Montfort and the Rosary
Father Roger Charest, SMM
Montfort and the Rosary
H igh on the priority list of St. Louis de Montfort’s “exterior practices” of true and perfect devotion to Mary is the Rosary.
He is known as “the priest with the big rosary” (of 15 decades). And he preached it in all his missions. When he wrote the rule of his future Company of Mary (The Montfort Missionaries), he enjoined upon us the following:
“The purpose of these missions is to renew the spirit of Christianity among the faithful. Therefore, the missionaries will see to it that, as the Pope has commanded, the baptismal vows are renewed with the greatest solemnity. During the whole of the mission, they must do all they can – to establish the great devotion of the daily Rosary. They will explain the prayers and mysteries of the Rosary. They will give the people the example by having the Rosary recited aloud every day of the mission, etc. etc. ”. (God Alone, p. 421, Nos. 56 & 57).
It is not surprising that since the discovery, in 1842, of Montfort’s Treatise on True Devotion to Mary and the subsequent publication of his other spiritual writings, including “The Secret of the Rosary,” devotion to the Rosary has taken on world-wide proportions in the Church.
Pope John Paul II and Fr. Roger Charest, SMM.
. . . and I know no surer way of discovering whether a person belongs to God than by finding out if he loves saying the Hail Mary and the Rosary. . .
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Love For The Rosary
Consider the influence of Our Lady of Lourdes reciting the Rosary with St. Bernadette in 1858; the influence of Montfort’s writings on Pope Leo XIII, who beatified Father de Montfort in 1888. Pope Leo XIII published many encyclicals on Marian devotion. And on the Rosary in particular, every year from 1883 to 1901; the motherly requests and promises of Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima, in 1917; the encyclical of Pope Paul VI on “Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” (1974) in which he highlighted the Angelus and the Rosary devotions.
Finally, Pope John Paul II who, at the very beginning of his papacy (Oct. 29, 1978) said: “the Rosary is my favorite prayer;” and who opened the Marian Year on the Eve of Pentecost (1987), by reciting the Rosary via satellite T.V. with the entire Church, and who has made it a practice to recite the Rosary weekly on the Vatican radio. And how could we forget the countless mammoth Rallies around the world of the late Father Patrick Peyton – this century’s No. I Family Rosary Crusader.
The Power of The Rosary
Despite all this, sad to say, there are still Catholics who ignore, not to say play down the importance of the Rosary. Fr. de Montfort himself had encountered this type of person. He quotes them as saying: “The Rosary is a devotion suitable only for ignorant and illiterate people”. He then goes on to add: “I do not know how this should be, but it is perfectly true; and I know no surer way of discovering whether a person belongs to God than by finding out if he loves saying the Hail Mary and the Rosary, etc.” (G.A. p. 370, No. 251).
A great personality and faith-filled Christian mother of our times is the late Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Rose is the mother of President John Kennedy. Towards the end of her beautiful autobiography entitled, Times to Remember (Doubleday, 1995), Mrs. Kennedy reminisces about her “philosophy of life.”
The Rosary Helps US Embrace Faith
She then went on to describe how, among other devotions, “the rosary has helped me to lead a happy life devoted to the love of God and for the benefit of my family and my friends, and the welfare of my neighbor. The rosary may be a silly symbol for some people. But for me, if I cannot sleep, if I am worried on a plane, if I am pacing the floor overwrought in thinking of my husband’s illness and I hold the rosary in my hand. It gives me comfort, trust, serenity, a sense of understanding by the Blessed Mother because as I have talked and prayed to her all my life, in happy, successful times”.
“I know now she will understand and comfort me and bring me solace in my anxious, troubled moments – and sometimes I have given a rosary to my friends when they are exhausted and baffled by their problems – and so many times I have heard them say, ‘Oh, Rose, if I only had your faith. If only I could have the trust and confidence in the Almighty which you have.’ And so I have urged my children and grandchildren to embrace this faith bequeathed to them, to foster it, to try to strengthen it by prayer, reading, and study, seeking information on dogma that they cannot understand”. (pp. 445-446).
Isn’t that a powerful testimony and a rich legacy of a woman whose life has spanned two centuries!
