's humility and obedience

in coming to Mary; we think of Mary's humble

answer: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord."

We call to mind how long the world had
waited for the Redeemer and how, now that

He had come, Mary alone knew of it. We re-
flect upon what the world was before the

Savior came: full of iniquity and misery, sunk

in idolatry, ignorance and superstition. We
realize that, since Jesus wanted to come to

us through Mary, so He also wants us to go

to Him through her. And then we think such

thoughts as this, while in reality or in spirit,

we gaze at the tabernacle which contains

the Blessed Sacrament, our All: "He never

could have been the Bread of Life to us, had

she not first been the bread of life to Him."

And all the while our thoughts are going

from Mary to Jesus and from Jesus back

to Mary. And then for a moment we again

think of the words of our prayers, only to be

lost anew in our meditation of the mysteries,

This is what we mean by saying that the

rosary is vocal and mental prayer combined.

This is how we must say the rosary. This is

how we surely can say it. Ninety-nine out of

a hundred can really and truly say it thus.

Isn't it a most wonderful prayer, a bed of

the most fragrant, refreshing roses imagina-

ble? And don't you love it, its month, and

Mary, our darling Mother?

Only think of Mary's greatness and good-

ness and you will appreciate the beauty and

excellence of a prayer which is her very own,

which she herself gave us. Only think, I say.

5

And, as a parting gift from me, take these

few honeyed crumbs of thought. Imagine the

Virgin Queen with Jesus on her lap, looking

down upon Him. Hear Our Lady's poet say,

'Twas once said,
" Look up," 'tis now,
" Look down, to Heaven."

Another poet has penned these beautiful

words of the Queen of the Rosary, words

—

so consoling!

In everyone her Son she sees,

Therefore the world her baby is.

That, like a hurt and frightened child,

Sobs on her breast, the Undefiled,

Or hides its face upon her knees.

So, my dear readers, let us rejoice in being
the faithful children of her whom we call in
rapture the sweetest Mother-Maid, an angel-

watered Lily, Life's Cradle, the Hem of
God's robe, the peace-beaming Star, the

sunshiny Peak of human personality, the

world's sad aspirations' one Success, and

countless other loving names. Do you under-

stand all these endearing titles? No? Then

just call her Mother—Mother of God and
our Mother. That says everything, yes,

everything.

Nihil Obstat

Gregory Rybrook, Ord. Praem.,

Librorum Censor.

Imprimatur.

PPaulus Petrus, Epps. Sinus Viridis.

Green Bay, Wis.,

August 30, 1926.

Permissu Superiorum.

PA5-346