Our Lady of the Rosary

October 7 was the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary! Hooray! In fact, the whole month of October is dedicated to the Rosary! Though, honestly, when does the Rosary ever go out of style??

Now, as you probably figured by now, I really, really like the Rosary. A lot. Enough to make four lovely books that illustrate the Rosary, in fact! 🙂

Mind you! I didn’t always use to be this way… there were definitely a number of years that I thought it was just repetitious prayer that was more tedious than meaningful. But, the older I get, the more I realize how powerful and wonderful the Rosary is, and the more I love it. It really is the perfect meditation of Christ… the mysteries of the Rosary allow you to meditate more fully on the gospel of Christ and immerse yourself in His life by allowing you to watch Him through the eyes of His mother. And that is a special, special thing.

And so, may I show you a beautiful artwork that I found of Our Lady of the Rosary?

Mary and Jesus sit together in Heaven on what appears to be a cloud cushion while scores of angels surround them.

Two angels appear to hold Mary and Jesus aloft. Another angel holds a white rose, which is a nod to one of Mary’s many titles, which is “Mystic Rose of Heaven.” Yet another angel holds an olive branch and palm frond together, symbolizing peace and victory, respectively. And finally, two angels hold a rosary and look upward to Mary and Jesus. Other angels, their heads and wings simply displayed, glorify God, while also reminding us that this whole scene is set in Heaven — Christ is in Heaven, waiting for us to come to Him.

Mary holds her son Jesus Christ, who is still only an infant, in her lap. Both of them look directly at us. Mary’s hands are full — she is focused on holding Jesus, though part of the Rosary is wrapped around her index finger, which almost seems like she is pointing toward Jesus Christ and directing us to Him!

As far as Jesus? In one hand, He holds a cross, His hand resting on the globe as He does so. Through the Cross, He has overcome the world! Alleluia!

And in the other hand? He plays with the beads of the rosary, as so many children often do, while looking at us expectantly.

It’s as almost as if both of them are asking us to pray a Rosary with them… and sending their angels to give us the Rosary that is at their feet!

And so! Right now things are chaotic. Very chaotic, in fact. It is dizzying how fast things are happening all at once all around the world. It’s easy to become overwhelmed and distracted… too distracted to even attempt to find even the words to pray to God.

Except, perhaps that’s when we need to pray the most.

When things get overwhelming.

When you can’t even find the words to pray.

And honestly, that’s the beauty of the Rosary… even if you don’t have quite the right words to pray to God, you can always simply recite the prayers. You can meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary. You can draw yourself into the life of Mary and Jesus Christ through the Rosary and become closer to Jesus Christ as you do so.

And that is powerful.

And so, let’s take a moment to stop and pray. For our family, for neighbors, for our country, for our world. There are a lot of things going on right now! But, no matter what happens, our Lord Jesus Christ will be there with us.

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For those of you who are new to the Rosary, or perhaps don’t quite know the prayers yet, here are some instructions! You don’t need anything special to pray the Rosary… just ten fingers, really, to keep track of the Hail Marys. But having a beaded rosary is useful in keeping track of things!

Also! If you would like, I made several books which illustrate the Rosary prayer by prayer with gorgeous religious art. It’s beautiful. Seriously. I am still astonished how well it came out. You can get it here!

I first made it because I wanted to have a fighting chance to be able to say the Rosary with toddlers around. After all, pulling out a Rosary with toddlers around usually means that somebody is going to get whipped in the face. (This might have happened several times.) With the book, the kids calm down and simply look at the pictures. Plus, they get an idea of what they are praying about!

But also, it’s been wonderful for ME personally, because my wanders a lot when I am trying to pray the Rosary, especially when I am anxious. And being able to focus on a picture for every single prayer has been… wonderful, really.

Anyway, if you want, you can go get them here!