The 20 mysteries of the Rosary
Pope Francis has called upon all Catholics to pray the rosary and the prayer to Saint Michael Archangel to protect the church from the devil.
Our proposal to answer the call of the Holy Father
You are invited to join this community of prayer, which will be praying the Rosary during one month: one decade per day for twenty days, a complete rosary by the end.
Every day, you'll receive a meditation on a mystery of the rosary along with a short prayer intention, and you'll be encouraged to pray a decade, followed by the Marian prayer 'Under your protection' and the prayer to Saint Michael Archangel.
- From day 1 to day 5: Sorrowful mysteries, prayers for the victims of sexual abuse and power abuse.
- From day 6 to day 10: Glorious mysteries, prayers for the families and relatives of victims.
- From day 11 to day 15: Joyful mysteries, prayers for the priests.
- From day 16 to day 20: Luminous mysteries, prayer for the bishops.
The meditations are authored by Church great names, such as John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Blessed Charles of Foucauld, Saint Bernard, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Francis of Sales, etc. Your prayers will be as many flowers deposited at the Virgin's feet.
Why Join this Prayer Program?
In a press communiqué released by the Vatican Press Office on September 29 2018, and relayed by countless media, Pope Francis has invited the faithful worldwide to pray the Holy Rosary daily. We are all to join in communion and penance, in asking the Holy Mother of God and Saint Michael Archangel to protect the Church from the devil, seeking to separate us from God and each other.
The Holy Father reiterated his invitation to the faithful on October 7th, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, to "pray the Rosary every day, concluding with the antiphon "Under your protection" and the prayer to St Michael the Archangel, to repel the attacks of the devil who wants to divide the Church.”
During these last years and months, we in the Church have lived through difficult situations, among these abuses of sex, power, and conscience on the part of clerics, consecrated persons and lay people. Added to these are internal divisions in the Church.
In the Christian tradition, evil has diverse representations, such as “Satan,” which in Hebrew means “adversary,” or “Devil” in Greek, which means the one who divides or sows discord. The biblical tradition also speaks of the “seducer of the world,” the “father of lies” or “Lucifer,” who presents himself as an angel of light, under a cloak of good, leading into deceit.
As we have seen, evil manifests itself in diverse ways and the mission of evangelization of the Church is made more difficult, even discredited.
Pope Francis reminded us in his Letter to the People of God, on August 20, 2018, that “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it…” When we experience the desolation which these ecclesial wounds produce in us, it serves us well to be with Mary “to insist more on prayer.”
The Holy Father asks us and all the faithful for a greater effort in our personal and community prayer. He invites us to pray every day the Holy Rosary with the intention that the Virgin Mary help the Church in these times of crisis, and to pray each day to St. Michael the Archangel that he defend us against the attacks of the Devil. According to spiritual tradition, Michael is the chief of the celestial armies and the protector of the Church (Revelation 12:7-9).
Pope Francis invites us at the conclusion of the Rosary with that most ancient invocation to the Holy Mother of God, “Sub Tuum Praesidium” as well as the traditional prayer to St. Micheal ascribed to Pope Leo the XIII.
Source and full version: Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network.
Are you in?
It is time to add twenty seconds to your daily readings! Take a moment to discern within your heart if you wish to answer Pope Francis' call by joining us in our prayer. If that's the case, please click on "Join" in the upper right corner!
Thanks for relaying the Pope's call by inviting your friends!