Happy feast of Our Lady of the Rosary! This is a very special feast day for us as Dominican nuns devoted to the Perpetual Rosary. In praying the Rosary, we move through the fingered beads and repeated Hail Marys to the interior contemplation of the mysteries of Christ through the eyes of His Mother. In our own lives we experience the power of the Rosary to unite us to Jesus through Mary, and to intercede for the needs of the world. Today we would like to share with you one vivid way of praying the Rosary with the theological virtues.
What are the Theological Virtues?
Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. -1 Cor. 13:13.
We are all familiar with the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, although some may not be familiar with the title, “theological virtues.” They are called “theological” because unlike other virtues which aim at some moral excellence, these three virtues aim directly at God Himself (theos is Greek for God). Faith, hope, and charity are infused virtues, given to us by God at our baptism, along with sanctifying grace, the infused moral virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. How are the theological virtues important in the Christian life? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:
- [The theological virtues] adapt man’s faculties for participation in the divine nature: for the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object. (1812)
- Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. (1814)
- Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. (1817)
- Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. (1822)
Living Contact with the Mysteries of Christ
The theological virtues are the key means of entering into union with Christ in the method of praying the Rosary explained by Fr. Paul Hinnebusch, O.P. in his book, Like the Word: to the Trinity through Christ. In a beautiful section entitled “Like the Word, through the Rosary,” he paints a vivid picture of Fra Angelico’s depictions of various mysteries in the life of Christ, with St. Dominic inserted in the scene as if he was present. This illustrates a deeper truth:
“Like Dominic, every Christian has to re-live the mysteries of Christ in his own life. For the mysteries of Christ are incomplete until they find their completion in the members of his Mystical Body. Christ exists as Head, full of grace and truth, so that he may live his own divine life in all his members . . . Therefore, as we have seen, his mysteries–the things he did as man–are like so many sacramental signs which contain divine grace to reproduce themselves in us. That is, his mysteries signify to us what Christ will do in our souls by his grace as he lives his divine life in us, and what we must do in order to live his life to the full.”
How do we put ourselves in contact with these mysteries, in order to be transformed by them?
“The following, therefore, is a method for re-living the mysteries of Our Lord’s life as we pray the Rosary, so that we will live the life of Christ in everything we do and will be truly, like St. Catherine of Siena, ‘another Himself.’ The method involves three steps, expressed by three words which are easy to remember: observe, judge, act.
- Observe: With the help of memory and imagination, look at the scene of the mystery to see what is going on. You are there. Put yourself, for example, at the scene of our Lord’s birth at Bethlehem and watch what takes place.
- Judge: See what personal meaning the event has for you. Judge how you fit into the mystery. Is there any person in the scene whose place you can take, whose part you can play?
- Act: Play the part of the person whom you have chosen. Put yourself in his or her place–whether it be Jesus, Mary, Joseph, or someone else, such as the shepherds or Magi–and do as he or she did.
For example, in the first glorious mystery, you observe what is going on. You see how Jesus, risen from the dead, shows his glorious wounds to the doubting Thomas. Thomas, at last believing, now that he can put his fingers into the wounds in the hands of Jesus, falls on his knees before him in love and adoration and says: ‘My Lord and my God!’
When you see these things, you judge that you belong in the place of Thomas. You know at once that what Jesus says to Thomas, he says to you as well: ‘Be not incredulous, but believing!’
Spontaneously, you act as Thomas did. You fall on your knees and adore your risen God, saying, ‘My Lord and my God!'”
Faith, Hope, and Charity in Action
“This method brings faith, hope, and charity into action, thus stirring up the divine life which is in us by grace. Faith, hope and charity put us into immediate contact and union with Christ who is God, so that by the activity of these virtues he lives his life in us. Our mental prayer has thus united us directly to God, so that here and now he is truly living in us.
“Thus, observing the scene of the mystery will usually inspire an act of faith in the mystery. Judging the mystery’s personal meaning in our own life will ordinarily give rise to hope of the fulfillment of the mystery in us. The third step, action, will usually be an act of love or of some other virtue inspired by love. Sometimes, faith, hope, and charity will act simultaneously; sometimes one will act more predominantly than the other.”
We wish we could include here all three chapters that so beautifully and helpfully tell of entering into union with Christ through praying the Rosary with the theological virtues. Here is one final illustration:
“In the first step we observe what takes place in the mystery as though we were actually there when it takes place. The memory recalls what we know of the Gospel story of the mystery and the imagination brings it to life. We watch what goes on, we listen to what is said. Usually it is enough to observe only a few details. In the third joyful mystery, for example, we see a young mother kneeling on the ground before her newborn Son. But at once faith gives new life, real life, to this picture in our imagination. Faith knows why this mother kneels before her own child with the most profound reverence. Her child is God. The mother must adore her God, even though he is also her son.
The second step comes spontaneously. We judge immediately what we must do: this Child is our God, too, so we must adore him with his mother.
We act at once. In our mind and heart we do as Mary does. We adore her Son with all the intensity of our faith and love. We prolong this action of faith and love as long as possible, remaining thus in true living union with him whom we adore, receiving from him all the while the vital flow of his graces.”
How This Bears Fruit
When we enter into the mysteries of the Rosary in the vivid way, day after day, calling the mysteries of Our Lord’s life to mind, and responding to them in living faith, hope, and charity, our inner life is transformed in Him. Our mental landscape is shaped by the events of His life. Our reactions are formed by His virtues. His mysteries become a reference point for us that spring automatically into our mind and heart.
Isn’t this what happens to us in the monastery, here in the cloister where we are sheltered from outside distractions, and where we can pray the Rosary at our Hours of Guard day after day, month after month, year after year? But isn’t it also what can happen even to those in the world, who desire to follow Jesus and to be conformed to Him, and who follow His attraction even beyond the tempting distractions and time-wasters filling life in the world? Pray the Rosary! Allow Jesus to transform you by His grace, to unite you to Himself through Mary, and to purify and illumine your mind and heart with the mysteries of His own life. Share this with others, pray for others, so that in Christ we may come to the fullness of supernatural life in Him, here on earth, and forever after in Heaven.