Saint Louis de Montfort: the Rosary is the most powerful instrument of the mission (I)

Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort devoted an entire book to the Rosary, which was not published until 1911 (two centuries after his death!). He called it The Admirable Secret of the Most Holy Rosary (known in English as The Secret of the Rosary, abbreviated SR), with the subtitle "to make conversions and to be saved". For Montfort, the Rosary is the most powerful instrument of the mission. He comments on each prayer of the Rosary as follows:

“The Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, which is said on the crucifix of the rosary, is a holy summary of all the Christian truths. It is a prayer that has great merit, because faith is the root, foundation and beginning of all Christian virtues, of all eternal virtues, and of all prayers that are pleasing to God.” (SR 34) “Since faith is the only key which opens up these mysteries for us, we must begin the Rosary by saying the Creed very devoutly, and the stronger our faith the more merit our Rosary will have.” (SR 35)

The Our Father prayer is great because it was taught to us by Jesus, our Lord: its author “is neither a man nor an angel, but the King of angels and of men, our Lord Jesus Christ.” (SR 36) “Thomas a Kempis says that it surpasses all the desires of all the saints; that it is a condensation of all the beautiful sayings of all the psalms and canticles; that in it we ask God for everything that we need, that by it we praise  him in the very best way; that by it we lift up our souls from earth to heaven and unite them closely to God.” (SR 36) “St. Augustine assures us that whenever we say the Our Father devoutly our venial sins are forgiven.” (SR 37); “by reciting this prayer, we hate all sin and we observe all of God's laws.” (SR 43) 

“The Angelic Salutation, or Hail Mary, is so heavenly and so beyond us in its depth of meaning, that Blessed Alan de la Roche held that no mere creature could ever understand it, and that only our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, can really explain it. Its enormous value is due, first of all, to our Lady to whom it was addressed, to the purpose of the Incarnation of the Word, for which reason this prayer was brought from heaven, and also to the archangel Gabriel who was the first ever to say it.” (SR 44)

Marian Encyclopedia