You are asking me for my notes on what I said on Rosary Sunday. My thought was the following: to remind of the historical development of the rosary and (…) to describe the evolution of the Hail Mary prayer in the religious life of each individual.
The Hail Mary is first a manifestation, essentially instinctive and often "self-interested," of love for our Lady.
It transforms into a need to know her better, to "sympathize" with her: the heart of the Holy Virgin becomes as if transparent, and we experience the mysteries in it again – so that the entire dogma gains intimate familiarity, concreteness, and reality in Mary.
Ultimately, we come to understand that the mysteries have their counterpart and continuation in the individual phases – truly very mysterious – of our joys and sorrows. Thus, as the Hail Mary develops within us, our entire life seems to be Christianized… That is what I meant.
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ /1881–1955/, letter from the front, to his cousin, October 11, 1918;
quoted from the book Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Birth of Thought. Letters 1914–1919, Malvern 2021)
