The Pro-Life Scriptural/Encyclical Rosary

Have you ever prayed an encyclical, that is, a letter from the Pope to the universal Church? Pope John Paul II's encyclical, The Gospel of Life, is one of the greatest and most important documents of the twentieth century. It is steeped in the Scriptures. As you pray this encyclical, you will be praying the scriptures, growing in faith, and building a "civilization of love" rather than a "culture of death". With Mary, the mother of God and the mother of the Church, let us pray:

The Joyful Mysteries

 
The First Joyful Mystery — The Annunciation

1) "By His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every human being" (Gaudium et Spes 22, quoted in 2).

2) The Incarnation reveals "the incomparable value of every human person" (2).

3) "The Gospel of God's love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the person and the Gospel of life are a single and indivisible Gospel" (2).

4) "Respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life!" (5)

5) "Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity" (9).

6) "The pro-abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected" (13).

7) "How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he 'gained so great a Redeemer' " (Exsultet of the Easter Vigil) (25).

8) "Many married couples who, with a generous sense of responsibility, are ready to accept children as 'the supreme gift of marriage' " (26).

9) "Truly great must be the value of human life if the Son of God has taken it up and made it the instrument of the salvation of all humanity!" (33)

10) "Man, living man, is the glory of God" (St. Irenaeus of Lyons, quoted in 34).

 
The Second Joyful Mystery — The Visitation

1) "Man is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God" (2).

2) "We cannot but think of today's tendency for people to refuse to accept responsibility for their brothers and sisters" (8).

3) "The infant leaped, the mother was filled with the Spirit" (St. Ambrose, quoted in 45).

4) "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk" (Lk 7:22, quoted in 32).

5) "Lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear" (Lk 7:22, quoted in 32).

6) "The dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them" (Lk 7:22, quoted in 32).

7) Jesus "went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him" (Acts 10:38, quoted in 32).

8) "I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk" (Acts 3:6, quoted in 32).

9) "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you" (St. Augustine, quoted in 35).

10) "Before you were born I consecrated you" (Jer 1:5, quoted in 44).

 
The Third Joyful Mystery — The Birth of Jesus

1) "I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:10-11, quoted in 1).

2) Christmas "reveals the full meaning of every human birth" (1).

3) "Jesus' life is marked by uncertainty from the very moment of His birth" (33).

4) "There was no place for them in the inn" (Lk 2:7, quoted in 33).

5) "This life which is born is salvation for all humanity" (cf Lk 2:11) (33).

6) "Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness" (Gn 1:26, quoted in 34).

7) "Christ is the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15, quoted in 36).

8) "To all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God" (Jn 1:12, quoted in 37).

9) "Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:3, quoted in 37).

10) "...'Holy matrimony, chosen and elevated above all other earthly gifts,' as 'the begetter of humanity, the creator of images of God' " (Bishop Amphilochius, quoted in 43).

 
The Fourth Joyful Mystery — The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

1) "If you would enter life, keep the commandments" (Mt 19:17, quoted in 52).

2) "Threats which are no less serious hang over the incurably ill and the dying" (15).

3) "Nor can we remain silent in the face of other more furtive, but no less serious and real, forms of euthanasia" (15).

4) "The Gospel of life is something concrete and personal, for it consists in the proclamation of the very person of Jesus" (29).

5) "Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" (Lk 12:20, quoted in 32)

6) "All who commit themselves to following Christ are given the fullness of life" (36).

7) "No more shall there be...an old man who does not fill out his days" (Is 65:20, quoted in 46).

8) "This is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom you have sent" (Jn 17:3, quoted in 37).

9) "We know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 Jn 3:2, quoted in 38).

10) "He who follows me...will have the light of life" (Jn 8:12, quoted in 37).

 
The Fifth Joyful Mystery — The Finding of Jesus in the Temple

1) "May these words reach all the sons and daughters of the Church!" (5)

2) "I pray that at every level a general commitment to support the family will reappear and be strengthened" (6).

3) "The value of life can today undergo a kind of 'eclipse' " (11).

4) "With our attention fixed on the Lord Jesus, we wish to hear from Him once again 'the words of God' " (Jn 3:34, quoted in 30).

5) "God's plan for human beings is this, that they should 'be conformed to the image of his Son' " (Rm 8:29, quoted in 36).

6) "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68, quoted in 37).

7) The Gospel of life "is to be preached with dauntless fidelity" (1).

8) "He has made everything beautiful in its time; also He has put eternity into man's mind" (Eccl 3:11, quoted in 31).

9) "We are facing an immense threat to life: not only to the life of individuals but also to that of civilization itself" (Pope John Paul II's, Letter to Families, quoted in 59).

10) "It is by listening to the word of the Lord that we are able to live in dignity and justice" (48).

 

The Sorrowful Mysteries

 
The First Sorrowful Mystery — The Agony in the Garden

1) "The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus' message" (1).

2) A "New cultural climate is developing and taking hold, which gives crimes against life a new and—if possible—even more sinister character" (4).

3) "This reality...takes the form of a veritable 'culture of death' " (12).

4) "The family celebrates the Gospel of life through daily prayer, both individual prayer and family prayer" (93).

5) "Contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree" (13).

6) "Chemical products, intrauterine devices, and vaccines...really act as abortifacients" (13).

7) "Techniques of artificial reproduction...separate procreation from the fully human context of the conjugal act" (14).

8) "Jesus Himself has shown us by His own example that prayer and fasting are the first and most effective weapons against the forces of evil" ( cf Mt 4:1-11) (100).

9) "As He taught His disciples, some demons cannot be driven out except in this way" (cf Mk 9:29) (100).

10) "The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize that we are dealing with murder" (58).

 
The Second Sorrowful Mystery — The Scourging at the Pillar

1) "Humanity today offers us a truly alarming spectacle" (17).

2) "It is possible to speak in a certain sense of a war of the powerful against the weak" (12).

3) "Once all reference to God has been removed.... the meaning of everything else becomes profoundly distorted" (22).

4) "Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct" (Rm 1:28, quoted in 23).

5) "A kind of 'conspiracy against life' is unleashed" (12).

6) "Without the Creator the creature would disappear" (Gaudium et Spes, 36, quoted in 22).

7) "When God is forgotten the creature itself grows unintelligible" (Gaudium et Spes, 36, quoted in 22).

8) "Conscience itself, darkened as it were by such widespread conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between good and evil" (4).

9) "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin" (Jn 8:34, quoted in 20).

10) "Whoever attacks human life, in some way attacks God Himself" (9).

 
The Third Sorrowful Mystery — The Crowning with Thorns

1) "This is the death of true freedom" (20).

2) "Secularism...with its ubiquitous tentacles, succeeds at times in putting Christian communities themselves to the test" (21).

3) Men "by their wickedness suppress the truth" (Rm 1:18, quoted in 24).

4) "Their senseless minds were darkened" "claiming to be wise, they became fools" (Rm 1:21, 22, quoted in 24).

5) "We revert to a state of barbarism which one hoped had been left behind forever" (14).

6) "We are facing what can be called 'a structure of sin' which opposes human life not yet born" (59).

7) "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29, quoted before 68).

8) "New threats are emerging on an alarmingly vast scale" (3).

9) "Whatever is opposed to life itself" is "a supreme dishonor to the Creator (Gaudium et Spes, 27, quoted in 3).

10) "Cain tries to cover up his crime with a lie. This was and still is the case" (8).

 
The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus Carries His Cross

1) "Walk as children of light" (Eph 5:8, quoted before 95).

2) "Suffering...is 'censored', rejected as useless" (23).

3) "More than anything else, it is the problem of suffering which challenges faith and puts it to the test" (31).

4) "Today we too find ourselves in the midst of a dramatic conflict between the 'culture of death' and the 'culture of life' " (50).

5) "The glory of the cross is not overcome by this darkness; rather, it shines forth ever more radiantly and brightly" (50).

6) An unjust law "ceases to be a law and becomes instead an act of violence" (Thomas Aquinas, quoted in 72).

7) "There is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them" (laws legalizing abortion and euthanasia) "by conscientious objection" (73).

8) "Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction...are infamies indeed" (Gaudium et Spes, 27, quoted in 3).

9) "In a word, we can say that the cultural change which we are calling for demands from everyone the courage to adopt a new life-style" (98).

10) "The Father of mercies is ready to give you His forgiveness and His peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation" (99).

 
The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus Dies on the Cross

1) "Hers is always the evangelical cry in defense of the world's poor, those who are threatened and despised" (5).

2) God "did not desire that a homicide be punished by the exaction of another act of homicide" (St. Ambrose, quoted in 9).

3) "You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment" (Mt 5:21, quoted in 41).

4) "A life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is considered useless, or held to be an intolerable burden, and is therefore rejected" (12).

5) "From man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life" (Gn 9:5, quoted in 39).

6) "Such cases" [capital punishment] "are very rare, if not practically non-existent" (56).

7) "We too are called to give our lives for our brothers and sisters, and thus to realize in the fullness of truth the meaning and destiny of our existence" (51).

8) "It is precisely by His death that Jesus reveals all the splendor and value of life" (33).

9) This "blood ... speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel" (Heb 12:24, quoted in 25).

10) "What have you done?" (Gn 4:10, quoted in 10)

 

The Glorious Mysteries

 
The First Glorious Mystery — The Resurrection of Jesus

1) "Jesus says: 'I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly' " (Jn 10:10, quoted in 1).

2) "God did not make death, and He does not delight in the death of the living" (Wis 1:13, quoted in 7).

3) "God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of His own eternity" (Wis 2:23, quoted in 7).

4) "Through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it" (Wis 2:24, quoted in 7).

5) "We are in fact faced by an objective 'conspiracy against life' " (17).

6) All "the efforts to enforce silence fail to stifle the voice of the Lord" (24).

7) "Death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Cor 15:54, quoted in 25).

8) "O death, where is your sting?" (1 Cor 15:55, quoted in 25)

9) "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live" (Jn 11:25-26, quoted in 29).

10) "You will come to understand that nothing is definitively lost and you will also be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living in the Lord" (99).

 
The Second Glorious Mystery — The Ascension of Jesus

1) "The life which God bestows upon man is ... the seed of an existence which transcends the very limits of time" (34).

2) "Death shall be no more" (Rv 21:4, quoted before 105).

3) "With God nothing will be impossible" (Lk 1:30, 37, quoted in 105).

4) "Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away" (Rv 21:4, quoted in 105).

5) "Within this same cultural climate, the body is no longer perceived as a properly personal reality" (23).

6) "You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God" (Heb 12:22, quoted in 25).

7) "The present victory over sin is a sign and anticipation of the definitive victory over death" (25).

8) "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life" (Jn 14:6, quoted in 29).

9) "God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death and to raise us up to life eternal" (Dei Verbum, 4, quoted in 29).

10) "We, the pilgrim people, the people of life and for life, make our way in confidence towards a 'new heaven and a new earth'" (Rv 21:1, quoted in 105).

 
The Third Glorious Mystery — The Descent of the Holy Spirit

1) "The Church feels in duty bound to speak out with the same courage on behalf of those who have no voice" (5).

2) "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it" (Gn 1:28, quoted in 42).

3) "You formed my inmost being" (Ps 139:13, quoted before 44).

4) "There is an everyday heroism, made up of gestures of sharing, big or small, which build up an authentic culture of life" (86).

5) "Only the concerted efforts of all those who believe in the value of life can prevent a setback of unforeseeable consequences for civilization" (91).

6) The "thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed " (Lk 2:35, quoted in 103).

7) "You will not be forgotten by Me" (Is 44:21, quoted in 31).

8) "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted" (Jb 42:2, quoted in 31).

9) "Let us therefore discover anew the humility and the courage to pray and fast so that power from on high will break down the walls of lies and deceit" (100).

10) "You, O Lord, have given us the example and have bestowed on us the power of Your Spirit" (51).

 
The Fourth Glorious Mystery — The Assumption of Mary into Heaven

1) "A great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun" (Rv 12:1, quoted in 103).

2) "Freedom from slavery meant the gift of an identity, the recognition of an indestructible dignity" (31).

3) "What is man that you are mindful of him?" (Ps 8:4, quoted in 35)

4) "You have made him little less than a god, and crown him with glory and honour" (Ps 8:5, quoted in 35).

5) "It is I Who bring both death and life" (Dt 32:39, quoted before 64).

6) "I confirm that euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person" (65).

7) "Man surpasses his nature: mortal, he becomes immortal; perishable, he becomes imperishable" (St. Gregory of Nyssa, quoted in 80).

8) "We thank you, heroic mothers, for your invincible love!" (86)

9) "We thank you for your intrepid trust in God and in His love" (86).

10) "We are writing you this that our joy may be complete" (1 Jn 1:4, quoted in 101).

 
The Fifth Glorious Mystery — The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven ∓ Earth

1) "She is the woman of glory in whom God's plan could be carried out with supreme perfection" (103).

2) "The life was made manifest, and we saw it" (1 Jn 1:2, quoted before 29).

3) "All who hold her fast will live" (Bar 4:1, quoted before 48).

4) "What words, thoughts or flight of the spirit can praise the superabundance of this grace?" (St. Gregory of Nyssa, quoted in 80)

5) "I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made" (Ps 139:14, quoted before 83).

6) "We know that we can rely on the help of God, for Whom nothing is impossible" (cf Mt 19:26) (100).

7) "A great prayer for life is urgently needed" (100).

8) "I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life" (Dt 30:19, quoted in 28).

9) We have "the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life" (28).

10) "I propose that a Day for Life be celebrated each year in every country" (85).