Rosarium Virginis Mariae

On the 16th October, His Holiness Pope John Paul II signed an Apostolic Letter called Rosarium Virginis Mariae, thus launching a special year dedicated to the Holy Rosary. Obviously, we regard each and every Papal Document as important for us, yet this particular Apostolic Letter has a special bearing both on our Founder and even on Marian devotion. Let me quote here a paragraph written by Angelo Xuereb in our November 2001 issue under the heading Spirituality: BLESSED GEORGE PRECA AND THE VIRGIN MARY.
    “Another Marian devotion that our Founder treasured was the Holy Rosary. In order to encourage everyone to recite the rosary, he used to say: “Our Lady waits for our Rosary even up till midnight!” For him, the Rosary was not only a vocal prayer, but also of a meditative and contemplative nature. This can be seen clearly in his writing called The Mysteries of Light. A rapid glance at these mysteries will clearly show us that they do differ a lot form the ones we are used to. The first mystery is when Our Lord was baptized at the Jordan; the second consists in meditating the events of Christ’s miracles; the third, when Jesus Christ taught the Beatitudes; The fourth about Our Lord’s transfiguration; and the fifth is about the Last Supper.” – Issue No 51 November 2001 page 4.
    These Mysteries of Light were proposed by our Founder to be meditated privately by the SDC Members. This was way back in 1957! We do know that the Holy Father was not inspired by our Founder to introduce these new five mysteries for meditations, yet this proves that the people of God are imbued by the same Holy Spirit.
    In the weeks that followed the signing of this Apostolic Letter, the Central House was literally flooded with queries and enquiries about our Founder and his writings. So many people from all over the world sent emails to the Central House asking for more information about the Founder and the Society. It is also very encouraging to note that a number of Newsagents from different countries did also make contact with the Society asking for further information about the writings of Fr George. In an article written by Msgr Laurence Gatt, Malta’s Ecclesial Assistant, he puts on a rhetorical questions when he asks: “Is it proper that he who wrote and registered all these inspirational thought remains hidden and enclosed here in Malta only?” For Msgr Gatt, Fr George can be considered as Universal heritage, and that we, as his spiritual children, have the duty to convey him to the entire Church. This is definitely not an easy task, for it requires deep thinking, prayers, diligent actions and communal effort. Yet we should be aware that we are responsible of this particular privilege to be the procurators of this heritage and executors of this testament.
    We are also happy to note that in the first quarter of next year, a biography in Italian about our Founder, written by the well known author Angelo Montonati and published by the Pauline Press, will also put our Founder on the shelves of hundreds of libraries all around Italy, hoping that other translations of this biography will follow to make our Founder present in many libraries around the world.

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