What happens in heaven when we pray a rosary
The chronicles of Saint Francis describe a young friar praying the rosary in his room, bathed in a heavenly light, facing Our Lady who had two angels with her. “Beautiful roses kept issuing from his mouth at each Hail Mary; the angels placed them on Our Lady's head.
In The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis De Montfort explained this miracle. “The word Rosary means ‘Crown of Roses,’ …every time people say the Rosary devoutly, they place a crown of roses upon the heads of Jesus and Mary,” the saint wrote.
The rosary isn’t just for Catholics. Protestants pray it too. The Episcopal Church blended the Orthodox prayer rope with the Catholic rosary to create a prayer rosary. The Anglicans used a thirty-three-bead replica of the rosary to repeat a simple Jesus prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
The miracle of the sun at Fatima 1917, witnessed by 70,000 people, illustrates that the rosary is meant for all. The sun burst through the clouds, spun and danced, dried up all the mud, and zipped back into the sky. Some were cured of diseases. Many others converted.
One Protestant was worried that the rosary skewed the role of Mary but discovered that it is Christ centred. The Rosary is like a Bible study on the life of Christ revealed in the mysteries depicting the joys, sacrifices, sufferings and glorious miracles of Christ’s life.
What happens in heaven when we pray a rosary? The rosary reaches the throne of God. Revelation 5:8 describes the prayers of the faithful: “The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each had a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
St. Louis de Montfort wrote: “When you say your Rosary, the angels and saints join with you in it and unite their prayers to yours.” When you pray the Rosary, you are not alone.
Exorcists testify that demons flee at the sound of the Rosary, but in Heaven, angels rejoice and surround the one who prays. St. Padre Pio called the Rosary his “weapon.” Heaven joins with us every time.
When you contemplate the mysteries, you are aligning your heart with God’s eternal plan of salvation. And in Heaven, the reality of those mysteries is ever-present. Christ’s sacrifice is eternally before the Father, and your meditation unites you with that reality.
Jesus once told St. Faustina: “You please Me most when you meditate on My sorrowful Passion.” When you meditate on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, Christ sees you and He pours graces back upon you and the world.
When you pray the Rosary the Communion of Saints joins you. You join their eternal worship. Think of St. John Paul II, St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Louis de Montfort, St. Padre Pio, or saints that you knew who loved the rosary. Each time you take up the beads, you are mystically united with them.
What if I’m distracted? Each attempt to focus is itself an act of love. Even a distracted prayer is a prayer of love, and God turns them into grace.
When you pray the Rosary, your prayers rise like incense before God’s throne. Mary receives them as roses and intercedes for you. Angels and saints join in. Christ is glorified in His mysteries. Graces pour upon earth. The devil is humiliated. Heaven rejoices.
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