6 It is beautiful to see how generations of Christians, from the Gospel on, have created their prayers. As early as the second or third century, a graffito in Nazareth contained an abbreviated form of the first two words of the angelic greeting, but with one difference. In the Gospel according to Saint Luke, the angel addresses Mary, but does not call her by her name. In a masterpiece of grace, he addresses her as “full of grace.” When praying to her, Christians used the name her parents gave her, the name Saint Joseph surely used when speaking to his wife: “Mary.” Christians adopted the words of the angel and made of them their prayer. To the angel’s greeting, Christians joined Elizabeth’s blessing. “Rejoice,” the angel had said. “Blessed art thou,” added Elizabeth. Joy and blessing— the two fundamental themes of the Gospel. All Prayer Rises to the Father Some time later, an intercession was added. Mary was proclaimed “Holy” and the “Mother of God,” according to the faith as defined at the Third Ecumenical Council held in Ephesus in 431. As she is at one and the same time Mother of God and our Mother, she is particularly well placed to present our petitions to him who alone can grant them, and at two decisive moments, the present and the final moment: now and at the hour of our death. She intercedes for us as she did at Cana: “They have no more wine.” But the rosary is not just a series of Hail Marys. Every set of ten beads, or decade, begins with the Our Father that Jesus taught us to pray, and ends with the acclamation of the Trinity: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit… We enter into the rosary with a sign of the cross and the Creed. It is because the prayer of the rosary is not directed toward herself that it is authentically Marian: “The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” “Hallowed be thy name,” we say in the Our Father. Even from the cross, Jesus “revealed” the name of the Father, as he says in his Priestly Prayer. The first Our Father reminds us that ultimately all prayer must rise to the Father, the source of all life and all holiness. The three Hail Marys preceding the first decade recall the Trinity and the three virtues of faith, hope, and charity. These are called the “theological” virtues because they come to us from God and are about God in whom we place all our faith, our hope, and our love. Thus the prayer of the rosary has gradually evolved. It does not consist in the mechanical repetition of multiple Hail Marys. Even the number of How Magnificent Is the History of the Rosary! Bishop Jacques Perrier Former Bishop of Lourdes
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