Why pray the Rosary
Why do we pray the rosary? Because it works.
At 3:00 am on January fifteenth Ted Bundy entered a sorority house and murdered two girls before heading off to search for more victims. When he entered a third girl’s room with a bat, he saw a Rosary clutched in her hand. He dropped the bat and fled.
Later the girl told authorities that before she left for college, she promised her grandmother that she would pray the Rosary every night for protection, even if she fell asleep in the process. Bundy later confessed that some mysterious power prevented him from harming her.
Fr. Luc Désilets and his parishioners prayed the Rosary daily, seeking to rebuild their neglected church in honour of Our Lady. During the winter of 1878–1879, an unexpected freeze formed a thick ice bridge across the St. Lawrence River, allowing stones to be transported from the far shore. Once the final load reached the parish, the ice melted.
The event was celebrated locally as a sign of Divine help, and the rebuilt church became a centre of Marian devotion. Today, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary at Cap-de-la-Madeleine remains one of Canada’s most visited Marian pilgrimage sites.
Father Donald Haggerty of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City believes there is a profound difference between people who pray the rosary every day and those who don’t. “We need Mary in a very serious way. And the best way to draw close to her is to pray the Rosary, to carry a Rosary with you,” Haggerty says
“I tell people in the confessional often enough: pray a Rosary every day, and then Mary will recognize your voice when you’re in need. You’ll be able to pray a Hail Mary to fight off some temptation,” Haggerty says.
“110%! The days I pray a rosary, there’s a drastic difference in how I approach things, and a deeper sense of calm,” a Rosary user said.
“I had an MRI and was given explicit instructions not to sleep,” another user shared. “During the hour or so… I decided to pray the rosary using my fingers… the technicians kept on telling me over the speaker not to sleep. I said I was praying, not sleeping. [They later told me] that they could tell the difference in the MRI when I started praying.”
Increasingly the rosary is prayed by non-Catholics as well as faithful Catholics. The rosary is a meditation on the life of Christ revealed in five mysteries “reflecting on Christ’s joys, sacrifices, sufferings, and the glorious miracles of his life.”
The Blessed Mother Mary gave us fifteen promises for those who pray the rosary. Among them: The Rosary shall be a powerful armour against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven. By the recitation of the Rosary, you shall obtain all that you ask of me.
All who recite the Rosary are my beloved children and the brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux said, "Through the Rosary, we can obtain everything… it is a long chain that links Heaven and Earth: one end is in our hands and the other in those of the Blessed Virgin."
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