The rosary is repetitious, why?
Children pray the rosary during the “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” campaign at San Jose Academy in Navotas City on Oct. 18, 2018. CBCPNEWS
By Roy Lagarde
October 17, 2019
Manila, Philippines
Addressing some misconceptions about the rosary, a church official said that the prayer is repetitive because it needs to be.
Using the analogy of saying “I love you” to someone dear, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan stressed that the words “are the sweetest greeting of all”.
“It is not redundant to say I love you. It is never repetitious to say I love you,” Villegas said.
In the same way, he said that each time people pray the rosary, they are saying ‘I love you’ to Mary and to Jesus.
“And so it is with the Hail Mary. It is never redundant, it is never repetitious, it is never too much to repeat the Hail Mary,” Villegas said.
According to him, it is “never too much” to repeat the prayer in every mystery of the rosary “because every Hail Mary is a rose of love to the Virgin Mary and to Jesus her son”.
The archbishop underscored that the rosary is the word of God or the life of Jesus on beads.
“So when we reflect on the mysteries of the rosary, we are actually reflecting on Jesus himself, on the life of Jesus and we want that life to be ours,” he added.
His statement comes on a video reflection released on Thursday, as the Church marks October as the month of the holy rosary.
On why the Church honors the Blessed Mother, he said that God himself honored Mary, by finding her worthy to be the mother of his only son.
“So the first to honor Mary was not a mortal like you and me, the first to honor Mary was God himself. And in honoring Mary, we imitate God himself,” he also said.
Villegas invited the faithful to pray the rosary, saying that its power lies in the hands of the people.
“And if all of us can turn to Our Lady, through the rosary, we can see changes in our lives we can see wishes fulfilled, we can see peace achieved,” he said.
