Love her and she will lead you to her Son the Saviour of the World...
An address delivered by Archbishop Fulton J Sheen
February 11, 1951
If here is a heart in the audience that ever sent roses to a friend in token of affection, or ever received them as a sign of remembrance, he will not be alien to this story of prayer!
Some deep instinct in humanity makes it link roses with joy. Pagan peoples crowned their statues with roses, as symbols of the offering of their own hearts. The faithful of the early Church substituted prayers for roses. In the days of the early martyrs---I say “early” because the Church has more martyrs today than it had in the first four centuries—as the young virgins marched over the sands of the Coliseum into the jaws of death, they clothes themselves in festive robes and wore on their heads a crown of roses, bedecked fittingly to meet the King of Kings in Whose Name they would die. The faithful at night would gather up their crowns of roses and say their prayers on them, one prayer for each rose.
Far away in the desert of Egypt, the anchorites and hermits were counting their prayers too, but in the form of little grains or pebbles strung together into a crown---a practice which Mohammed took for his Moslems. From this custom of offering spiritual bouquets arose a series of prayers known as the Rosary, for Rosary means “a crown of roses.”
From its first days the Church asked its faithful t recite the one hundred and fifty Psalms of David. This custom still prevails among the priests, for we are obligated to recite some of these Psalms every day in what is called the Breviary. But it was not easy for anyone to memorize the 150 Psalms. Then, too, before the invention of printing, it was difficult to procure a book. That was why certain important books like the Bible had to be chained like telephone books, otherwise people would run off with them.
Incidentally, this gave rise to the stupid lie that the Church would not allow anyone to read the Bible because to was chained.
The fact is, it was chained so people could read it. The telephone book is chained, too, but it is more consulted than any book in modern civilization.
The people who could not learn the 150 Psalms wanted to do something to make up for it. So they substituted 150 Hail Marys. They broke up these 150 decades, or series of ten. Each decade was to be said while meditating on the different aspects of the Life of Our Lord.
To keep each decade separate, each one began with the “Our Father” and ended with the Doxology of Praise to the Trinity. (Glory Be.)
St. Dominic who died in 1221 received from the Blessed Mother the command to preach and to popularize this devotion for the good of souls, conquest over evil and the prosperity of Holy Mother Church, and thus gave us the Rosary in its present form.
It is objected that there is much repetition in the Rosary because the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary are said so often; therefore it is monotonous.
That reminds me of a woman who came to see me one evening after instructions. She said: “I would never become Catholic. You say the same words in the Rosary, over and over again, and anyone who repeats the same words is never sincere. I would never believe such a person and neither would God.” I asked her who the man was who was with her. She said it was her fiance. I asked, “Does he love you?” “He told me.” “What did he say?” He said, “I love you.” “But never before?” “He tells me every night.” I said, “Do not believe him.” He is repeating; he is not sincere.” The beautiful truth, there is no repetition in “I love you.” Because there is a new moment of time, another point in space, the words do not mean the same as before. Love is never monotonous in the uniformity in the uniformity of its expression. The mind is infinitely variable in its language, but the heart is not. The heart of man in the face of the woman he loves is too poor to translate the infinity of his affection into different words. So the heart takes but one expression, “I love you” and in saying it over and over again, it never repeats. It is the only real news in the universe.
That is what we do when we say the Rosary. We are saying to the Holy Trinity, to the Incarnate Savior to the Blessed Mother, “I love you,” I love you, “I love you.”
The beauty of the Rosary is that it is not only a vocal prayer. It is also a mental prayer. You have sometimes heard a dramatic presentation in which while the human voice was speaking, there was a background of beautiful music, giving force and dignity to the words. The Rosary is like that. While the prayer is being said, the heart is not hearing music But meditating on the Life of Christ, but applied to our own life and our own needs. As the wire holds the beads together, so meditation holds the prayers together. We often speak to people while our minds are thinking something else. But in the Rosary we do not only say prayers; We think Bethlehem, Galilee, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Golgotha, Calvary, Mount Olivet, Heaven---all these move before our mind’s eye as our lips pray.
Peace will come only when the hearts of the world have changed. To do this we must pray, and not for ourselves, but for the world. The world means everyone. Our enemies and our next door neighbors.
To this end, I have designed a Rosary called the World Mission Rosary. Each of the five decades is of a different color to represent each of the five continents or the world from the viewpoint of the Missions. One decade is green for Africa, because of its green forests and because it is the sacred color of the Moslems for whom we pray.
The second decade is red for the continent of American which was founded by the Red Man. The third decade is white for the Continent of Europe, for its spiritual father is the White Shepherd of the Church.
The fourth decade is blue for the Continent of Australia, Oceania and the other islands in the blue waters of the Pacific.
The fifth is yellow for the continent of Asia, the land where the sun rises and the cradle of civilization.
When the Rosary is completed, one has circumnavigated the globe and embraced all continents, all people in prayer. Our Rosary has this triple advantage. Each color reminds you of the part of the world for whom you offer the decade. Secondly,, it fulfills Our Lady’s petition at Fatima to pray for world peace through the Rosary. Thirdly, it will aid the Holy Father and his Society for the Propagation of the Faith by supplying him with practical support, as well as prayers, for the poor distressed 600 mission territories of the world each of which is larger than New England.
It all comes down to this: the world will change when we change. But we cannot change without prayer, and the power of the Rosary as a prayer is beyond description.
Learn to sanctify all the idle moments of life. It can be done thanks to the Rosary. As you walk the streets, pray the Rosary in your hand or in your pocket. While sitting in traffic, while in a waiting room, or sitting on a train. All these moments can be sanctified and made to serve your inner peace. If you wish to convert anyone to the fullness of the knowledge of our Lord and His Mystical Body, teach him the Rosary. One of two things will happen. Either he will stop saying the Rosary, or he will get the gift of faith.
Some deep instinct in humanity makes it link roses with joy. Pagan peoples crowned their statues with roses, as symbols of the offering of their own hearts. The faithful of the early Church substituted prayers for roses. In the days of the early martyrs---I say “early” because the Church has more martyrs today than it had in the first four centuries—as the young virgins marched over the sands of the Coliseum into the jaws of death, they clothes themselves in festive robes and wore on their heads a crown of roses, bedecked fittingly to meet the King of Kings in Whose Name they would die. The faithful at night would gather up their crowns of roses and say their prayers on them, one prayer for each rose.
Far away in the desert of Egypt, the anchorites and hermits were counting their prayers too, but in the form of little grains or pebbles strung together into a crown---a practice which Mohammed took for his Moslems. From this custom of offering spiritual bouquets arose a series of prayers known as the Rosary, for Rosary means “a crown of roses.”
From its first days the Church asked its faithful t recite the one hundred and fifty Psalms of David. This custom still prevails among the priests, for we are obligated to recite some of these Psalms every day in what is called the Breviary. But it was not easy for anyone to memorize the 150 Psalms. Then, too, before the invention of printing, it was difficult to procure a book. That was why certain important books like the Bible had to be chained like telephone books, otherwise people would run off with them.
Incidentally, this gave rise to the stupid lie that the Church would not allow anyone to read the Bible because to was chained.
The fact is, it was chained so people could read it. The telephone book is chained, too, but it is more consulted than any book in modern civilization.
The people who could not learn the 150 Psalms wanted to do something to make up for it. So they substituted 150 Hail Marys. They broke up these 150 decades, or series of ten. Each decade was to be said while meditating on the different aspects of the Life of Our Lord.
To keep each decade separate, each one began with the “Our Father” and ended with the Doxology of Praise to the Trinity. (Glory Be.)
St. Dominic who died in 1221 received from the Blessed Mother the command to preach and to popularize this devotion for the good of souls, conquest over evil and the prosperity of Holy Mother Church, and thus gave us the Rosary in its present form.
It is objected that there is much repetition in the Rosary because the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary are said so often; therefore it is monotonous.
That reminds me of a woman who came to see me one evening after instructions. She said: “I would never become Catholic. You say the same words in the Rosary, over and over again, and anyone who repeats the same words is never sincere. I would never believe such a person and neither would God.” I asked her who the man was who was with her. She said it was her fiance. I asked, “Does he love you?” “He told me.” “What did he say?” He said, “I love you.” “But never before?” “He tells me every night.” I said, “Do not believe him.” He is repeating; he is not sincere.” The beautiful truth, there is no repetition in “I love you.” Because there is a new moment of time, another point in space, the words do not mean the same as before. Love is never monotonous in the uniformity in the uniformity of its expression. The mind is infinitely variable in its language, but the heart is not. The heart of man in the face of the woman he loves is too poor to translate the infinity of his affection into different words. So the heart takes but one expression, “I love you” and in saying it over and over again, it never repeats. It is the only real news in the universe.
That is what we do when we say the Rosary. We are saying to the Holy Trinity, to the Incarnate Savior to the Blessed Mother, “I love you,” I love you, “I love you.”
The beauty of the Rosary is that it is not only a vocal prayer. It is also a mental prayer. You have sometimes heard a dramatic presentation in which while the human voice was speaking, there was a background of beautiful music, giving force and dignity to the words. The Rosary is like that. While the prayer is being said, the heart is not hearing music But meditating on the Life of Christ, but applied to our own life and our own needs. As the wire holds the beads together, so meditation holds the prayers together. We often speak to people while our minds are thinking something else. But in the Rosary we do not only say prayers; We think Bethlehem, Galilee, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Golgotha, Calvary, Mount Olivet, Heaven---all these move before our mind’s eye as our lips pray.
Peace will come only when the hearts of the world have changed. To do this we must pray, and not for ourselves, but for the world. The world means everyone. Our enemies and our next door neighbors.
To this end, I have designed a Rosary called the World Mission Rosary. Each of the five decades is of a different color to represent each of the five continents or the world from the viewpoint of the Missions. One decade is green for Africa, because of its green forests and because it is the sacred color of the Moslems for whom we pray.
The second decade is red for the continent of American which was founded by the Red Man. The third decade is white for the Continent of Europe, for its spiritual father is the White Shepherd of the Church.
The fourth decade is blue for the Continent of Australia, Oceania and the other islands in the blue waters of the Pacific.
The fifth is yellow for the continent of Asia, the land where the sun rises and the cradle of civilization.
When the Rosary is completed, one has circumnavigated the globe and embraced all continents, all people in prayer. Our Rosary has this triple advantage. Each color reminds you of the part of the world for whom you offer the decade. Secondly,, it fulfills Our Lady’s petition at Fatima to pray for world peace through the Rosary. Thirdly, it will aid the Holy Father and his Society for the Propagation of the Faith by supplying him with practical support, as well as prayers, for the poor distressed 600 mission territories of the world each of which is larger than New England.
It all comes down to this: the world will change when we change. But we cannot change without prayer, and the power of the Rosary as a prayer is beyond description.
Learn to sanctify all the idle moments of life. It can be done thanks to the Rosary. As you walk the streets, pray the Rosary in your hand or in your pocket. While sitting in traffic, while in a waiting room, or sitting on a train. All these moments can be sanctified and made to serve your inner peace. If you wish to convert anyone to the fullness of the knowledge of our Lord and His Mystical Body, teach him the Rosary. One of two things will happen. Either he will stop saying the Rosary, or he will get the gift of faith.
