"I love the way one prays the Rosary as one would peel off petals"

I love the way one prays the Rosary as one would peel off its riches, like a rose, petal by petal. This is within the reach of all, poor and rich, learned and illiterate alike. This is how (the philosopher) Pascal and his nurse prayed. The rocking of the Ave, like the waves of the sea, gives everyone access to moments of contemplation.

I also love the Angelus. In Islamic countries, five times a day, the muezzin invites believers to remember the Most High. In the French countryside, since the time of St. Louis, the bell has rung three times a day, calling the plowman, the worker and the scholar to rise for a few seconds above worldly affairs, and to remember the great affair of history: the Incarnation, God made man. And the origin of this is Mary's Yes.

Jean Guitton, French Academician

(Notre-Dame de la Trinité, 1976)