The Rosary on the Borders is an initiative that was launched by a group of Catholics in Poland, and it slowly spread to various countries throughout the world. The idea was to respond to the first request of Our Lady at Fatima: “Pray the rosary every day to obtain peace in the world and the end of the war”.
The rosary is a perfect prayer
This request was repeated at each apparition of Our Lady in Fatima, before any other request. It seems clear this prayer was the cornerstone of the spiritual structure that God wanted to build, in order to save the world from the material, moral and physical evils of World War One, and to preserve us from an “even worse war, which would break out during the reign of Pope Pius XI” if we did not listen to Our Lady’s demands.
Why is the rosary so important?
The importance of the rosary arises from its very nature. All the Saints consider the rosary to be powerful, because it contains all the qualities of a perfect prayer, addressed to the most perfect creature, Our Lady, Mother of Our Lord and of all human beings.
Firstly, the rosary allows us to meditate upon the mysteries of the works performed by Our Lord and Our Lady in order to obtain our salvation.
The regular repetition of the different mysteries makes present to us in prayer the lives of Our Lord and His mother. This is a very powerful means, given by Our Lady to Saint Dominic, to help us remember these mysteries.
Through our union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of God, we are able to deepen our knowledge of these mysteries, and to obtain the graces and the virtues that they contain. The great virtue of this prayer is that it helps us to understand the feelings of Our Lady, who “treasured in Her Heart all the things that She saw”.
It is also a communal prayer. The rosary makes Our Lady present amongst us, the Queen of Heaven and Our Mother – more as a Mother than as a Queen.
An image used by the Curé of Ars to describe the rosary, is that of a piece of straw on fire. It burns without producing much light or heat, but when many pieces of straw are gathered together and burned, they generate a great amount of light and heat. The aim of the Rosary on the Borders is to gather around Our Lady all Her human children, scattered and dispersed by sin.
The rosary is a school of Christian life
Secondly, the perfection of the rosary arises from the fact that it is more than a school of prayer; it is also a school of virtue.
The repeated meditation of the mysteries of the rosary enables us to admire the work of Jesus and His Mother, undertaken for our salvation. Our admiration leads us towards gratitude for such a Divine love for us, poor sinners, and finally to the complete consecration of ourselves to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, in order to serve Them more generously. This love can lead us to renew our baptismal vows, when our godparents promised, in our name, to avoid sin, not to offend Our Lord and to imitate Him by practicing the Christian virtues.
That is why the rosary, apart from being a school of prayer, is also a school of virtue, as Our Lord told us: “I am meek and humble of heart”. Humility and kindness are the real marks of Christianity, and the sole basis for peace between people, among families and within countries.
Many Popes throughout the centuries have encouraged the recitation of the rosary, on account of its great power. Their teachings can be summarized in a few words: the rosary is a school of Christian education, a school that forms spiritual and moral standards, a divine method, an unsurpassed school of Christian life.
In one of many encyclicals dedicated to the rosary, and a very good summary of all of them, Pope Leo XIII describes the efficacy of the rosary: “Those who pray the rosary experience the same feeling as they would if they were listening to the Mother of Mercy explaining all these mysteries to them, and talking to them about their salvation”.
Finally, let us recall the words of Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort: “Through the Ave Maria, sin will be destroyed, and Jesus will reign over us”.
