It is a quiet hour. Mary is keeping watch with you.
A new short reading every Tuesday and Friday
From the Early Church
A small place to read, slowly, what the first Christians actually wrote, letters, lives, and sayings from the people who walked the path before us.
Tuesdays
Voices from the Early Church
Letters and writings from the first Christian centuries, the apostolic fathers, the early martyrs, the bishops who knew the apostles by name.
This week → Ephrem, the Harp of the Holy Spirit
Fridays
Sayings of the Desert
The desert fathers and mothers, short, sharp sayings from the Christians who went out into the silence of Egypt and Syria in the third and fourth centuries.
This week → Agathon on Perfect Charity
A new reflection every Saturday
Mother's Words to Us
One sentence Mary has spoken, somewhere small, somewhere often forgotten. Each Saturday we sit with it for a while.
Saturdays
Mother's Words to Us
A short reflection on one specific thing Mary said at a lesser-known apparition. The words she chose, and why they still find us.
This week → Behold thy mother: Mary at the foot of the Cross
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Behold your Mother.
, John 19:27
Marian Shrines
The Holy Rosary
Mary and the Church
Jesus
A letter on the Rosary
From the apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, written by Saint John Paul II on October 16, 2002, the twenty-fourth anniversary of his election, to open the Year of the Rosary.
The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness.
, Pope Saint John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae (excerpts)
Some prayers, including the Hail Mary, find their ancient roots in the Bible, but in the Rosary they grow into a sustained, contemplative form. To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ.
The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christ-centered prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium. It is an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redemptive Incarnation which began in her virginal womb.
Against the background of the words "Hail Mary," the principal events of the life of Jesus Christ pass before the eyes of the soul. They take shape in the complete series of the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries, and now, with the Mysteries of Light, the public ministry of Christ is held up before us as well. Each of these mysteries is a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus.
I look to all of you, brothers and sisters of every state of life, to you, Christian families, to you, the sick and elderly, and to you, young people: confidently take up the Rosary once again. Rediscover the Rosary in the light of Scripture, in harmony with the Liturgy, and in the context of your daily lives.
May this appeal of mine not go unheard.