The Rosary and the Holy Scriptures

"Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path" (Ps. cxviii. 105). In the Devotion of the Rosary the Church holds out this lamp to her children, and, by means of its light, she directs their feet into the ways of God, leading them to His knowledge and His love.

As we shall have to say in a subsequent chapter, the vocal or oral prayers, which simply are essential to the Rosary, are the Pater and the Ave. For in this simple childlike prayer of faith, hope, or love we do not multiply our forms of petition, we do not, "as the heathens do," rely upon our much speaking, "for they think that they are heard for their much speaking" (Matt. vi. 7). Rather like Our Lord Himself, in His prayer in the garden—the pattern prayer to all time—we repeat the same simple, though pregnant, forms of petition, "saying the same words" (Matt. xxvi. 44). We say the Pater, and this is followed by a decade of Aves; and the Pater and decade of Aves are repeated as we think of each of the fifteen mysteries of faith. Pater and Ave are both, needless to say, scriptural prayers. The Pater is more than a scriptural, it is a Divine prayer, consecrated by the lips of Jesus Christ. His disciples said to Him: "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." And He said to them: "When you pray say, 'Father, hallowed be Thy name,'&c." (Luke xi. 2). The Ave again, if not a Divine, is a Heaven-inspired prayer, a salutation at once and a message to Mary from on high. "And the angel being come in, said to her: 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women'" (Matt. i. 28). Elizabeth, a few days later, took up the same refrain, adding to it earth's expression of loyal praise to the Divine One who was to be born of Mary: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb" (Ibid. 42).

As we have already said, the subjects of the mysteries which form the mental prayer of the rosary are (if we except the last two) all scriptural. We shall see this more clearly from the subjoined list of texts, showing from Holy Writ the types and figures, or forecasts, and then the realities of the mysteries, or sacred events, upon which the mind has to dwell during the recitation of the prescribed prayers of the Rosary.