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Book: The Rosary of Our Lady Author: Romano Guardini Sophia Institute Press, Manchester, New Hampshire, pp.143 Excerpt from Preface: Oppressive events move through our time and lay a heavy hand on the lives of all of us. Questions regarding our own fate and the destiny of those close to us, and above all, the destiny of humanity, engage our minds and our souls. In religious life effect is noted in many different ways. One person may discard prayer entirely because he is surfeited or shaken. He must see that he regains his inner balance; he must try to hear and recognize again the quiet voices next to the loud, to acknowledge that God always remains God, regardless of how powerful earthly influences may be. With another it is the opposite, and the vicissitudes of life remind him of the Eternal. He feels that things cannot be carried out in a purely worldly way, but must be laid before God, and this is all the more necessary the more decisive they are. So he longs for a place of quiet in which he can mediate and gather strength, to return later to his new tasks with fresh assurance. He needs a prayer that gives him a lingering chance to pause, to collect and strengthen himself. Such a prayer is the Rosary. It has done many a good service. It is this of which we shall speak. Excerpt from Contents: One might object that this repetition [of the beads] leads to an exteriorization of prayer. That may happen, of course; but then one has made a mistake and we are using the Rosary the wrong way. But exteriorization of prayer does not necessarily happen, for repetition can have a real meaning. Is it not an element of all life? What else is the beating of the heart but a repetition? Always the same contraction and expansion — and yet t makes the blood circulate through the body. What else is breathing but a repetition? Always the same in and out — but by breathing we live. And is not our whole being ordered and sustained by change and repetition? Even anew the sun rises and sets, night follows day; the round of life begins in the spring, rises, reaches its summit, and sinks. What objection can one raise against these repetitions and so many others? They are the order in which growth progresses, the inner kernel develops, and the form is revealed. All life realizes itself in the rhythm of external conditions and internal accomplishment. If this is so everywhere, why should it not be so in religious devotion? Table of Contents: Part I The Form and Meaning of Rosary Devotion 1. Objections and Justification 2. The Chain of Beads and Repetition 3. The Word 4. Mary 5. Christ in Us 6. Practical Considerations Part 2 A Short Interpretation of the Mysteries of the Rosary 1. The Prologue of Each Rosary 2. The Joyful Rosary 3. The Sorrowful Rosary 4. The Glorious Rosary Appendix Biographical Note |