Why we should pray the Rosary

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Father Kelleher helps a young Irish boy pray the rosary during a Global Living Rosary.

Contributed photo

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October is the Month of the Rosary

Most Catholics know how to pray the rosary, but for many, this Marian prayer is more of an occasional form of prayer rather than a staple of their prayer life. Father James Kelleher, SOLT, wants to change that. With a love of the rosary that was taught to him as a child by his parents, Father Kelleher’s life is now devoted to reinvigorating this form of prayer within the Church.

Since 2005, Father Kelleher has been giving talks all across the country about the beauty and power of the Rosary, as well as leading Global Living Rosaries all over the world. He explains that this prayer should be a part of every Catholic’s prayer life, and points to St. John Paul II, Our Lady of Fatima and St. Pio of Pietrelcina, perhaps better known as Padre Pio, to illustrate the importance of the rosary in Catholic life.

“St. John Paul II…said that the Rosary was his favorite prayer because with it, you contemplate the life and face of Jesus through the eyes of Mary,” Father Kelleher said. “Not only do we pray through her vision, but through her intercession. When you and I are praying in the Hail Mary, ‘Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,’ she is actually praying with us. Mary was preserved in perfect grace from sin, and she is completely united with God, so when she prays for us, she has perfect intercession.”

He illustrates the point thus, “When we pray, we receive grace. But when we ask for Mary’s intercession, and she prays for us, there is 1,000 times the grace!”

Pope John Paul II had such a devotion to the rosary that, in October 2002, he wrote the apostolic letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary), to announce that the 2002-03 liturgical year would be declared “The Year of the Rosary,” as well as announcing the introduction of the Luminous Mysteries to the rosary.

“John Paul II loved scripture,” Father Kelleher said, “and the rosary is a very scriptural prayer.”

In fact the first part of the Hail Mary comes directly from the Gospel of Luke: the angel Gabriel declares, “Hail favored one! The Lord is with you (Lk 1:28)!” And then Mary’s cousin Elizabeth cries out “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb (Lk 1:42).”

Father Kelleher explains that while the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries are also scriptural and follow the life of Christ, the Luminous Mysteries are special in that they cover Christ’s public ministry. He says, “In the Luminous Mysteries, we meditate on Christ’s work in the world, and as we pray these mysteries, we pray to let the life of the Holy Spirit illuminate our life.”

“As we pray in the Our Father, ‘thy will be done,’ we pray that, like Christ, we may follow God’s will, for that is our call to holiness,” Father Kelleher said.
The rosary is not only an important prayer for meditating on our personal lives, however. As Our Lady of Fatima teaches the Church, the rosary is an indispensable part of its mission to bring about peace in the world.

Between the months of May and October 1917, in Fatima, Portugal, the Mother of God appeared to three shepherd children in a series of glorious visions. Father Kelleher makes a point to recognize that “[Mary] could have appeared to someone older—to teens or adults—but she chose to appear to children: Lucia who was 10, Francisco who was eight, and Jacinta who was only seven.”

“And when Our Mother appeared to them, she told them, ‘Pray the rosary everyday for peace in the world and for this war to come to a quick end’,” Father Kelleher said. “Keep in mind, more than one million men had been killed [in World War I] before the apparitions…and so, it was perhaps the rosaries of those small children in Fatima which helped bring about the end of the war one year later.”

At her last apparition, Mary told the three children that she was to be known as Our Lady of the Rosary; she desired to be known by the power of her intercession in that holy prayer. As Father Kelleher points out, “She called for rosaries to be said to bring about world peace, and it seems that, especially today, we should continue to pray the rosary for that peace.”

Father Kelleher adds another saint to his list of advocates for the Rosary: Padre Pio. “He was the greatest confessor of the 20th century!” Father Kelleher said. “Padre Pio would hear confessions for 12 hours a day, and the Holy Spirit had given him the gift of reading souls.” This gift allowed Padre Pio to be able to know and reveal the mortal sins of a penitent who came to confession without remembering or confessing all of his mortal sins.

“So how did he get that gift?” Father Kelleher asks. “First, he was totally in love with Jesus in the Eucharist, and preferred to celebrate Mass for two or three hours if he could. But secondly, Padre Pio loved Our Lady in the Rosary. In fact, he would pray 10 rosaries a day while hearing confessions. He called the rosary his ‘spiritual weapon’.”

Pope John Paul II, Our Lady of Fatima and Padre Pio stand as holy role models in a particular way during this month of the rosary. Whether the rosary is prayed for Mary’s intercession for something great like world peace or something small in the life of the believer, the words of Padre Pio assures with confidence that “With it, you will win.”