Why should I pray the Rosary?

Every day, millions of people meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary. Everywhere this beautiful prayer, in which the Blessed Virgin Mary accompanies and consoles her people, is shared and transmitted. This is what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI tells us about it:

1. The Holy Rosary is not a pious practice banished to the past, like prayers of other times thought of with nostalgia.

2. The Rosary is experiencing a new Springtime. Without a doubt, this is one of the most eloquent signs of love that the young generation nourish for Jesus and His Mother, Mary.

3. In the current world, so dispersive, this prayer helps to put Jesus Christ at the center, as the Virgin did, who meditated within all that was said about her Son, and also what He did and said.

4. When reciting the Rosary, the important and meaningful moments of salvation history are relived. The various steps of Christ's mission are traced.

5. With Mary the heart is oriented towards the mystery of Jesus. Christ is put at the center of our life, of our time, of our city, through the contemplation and meditation of His holy mysteries of joy, light, sorrow and glory.

6. May Mary help us to welcome within ourselves the grace emanating from these mysteries, so that through us we can "water" society, beginning with our daily relationships, and purifying them from so many negative forces, thus opening them to the newness of God.

7. The Rosary—when it is prayed in an authentic way, not mechanically and superficially but profoundly—brings, in fact, peace and reconciliation. It contains within itself the healing power of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, invoked with faith and love at the center of each "Hail Mary."

8. The Rosary, when it is not a mechanical, traditional form of repetition, is a biblical meditation that allows us to trace the events of the Lord's life in the company of the Blessed Virgin, pondering them, like her, in our heart. 

9. May this good habit continue… with more commitment so that, at the school of Mary, the lamp of faith may shine ever more in the hearts and homes of Christians. 

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, taken from speeches for the opening and the closing of the Month of Mary, May 3rd and May 31, 2008