Gospel – Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
26 The Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a Virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David; and the Virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And coming to her he said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with You!”
29 But She was greatly troubled at what was said, and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
30 Then the Angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for You have found favour with God. 31 Behold, You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and You shall name Him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of David His father, 33 and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever; and of His Kingdom there will be no end.”
34 But Mary said to the Angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”
35 And the Angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You. Therefore the Child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. 36 And behold Elizabeth, your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month for her who was considered barren; 37 for nothing will be impossible for God.”
38 Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the Angel departed from her (Lk 1:26-38).
I – A Providential Devotion
In modern times, devotion to the Rosary gained an ardent apostle: St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, a zealous and tireless missionary, an upright priest, a Marian theologian and founder.
Among the various works he wrote as the basis of his prolific missions was The Admirable Secret of the Rosary, in which he explains, with doctrinal soundness and abundant examples, the great spiritual value of this centuries-old practice, which has produced countless conversions and miracles. In this book, the French saint states: “I beg of you to beware of thinking of the Rosary as something of little importance – as do ignorant people, and even several great but proud scholars. Far from being insignificant, the Rosary is a priceless treasure which is inspired by God.”1
In villages that received him, and particularly in the Diocese of La Rochelle, he always founded confraternities of the Rosary: “This is a holy practice, which God, in His mercy, has set up in places where I have preached missions, in order to safeguard and increase the good brought about by the mission and to prevent further sin. Before the Rosary was established in these little towns and villages, dances and parties of debauchery went on; dissoluteness, wantonness, blasphemy, quarrels and feuds flourished; one heard nothing but evil songs and double-meaning talk. But now nothing is heard but hymns and the chant of the Our Father and Hail Mary. The only gatherings to be seen are those of twenty, thirty or a hundred or more people who, at a fixed time, sing the praises of God as religious do. There are even places where the Rosary is said in common every day, at three different times of the day. What a blessing from Heaven that is!”2
The devotion of the Rosary could well be considered a true rock of scandal, capable of separating the wheat from the chaff in the Lord’s fields
However, like any good and effective practice, the Rosary encountered serious opposition. St. Louis-Marie himself was persecuted and outraged in various dioceses still infested with the mephitic vapours of Jansenism. This devotion can well be considered a true rock of scandal, capable of separating the wheat from the chaff in the Lord’s fields:
“As there are wicked people everywhere, do not expect to find that the place you live in is free of them; there will be people who avoid going to church for the Rosary, who may even make fun of it and do all they can, by what they do and say, to stop you from going. But do not give up. As those wretched people will have to be separated from God and Heaven forever, already here on earth they have to be separated from the company of Jesus and His servants.”3
More than three centuries later, the Holy Church needs devotion to the Holy Rosary as never before. Indeed, today we are witnessing a horrendous and shocking spectacle: torrents of iniquity are flooding the world, putting the salvation of souls at serious risk; moreover, grave doctrinal confusion and countless scandals are distorting the sacred face of the Church, the Bride of the Lamb, leaving her almost unrecognizable.
There is an urgent need to strengthen the practice of meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary in order to purify the Mystical Body of Christ of those evil members who jeopardize its integrity. Only those who finger the beads of their Rosary with authentic piety and living faith will be able to remain faithful to God, hastening the magnificent day when the Reign of Mary will dawn and Satan and his infamous henchmen will be wiped off the face of the earth.
II – Mary, Golden Link Joining Heaven and Earth
St. Gabriel, God’s ambassador to the Virgin, and St. Elizabeth, pronounced great praises to Mary, which deserve to be repeated one hundred and fifty times a day
The Gospel of the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary brings to light the foundation of this prayer: the angelic greeting with which the Annunciation begins. St. Gabriel, God’s ambassador to the Virgin, and St. Elizabeth, a woman filled with the Holy Spirit, pronounced great praises to Mary, which deserve to be repeated one hundred and fifty times a day, in remembrance of the one hundred and fifty Psalms.
After the Our Father – the princeps prayer of Christianity – the Hail Mary occupies a privileged place in Catholic piety, since God is especially glorified in Our Lady by the fact that He sanctified her to the highest degree, making her full of grace.
Let us now meditate closely on this Gospel scene of unrivalled beauty.
When Heaven knocked on the door of time
26 The Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a Virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David; and the Virgin’s name was Mary.
The power of God burst into the peaceful stability of the city of Nazareth in the person of St. Gabriel, the Archangel who represents the invincible divine force. We can imagine the noble and impeccable posture with which this pure spirit arrayed himself to meet his Queen, the most exalted and humble of creatures. What light and charm, combined with supreme virility, he had to display in order to represent to Mary the Sun of Justice that was about to descend on the world through her!
Our Lady, for her part, in her abyss of unpretentiousness, had never considered being chosen by Providence for such a high task. This is shown by the fact that She was most probably living under the same roof as St. Joseph, in perfect chastity, because although the English translation refers to a Virgin who was betrothed, it is known that they had already made the marriage contract.
The righteous Joseph, a pure and just man, was the heir to the Davidic crown, which would therefore fall to him if the monarchy were restored. Just like his Bride, he did not realize that the kingship would be transferred through him to the Son of God himself, who would soon also become his Son.
Mary and Joseph were the sacrosanct doors at which the Eternal One came knocking, to penetrate time and become our Brother. A more significant and sublime moment cannot be imagined: the Only-begotten of the Father wanted to turn earth into Heaven, establishing His dwelling place among us.
Archetype of maturity for today’s youth
28 And coming to her he said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with You!” 29 But She was greatly troubled at what was said, and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Mary was fifteen or sixteen years old when She was entrusted with the most important mission in history. She was an enchanting, beautiful, luminous and pure maiden, but at the same time a monument of seriousness and elevation of spirit, which made her worthy of the gift of being the Mother of God.
What a distance between Our Lady’s sublime maturity and the calamitous frivolity of today’s youth! The path trodden by Our Lady was one of continuous ascent in holiness, through her docility to the action of grace that enlightened her intelligence and moved her will, fully ordering her most chaste senses. On the contrary, the road that the contemporary world offers young people is one of bestialization, favouring manifestations of an exacerbated sensibility that darkens the understanding and dulls the heart, making it numb to any motion of the Holy Spirit.
It is therefore necessary to promote among children and adolescents the figure of the young Mary as a model and guide. Only if they follow this shining Morning Star will they be able to resist the vagaries of chaos and impurity that threaten to banish dignity and beauty from the earth.
Accustomed to angelic company
Still in the same Gospel passage, St. Gabriel addresses Our Lady by calling her “full of grace”, an expression that could be more accurately translated as “made grace” or “graced”, that is, one who has been transformed completely and forever by God’s grace. Just as fire set to combustible material turns it into flames, so grace set Mary’s Immaculate Heart on fire, uniting it fully to God.
Far from having her lucidity clouded or being frightened by the presence of the Angel, Mary began to reflect upon the meaning of those mysterious praises
On hearing the angelic salutation, the Most Pure Virgin was troubled. Humility is the daughter of the fear of God, a gift that leads man to be fully aware of his nothingness in the face of the Creator’s greatness. As a result, when She heard praise of which She did not feel worthy, She experienced the modesty of the poor in spirit, who blush when exalted, and this was the reason for her perturbation.
Therefore, far from having her lucidity clouded or being frightened by the presence of the Angel, Mary began to reflect, with the loftiest wisdom, on the meaning of those mysterious praises.
The promise of royalty
30 Then the Angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for You have found favour with God. 31 Behold, You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and You shall name Him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of David His father, 33 and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever; and of His Kingdom there will be no end.”
The Virgin Mary shone in God’s eyes, adorned with every virtue and without a shadow of blemish, and for this reason She found favour before Him and would conceive in her womb Jesus, who would be both Son of the Most High and her Son, true God and true Man, the awaited Messiah, descendant of David.
An important detail is the way St. Gabriel describes Our Lord’s kingship: “He will reign forever.” It is a kind of alliance between the divine empire, which is indelible, and the temporal kingdom of Judah, which becomes somehow eternalized in the person of the Incarnate Word.
Our Lady undoubtedly kept the words of the Archangel in her heart (cf. Lk 2:19) and, meditating upon them for hours on end, She pierced the veils of this marvelous mystery with wise insight. Her humble reservations about the praise She had received ceased completely once God’s will was made explicit. How could She refuse the call from on high? If God wanted her as His Mother, how could She doubt His providence and care?
However, one essential point remained to be clarified.
Ever Virgin
34 But Mary said to the Angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”
The mysteries of Mary’s life reveal to us the greatness of divine omnipotence acting upon her. Could a kind of new Marian Pentecost be in store for humanity?
By proposing such a difficulty, Our Lady was making it clear that She had taken a vow of continence, which St. Joseph enthusiastically accepted. In fact, since She was already married, what other reason would She have to question the Angel about the conception of the Child, except that She was prevented, for a higher reason, from consummating the marriage union? This moment of the Annunciation highlights Our Lady’s particular love of virginity and her desire to safeguard it at all costs, even in the face of the prospect of being the Mother of God!
For this clear and unsurpassable purity, the Word chose her as the sealed fountain and the enclosed garden (cf. Sg 4:12) in which He would take on human flesh. And such was His delight in Mary’s perfect chastity that, as well as preserving her at the moment of conception, He also did so during and after childbirth, making His Mother ever virgin, as the Liturgy sings.
For God nothing is impossible
35 And the Angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You. Therefore the Child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. 36 And behold Elizabeth, your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month for her who was considered barren; 37 for nothing will be impossible for God.”
If we were to draw up a coat of arms to honour Our Lady – a difficult undertaking, since it should symbolize all the glories of creation and Redemption – a very fitting motto to adorn it would be: “Nothing is impossible for God.” In fact, the mysteries of Mary’s life reveal to us the greatness of divine omnipotence acting on her and on her devotees.
We should expect grandiose interventions involving the victory of good over evil, knowing that the Rosary will bring us the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Magnificat proclaims the marvels with which the Queen of the universe was honoured by the Most High, some of which we hear today through the lips of St. Gabriel. Among the most sublime is undoubtedly the supernatural bond that the Holy Spirit established with her, making her His Spouse and making her as fruitful as the dew that gives life to the most fragrant, beautiful and noble lily.
This mystical espousal of Love itself generated an incalculable union between the Two that, perhaps in the near future, will be better known and appreciated by the Saints of the latter times, as St. Louis Grignion prophesied. Something similar can be said about the Eternal Father, who overshadowed her, communicating His creative power to her in a certain way. To what degrees of dignity did this immense gift elevate her?
Who knows if, sooner rather than later, these theological horizons will gain new clarity, arousing enthusiasm for Our Lady and obtaining a new Marian Pentecost from God for humanity?
The decisive “yes”
38 Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the Angel departed from her.
Mary’s “fiat” to the Lord’s will is at the same time an act of obedience and faith. In fact, it is pointless to separate these two virtues, since someone who does not trust is unlikely to submit their will to the will of another. Quite different is the case of someone who puts all their hope in God, knowing that they will never be defrauded. This state of mind makes obedience prompt and joyful, like that of Our Lady. Her “yes” was absolute and definitive, to the point of dividing history together with her Divine Son, who in this very act became Man in her virginal cloister.
Let us ask the Virgin of virgins for an absolute faith, which will result in giving us the docility and fortitude we need to do God’s will in all circumstances.
III – The Future, Dependent on the Rosary
In these times of darkness and misery, Catholics need to strengthen their bonds of love and submission to Mary Most Holy, so that true miracles can be worked in their hearts through her. Nothing is more conducive to this than the recitation of the Holy Rosary, by which we meditate, during its Our Fathers and Hail Marys, on the mysteries of the life, Passion and glorification of the Son of God.
The pious repetition of the angelic salutation will prepare our souls to receive the Marian graces that will transform us into humble slaves of Jesus, trusting children of the Heavenly Father and daring warriors of the Virgin. Through her, the world will be shown that everything is possible for God, even the restoration of Christendom, which has been under the yoke of vices and corrupt customs for centuries.
Devotees of the Rosary should expect grandiose interventions along the lines of the victory of good over the forces of evil that seem to rule world events. The Rosary will bring us the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary! ◊
Notes
1 ST. LOUIS-MARIE GRIGNION DE MONTFORT. The Secret of the Rosary, n.1. In: God Alone. Bay Shore, NY: Montfort Publications, 1987, p.152.
2 Idem, n.135, p.218.
3 Idem, ibidem.
