Pope Benedict XVI shared some of his thoughts about the rosary on October 19, 2008 while at the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii.  This article is a short summary of his remarks.  —Father Ward.

Before entering the shrine to recite the holy rosary with you, I paused briefly before the tomb of Blessed Bartolo Longo and, praying, I asked myself, “Where did this great apostle of Mary find the energy and perseverance he needed to bring such an impressive work, now known across the world, to completion?  Was it not in the rosary, which he accepted as a true gift from our Lady’s heart?”

Yes, that truly was how it happened!  The experience of the saints bears witness to it: this popular Marian prayer is a precious spiritual means to grow in intimacy with Jesus, and to learn at the school of the Blessed Virgin always to fulfill the divine will.…

 

Meditate on the Mysteries
I would like to quote a beautiful thought of Blessed Bartolo Longo. “Just as two friends, frequently in each other’s company, tend to develop similar habits,” he wrote, “so too, by holding familiar converse with Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, by meditating on the mysteries of the rosary and by living the same life in Holy Communion, we can become, to the extent of our lowliness, similar to them and can learn from these supreme models a life of humility, poverty, hiddenness, patience and perfection.” ...

The Rosary as a Contemplative Prayer
The rosary is a school of contemplation and silence. At first glance, it could seem a prayer that accumulates words, therefore difficult to reconcile with the silence that is rightly recommended for meditation and contemplation. In fact, this cadent repetition of the Hail Mary does not disturb inner silence but indeed both demands and nourishes it.

Thus, in reciting the Hail Mary, we must be careful that our voices do not “cover” the voice of God who always speaks through the silence like the “still small voice” of a gentle breeze (1 Kings 19: 12).

Then how important it is to foster this silence full of God, both in one’s personal recitation and in its recitation with the community! Even when the rosary is prayed, as today, by great assemblies, and as you do in this shrine every day, it must be perceived as a contemplative prayer. And this cannot happen without an atmosphere of inner silence.