POPE JOHN PAUL II EXHORTS ALL TO PRAY THE ROSARY

FIRST SATURDAYS WITH POPE JOHN PAUL II

Pope John Paul II prays the Rosary on the First Saturday of every month on Vatican Radio. The Rosary is broadcast daily by the Vatican Radio as well as by a number of Catholic dioceses around the world. John Paul CHOOSES to always publicly pray with the congregation on Vatican Radio on the First Saturday of each month to remind the faithful of Our Lord's and Our Lady's request for REPARATION to the Immaculate Heart of Mary particularly on the First Saturday of every month. On December 10, 1925 Our Lady said to Sister Lucy:

"I promise to help at the hour of death, with the graces needed for their salvation whosoever on the first Saturday of five consecutive months shall confess and receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep Me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the 15 mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making Reparation to Me."

       The Rosary is my favorite prayer. A marvelous prayer. Marvelous in its simplicity and its depth. In this prayer we repeat many times the words that the Virgin Mary heard from the Archangel and from Her cousin Elizabeth. The whole Church joins in these words. It can be said that the Rosary is, in a way, a prayer-comment on the last chapter of the Constitution "Lumen Gentium" of Vatican II, the chapter that deals with "the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the Mystery of Christ and the Church".

       Against the background of the words "Ave Maria" there pass before the eyes of the soul the principal events of the life of Jesus Christ. They are composed of the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries, and they put us in living communion with Jesus through, we could say, the Heart of His Mother.

       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 close to us and, in particular, those of the persons closest to us, our dear ones. In this way the simple prayer of the Rosary beats out the rhythm of human life.

       In the last few weeks I have had numerous proofs of kindness on the part of people all over the world. I want to express my gratitude in decades of the Rosary, in order to be able to express it in prayer, as well as in a human way; in the prayer, so simple and so rich, that the Rosary is. I cordially exhort everyone to recite it.

       The maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent which She gave in faith at the Annunciation and which She sustained without wavering beneath the cross. This maternity will last until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. For taken up to heaven, She did not lay aside this saving role, but continues to win for us gifts of eternal salvation.

- Vatican II - 62

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