What the Rosary contains

In the prayer of the Rosary, one contemplates the person of Jesus and his life, not directly and in themselves—like actually seeing the Way of the Cross—but through Mary. One contemplates that which was at the center of her life, what she saw, felt, and treasured in her heart (Luke 2:51).

What the Rosary contains... is the continual manifestation of a holy empathy. When someone is truly special to us, we are happy to meet a friend of his or hers. We find the beloved’s image reflected in the other person, and that image takes on a new aspect for us.

Our eyes meet two eyes that also love and see the beloved. Their eyes increase our visual power. Our gaze can then go beyond the limits of our own selves to seize from all sides, so to speak, the beloved person whom we had seen only from a single angle.

Father Romano Guardini

Italian-born German Catholic priest, theologian and philosopher

Le Rosaire de Notre Dame, (The Rosary of Our Lady), Ed. Bloud et Gay, 1950