Devotion to the Holy Rosary: a prayer source of glory to the mediator of salvation
The glorious mysteries of the Holy Rosary, in the Marian piety of the faithful, are the open window on the eternity of joy and glory of Paradise, where the Risen Lord and the divine Mother await us to make us live in the bliss of the Kingdom of Heaven, where God -Love will be "all in all", as the Apostle Paul teaches (1 Cor 15,28:XNUMX).
The Rosary of the glorious mysteries calls us to contemplate and also to share, in theological hope, the ineffable joy that Mary Most Holy experienced both when she saw the Divine Risen Son, and when she was taken up in soul and body to Heaven and crowned in the glory of the Paradise as Queen of Angels and Saints. The glorious mysteries are the sublime prefiguration of the joy and glory of the Kingdom of God which will be for all the redeemed dead with the grace of God in the soul.
If it is true, as it is very true, that Mary Most Holy is our Heavenly Mother, it is also very true, therefore, that She wants to lead all of us, her children, in that same "Father's House" (Jn 14,2: XNUMX) which is the his eternal home, and for this reason, as the holy Curé of Ars teaches, it can also be said that the Celestial Mother is always at the door of Heaven awaiting the arrival of each of her children, until the last of the saved, to the House of the sky.
The glorious mysteries of the Holy Rosary, in fact, if meditated properly, make us lift our minds and hearts upwards, towards eternal goods, towards things above, according to the salutary calls of Saint Paul who writes: «If you have risen with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, taste the things above, not those of the earth "(Col 3,2); and again: "We do not have a permanent city down here, but we are looking for the future one" (Heb 13,14:XNUMX). Let us remember the example of Saint Philip Neri, who, in front of those who proposed to accept the cardinal's hat, exclaimed: "What is this stuff? ... I want Heaven, Heaven! ...".
The Mediatrix of salvation
The heart of the glorious mysteries is the mystery of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when the apostles and disciples of Jesus were in the Upper Room, all gathered in prayer around Mary Most Holy, "the Mother of Jesus" (Acts 1,14:4,6) . Here, in the Upper Room, we have the beginning of the Church, and the beginning takes place in prayer around Mary, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Love, who is the one who makes us pray, who prays in the depths of the heart shouting «Abbà , Father »(Gal XNUMX), so that all the redeemed may return to the Father.
Prayer, Mary, the Holy Spirit: they are the ones that mark the beginning of the Church-salvation for humanity to be brought to Heaven; but they do not mark only the beginning, but also the development and growth of the Church, because the generation of the Mystical Body of Christ also takes place, and always, like that of the Head who is Christ: that is, it takes place by the Virgin Mary by work of the Holy Spirit ("de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine").
The glorious mysteries of the Rosary make it clear how the Incarnation, the Redemption and the Church are aimed at Paradise, polarized to that Kingdom of heaven, where Mary is already present as a shining universal Mother and Queen who awaits all children and works actively " until the perpetual crowning of all the elect », as Vatican II teaches (Lumen gentium 62).
This is why the glorious mysteries of the Rosary make us think above all of the brothers who are still without faith, without grace, without Christ and the Church, living "in the shadow of death" (Lk 1,79). It's about most of humanity! Who will save her? St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, at the school of St. Bernard, St. Louis Grignion of Montfort and St. Alfonso de 'Liguori, teaches that it is Mary Most Holy who is the universal Mediatrix of the grace that saves; and Vatican II confirms that Mary Most Holy "taken to heaven has not deposited this function of salvation, but with her multiple intercession continues to obtain the graces of eternal health", and "with her maternal charity she takes care of the brothers of the His son still wandering and placed in the midst of dangers and worries, until they are brought to the blessed homeland "(LG 62).
With the Rosary we can all cooperate in the universal salvific mission of Our Lady, and thinking of the crowds of peoples to be saved we should burn with zeal for their salvation remembering St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe who wrote that we "have no right to rest until a only soul remains under the slavery of satan », also remembering the blessed novel Teresa of Calcutta, an admirable image of the Mother of mercy, when she collected the dying from the streets to give them the opportunity to die with dignity and with the smile of charity turned to them.