Rosary Draws Us Closer to Christ
by Monica Pugh | May 21, 2025
The poem, Song for a Fifth Child by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton, ends with the lines, “So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust, go to sleep. I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.”
As a young mother, I did not know anything about our Holy Mother, Mary.
But by the time my fifth child arrived, I knew the gentle times spent rocking my babies were precious. It is those memories I draw upon to understand our gentle mother, Mary. But Mary is also the powerful woman who crushes the head of the serpent with her bare heel. She is Theotokos, or God-bearer, the Mother of God and the reason we have the way to salvation through Jesus Christ.
May is devoted to our Holy Mother, Mary. Parishes and parochial schools begin the month with a May crowning to honor Mary’s “Yes” to the angel Gabriel. Parishioners sing Marian hymns at Mass and place flowers at her feet or visit a rosary prayer garden. May is the perfect month to focus our prayers on the rosary.
The parts of the rosary prayer are explained in depth in the Catholic Catechism beginning in section 2673. History documents the rosary with roots traced to monks praying all 150 Psalms while counting pebbles or scratches to keep track. Some literate monks began praying the Psalms from scrolls. Other monks were tasked to field work and began substituting the Psalms for 150 Our Father prayers easily repeated in Latin while they worked and prayed in unison. Counting pebbles eventually turned to strung beads.
The rosary we know today began to take shape in the 15th century. The Hail Mary prayer combines the greetings written in the gospel of Luke spoken by the Archangel Gabriel and Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth. The tagline, "Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,” was a popular prayer and added to the end. In 1597, Pope Sixtus V inserted the word “Jesus” into the Hail Mary to give the prayer its final form.
St. John Paul II, known for his deep devotion to the rosary, called it his favorite prayer and added the Luminous Mysteries. In 2002, his apostolic letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae says, while it is Marian in character, it is a prayer centered on Christ. She carried Jesus in her womb and gave him his human characteristics while developing the most spiritually profound closeness and understanding. This spiritual closeness can be understood by everyone while contemplating the mysteries as they gaze into the face of Christ and ponder his saving grace in their hearts.
Mary’s “Yes” to be the God-bearer brings us the hope of salvation through her son whom she nurtured gently as an infant. She held Jesus’ entire life in her heart at the foot of the cross and became our powerful intercessor. We can stand at the foot of the cross and feel her gentle caress as she intercedes for us and points us to her son. Pray the life of Jesus Christ through the mysteries of the rosary and know the power of her bare heel. The rosary prayer is a powerful weapon.