friends the lord jesus has entrusted his church with privileged means through which we can participate in his victory over sin and death these include the sacraments especially the eucharist and penance the bible and specific devotional prayers such as the rosary why is the rosary so important first the rosary is embodied concrete densely objective it's something that you hold in your hand the simple feel of the rosary beads can put you in a mystical frame of mind second the rosary is a way of disciplining the mind for meditation when our minds are skittish superficial obsessive we
never move to the deeper realms of the soul the repetitious prayer of the rosary quiets the mind and allows the depths of the soul to rise third the rosary slows us down for me this is perhaps the most striking quality of the rosary all the spiritual traditions witness to the fact that the soul likes to go slow the surface of the psyche is in constant motion hurrying to its next thought but the deep spiritual center likes to see to hear to savor when we pray the rosary we move in a circle arriving at the very
place we started the purpose is not to get particularly anywhere rather it is to meditate upon the great christian mysteries to look at the icons of jesus birth suffering death resurrection and ascension from a variety of angles in varying moods with different emphases the way we might muse over a rembrandt portrait this is just the sort of slow prayer the deep soul loves to do the rosary a concretizing quieting savoring prayer has enormous spiritual power and it therefore has enormous social and evangelical power as well for dorothy day or saint teresa of calcutta the link
between contemplation of the divine mysteries and the most radical work on behalf of the poor was perfectly obvious their practical mission grew organically out of intense concentration upon sacred things in the rosary we too join together not only in prayer but in common purpose so let us begin you
