The Power of the Holy Rosary

Devotion to the holy rosary take many forms. St. John Paul II always held it in his hand, priests wear them on their waists, and religious and lay have them on their necks, inside their pockets or purses.  Drivers too hang them on their vehicle mirrors, touching the Cross each time they start driving, or when they pass by a Church.

From the time St. Dominic established it and gave it to the Church in 1214, “up to the time Blessed Alan de la Roche reestablished it in 1460, it has always been called the Psalter of JESUS and Mary.” In the past, people used to recite the 150 psalms of David, but “since simple and uneducated people are not able to say the Psalms (St Louis Marie Grignion de Monfort), they prayed the 150 Hail Marys in the decades of the Joyful, Sorrowful, and the Glorious Mysteries. St. John Paul II added the 4th Mysteries of Light or the Luminous Mysteries when he was Pope.

The word “rosary” means “crown of roses.”  Prayed devoutly, people place on the heads of JESUS and Mary 16 red roses for the Our FATHERs, and 153 white roses for each Hail Mary.

To those who faithfully pray the holy rosary, Mother Mary promises powerful graces; special protection; as armour against hell; desire for eternal things; one’s soul shall not perish; and not perish by an unprovided death; nor die without the sacraments of the Church; shall have during their life and at their death the Light of GOD and HIS abundant graces and participate in the merits of the Saints; be delivered from Purgatory; shall have a high degree of heavenly glory; obtain all one asks of Her; aid in their necessities; have as intercessors the entire celestial courts; be counted as Her children, and brothers and sisters of JESUS; and sure way to heaven. The Blessed Virgin Mary said to St. Dominic “One day, through the Rosary and Scapular, I will save the world.”

Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima said that “the Most Holy Virgin in these last times… has given a new efficacy to the… rosary… that there is no problem, whether temporal or above all spiritual… that cannot be solved by the rosary.”

As a grace-laden bonus, the beads of the rosary is also used in praying the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, St. Gertrude’s Rosary for the Holy Souls, the Rosary of the Holy Wounds of JESUS, the Rosary of Faith.

This repetitive prayer “is the scourge of the devil – Pope Adrian VI; a treasure of graces – Pope Paul V; The WEAPON – St. Pio; the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart of JESUS WHO so loves HIS Mother – St . Louis Marie Grignion de Monfort (Pieta Prayer Booklet).”

One cannot begin to imagine what power this simple prayer has. This October, month of the Holy Rosary, and beyond, let us enclose within its circle of protection: our Church, all mankind, and the whole world. (Bella A. Sarenas)