The Holy Rosary: the charm of the Ave Maria
The Holy Rosary: the charm of the Ave Maria
The Holy Rosary is filled with the charm of the Ave Maria. The crown of the Ave Maria carries within it the charm of a prayer that resounds from the mouth of the children, when the mother teaches them the Ave Maria, which resounds in the singing of the Ave Maria, so frequent in Christian piety; which resounds in the striking tolls of the bells at Angelus time three times a day. The Rosary is the precious casket of the Hail Marys which raise the mind and heart by immersing them in the most ineffable mysteries of our faith: the Incarnation of God in the joyful mysteries, the Revelation of Christ in the luminous mysteries, the universal Redemption in the painful mysteries, the eternal life of Paradise in the glorious mysteries.
What has not produced the charm of the Ave Maria in the most delicate and sensitive hearts? One example among many is that of the great Danish poet and writer, Giovanni Jorgensen. He belonged to a strictly Lutheran family and every evening the mother read a page of the Bible to the family, commenting on it according to the school and doctrine of the Protestants. Before falling asleep we had to recite our Father. The Ave Maria, however, was considered a true heresy.
The boy Giovanni Jorgensen was very attached to this family practice, and he certainly did not think he would ever depart from it. But one evening, however, it happened that, being outdoors, under the starry sky, he began to recite, on his knees, the Ave Maria he had read and learned from a book of Catholics. He was surprised himself, and certainly did not reveal to mother what had happened to him almost inadvertently. And yet, by now he could not escape the charm of the Ave Maria prayer, so that many times in the evening, after the recitation of the Our Father, he knelt on the couch and also recited, with all affection, "Ave Maria, full of grace ... Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us ... »
Growing up over the years and studies, meanwhile, Giovanni unfortunately let himself be conquered by the various deadly doctrines of liberalism, socialism, evolutionism, and then ended up in the most icy atheism. By now he had lost the simple faith of childhood, and it seemed all ended hopelessly. But instead, no, it wasn't all over, because there was still a thread, only a thread, the mysterious thread of that Ave Maria recited many times kneeling on his bed ... Some friendships with Catholic scholars, in fact, led him slowly to faith Catholic, and he converted then in 1896, well aware of the part played by the Madonna with that prayer of the Hail Mary, and he wanted to dedicate one of his most prestigious works to the Madonna, "Our Lady of Denmark".
"Full of grace": for us
It is clear that the charm of the Ave Maria is not an aesthetic charm, but a charm of grace, which springs from Colei who is the "full of grace"; it is a charm of the afterlife, for the ineffable mysteries it contains and which it expresses in its sublime simplicity; it is an entirely maternal charm, linked to the sweet and sweet person of Mary Most Holy, the Mother of God and our Mother; it is a charm of mercy, for the help it gives to the present and for the salvation it ensures even "in the hour of our death".
The Rosary is a bundle of Ave Maria, it is a necklace of Ave Maria, it is a flowerbed of Ave Maria, perfumed like May roses brought to earth by the Angel Gabriele who came down to Nazareth, presented himself in the house of the Virgin Mary and the he greeted with joy and reverence saying the words: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you", thus announcing to her the mystery of the redemptive Incarnation of the Word of God in his virginal womb, to bring about the salvation of mankind freeing him from the slavery of the progenitors' guilt.
"Hail, Mary, full of grace!": Can there be a sweeter invocation than this? more reassuring and richer than any good? more lovable and precious? higher and sublime? The "fullness of grace" of the Immaculate Mother of God has become our grace, our divine life, our blessing, our salvation in time and eternity. In fact, she was "full of grace" for us, Saint Bernard teaches, and every time we turn to her and invoke her, Saint Bernard still assures us, Our Lady cannot help helping us to hope with all confidence, because "She it is the reason for our hope. "
From the morning our lips open with the prayer of the Ave Maria. In the morning, the Ave Maria animates us to face the labors of the day under the maternal gaze of Mary, repeating us too, with Blessed Luigi Orione, in front of every difficulty: «Ave Maria, and on!».