Why Pray with Mary, Mother of God?
1) Why Mary ?
Why is the importance given to Rosary and why together with Mary?
I believe there is a very special reason for this. The Rosary is at the same time a contemplative prayer and a vocal prayer. We pray vocally, and as we pray vocally, we contemplate the mysteries of our own salvation.
The mystery of salvation is divided into the four sets of Mysteries:
the Joyful Mysteries,
the Luminous Mysteries,
the Sorrowful Mysteries,
the Glorious Mysteries.
In fact, through these four sets of Mysteries, the Church sets before us the whole mystery of salvation. And we contemplate this mystery of salvation together with Mother Mary.
Now, you might wonder, why together with Mother Mary?
It is because Mother Mary is the one who understood the mystery of salvation the best way.
Why?
Because it is she who accepted this mystery - the mystery of salvation in the best way.
Whom did God turn to when He wanted to save the world?
God turned to Mary, the virgin girl from Nazareth. God sent his angel. God asked for her consent to become the mother of the Redeemer.
With her, we contemplate the mysteries of salvation. But then, in our daily routine, when we are busy with a lot of things in our lives, we are not able to concentrate on our contemplation all the time. We need help to concentrate on our contemplation on the mystery of salvation and for that we pray vocally.
And what are we praying vocally?
We are praying in the first part of the Hail Mary, the Word of God. "Hail Mary! Full of grace, The Lord is with you." It is all the Word of God as mentioned in Luke 1:28. It is what the Angel Gabriel said. "Hail Mary!" greeting Mary. "Full of grace" - there was no sin in her. She was all the time full of God's favour and full of God's grace. There was not a single moment in her life when she rebelled against God. No! In every moment, she was the handmaid of the Lord. That is why the angel said "full of grace" - a greeting so true and so inspiring that when we say that in "Hail Mary! Full of grace," we understand how sinful we are and we repent over our sins. We ask God for the grace to remain full of grace - never to rebel against God. Therefore, at the beginning of our prayer, we keep Mother Mary before us. We want to be like Mother Mary - always, always as the handmaid of the Lord. Never to rebel against God's Word. So with that spirit of repentance, we begin our prayer, asking for God's pardon and before we lost the grace of our God.
When we recite the Rosary, and when we say "Blessed are you among women," we want to understand this blessedness came to her because she believed. She believed as Elizabeth said in Luke 1:46, "Blessed are you because you believed." And Jesus also said it. Jesus knew his mother so well. And so when we pray the Rosary, we make a decision. We make a decision t o become blessed like Mother Mary To become blessed by doing God's Will at all times.
This word "Blessed woman" is to be taken in the background of what happened to Eve, the first mother. She was a cursed woman. She brought a curse to the whole of humankind because she disobeyed God's Word. And now here stands a Mother - a Mother that making our lives blessed by obeying God's Word totally.
Let us pray together:
O God, we thank you for giving us such a wonderful Mother.
A Mother to understand us. A Mother to be with us.
A Mother to take all our tears, all our problems, all our sins, all our sufferings to Jesus.
Mother Mary, pray for us at all times.
And together with you, Mother, we want to go to Jesus. Amen