The Holy Rosary: the love that never tires ...
The Holy Rosary: the love that never tires ...
To all those who complain of the Rosary saying that it is a monotonous prayer, which always repeats the same words, which eventually becomes automatic or turns into a boring and tiring chant, it is good to remember a significant episode that happened to the famous Bishop of the American television, Monsignor Fulton Sheen. He says so himself:
«… A woman came to me after school. He told me:
“I will never become Catholic. You always say and repeat the same words in the Rosary, and the one who repeats the same words is not sincere. I would never believe such a person. Not even God will believe her. "
I asked her who the man who accompanied her was. He replied that it was her boyfriend. I asked her:
"Does he love you?" "He certainly loves me." "But how do you know?"
"He told me."
"What did he tell you?" "He said: I love you." "When did he tell you?" "About an hour ago".
"Did he tell you before?" "Yes, the other night."
"What did he say?" "I love you".
"But never said it before?" "He tells me every night."
I replied: “Don't believe him. He repeats himself, he is not sincere! "».
"There is no repetition - Monsignor Fulton Sheen himself comments - in the I love you" because there is a new moment in time, another point in space. Words do not have the same meaning as before ».
So is the Holy Rosary. It is a repetition of acts of love for the Madonna. The word Rosary derives from the word of a flower, the rose, which is the flower par excellence of love; and the term Rosary means precisely a bundle of roses to offer one by one to Our Lady, renewing her the act of filial love ten, thirty, fifty times ...
True love is tireless
True love, in fact, sincere love, deep love not only does not refuse or tire of expressing itself, but needs to express itself with the repetition of the act and words of love even without stopping. Didn't this happen to Padre Pio of Pietrelcina when he recited his thirty and forty Rosaries day and night? Who could have stopped his heart from loving?
The love that is only the effect of a passing feeling is the love that gets tired, because it fades with the passing of the moment of enthusiasm. The love ready for everything, however, the love that is born from within and wants to give itself without limits is like the heart that beats without stopping, and always repeats itself with its beats without getting tired (and woe if you get tired!); or it is like the breath that, until it stops, always makes man live. The Ave Maria del Rosario are the beats of our love for Our Lady, they are the breaths of love towards the sweet Divine Mother.
Speaking of the breath, we remember St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, the "Fool of the Immaculate Conception", who recommended to everyone to love the Immaculate Conception and to love it so much as to arrive to "breathe the Immaculate Conception". It is nice to think that when you say the Rosary you can have the little experience of "breathing the Madonna" with the fifty Hail Marys which are fifty breaths of love to you for 15-20 minutes ...
And speaking of the heart, we also remember the example of St. Paul of the Cross, who, even when he was dying, never ceased to recite the Rosary. Some of the confreres present took care to say to him: "But, don't you see that you can't take it any more? ... Don't get tired! ...". And the Saint replied: «Brother, I want to say it as long as I am alive; and if I can't with my mouth, I say it with my heart ... » IS?? really true: the Rosary is a prayer of the heart, it is a prayer of love, and love never tires!