He Asked Our Lady to Intercede

The History of the Rosary is debated. However, Pious tradition relates that at some point in 1214, St. Dominic withdrew into a forest near Toulouse, France. He prayed especially hard to Our Lady to enlighten him as to what to do in order to bring the Albigensian heretics to her Divine Son.

It was then that the Queen of Heaven appeared with three angels and said to him:
“Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?”

“Oh, my Lady,” answered St. Dominic. “You know far better than I do because next to your Son Jesus Christ, you have always been the chief instrument of our salvation."

The History of the Rosary runs through Mary

Then did Our Lady instruct him: Our Lady next explained how the Rosary was to be prayed. She gave us — through St. Dominic — the Rosary as we largely know it today. As each decade was said, one of the 15 principal mysteries of the life of Jesus and Mary was to be the subject of meditation.

Light of the World

In 2002, the year of the Rosary, Saint Pope John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries. These mysteries focus on the public ministry of Christ and make clear the Jesus-first focus of this timeless prayer.

Salvation Goes through Christ

Thus we have the answer for our times and the fulfillment, it seems, of the prophecy Our Lady made to St. Dominic so many centuries ago: “One day through the Rosary and the Scapular I will save the world.” When our Lady utters phrases such as these it's implied that the believer's prayers will be answered by Jesus through her powerful intercession.

A Powerful Intercessor

For now she comes, not simply to save one sinner, or to convert a nation or win a war. But to tell us the solution to the problems of the entire world! When enough Catholics do as Our Lady has asked, the pope will have the grace to do as God has commanded through The Most Holy Virgin Mary. She never fails to gently guide us to her son, Jesus Christ.