THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY, By Malachy Jude

Preamble

This is a book written by St. Louis Maria de Montfort. In this book, he explained lucidly the origin, meaning and the efficacy of the Holy Rosary. According to him, the rosary is a wonderful instrument for human salvation and a veritable weapon against sin and Satan the enemies of human salvation. Our Mother Mary, he said does not disappoint any devotee to the Holy Rosary.

He began by presenting the Rosary as a precious gift of rose to different categories of people. To the priests he gave it as a gift of White Rose which is the instrument that God has given them for the conversion of souls. To the sinners he gave the Red Rose as an assurance of their grace of repentance. Any sinner who wishes to repent and be saved must endeavor to recite the rosary daily. The rosary becomes an easy means of giving up on sin whether mortal or venial. Also, he gave to the devout Christians what he called the Mystical Rose as a means of sustaining their faith. Finally, he gave to the little children a Rosebud which according to him is a seed of grace which grows and matures into a stronger and advanced spirituality, hence advancing the salvation of their souls.

The origin of the Holy Rosary is traced back to St. Dominic through whom it come into the church in 1214 in the present form we use today. It was given to St. Dominic by the Blessed Virgin Mary as an instrument of converting the Albingesians heretics and other sinners in the world.

Going further, he described the two major dimensions of the rosary which are the mental prayer and the vocal prayer. The mental prayer deals with meditations on the fifteen mysteries in which are found the virtues and glories of our Mother Mary as well as the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The vocal prayer on the other hand consists of the Lord’s Prayer and the Angelic Salutation (the Hail Mary). The Rosary was called the Psalter of Jesus and Mary because it has the same number of Hail Marys just as the Psalms in the book of Psalms written by David. He divided this Psalter into three chaplets of five decades each. Among the reasons for this tripartite division are: to honor the three persons of the Blessed Trinity, to honor the life, death and glory of Christ and to give us abundant graces during life, peace at death and glory in eternity.

The Creed: According to book, the Apostles’ Creed said on the crucifix is a holy summary of all the Christian truths. Through this prayer we express our faith in God without which our prayer becomes powerless. The words ‘I believe in God’ are effective means of sanctifying our souls and putting the devil to flight for they contain the acts of three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.  The greater the faith, the more meritorious the prayer and the better glory it gives to God. It was recorded that the saints conquered many temptations by saying this prayer.

Our Father: This prayer being a prayer composed by Christ himself, is more valuable than all other prayers. Contrary to other prayers composed by humans, it is free from imperfections. God quickly answers this prayer composed by His own Son. Every word of this prayer carries a great lesson for Christians. It contains all the duties we owe to God and we make many acts of Christian virtues, present our corporal and spiritual needs to God when we say this prayer attentively.

The Hail Mary: This is an angelic salutation addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Archangel Gabriel. This prayer is the summary of all that Catholic Theology teaches about the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is divided into two parts which are the praise and petition. The first part is the repetition of that singular glorious salutation given to Mary at the visitation by the angel while the second part was added by the church, representing our petition to Mary. This prayer is much pleasing to the Holy Trinity as it recalls the mystery of the incarnation of Christ. Mary also delights in it as it reminds her of the joy she experienced during the visitation by the angel.

St. Louis stressed on the importance of saying the rosary meditatively. To buttress this, he said that one Hail Mary said meditatively is worth more than a thousand said absentmindedly. He made it clear that there is certainly bound to be distractions in the course of the prayer because of the constant repetition of the same words. Another reason for the distractions is Satan who is always afraid of Mary and would strive persistently to prevent Her children from imploring Her aid. He added that it is more meritorious to pray when it is difficult and to pray fighting distractions.

Finally, he encouraged devotees to join the Confraternity of the Rosary. This is because, the Rosary said in common is very meritorious as every member of the group reaps the fruit of the prayer said by each individual. The rosary according to him, is better said in the state of grace but sin should not prevent one from reciting the Rosary. In fact he advised that those in the state of sin should say it more for their own salvation. The efficacy of the Rosary is proved by the series of miraculous healings, conversions and other miraculous events recorded in this book. An example among others, is the conversion of St. Dominic’s cousin; Don Perez. After hearing St. Dominic preach the Rosary, he imbibed the practice of reciting the rosary daily and got converted.

Conclusion

This book is a practical spiritual book which systematically, explained the holy Rosary to the understanding of all classes of people. It arouses one’s devotion to the Holy Rosary and inspires one unto a more meditative way of reciting the Rosary. One thing is clear about this book; that no one reads this book without having his devotion to Rosary advanced and his attitude towards it purified.

Malachy Jude