May

11

New Saint of the Rosary

May 11, 2008 |

On June 3, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI canonized a Maltese priest, Father George Preca, whose devotion to the Rosary is widely considered the foundation for the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary introduced by Pope John Paul II in the 2002 encyclical letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, which the pontiff wrote to inaugurate a Year of the Rosary, and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his pontificate.

Father Preca was born in Malta, in 1880. Early in the 20th Century, as a young priest, he founded the Society of Christian Doctrine to train catechists. In 1957 the Society celebrated the 50th anniversary of its foundation, and many of Father Preca’s supports urged him to plan festivities to mark the event. Father Preca refused to support an elaborate celebration - “it is enough,” he said “to sing the Te Deum as a thanksgiving” - but he wrote a number of short spiritual works, which he hoped would foster deeper intimacy with God among the Society’s members.

Among these brief works were reflections on five events or aspects of Jesus’ public ministry: his Baptism and subsequent temptation, the miracles that revealed Jesus as true God, the Sermon on the Mount, the Transfiguration, and the Last Supper. He presented these to his followers as five additional points of meditation when praying the Rosary. Each of these “mysteries” was to be accompanied by a brief, but suitable, time of reflection.

Although members of Father Preca’s Society of Christian Doctrine surmise that Pope John Paull II initially learned of the future saint’s devotion by means of the Internet or some other means of the mass communication, we may never know the extent to which Father Preca’s work influenced Pope John Paul as he wrote Rosarium Virginis Mariae. What is clear, however, is a deep correspondence between the language of the encyclical letter, and phrases crafted by Father Preca.

Father Preca died in 1962, so had no knowledge of what he may have helped inspire. However, one of his associates has said,

Had Fr. Preca been around [in 2002], he would have rejoiced enormously. He would have made the Pope’s message his own, and would have encouraged us all to sing to Mary ‘Rejoice, for I have found great favor woth the Lord!’ Fr. Preca would have emphatically passed on these pressing words of the Holy Father through the Rosary, ‘Mary helps us to learn the secret of Christian joy, reminding us Christianity is, above all … good news - which has its center, indeed its very content, in the person of Christ.”

by Father Reginald E. Martin, O.P.
Director, The Rosary Confraternity

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