The rosary is the memory of the redemption
Among the many aspects of the Rosary that Popes, Saints and scholars have revealed, one in particular should be noted. The Hole Rosary is a continuous memory of the Redemption, in its crucial stages: the Incarnation of the Word, his Passion and Death for us, Easter, which is initiated for us and which will be fulfilled eternally in Heaven.
If, then, we consider the contemplative elements of the Rosary, that is, the Mysteries around which the spoken prayer unwinds we can better understand why this crown of Hail Marys has been called "The Psalter of the Virgin". As the Psalms reminded Israel of the marvels of the Exodus and of the salvation wrought by God, and served as a constant admonition to be faithful to the pact made on Sinai, so the Rosary continously recalls to us the Covenant of the prodigies of mercy and the power that God has revealed in Christ on behalf of men, and reminds us to faithful to our baptismal pledges. We are his people he is our God.
But this reminder of God's miracles and this constant call to faith passes, in a sense, through Mary, the faithful Virgin. The succession of Hail Marys helps us to penetrate, from one time to the next, ever deeper into the most profound mystery of the Word Incarnate and Savior, "with the heart of her who was closest to the Lord." Because Mary, too, as a Daughter of Zion and heir to the wise spirituality of Israel, sang the miracle of the Exodus; but, as the first and most perfect disciple of Christ, she walked through and experienced the Passover of the New Covenant, storing it in her heart and meditating on every word and gesture of her Son, joining him with unconditional faith, and indicating to all the path of the new pact: "Do whatever he tells you." Glorified today in Heaven, she demonstrates in herself the journey of the new people to the promised land.
The Rosary thus immerses us in the mysteris of Christ, and offers his Mother to every one of the faithful and to all the Church as the perfect model of how to accept, cherish, and live every word and deed of God, on the ongoing journey to the salvation of the world.
October 9, 1983