Bishop Demetrio Fernandez Gonzalez of Tarazona, Spain, said this week that by praying the Rosary one hears the voice of God, who speaks through Mary about the mysteries of the life of Christ.

In a pastoral letter for the month of the Rosary entitled, “I Pray the Rosary, And You?” the bishop said that prayer is not authentic when it is just a monologue, because in prayer there must always be an openness to God through attentive listening.

“In the Rosary we hear the Word of God, we contemplate, we praise, and we make petitions, we are in communion with the entire praying Church.  But all of this is impossible if there is no love.  In order to pray the Rosary, we must love, and the Rosary itself becomes sustenance and encouragement of this love of God and of neighbor,” Bishop Fernandez noted.

The Rosary is a prayer of the heart, he continued, which keeps us in tune with the heart of Mary in the contemplation of the mysteries of Jesus, and therefore, it is always a school of Christian living.

The bishop called on Catholics to take advantage of this month of the Rosary to pray the “magnificent” prayer, which is “not only simple but also efficacious” more often.