Rosary as meditation

October is month of the Holy Rosary. This is a beautiful prayer we Filipino Catholics love to pray for 31 days. And it is done often in early dawn in our parishes. Even if there are only very few people the custom continues relentlessly.

In most parishes it is a Dawn Rosary with a procession of people in the streets carrying the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In some parishes devotees bring portable sound system which awakens other devotees and invites them to join.

Dawn Rosary with procession or just said inside the parish church and blared loud and clear through a sound system characterize this parish activity. Accompanied by beautiful Marian hymns this early morning prayer helps a lot in inviting people to be conscious and aware of the presence of God, thus starting their day in the proper way.

Prayed alone or with a group, in or outside the church, this holy activity is done both verbally and mentally. But the essence of the Rosary prayer is meditation. Verbal recitation has its positive benefits in making body, soul and spirit join in praising God in Jesus and venerating His Mother. But meditating on the mysteries in the life of Jesus and Mary ‎is most effective in assuring the graces and blessings we need especially imitation, the purpose of all devotion.

This is clearly indicated in the following prayer at the end of the Litany.

“O God, whose only Begotten Son has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech you, that by meditating on the mysteries of the most Holy Rosary of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and ‎obtain what they promised through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.”

According to the famous Dominican theologian, Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P., meditation on the life of Jesus and his Blessed Mother is the most important element of the Rosary prayer. He compares the Our Fathers, Hail Marys, Glory be’s to a background music accompanying our mental awareness of the presence of God in Jesus and of His Blessed Mother Mary. For, the Rosary is a miniature bible!