Dear brothers in the mission:
I was asked by Fr. Provincial to send this message as the provincial promoter of the Rosary as part of his annual greeting for the patronal feast of our province.
Allow me to invite you to focus on Mary our Mother, on how Luke tells us of her when the evangelist wrote: “…Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart”.(Lk 2:19).
Praying the rosary enables us to learn from her, the simple virgin of Nazareth who treasured the word of God and kept it in her heart. We learn not only of her attitude of openness, of gratitude but of the real humility of the spirit which makes her stand out as a true model of Christian discipleship.
As we pass each bead of our rosary, reciting the Gospel prayers of the Pater Noster and the Ave Marias, we too ponder God’s Word revealed to us, allowing ourselves to contemplate the mysteries of our faith, so that it may nurture and mature in our hearts.
In praying the rosary, we are not only accompanied by Mary in contemplating the mystery of the Christ but like her we are taught to cherish them, to keep them in our hearts, the center of our being where it can never be taken away from us.
Our constant contact with the mysteries makes us familiar with how God acts and realizes His plans; thus, making us more open to the Spirit, docile to His motions so that we may do things according to His way. It is the process of our gradual immersion into the mystery of God! May we like Mary respond our “yes” to all His plans for us!
It is also in keeping the word in our hearts and pondering it, that will make us able to preach it with greater confidence and to live it with greater authenticity. Because the word of God is not something to be learned as knowledge, but something vital to our lives not only as Dominicans but also as Christians: for it is a word that breathes true life and becomes part of our lives.
The rosary reminds us too that we have to learn from Mary’s attitude: to be truly poor so that we may be enriched by the unsurpassable grace of God. For it is in poverty that we shall be able to understand the Good News which is preached to the poor and commit ourselves to do the same thing as Jesus had done.
The renewal of our preaching ministry and our commitment to the missionary work in which we are engaged cannot be separated from the rosary. Our preaching work whether it be in the pulpit, at the podium of a classroom, in ministry with the faithful, the sick, the aged, and the needy, our daily contact with the people around us, can never separate itself from the “pondering of the Word of God” and to live it in fraternal charity and radical commitment to the kingdom. In so doing, it is then can we preach “God’s word” that touches hearts and lives, and we can act and live in a more Christ-like way.
With Mary, through the rosary, may we “incarnate” in our lives the mysteries of our faith which we treasure in our hearts so that we may live with joyfully and greater fidelity each day.
May “she who had kept everything in her heart”, keep us all in herself, in her heart of a mother, especially the many needs of the Province, in the many difficult places where our brothers are trying their best to give witness to the Lord of life in this seemingly dark moments of sin, of despair and death.
May we be united in prayer in Mary and Dominic,
Fr Jarvis Sy OP
Provincial Promoter of the Rosary
Memoria of B. Bartolo Longo
6 October 2022.
