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Title: |
Ingravescentibus Malis
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Descr.: |
On The Rosary
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Pope: |
Pope Pius XI
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Date: |
September 29, 1937
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To
the Venerable Brethren, Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops,
Bishops, and Other Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the
Apostolic See.
1.
More than once have We asserted - and We recently repeated this in
the Encyclical Letter Divini Redemptoris (Acta Ap. Sedis, 1937,
Vol. XXIX, p. 65) - that there is no remedy for the ever-growing
evils of our times except a return to Our Lord Jesus Christ and to
His most holy precepts. Truly, only He "hath the words of
eternal life" (Cf. John, vi, 69), and individuals and society
can only fall into immediate and miserable ruin if they ignore the
majesty of God and repudiate His Law.
2.
However, anyone who studies with diligence the records of the
Catholic Church will easily recognize that the true patronage of
the Virgin Mother of God is linked with all the annals of the
Christian name. When, in fact, errors everywhere diffused were
bent upon rending the seamless robe of the Church and upon
throwing the Catholic world into confusion, our fathers turned
with confident soul to her "alone who destroys all heresies
in the world" (Roman Breviary), and the victory won through
her brought the return of tranquility.
3.
When the impious Mohammedan power, trusting in its powerful fleet
and war-hardened armies, threatened the peoples of Europe with
ruin and slavery, then - upon the suggestion of the Sovereign
Pontiff - the protection of the heavenly Mother was fervently
implored and the enemy was defeated and his ships sunk. Thus the
Faithful of every age, both in public misfortune and in private
need, turn in supplication to Mary...so that she may
come to their aid and grant help and remedy against sorrows of
body and soul. And never was her most powerful aid hoped for in
vain by those who besought it with pious and trustful prayer.
4.
But also in our day, dangers no less grave than in the past beset
civil and religious society. In fact, because the supreme and
eternal authority of God, which commands and forbids, is despised
and completely repudiated by men, the result is that the
consciousness of Christian duty is weakened, and that faith
becomes tepid in souls or entirely lost, and his afterward affects
and ruins the very basis of human society.
5.
Thus on the one hand are seen citizens intent on an atrocious
struggle among themselves because some are provided with abundant
riches and others must gain bread for themselves and their dear
ones by the sweat of their brows. Indeed, as we all know, in some
regions the evil had reached such a pitch that it seeks to destroy
all private right of property, so that everything might be shared
in common.
6.
On the other hand, there are not lacking men who declare that they
honor and exalt, above all, the power of the State. They say they
must use every means to assure civil order and enforce authority,
and pretend that only thus are they able totally to repulse the
execrable theories of the Communists. However, they despise the
light of evangelic wisdom and endeavor to revive the errors of the
pagans and their way of life.
7.
To this is added the clever and lamentable sect of those who,
denying and hating God, declare themselves the enemies of the
Eternal, and who insinuate themselves everywhere. They discredit
and uproot all religious belief from souls. Finally, they trample
on every human and Divine right. And while they cast scorn on the
hope of heavenly reward, they incite men to seek, even by illicit
means, false earthly happiness, and therefore drive them with
brazen temerity to the dissolution of the social order, causing
disorder, cruel rebellions and even the conflagration of civil
war.
8.
Nevertheless, Venerable Brethren, though such great and numerous
evils hang over us, and others still greater are to be feared for
the future, we must not lose heart nor let the confident hope that
rests solely on God become fainter. He who "made the nations
of the earth for health" (Cf. Wisdom i, 14) without doubt
will not let those perish whom He has redeemed with His Precious
Blood, nor will He abandon His Church. But rather, as We said in
the beginning, shall We beseech God through the mediation of the
Blessed Virgin, so acceptable to Him, since, to use the words of
St. Bernard: "Such is the will of God, who has wished that we
should have all things through Mary." (Sermon on the Nativity
of the Blessed Virgin Mary.)
9.
Among the various supplications with which we successfully appeal
to the Virgin Mother of God, the Holy Rosary without doubt
occupies a special and distinct place. This prayer, which some
call the Psalter of the Virgin or Breviary of the Gospel and of
Christian life, was described and recommended by Our Predecessor
of happy memory, Leo XIII, with these vigorous passages:
"Very admirable is this crown interwoven with the angelic
salutation which is interposed in the Sunday prayer, and unites
with it the obligation of interior meditation. It is an excellent
manner of prayer...and very useful for the attainment of immortal
life" (Acta Leonis, 1898, Vol. XVIII, pp. 154, 155).
10.
And this can well be deduced from the very flowers that form this
mystic garland. What prayers in fact can be found more adaptable
and holy? This first is that which our Divine Redeemer Himself
pronounced when His disciples asked Him: "Lord, teach us to
pray" (Luke xi, 1); a very holy supplication which both
offers us the way - as far as it is possible for us - to render
glory to God, and also takes into account all the necessities of
our body and soul. How can the Eternal Father, when prayed to with
the very words of His Son, refuse to come to our aid?
11.
The other prayer is the Angelic Salutation, which begins with the
eulogies of the Archangel Gabriel and of St. Elizabeth, and ends
with that very pious supplication by which we beg the help of the
Blessed Virgin now and at the hour of our death. To these
invocations, said aloud, is added the contemplation of the sacred
mysteries, through which they place, as it were, under our eyes
the joys, sorrows and triumphs of Jesus Christ and of His Mother,
so that we receive relief and comfort in our sorrows. Following
those most holy examples, we ascend to the happiness of the
heavenly country by steps of ever higher virtue.
12.
This practice of piety, Venerable Brethren, admirably diffused by
St. Dominic, not without the heavenly suggestion and inspiration
of the Virgin Mother of God, is without doubt easy for all, even
for the ignorant and the simple. But those wander from the path of
truth who consider this devotion merely an annoying formula
repeated with monotonous singsong intonation, and refuse it as
good only for children and silly women!
13.
In this regard, it is to be noted that both piety and love, though
always renewing the same words, do not always repeat the same
thing but always express something new issuing from the intimate
sentiment of devotion. And besides, this mode of prayer has the
perfume of evangelic simplicity and requires humility of spirit;
and, if we disdain humility, as the Divine Redeemer teaches, it
will be impossible for us to enter the heavenly kingdom:
"Amen, I say to you, unless you become as little children you
shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. xviii, 3).
14.
Nevertheless, if men in our century, with its derisive pride,
refuse the Holy Rosary, there is an innumerable multitude of holy
men of every age and every condition who have always held it dear.
They have recited it with great devotion, and in every moment they
have used it as a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight, to
preserve the integrity of life, to acquire virtue more easily, and
in a word to attain real peace among men.
15.
Nor are there lacking men famous as to doctrine and wisdom who,
although intensely occupied in scientific study and researches,
never even for a day fail to pray fervently on bended knee, before
the image of the Virgin, in this most pious form. Thus kings and
princes, however burdened with most urgent occupations and
affairs, made it their duty to recite the Rosary.
16.
This mystic crown, then, not only is found in and glides through
the hands of the poor, but it also is honored by citizens of every
social rank. And We do not wish here to pass over in silence the
fact that the Blessed Virgin herself, even in our times, has
solicitously recommended this manner of prayer, when she appeared
and taught it to the innocent girl in the Grotto of Lourdes.
17.
Therefore why should We not hope for every grace if We supplicate
Our Heavenly Mother in this manner with due disposition and
holiness? We desire very earnestly, Venerable Brethren, that the
Holy Rosary should be recited in a special manner in the month of
October and with increased devotion both in the churches and in
homes.
18.
And so much the more must it be done since the enemies of the
Divine Name - that is, those who have rebelled against and denied
and scorned the Eternal God - spread snares for the Catholic Faith
and the liberty due to the Church, and finally rebel with insane
efforts against divine and human rights, to send mankind to ruin
and perdition. Through efficacious recourse to the Virgin Mother
of God, they may be finally bent and led to penance and return to
the straight path, trusting to the care and protection of Mary.
19.
The Holy Virgin who once victoriously drove the terrible sect of
the Albigenses from Christian countries, now suppliantly invoked
by us, will turn aside the new errors, especially those of
Communism, which reminds us in many ways, in its motives and
misdeeds, of the ancient ones.
20.
And as in the times of the Crusades, in all Europe there was
raised one voice of the people, one supplication; so today, in all
the world, the cities, and even the smallest villages, united with
courage and strength, with filial and constant insistence, the
people seek to obtain from the great Mother of God the defeat of
the enemies of Christian and human civilization, to the end that
true peace may shine again over tired and erring men.
21.
If, then, all will do this with due disposition, with great faith
and with fervent piety, it is right to hope that as in the past,
so in our day, the Blessed Virgin will obtain from her divine Son
that the waves of the present tempests be calmed and that a
brilliant victory crown this rivalry of Christians in prayer.
22.
The Holy Rosary, besides, not only serves admirably to overcome
the enemies of God and Religion, but is also a stimulus and spur
to the practice of evangelic virtues which it injects and
cultivates in our souls. Above all, it nourishes the Catholic
Faith, which flourishes again by due meditation on the sacred
mysteries, and raises minds to the truth revealed to us by God.
23.
Every one can understand how salutary it is, especially in our
times wherein sometimes a certain annoyance of the things of the
spirit is felt even among the Faithful, and a dislike, as it were,
for the Christian doctrine. Therefore, revive the hope of immortal
welfare, while the triumph of Jesus Christ and of His Mother,
meditated on by us in the last part of the Rosary, shows us Heaven
open and invites us to the conquest of the Eternal Country.
24.
Thus while an unbridled longing for the things of this earth has
penetrated into the hearts of mortals and each one more ardently
longs for the short-lived riches and ephemeral pleasures, all feel
a fruitful call back to the heavenly treasures "where thieves
do not break in and neither rust nor moth doth consume"
(Matt. xii, 33), and to the wealth that will never perish.
25.
And the charity which has been weakened and cooled in many, how
can it fail to be rekindled into love in the souls of those who
recall with a full heart the tortures and death of our Redeemer
and the afflictions of His Sorrowful Mother? From this charity
towards God, then, there cannot but rise a more intense love of
one's neighbor if one dwells on the labors and sorrows that Our
Lord suffered for all, reinstating the lost inheritance of the
children of God.
26.
Therefore see to it, Venerable Brethren, that such a fruitful
practice shall be more diffused, more highly esteemed by all, and
that common piety be increased. Through your work and that of the
priests who help you in the care of souls, its praises and
advantages shall be preached and repeated to the Faithful of every
social class.
27.
From it, the young will draw fresh energy with which to control
the rebellious tendencies to evil and to preserve intact the
stainless purity of the soul; also in it, the old will again find
repose, relief and peace from their anxious cares. To those who
devote themselves to Catholic Action may it be a spur to impel
them to a more fervent and active work of apostolate; and to all
those who suffer in any way, especially the dying, may it bring
comfort and increase the hope of eternal happiness.
28.
The fathers and mothers of families particularly must give an
example to their children, especially when, at sunset, they gather
together after the day's work, within the domestic walls, and
recite the Holy Rosary on bended knees before the image of the
Virgin, together fusing voice, faith and sentiment. This is a
beautiful and salutary custom, from which certainly there cannot
but be derived tranquility and abundance of heavenly gifts for
the household.
29.
When very frequently We receive newly married couples in audience
and address paternal words to them, We give them rosaries, We
recommend these to them earnestly, and We exhort them, citing Our
own example, not to let even one day pass without saying the
Rosary, no matter how burdened they may be with many cares and
labors.
30.
For these reasons, Venerable Brethren, We have thought fit
earnestly to exhort you, and through you, all the Faithful, to
carry out this pious practice. Nor do We doubt that you,
listening, with your usual response to Our paternal invitation
will bring about abundant fruits once more.
31.
And in addressing this Encyclical to you, another motive impels
Us. We wish that, together with Us, Our many children in Jesus
shall unite and render thanks to the Mother of God for the better
health We have happily regained.
32.
This grace, as We have had occasion to write (Cf. Letter to
Cardinal E. Pacelli, Osservatore Romano, September 5, 1937), We
attribute to the special intercession of the virgin of Lisieux,
St. Therese of the Child Jesus. But We know, though, that
everything comes to us from Almighty God through the hands of Our
Lady.
33.
And lastly, as there has been launched in the public press with
rash insolence, a very grave injury to the Blessed Virgin, We
cannot do less than profit by this occasion to offer, together
with the Episcopate and the people of that nation which venerates
Mary as "Queen of the Kingdom of Poland," and with the
homage of our piety, due reparation to the august Queen, and
denounce to the whole world this sacrilege committed with
impunity, as a painful and unworthy thing.
34.
Meanwhile, with a full heart We impart to you, Venerable Brethren,
and to the flock entrusted to the care of each of you, the
Apostolic Blessing as an augury of heavenly graces and in token to
Our Paternal benevolence.
Given
at Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, on the 29th day of the month of
September, on the Feast of the Dedication of St. Michael the
Archangel, in the year 1937, the sixteenth of Our Pontificate.
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