One finds the most beautiful person in one's own mother
None of us can erase the mark of the umbilical cord and this gives a special meaning to our relationship with our mother. The Mother is usually closer to the child than the father, as it is she, who is always with the child. She is the one who takes care of the baby in every way, and teaches almost everything that the child learns in the early years. The natural psychological and emotional link with the mother is very strong. We can approach our mother easily to get special favors done. One finds the most beautiful person in one's own mother.
Mother is a mystical figure, and Mother Mary is all the more so. There is a Chinese saying which goes... even though God is present everywhere, we cannot see Him; So God created mothers, so that through them we can see, touch and feel the loving presence of God. Jesus, the Son of God also had a mother in this world to take care of His human needs. It is through Mary that Jesus came into this world. It was from her that He learnt His first lessons of life. And Mary herself is a gift of God to the human race. Jesus himself has given Mary to us as our mother (cf. Jn 19: 27), to be honoured and loved by us.
Mary and Her Role in Salvation
Mother Mary has been the powerful object of devotion for the last two thousand years. The Church recognizes the unique role of Mary in the salvation history. She has become a part of Christian life. If we take her away from the Church it will produce an immense void in the Christian culture. After the Second Vatican Council, there was a decline in the Marian devotion. This was due to the lack of understanding of the teaching of the Council. History progresses by finding solutions throughout crisis, when values respond to the cultural needs. Mary has now been rediscovered as the ideal model of faith which every Christian should copy.
There are many customary devotions to Our Lady, such as the Angelus, the Office of the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Rosary. Among all these devotions, the Rosary is the most popular one. Numerous are the private revelations and communications through which Mother Mary asked that the Rosary be prayed more and more. Down the ages, the Rosary has nourished the spiritual and prayer life of the faithful. It has provided spiritual sustenance to the unlettered, the devout, the peasant, the erudite scientist and the scholarly theologian. It has brought comfort to people in all types of situations: personal joys and sorrows, including sickness and death, and in prison, in times of persecution, in wars etc. It has truly been a continuous life- line joining earth to heaven.
Teachings of the Magisterium
It is true that of all exercises of piety, no other has received such praise and encouragement by the magisterium of the Church as of the Rosary. From Pope Pius V to the present day, there has been an enormous number of papal statements about the Rosary. Pope John Paul II was an excellent promoter of the Rosary devotion. Some of his exhortations are given below. "The Rosary is my favorite prayer- a marvelous prayer. Marvelous in its simplicity and its depth... I cordially exhort everyone to recite it". It can be said that the Rosary is, in a certain way, a prayer commentary on the last chapter of the Constitution Lumen Gentium of Vatican II, a chapter which deals with the wonderful presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and Church. This prayer of Mary, immersed in the light of God himself, is at the same time always open to the earth especially to all human problems. To the problems of every man and woman and, at the same time, of all human communities, families and nations; to the international problems of mankind The Rosary recited slowly and meditated upon, in the family, in community, personally, gradually let you enter into the sentiments of Christ and his Mother, recalling all the events that are the key of our salvation. In the present situation, basing on the tragedy of September 11, 2001 in New York, the Holy Father called for unceasing prayer to the Queen of peace for world peace. He says: 'In the present international situation, I appeal to all individuals, families and communities to pray the Rosary for peace, even daily, so that the world will be preserved from the dreadful scourge of terrorism.
Dogmatic part of the Rosary
The value of the prayer of the Rosary is to be found in its concentration on the saving mystery of Redemption. It was Christ who brought this redemption, but Mary is actively present and associated with the whole of this historical order of salvation. The Rosary is a synthetic Christological creed, a symbolum or compendium of dogma and doctrine, in the form of a prayer of meditation, a summary in prayer, on the whole of the dogma of Redemption. Because its use has become so widespread, the Rosary is clearly a most important weapon in the instruction of the Church Community in Christian dogma. The dogmatic faith of the believing community can be confirmed through this prayer. The rosary, enables us to go back into the past and put ourselves in Mary's position and to follow her with faith and hope, to experience all the phases of the mystery of Christ, to proceed from the joys of the mother and child, to go beyond the sufferings endured by the Redeemer and his mother and eventually to reach the point where we share in Mary's happiness in her Son's victory and triumph. Redemption itself is at the center of this Marian prayer. When we pray the Rosary we are focusing our attention inwardly on the living mysteries of Christ and outwardly on the vocal prayers.