A Beautiful Journey with a Beautiful Woman

The Catholic Church recognizes October as the Month of the Holy Rosary.  I thought it was fitting that my first post of October be devoted to my favorite prayer outside of the Mass.

The rose is said to be the queen of flowers.   The yellow rose is symbolic of joy, a new beginning, and friendship.  The pink rose is a symbol of appreciation, elegance and grace.  In literature, roses often symbolize love and beauty.   From a Christian perspective, a rose is a symbol of heaven and harmony in the world. Furthermore, the rose is considered the flower of the Virgin Mary.

The Rosary is the rose of all devotions and it is, in my opinion and experience, the most important devotion after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  The word Rosary means "Crown of Roses".  Our Lady has revealed to several saints and other holy people that each time they say a Hail Mary they are giving her a beautiful rose and that each complete Rosary makes her a crown of roses.  In every one of her apparitions, the heavenly Mother has invited us to say the Rosary as a powerful weapon against evil, to bring us to true peace.

The Holy Rosary is considered a perfect prayer because within it lies the awesome story of our salvation. When we pray the Rosary, we join Mary in meditating on the mysteries of joy, of light, of sorrow and the glory of Jesus.  It's a simple prayer, and humble; so much like Mary.

It's a prayer we can all say together with her, the Mother of God.  With every Hail Mary we invite her to pray for us.  She joins her prayer to ours.  What Mary asks for she always receives, because Jesus will never say no to anything His Mother asks of Him.

With our prayer made together with our heavenly Mother, we can obtain the great gift of bringing about a change of hearts and conversion. Each day, through prayer we can drive away from ourselves and from our homeland many dangers and many evils.

It can seem a repetitive prayer but instead it is like two sweethearts who many times say to one another the words: "I love you!”

One of my dreams years ago was one in which Our Blessed Mother reached out and took my hand. Then she said, “Come on a journey with me, child.”  As we walked along a path lined with roses, she began telling me a story:

It started with the Angel Gabriel appearing to a young woman to announce the birth of a Savior to all nations.  Then the pregnant young girl visited her cousin, Elizabeth, whose own expected child "leapt in the womb" because he recognized the presence of God Incarnate. You know the rest of the story. It continued with the Blessed Mother telling me the rest of the Joyful Mysteries, then the Luminous, the Sorrowful (in my dream, this is where the path of roses turned to thorns), and the Glorious, ending with the “young woman” mentioned at the beginning of the story being crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth.  

It was a magnificent dream and a wonderful experience.  I have had that same experience several times since then while meditating on our Savior’s life.  Wouldn’t it be something to hear the story we all know so well from Mary’s own perspective and voice?  I believe that if we are in the right frame of mind when we recite the Rosary, that's exactly what happens.

If you have never prayed the Rosary, or forgotten how, there are all sorts of guides and meditations online to help you start or resume the practice.  Please give it a try!