"Behold the handmaid of the Lord"
"Our Lady listens attentively to what God wants, ponders what she doesn't fully understand and asks about what she doesn't know. Then she gives herself completely to doing the divine will: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.'" (Christ is Passing By, 173, 4)
"Mary's joy and sorrow and glory"
"Take the Holy Rosary, one of the most deeply rooted of Christian devotions. The Church encourages us to contemplate its mysteries. She wants to engrave upon our heart and our imagination, together with Mary's joy and sorrow and glory, the spellbinding example of Our Lord's life, in his thirty years of obscurity, his three years of preaching, his ignominious Passion and his glorious Resurrection." (Friends of God, 299, 3)
The crowning with thorns
The Rosary is both meditation and supplication. Insistent prayer to the Mother of God is based on confidence that her maternal intercession can obtain all things from the heart of her Son. (John Paul II, "Rosarium Virginis Mariae", 16)
The agony in the garden
From the beginning Christian piety, especially during the Lenten devotion of the Way of the Cross, has focused on the individual moments of the Passion, realizing that here is found the culmination of the revelation of God's love and the source of our salvation. The Rosary selects certain moments from the Passion, inviting the faithful to contemplate them in their hearts and to relive them. (John Paul II, "Rosarium Virginis Mariae", 22)
The scourging at the pillar
With your help, Lord, I'll fight so as not to be held back. I'll respond faithfully to your invitations. I won't be afraid of steep climbs, nor of the apparent monotony of my daily work... (Friends of God, 121)
Pentecost: The Descent of the Holy Spirit
Ask with me for a new Pentecost, which will once again set the world alight. (Furrow, 213)
The Ascension
The Rosary has always expressed this knowledge born of faith and invited the believer to pass beyond the darkness of the Passion in order to gaze upon Christ's glory in the Resurrection and Ascension. (John Paul II, "Rosarium Virginis Mariae", 23)
What is the Angelus and how do you pray it?
The Angelus is a prayer in which we contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation, the event by which "the Son of God became man in order to make us God." It is a short pause in our day-to-day activity, immersing us in the intimacy of our Lady and the Blessed Trinity.
Mother of God and Our Mother
This homily by St. Josemaría, published in "Friends of God," was given on October 11, 1964, then the feast of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God is celebrated on January 1 and commemorates the dogma of the Mary's divine Maternity.
What is the Rosary?
What is the Rosary, and where does it come from? Answers to some common questions about this Marian prayer. "Dear young people, learn to pray to Mary with the simple and effective prayer of the Rosary; dear sick people, may our Lady be your support in the trial of pain" (Pope Francis, General Audience of May 3, 2017).