A Word of Warning
I should give you a word of warning at this stage. From the very start, this book will take you to the depths. Jesus calls us to cast out into the deep (see Lk 5:4). However, if you are in a fragile or especially vulnerable emotional condition, tread carefully. Pray first for guidance, and embark on this healing journey only if you feel courageous enough to confront some aspects of life that may be disturbing. If you are in a vulnerable or fragile state, it is good to have the support of a wise and spiritual friend with whom to discuss what you discover. However, do not allow my word of warning to become an excuse for remaining where you are! God wants to heal you, but the time must be his time — and you must know when that is.
When you are ready, this book will help you to pray the Rosary for your own healing and for the healing of your family, your community, and your world. This is a practical book. It is not just theory. It works. Don’t just read this book and put it away. Use it, tell others about it, and spread the word. If you have the courage to approach him and reach out to touch the hem of his cloak, Jesus really will turn, touch your life, forgive you, and heal you. The healing may take time. It may be painful — and the road to recovery may be long and hard — but Mary will be there at every step to help you discover a new life in Christ that will be radiant, abundant, and free.
How to Use This Book
• The first section of the book reminds you how to pray the Rosary. Even if you know how to pray the Rosary, skim through this section because it includes some special pointers for using the Rosary for healing.
• The main part of the book takes you through all twenty mysteries of the Rosary.
• The title of each mystery is matched with a stage of our lives.
• The section on each mystery begins with a Scripture reference that reminds us of that stage.
• On the opposite page there is an illustration of the event to help you visualize your meditation.
• Next, there is a short meditation on the event itself.
• This leads to an explanation of how that event in Jesus’ life matches our own life, and how we can open that area of our life to God’s healing love.
• A real-life illustration of this healing follows.
• Next, there is a prayerful reflection on how you can apply all this to your own life.
• Then say a decade of Hail Marys.
• The section closes with a brief prayer that can be said with the bead between decades. This prayer may be said after the Our Father and before the beginning of the next decade.
How to Pray the Rosary for Healing
The Rosary is a pattern of prayer that helps us to meditate more deeply on the life of Christ. We pray the Rosary by holding a Rosary and saying a prayer for each bead. The spaces between the beads become spaces for silence and meditation.
There are many different ways to pray the Rosary, and different customs and prayers have grown up in different cultures and for different individuals.
Some people kneel to pray the Rosary, but to pray the Healing Rosary I recommend sitting comfortably, perhaps with a candle burning before an icon or a crucifix.
Most people begin by holding the crucifix and reciting the Apostles’ Creed. This is followed by reciting the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father) and three Hail Marys and a Glory Be on the beads that connect the crucifix to the main circlet of beads. When you get to the medal that joins these two groups of beads, I recommend that you stop and ask God to use this prayer for your healing. You may use your own form of words or you might like to say: By the power of this Rosary, I pray the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede for me for my healing, the healing of my family, and the healing of the world. This I ask by the redemption won for us by the suffering, death, and Resurrection of the one Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Pope John Paul recommended beginning each decade by announcing the mystery for that decade and, taking a moment, holding the chain before the decade of beads to visualize the events of this particular mystery. In this book, you will find material to help you visualize the event and apply it to your personal needs. After that, pray the decade slowly, allowing the Lord’s healing to be applied to your situation.
You may feel that God is doing wonderful things as you pray through a particular mystery. Maybe you feel he is bringing up many things that need to be dealt with. If so, take your time. Allow the Holy Spirit to work through your life at that point. You may feel that you want to repeat that mystery. That’s good. You may feel that you want to stop and simply rest in God’s healing presence and not complete the entire sequence of mysteries. That’s fine. Be led by the Spirit, and allow him to guide your prayer.
You may feel that the meditations designed for healing don’t apply to your situation. In that case, please still pray the Rosary for healing, but allow your prayers to be focused on other people you know who are in the situation described. If you do not know people who are in that situation, please pray for the healing of those unknown to you, for the healing of your community, and for the healing of the world.
Many people have doubts, questions, and fears about the healing ministry. We worry that God won’t answer our prayers, that we will look foolish because the person wasn’t healed after all. Don’t worry too much about this. When I began to work in the healing ministry, I expressed such doubts to an old priest with whom I was working. I said, “What if we lay hands on a person and pray and nothing happens?” He smiled and said, “Oh, something always happens!”
So it is with praying the Rosary for healing. Don’t worry. Something always happens! It’s just that it is not for us to say what God will do. If we pray faithfully, he will be faithful in keeping his promises. How and when he keeps his promises is his business! All we have to do is watch and wait, and eventually we will see the power of his healing love in our world.
I
The Joyful Mysteries
Annunciation
Conception
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High;
and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever;
and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no husband?” And the angel said to her,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;
therefore the child to be born will be called holy,