Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our heart, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection.
Those who pray the Angelus will recognize this opening Collect for Mass for this feast. It keys us into the Mystery of the Word made flesh, of God entering into our history.
I once was working with a youth group for a summer and the leader told me that his colleagues in this particular diocese gave him grief that he prayed the rosary with his 60 teens at the weekly meeting. They couldn't believe that anyone would do this, and they were more surprised that teenagers would agree to pray the Rosary. I was appalled that any Catholic youth minister would dismiss praying with sacred Scripture. The experience was golden: sitting in a circle, someone introduced the mystery of the Rosary, and everyone in the room announced the intention(s) that they needed Mary's help on. Each teen took a Hail Mary. No gimmick, just prayer. Following the prayer, then there was "the program." To me, the Rosary was enough.
It seems to me that if you want to experience the habit of prayer, to know the biblical narrative of Love, and be faithful in what the Mother of God asked us to do to decapitate sin, then praying the Rosary is the prayer form to do. Saints and sinners, popes and common people have all recommended the Holy Rosary taking up what the collect indicates, to the Incarnation of the Lord made known by the Angel.
Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, pray for us.
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