"Praying with Mary simplifies us"

Praying with Mary simplifies us. God is simple and expects us to have a simple, filial relationship with him. Children and simple people, like Bernadette and the visionaries of Fatima, know in their hearts that they have a loving Father and Mother in heaven who love and protect them.

But praying with Mary is not just for them. Some of the great theologians I know used to pray the Rosary every day. Intellectuals find in it the simplicity of their own yearning for God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And it is a woman who permits this, a woman who lived in silence and discretion, without much human recognition, but who is nothing less than the mother of Jesus. Praying with Mary today is prophetic and places women at the heart of a great spiritual tradition.

The repetitive, automatic nature of the Hail Marys in the Rosary evokes for me the "I love you" that spouses keep saying to each other even after many years of marriage. Even if I can't pray all day, the Rosary is like the base note that establishes a polyphony, grounding me in my interior life and sustaining it, as it keeps distractions at bay.

Excerpt from La Croix's interview with Sister Catherine Aubin

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