On his Radio María program, Bishop José Ignacio Munilla of the Diocese Orihuela-Alicante in Spain recently shared five reasons to pray the rosary during the month of October:
1. The Blessed Mother herself has repeatedly made the request.
The Spanish prelate pointed out that the fact that over the centuries the Virgin Mary has repeatedly asked for the rosary to be prayed "should have already been enough" for Christians to take up the beads every day.
He proceeded to review some of the instances where she had made this request, either explicitly or implicitly. "She did so with St. Dominic of Guzmán around the year 1208, when she asked for that prayer in the face of the Cathars," he noted.
At Lourdes, in 1858, there was no explicit command and yet, Munilla recalled, "the rosary was at the heart of the 18 apparitions to Bernadette."
Some 21 years later, during an 1877 apparition in Gietrzwald, Poland, the Virgin was cited saying directly: "I desire that you pray the rosary every day" and "pray the rosary with fervor."
As Munilla sees it, the apparitions at Fátima in 1917 constitute "the central case" in the matter, because it was there that the Virgin insisted upon the practice.
Munilla recalled that on May 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary said: "Pray the rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war. She repeated this in June, July, and October, and on Oct. 13, she revealed herself as the Lady of the Rosary."
Munilla went on to reference what the Virgin Mary said in 1980, in the town of Cuapa, Nicaragua. There, "the Virgin Mary asked Bernardo Martínez to pray the rosary every day — not merely reciting it straight through, but meditating on the mysteries" — as well as "promoting it within the family and the parish."
In Kibeho, Rwanda, in 1981, she also made a request to pray the rosary, but with a distinctive feature: "There, the emphasis was not so much on the standard rosary but rather on the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows" of the Virgin.
Likewise, the prelate referred to the apparitions between 1983 and 1990 in San Nicolás, Argentina, where "the Virgin appeared under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary and the messages urged that it be prayed."
Munilla also referred to Medjugorje, where the Church has not issued a ruling on the supernatural nature of the alleged apparitions but has approved the religious and pastoral experience taking place there. It is an experience characterized, he said, by "an insistence on the daily recitation of the rosary."
2. In praying the rosary, one contemplates the face of Christ with Mary.
The second reason put forward is that praying the rosary allows one to contemplate the face of Christ with Mary through meditation on the joyful, sorrowful, glorious, and luminous mysteries. St. John Paul II affirmed this in his 2002 apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae.
"He points out that the rosary, while Marian in form, is Christocentric; it is a summary of the Gospel," Munilla noted.
"Each decade presents a mystery from the life of Jesus — joyful, luminous, sorrowful, or glorious — which is meditated upon while reciting the Hail Mary. It means letting the Gospel enter through humble repetition, contemplating the face of Christ with Mary," he explained.
3. It is accessible to everyone and fosters a familiar relationship with God.
Addressing this point, the Spanish prelate recalled how Sister Lucia, the visionary of Fátima, had explained: "If daily Mass and Communion had been required of us, many would not have been able to fulfill the obligation, because not everyone has access to a daily celebration of the Eucharist."
However, she continued, "the rosary, by contrast, fits into any state of life, at any time, and in any place." So much so that Sister Lucia considered it — after the Mass — to be "the prayer most pleasing to God and most beneficial for the soul."
4. It is a powerful prayer of intercession.
Praying the rosary "is a weapon called for to secure peace and for spiritual combat," the bishop added. "Leo XIII dedicated a dozen papal documents to it and proposed it as a remedy for society's great evils. John Paul II linked it again to peace," he added.
5. Repetition brings inner order.
Fifth, Munilla proposed that praying the rosary "helps us guard our hearts. It sustains faith, hope, and charity. It helps us preserve these three theological virtues and avoid being consumed by the spirit of this world."
"Repetition brings order to the inner self," the Spanish prelate continued, emphasizing that "meditation on the mysteries turns one's gaze back to what endures, and Mary's intercession sustains what one cannot uphold alone."
As St. John Bosco would say, Munilla concluded, "the rosary is as necessary for the health of the soul as bread is for the body."
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
