The Power of the Prayer of the Rosary: A Comboni Priest’s Perspective

 YES, the rosary is one of the boring prayers for some Catholics. Many times, as you pray either you start day dreaming or you start sleeping. Some will actually advice you to pray the Rosary when you have insomnia.

Yet, it is one of the powerful prayers for us Catholics beside the celebration of the Eucharist.

Yes, the most important reason of the power of the rosary resides in the fact that it is a prayer – God comes to us revealing the mystery of His love to us and we who choose to go to Him in trying to understand and welcome His secrets of love and life.

It aims and leads us to a true and Living Encounter with God, through Jesus in the Spirit. The Most Holy Trinity is present.

Mary is there because she is revealing to us with all clarity what God has done in her life and what He want to do in our life too. This is why she invites us: “Do whatever He tells you.”

Reasons Why the Rosary Is So Powerful

One of the reasons that makes praying the Rosary special and powerful is because praying the Holy Rosary is based on the Sacred Scriptures in the same way the celebration of the Holy Eucharist is founded on the word of God.

The Pater is Biblical

The Ave Maria is Biblical. The words of the Angel combined with the one of Elisabeth at the visitation. The only thing that we add to the prayer is “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death”

The rosary is therefore biblical. And by praying the rosary, we utter the word of God. We only repeat the words of the Holy Scripture

What happens when you pray the Rosary?

When we pray the Rosary, we put ourselves and our intentions into God’s hands. As we pray, we can let go of any worries we may have and we can choose to completely trust in God, knowing that He is listening to our prayers and that He wants the best for us and those we pray for.

The focus is always on Jesus. But since the Virgin Mary, as the Mother of Jesus, had (and continues to have) a special relationship with Christ, the Rosary is designed to help us contemplate Christ and His love for humanity through His Mother — and Our Mother – on whom He has lavished so much love

The rosary is more than a prayer. It symbolizes our destiny in and with God according to Mary’s example. To live up to this destiny, we need faith in God’s marvellous deeds for us, perseverance in his ways (hope) and a practical attitude toward living our faith that is charity.

The Rosary is a powerful weapon against evil. But have you stopped to figure out why?

Here are reasons why the Rosary prayer is the most powerful and how you can use it most fully.

1. It Engages Your Will. The human will is powerful because it is a sharing in God’s power. He gives us the will to choose to do good or to do evil — and that will, in and of itself, is a powerful weapon in the spiritual realm. That’s why Satan seeks to enslave us and incapacitate our will through addictions. When our will is joined with God’s will through prayer, we literally tap into God’s own power source.
2. It is Physical. God has given us bodies and souls. Angels — and this includes demons — are purely spiritual creatures. They have no physical form and are therefore inferior to us. When we pray the Rosary we use our bodies. We hold the rosary beads with a crucifix. If possible, we should adopt an intentionally physical posture for prayer – either walking, kneeling or sitting attentively. If possible we should also use other physical sacramentals like blessed candles, holy water, maybe some incense and holy pictures or statues. When we use the physical aspects of prayer we are using tools that we have and which Satan does not have.
3. It Engages our Linguistic Functions. God has not only given us bodies — he has given us physical speech. We have tongues to praise him. We have vocal chords and breath to speak and sing. Satan does not have the means of physical speech. Animals do not have physical speech. Humans do. Therefore we should pray the Rosary out loud, moving our lips. This engages our physical bodies and our intellect through which we are able to produce speech.
4. It Involves Our Imagination. The non-verbal part of our mind communicates through imagery. We not only think with language, but we think in pictures. Satan likes to captivate our imagination through sinful images. These images can be communicated through internet, television or any visual stimulus, but he also wants our imagination to dwell in images that are destructive. So our imagination can be used for lustful fantasies, violent imaginations against our enemies or indulging in negative memories. When we meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary we engage that channel of our mind in a positive and purifying way. Meditating on the mysteries therefore cleanses our imagination and engages and uses the imagination to promote God’s will rather than evil.
5. The Rosary Occupies the Language Facility. In order to allow the imagination to be properly cleansed through meditation it helps to switch into imagination mode. Unfortunately our minds usually function in a linguistic mode — using speech and speech concepts to think through problems, think about the future, plan what comes next, etc. By praying the Rosary this channel of our mind is occupied and the doors can open to the imagination and what I call the “sub-linguistic” parts of our being.
6. Much of our soul work takes place in the realm of emotions. Emotions are not linguistic nor are they imaginative. They are just raw emotions. We feel angry. We feel rage. We feel lust. We feel bliss. We feel peace. True emotions are irrational and unexplainable. The emotional area of the soul is also the area where we have our foundational experiences. In the mother’s womb and in the pre-linguistic stages of life we experience life in an irrational and emotional way. As we pray the Rosary and the linguistic channel is occupied and the imaginative channel is occupied the Holy Spirit can access the sub-linguistic, deep down, raw experiences of our earliest days. If there are wounds and bad emotional memories there, Mother Mary can heal them. And we can experience Peace and Joy
7. The Healing Mysteries are Applied. As we pray the Rosary, the mysteries of Christ’s birth, ministry, passion and glory are opened up and the Holy Spirit applies them to our own inner needs. Where there are impurities, they are purged. Where there are bad memories, they are healed. Where there are wounds, Doctor Jesus and Nurse Mary minister to our needs. And we know that when emotional and psychological healing take place, the physical healing doesn’t last.
8. Spiritual Warfare is Engaged. Satan hates the Rosary. He hates Mary. He hates the gospel. He hates God. He hates Christ the Lord. He hates the Lord’s Prayer. He hates the Hail Mary. He hates you. Every time you pray the Rosary, because of what I outlined above, you are entering the territory that he wants to claim as his own. He wants control over your will — you take that from him. He wants control over your speech — you take that from him. He wants control over your imagination — you take that from him. He wants control over your emotions and your early life — you take that from him.
9. The Battle Against Evil in the Word in Opened.  Here I can say that in many ways the mysteries of the gospel bring alive Christ’s victory over Satan, and by praying the Rosary we can apply those victories against Satan’s work in the world.
10. It is Accessible and Easy for All. The fantastically amazing thing about the Rosary is that God does this very deep healing work in individual lives and in the world in this most accessible and easy way. Ordinary men, women and boys and girls can simply pray the Rosary. All these good things happen even when they are unaware that these deep aspect of praying the Rosary are taking place. It doesn’t matter who — an old peasant woman or a smart college professor, a little child or a busy mom. Billions of Catholics. All can pray the Rosary.

So get busy praying!

Benefits of the Rosary

• It gradually gives us a perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ.
• It purifies our souls, washing away sin.
• It gives us victory over all our enemies.
• It makes it easy for us to practice virtue.
• It sets us on fire with love of Our Lord.
• It enriches us with graces and merits.
• It supplies us with what is needed to pay all our debts to God and to our fellow men; and finally, it obtains all kinds of graces for us from Almighty God.

By Fr. Bonaventure Gnaha, MCCJ

A Talk delivered on Sunday, September 4, 2022 within the context of celebration of 40^th anniversary of OLA Parish at New Achimota and the 20^th Anniversary celebration of St. Daniel Comboni Church, Tantra Hill and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Chantan, both Outstations of OLA Parish.