FAITHFUL URGED TO CONTEMPLATE CHRIST THROUGH THE ROSARY

VATICAN CITY, OCT 27, 2002 (VIS) - At noon today, Pope John Paul appeared at the window of his study which overlooks St. Peter's Square and, before reciting the Angelus, addressed the faithful who had gathered there.

Noting that October 2002 through October 2003 is a special Year of the Rosary, the Pope said: "In such a way I desired to place the 25th year of my pontificate under the sign of this prayer. The most important reason for reproposing the custom of the Rosary is that it is a valid means to promote among the faithful that commitment to contemplate the face of Christ to which I invited everyone following the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000."

"The unsurpassable model of Christian contemplation," the Holy Father added, "is the Virgin Mary. From conception up to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus into heaven, His mother kept the eyes of her immaculate heart fixed on her divine Son: an astonished glance, a penetrating glance, a sorrowful glance, a radiant glance."

He added that the Rosary helps unite us to Christ and "exhorts us to rediscover the beauty of reciting the Rosary in the family: 'the family that prays together, stays together'."

The Pope asserted that "the Rosary is a prayer oriented by its nature to peace. In this year of the Rosary, Christians are called to keep their eyes fixed on Christ, Prince of Peace, so that thoughts and deeds of justice and peace prevail in hearts and among peoples. Let us invoke today the intercession of Our Lady who is so loved by the Russian people who, in these days, have suffered so much. As we pray for the victims of the recent painful event, we ask Mary that similar deeds never happen again."

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