Conversions, Combat, and Comfort: Our Rosary Meditations Have Been Through a Lot

Violence. War. Church scandals. A culture choosing between the culture of death and the culture of life.  Those were the issues that were swirling around our Church and our nation in 2002-2003, when Pope John Paul II declared a year of the Rosary, and those are the issues swirling around it today.

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Our Rosary meditations are the most-clicked pages on Media & Culture at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansa — but they were first written in the National Catholic Register in the Year of the Rosary. And, when U.S. military and allies were sent into Iraq, we even turned the meditations into a desert-camo colored booklet for chaplains to distribute to troops on the frontlines.

I’ve updated and revised the meditations since then, and the new versions are also collected in a book: The Rosary of St. John Paul II.

They are named after the Polish pope who began his pontificate saying the Rosary was his favorite prayer. He credited Our Lady of Fatima with his rescue from death by an assassin’s bullet. He asked shortly after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that Catholics pray the rosary every day for peace, and he has repeated the request many times.

Many of us took him up on it, rediscovering the Rosary and promoting the prayer urgently, far and wide.

That’s what we did at the National Catholic Register, where I was the editor. The first version, in a special Year of the Rosary issue of the paper, was an enormous success. Our supply of the original issue sold out within four days of publication. We printed 12,000 additional copies of a special reprint version and these quickly sold out, so we printed 10,000 more copies.

Readers told us that the meditation inspired them to begin (or return to) praying the rosary. We heard from people who said the Rosary meditations helped them fall in love with Christ all over again. A group in Mexico had the meditations translated into Spanish and printed as an insert in a national, secular newspaper. Seminaries and convents asked for the meditations so they can help form new priests and religious with them. Protestants wrote to say it helped them discover the richness of the Church.

One reader asked us, “Do you have any idea of the eternal benefits these meditations will cause?”

Actually, I pray for that all the time. Thanks to Holy Heroes, the new versions have been popular for years now. I have met many people who use them, either in the book or online — and even met a Benedictine College student who told me he thought those meditations were an official part of the Rosary for everyone.

The booklet begins each mystery with 10 verses from the New Testament, so that it can be used as a Scriptural Rosary as well, and includes sacred artwork, because St. John Paul II said that images help in praying the Rosary.

Back in 2003, the Register told readers, “Think of it as a two-pronged war effort: one at home, the other abroad. We first want to promote daily rosaries for peace …. But, second, we also hope to bring the rosary right to the front lines in the Persian Gulf.”

Today, that two-pronged effort might be daily rosaries for peace in foreign war zones — but also peace at home as political disagreements grow harsh and violent.

As St. John Paul pointed out, Our Lady has called urgently for rosaries when she appeared to the shepherd children in Fatima, she said that it’s necessary to say many rosaries to change hearts in our time and avert international catastrophes. The pope said:

“I look to all of you, brothers and sisters of every state of life, to you, Christian families, to you, the sick and elderly, and to you, young people: confidently take up the Rosary once again. Rediscover the Rosary in the light of Scripture, in harmony with the Liturgy, and in the context of your daily lives.”

Then, he added for emphasis: “May this appeal of mine not go unheard!”

It hasn’t.

To order the booklet, click here.

By Tom Hoopes