For world peace.
“Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world,”
— Our Lady of Fatima, 1917.
In his encyclical Mense Maio, Pope Paul urged Christians to pray to Our Lady Queen of Peace for world peace. He laid special emphasis on the Rosary, “the prayer so dear to Our Lady and so highly recommended by the supreme pontiffs.”
A means for preserving the home.
“There is no surer means of calling down Gods blessings upon the family … than the daily recitation of the Rosary.”— Pope Pius XII
“If families will but listen to my message and give Our Lady ten minutes of their twenty-four hours by reciting the daily Family Rosary, I assure them that their homes will become, by God’s grace, peace, prayerful places… little heavens, which God the Author of home life has intended they should be” — Father Peyton.
For healing the evils of our day.
“We do not hesitate to affirm again publicly that we put great confidence in the Holy Rosary for the healing of evils which afflict our times” — Pope Pius XII.
A means of Christian perfection.
“… Therefore we are sure that Our children and all their brethren throughout the world will turn (the Rosary) into a school for learning true perfection, as, with a deep spirit of recollection, they contemplate the teachings that shine forth from the life of Christ and of Mary Most Holy.” — Pope John XXIII.
The most efficacious family prayer
“We now desire, to recommend strongly the recitation of the family Rosary. There is no doubt that … the Rosary should be considered as one of the best and most efficacious prayers in common that the Christian family is invited to recite. We like to think, and sincerely hope, that when the family gathering becomes a time of prayer the Rosary is a frequent and favoured manner of praying” -Pope John Paul II FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO.
POPE JOHN PAUL II INVITES US TO PRAY THE ROSARY
The Rosary is my favourite prayer. A marvellous prayer! Marvellous in its simplicity and in its depth. In this prayer we repeat many times the words that the Virgin Mary heard from the Archangel, and from her kinswoman Elizabeth. The whole Church joins in these words. It can be said that the Rosary is, in a certain way, a prayer-commentary on the last chapter of the Constitution Lumen Gentium of Vatican II, a chapter which deals with the wonderful presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and the Church.
In fact against the background of the words Ave Maria there pass before the eyes of the soul the main episodes in the life of Jesus Christ. They are composed altogether of the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries, and they put us in living communion with Jesus through — we could say — his Mother’s heart.
At the same time our heart can enclose in these decades of the Rosary all the facts that make up the life of the individual, the family, the nation, the Church and mankind, personal matters and those of one’s neighbours, and particularly those who are dearest to us. Thus the simple prayer of the Rosary beats the rhythm of human life.