Praying the rosary is somewhat like walking into a (pre-Reformation) cathedral covered with bright images depicting the culmination of the story of God’s shaping our salvation in the life, death and resurrection of his Son; whose abiding presence with us in Word and Sacrament has been recently embellished by John Paul II’s ‘Mysteries of Light’.So, a bit like appreciating artworks, then: to let the images speak to us necessitates a certain attentive stillness, a willingness to be caught by one particular shard that illuminates especially a given time (why I favour private over communal recital).
The images, ideally, serve as icons, not idols, drawing us further into the Holy Mystery that we seek.
No accident, maybe, that it’s name derives from a garland of roses: the scent, symbolising the beauty of Holiness; the thorns, goading us out of our complacency and reminding us that our salvation has been bought by the blood of the Lamb.
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