Not every statue or image of the Blessed Virgin Mary shows Her with a rosary. Below is the image that appeared miraculously on Juan Diego's tilma on "Dec. 9, 1531" [1]. This image does not show the Blessed Mother to have a rosary.
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| Google Images Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, Mexico Apparitions occurred in 1531 |
Below are three statues that show the Blessed Mother with a rosary:
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| Google Images Our Lady of Kibeho, Kibeho, Rwanda, Africa Apparitions occurred from 1981 - 1989 |
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| Google Images Our Lady of Fátima, Fátima, Portugal Apparitions occurred in 1917 |
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| Google Images Our Lady of Lourdes, Lourdes, France Apparitions occurred in 1858 |
Everyone who is Catholic should know how to pray the rosary [2]. As to when the rosary came into existence, Fr. William Saunders had this to say, quoted in part [3]:
Thus, when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego in 1531, the rosary was already in existence. Why the Blessed Virgin Mary did not have it in Her hands is a question man cannot answer, but in each of the next three statues above, the Blessed Virgin Mary is shown to have a rosary, but whether She was heard saying prayers of the rosary during the apparitions that each statue represents this blogger does not know, except in the case of Sainte Bernadette Soubirous, whose answers to some of the questions posed to her by "Père Dominique Mariote, a forty-three-year-old Oratorian priest" on August 12, 1859, and some time in early 1860 by Abbé Junqua, "an educated priest," allow the world to experience the Blessed Virgin Mary with Her rosary through the observations made by Bernadette Soubirous, namely, that "[the Blessed Virgin Mary] wore a white dress, with a rosary on [H]er arm, a blue sash, and two yellow roses, one on each foot"; that "She had it on [H]er arm; and then sometimes [S]he slipped the beads through [H]er fingers, like us, or faster"; that the rosary was big, "[b]igger than ours", "bigger than a full rosary"; that "sometimes [S]he prayed and sometimes [S]he spoke to me"; that "She prayed the rosary"; and that "She went from one bead to the next without ever moving [H]er lips" in silence [4].
Since the Blessed Virgin Mary was silent when "She went from one bead to the next without ever moving [H]er lips," as demonstrated by Bernadette Soubirous who "got up, standing with her hands folded, her fingers intertwined, one thumb over the other[, and] acted out praying the rosary, going from one bead to the next with the thumb and index finger of her right hand, while her lips were silent like the vision's," [5] therefore no one can ever be certain if She says the "Ave Maria" prayer on Her rosary. If She does, then the question is why it would be necessary for Her to pray to Herself.
Not being able to figure it out, this blogger asked for assistance while laying in bed one evening with rosary in hand and the medal of the Blessed Virgin Mary pressed firmly between his thumb and his index finger, knowing that there must be an answer that would satisfy his curiosity. For a while, his mind remained blank until a fuzzy image of Jesus praying to God at Gethsemane came into his consciousness which lasted for a moment with nothing further when the mind returned to blank. It is not certain if his mind had generated the thought, but if he had gotten some some help, it was not all that satisfactory since not everything had become clear so that he no longer needed to think but only has to recall. While struggling to make the connection, it dawned on him that a parallel could be drawn between Christ praying at Gethsemane and the Blessed Virgin Mary saying the rosary. How it could be drawn was unclear and would be left up to him. He fell asleep shortly afterward, planning to think about it more another day.
Many days passed but the thought of the Blessed Virgin Mary praying the rosary had not and thoughts that had been given to it were sketchy without cohesion. Not being able to think of a word that describes the Blessed Virgin Mary's dual roles as Mother of God and Mother of all (given to all and shared with all by Her Son in His last act of love for man before dying on the Cross [6]) did not make the self-imposed assignment to compose this entry easy.
There is, however, this word "Trinity" on which "[t]he faith of all Christians rests" [7], but neither "Holy Trinity" nor "Trinitarian God" applies to the Blessed Virgin Mary Who was fully human throughout Her life on earth albeit without Original Sin. If "[t]he Christian doctrine of the Trinity (Latin: Trinitas, lit. 'triad', from trinus, "threefold") holds that God is three consubstantial persons or hypostases—the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit—as 'one God in three Divine Persons'" [8], then what is the adjective or "doctrine" that describes the Blessed Virgin Mary's "other-worldly" duality, aside from two of Her worldly roles as spouse of Joseph and daughter of Anne and Joachim [9]?
Perhaps no "short-cut" is possible in describing the roles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for not only does Her duality exists in Her motherly life on earth as Mother of Jesus and of the disciple whom Jesus loved, another duality is also apparent with Her having responsibilities in Her "other-worldly" life (as spirit) in Heaven (being Mother of all) and in Her "worldly" apparitions (as human) on earth. This is confusing and is where this blogger's mind sees its limits beyond which he cannot go. (Several times over several days, he wanted to come up with a word that encapsulates the Blessed Virgin Mary's dualities but every time he had attempted to do so an inner voice said "no" and the mind went blank, so it is not going to happen.)
Ironically, it is in this penumbral state of confusion in which there is no daylight, nor is there complete darkness, that possibly a bit of understanding can be glimpsed as to the purpose of the Blessed Virgin Mary carrying Her rosary even when it does not make logical sense for Her to say the second part of the "Ave Maria"prayer: (in English) "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death," [10] since She is the Immaculate Conception and has never been a sinner, thus She has no need to pray for and to Herself. She is "Maria" after all, and in the first part of the "Ave Maria" prayer, these words confirm that the Lord is with Her and that She is uniquely blessed: (in Latin) "AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus." [11] Moreover, being blessed without Original Sin, the Blessed Virign Mary also has no need to pray the Salve, Regina prayer since She was never a banished child of Eve and never in exile, and being the Mother of the Son of God, it would not be necessary for Her to show Herself Jesus, "the blessed fruit" [12] of Her womb.
Since faith has time and again defied science, reason and logic; therefore, it is necessary to believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary is both human and spirit every time She appears and speaks to the few among the living in their respective language, and that She identifies Herself fully with sinners to the extent that She is able to feel the burden of man's sins Herself, which in a way transforms Her into an indivisible part of the "us" so that when She prays the rosary, and when the part of the "Ave Maria" prayer that says "pray for us sinners" comes up, She can pray in Her dual role as Mother of all, while being in unison with sinners, meaning that Her sins correspond to all the sins of all Her children, to Her Mother in Heaven, Who is also Her, asking Herself (as Mother of God) to pray in the present time and at the time of death for Herself (humbly, as Mother of sinners) and for all Her children. Feeling the full burden of all sinners, the Blessed Virgin Mary also joins all in the Salve, Regina prayer in "mourning and weeping in this valley of tears" (as Mother of sinners) and sending up "sighs" to Herself (as Mother of God) so that as God's Mother, She is able to show all, including Herself as Mother of sinners, the blessed fruit of Her womb, Jesus, after the exile.
One might object to the implication that the Blessed Virgin Mary can feel the burden of man's sins by Her carrying them which is not possible since She is not God and only God can take on all of man's sins from the time of Adam and Eve and not be crushed under its weight. This objection is valid on its face, except that the Blessed Virgin Mary is not actually carrying the weight of man's sins but is instead feeling the burden of Her children's sins as a Mother, just as any caring mother can in her heart feel the burdens her children are suffering under, weighing it down heavily without actually laboring under their burdens herself. Since the Blessed Virgin Mary is a mother, She had felt and still feels the burdens that Her Son, Jesus, carried throughout His Passion that ended in His crucifixion and still carries (which is equivalent to the weight of all the sins of man throughout time) without actually shouldering them Herself.
Accordingly, as the Mother of sinners and of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary can feel the burden of man's sins in Her Immaculate Heart both ways, directly from sinners and indirectly through Her Son, compelling Her to pray the rosary for each of Her children's salvation (in Her earthly role), and as the Mother of God, She can receive the prayers of the rosary (in Her Heavenly role) that She says for and with sinners. One may still wonder how this duality can be possible.
In doing so, one does not need to look further than to Jesus, Who is as much a part of God as God is a part of the Holy Trinity, praying to God in the Garden of Gethsemane. At the time, He was both man and God, praying as man and, in a way, to Himself as God, being part of the Holy Trinity. Of course, the similarity ends here, for the Mother of God is not God; nonetheless, She is close enough to God to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and becoming the Mother of God's Son, so that She, too, can take on dual roles as Mother of God and Mother of (and Intercessor for) all sinners, just as Her Son has the dual role of man and God, serving as the bridge between man and God and in addition, being a part of the Holy Spirit (filling those whose hearts are generous enough to accommodate all Three), forming the Triune God.
From these random thoughts, this blogger concludes that the rosary carried by the Blessed Virgin Mary in a number of Her apparitions as Mother of God and of man is not for show but for Her to pray incessantly for and with sinners in Her dual roles.
The origins of the rosary are "sketchy" at best. The use of "prayer beads" and the repeated recitation of prayers to aid in meditation stem from the earliest days of the Church and has roots in pre-Christian times. Evidence exists from the Middle Ages that strings of beads were used to count Our Fathers and Hail Marys. Actually, these strings of beads became known as "Paternosters," the Latin for "Our Father."
...
Tradition does hold that St. Dominic (d. 1221) devised the rosary as we know it. Moved by a vision of our Blessed Mother, he preached the use of the rosary in his missionary work among the Albigensians, who had denied the mystery of Christ. Some scholars take exception to St. Dominic's role in forming the rosary. The earliest accounts of his life do not mention it, the Dominican constitutions do not link him with it and contemporaneous portraits do not include it as a symbol to identify the saint.
Thus, when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego in 1531, the rosary was already in existence. Why the Blessed Virgin Mary did not have it in Her hands is a question man cannot answer, but in each of the next three statues above, the Blessed Virgin Mary is shown to have a rosary, but whether She was heard saying prayers of the rosary during the apparitions that each statue represents this blogger does not know, except in the case of Sainte Bernadette Soubirous, whose answers to some of the questions posed to her by "Père Dominique Mariote, a forty-three-year-old Oratorian priest" on August 12, 1859, and some time in early 1860 by Abbé Junqua, "an educated priest," allow the world to experience the Blessed Virgin Mary with Her rosary through the observations made by Bernadette Soubirous, namely, that "[the Blessed Virgin Mary] wore a white dress, with a rosary on [H]er arm, a blue sash, and two yellow roses, one on each foot"; that "She had it on [H]er arm; and then sometimes [S]he slipped the beads through [H]er fingers, like us, or faster"; that the rosary was big, "[b]igger than ours", "bigger than a full rosary"; that "sometimes [S]he prayed and sometimes [S]he spoke to me"; that "She prayed the rosary"; and that "She went from one bead to the next without ever moving [H]er lips" in silence [4].
Since the Blessed Virgin Mary was silent when "She went from one bead to the next without ever moving [H]er lips," as demonstrated by Bernadette Soubirous who "got up, standing with her hands folded, her fingers intertwined, one thumb over the other[, and] acted out praying the rosary, going from one bead to the next with the thumb and index finger of her right hand, while her lips were silent like the vision's," [5] therefore no one can ever be certain if She says the "Ave Maria" prayer on Her rosary. If She does, then the question is why it would be necessary for Her to pray to Herself.
Not being able to figure it out, this blogger asked for assistance while laying in bed one evening with rosary in hand and the medal of the Blessed Virgin Mary pressed firmly between his thumb and his index finger, knowing that there must be an answer that would satisfy his curiosity. For a while, his mind remained blank until a fuzzy image of Jesus praying to God at Gethsemane came into his consciousness which lasted for a moment with nothing further when the mind returned to blank. It is not certain if his mind had generated the thought, but if he had gotten some some help, it was not all that satisfactory since not everything had become clear so that he no longer needed to think but only has to recall. While struggling to make the connection, it dawned on him that a parallel could be drawn between Christ praying at Gethsemane and the Blessed Virgin Mary saying the rosary. How it could be drawn was unclear and would be left up to him. He fell asleep shortly afterward, planning to think about it more another day.
Many days passed but the thought of the Blessed Virgin Mary praying the rosary had not and thoughts that had been given to it were sketchy without cohesion. Not being able to think of a word that describes the Blessed Virgin Mary's dual roles as Mother of God and Mother of all (given to all and shared with all by Her Son in His last act of love for man before dying on the Cross [6]) did not make the self-imposed assignment to compose this entry easy.
There is, however, this word "Trinity" on which "[t]he faith of all Christians rests" [7], but neither "Holy Trinity" nor "Trinitarian God" applies to the Blessed Virgin Mary Who was fully human throughout Her life on earth albeit without Original Sin. If "[t]he Christian doctrine of the Trinity (Latin: Trinitas, lit. 'triad', from trinus, "threefold") holds that God is three consubstantial persons or hypostases—the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit—as 'one God in three Divine Persons'" [8], then what is the adjective or "doctrine" that describes the Blessed Virgin Mary's "other-worldly" duality, aside from two of Her worldly roles as spouse of Joseph and daughter of Anne and Joachim [9]?
Perhaps no "short-cut" is possible in describing the roles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for not only does Her duality exists in Her motherly life on earth as Mother of Jesus and of the disciple whom Jesus loved, another duality is also apparent with Her having responsibilities in Her "other-worldly" life (as spirit) in Heaven (being Mother of all) and in Her "worldly" apparitions (as human) on earth. This is confusing and is where this blogger's mind sees its limits beyond which he cannot go. (Several times over several days, he wanted to come up with a word that encapsulates the Blessed Virgin Mary's dualities but every time he had attempted to do so an inner voice said "no" and the mind went blank, so it is not going to happen.)
Ironically, it is in this penumbral state of confusion in which there is no daylight, nor is there complete darkness, that possibly a bit of understanding can be glimpsed as to the purpose of the Blessed Virgin Mary carrying Her rosary even when it does not make logical sense for Her to say the second part of the "Ave Maria"prayer: (in English) "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death," [10] since She is the Immaculate Conception and has never been a sinner, thus She has no need to pray for and to Herself. She is "Maria" after all, and in the first part of the "Ave Maria" prayer, these words confirm that the Lord is with Her and that She is uniquely blessed: (in Latin) "AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus." [11] Moreover, being blessed without Original Sin, the Blessed Virign Mary also has no need to pray the Salve, Regina prayer since She was never a banished child of Eve and never in exile, and being the Mother of the Son of God, it would not be necessary for Her to show Herself Jesus, "the blessed fruit" [12] of Her womb.
Since faith has time and again defied science, reason and logic; therefore, it is necessary to believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary is both human and spirit every time She appears and speaks to the few among the living in their respective language, and that She identifies Herself fully with sinners to the extent that She is able to feel the burden of man's sins Herself, which in a way transforms Her into an indivisible part of the "us" so that when She prays the rosary, and when the part of the "Ave Maria" prayer that says "pray for us sinners" comes up, She can pray in Her dual role as Mother of all, while being in unison with sinners, meaning that Her sins correspond to all the sins of all Her children, to Her Mother in Heaven, Who is also Her, asking Herself (as Mother of God) to pray in the present time and at the time of death for Herself (humbly, as Mother of sinners) and for all Her children. Feeling the full burden of all sinners, the Blessed Virgin Mary also joins all in the Salve, Regina prayer in "mourning and weeping in this valley of tears" (as Mother of sinners) and sending up "sighs" to Herself (as Mother of God) so that as God's Mother, She is able to show all, including Herself as Mother of sinners, the blessed fruit of Her womb, Jesus, after the exile.
One might object to the implication that the Blessed Virgin Mary can feel the burden of man's sins by Her carrying them which is not possible since She is not God and only God can take on all of man's sins from the time of Adam and Eve and not be crushed under its weight. This objection is valid on its face, except that the Blessed Virgin Mary is not actually carrying the weight of man's sins but is instead feeling the burden of Her children's sins as a Mother, just as any caring mother can in her heart feel the burdens her children are suffering under, weighing it down heavily without actually laboring under their burdens herself. Since the Blessed Virgin Mary is a mother, She had felt and still feels the burdens that Her Son, Jesus, carried throughout His Passion that ended in His crucifixion and still carries (which is equivalent to the weight of all the sins of man throughout time) without actually shouldering them Herself.
Accordingly, as the Mother of sinners and of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary can feel the burden of man's sins in Her Immaculate Heart both ways, directly from sinners and indirectly through Her Son, compelling Her to pray the rosary for each of Her children's salvation (in Her earthly role), and as the Mother of God, She can receive the prayers of the rosary (in Her Heavenly role) that She says for and with sinners. One may still wonder how this duality can be possible.
In doing so, one does not need to look further than to Jesus, Who is as much a part of God as God is a part of the Holy Trinity, praying to God in the Garden of Gethsemane. At the time, He was both man and God, praying as man and, in a way, to Himself as God, being part of the Holy Trinity. Of course, the similarity ends here, for the Mother of God is not God; nonetheless, She is close enough to God to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and becoming the Mother of God's Son, so that She, too, can take on dual roles as Mother of God and Mother of (and Intercessor for) all sinners, just as Her Son has the dual role of man and God, serving as the bridge between man and God and in addition, being a part of the Holy Spirit (filling those whose hearts are generous enough to accommodate all Three), forming the Triune God.
From these random thoughts, this blogger concludes that the rosary carried by the Blessed Virgin Mary in a number of Her apparitions as Mother of God and of man is not for show but for Her to pray incessantly for and with sinners in Her dual roles.
[2] http://www.rosary-center.org/howto.htm#loaded
[3] https://www.ewtn.com/library/answers/rosaryhs.htm
[4] Laurentin, René. A Life of Saint Bernadette Soubirous in Her Own Words. Translated by John W. Lynch, SM and Ronald DesRosiers, SM. Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2000, pp. 148-50 and pp. 160-1.
[5] Ibid., 161.
[6] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/19 at 25-30.
[7] http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p2.htm at 232.
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity, quoted in part without emphasis in bold, hyperlinks and footnotes.
[9] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Anne
[10] https://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/prayers/mary3.htm
[11] https://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/maryd5a.htm
[12] Ibid.
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