5. Indications of the Apostolic Letter "Rosarium Virginis Mariae"  (October 16, 2002)

        John Paul II has felt the need to publish at the beginning of the new millennium a Marian Apostolic Letter. He has done it by giving it the title of his favorite Marian prayer: Rosarium Virginis Mariae.  The Letter has an Introduction (nn. 1-8), a conclusion (nn. 39-43) and three chapters: "Contemplate Christ with Mary" (nn. 9-17); "Mysteries of Christ - Mysteries of His Mother" (nn. 18-25); "For me to live is Christ" (nn. 26-38).

        In reality this Letter does not only deal with the Rosary, neither only with Mary. The Letter is a Marian-Christological or Christological-Marian document.  More than for the importance given to the prayer of the Rosary or because of the proclamation of the Year of the Rosary (October 2002 - October 2003), this document is important because it underlines very strongly at the beginning of the new millennium that Mary, in so far as Mother of Christ, has to occupy a very important place in the life of every Christian.

         This Letter is a certain necessary complement or Marian crowning of the contents of the apostolic  letter Novo millennium ineunte: "For this reason, basing myself on the reflection offered in the apostolic letter Novo millennium ineunte, in which I  invited the People of God, after the Jubilee Year experience, to 'start afresh from Christ', I have felt the need to develop a reflection on the rosary, almost like a Marian crowning of the same apostolic Letter, to exhort to the contemplation of the face of Christ in company of and in the school of his most holy Mother. To recite the Rosary, in fact, is nothing else than to contemplate the face of Christ together with Mary"  (RVM 3).

         In the light of the indications given in this Letter, the programme "Starting afresh from Christ" of the Letter Novo millennium ineunte  has to be implemented in an explicitly Marian way: "with Mary".  In the life of Christians of the new millennium, the Christological dimension, which is the supreme one, should be intimately united to the Marian dimension, which is also a fundamental and essential dimension. The programme "Starting afresh from Christ", then, has to be interpreted, explained and practiced as a programme with a Christological-Marian dimension: "Starting afresh from Christ with Mary"

         In the harmony of this point of view, at the same time Christological-Marian, the content of chapter II of the Letter Novo millennium ineunte,  entitled "A Face to contemplate", is reformulated as follows in the title of chapter I of the new Letter: "Contemplate Christ with Mary".  This title is then explained in the subtitles of the different sections of the chapter: "Remembering Christ with Mary"; "Learning Christ from Mary"; "Being conformed to Christ with Mary"; "Praying to Christ with Mary": "Proclaiming Christ with Mary".

          It is only with a spiritual profoundly Marian dynamism that the faithful will be able to render the Christian witness expected from them in the new millennium. This means, for example, that the spirituality of communion should be lived in an explicit way and also as spirituality  of communion with Mary and in Mary, Mother of Christ and of Christians.

         The Pope addresses himself to all Christians and presents the Marian elements which should shine in every Christian life. He has not intended to describe in this Letter the particular Christological and Marian aspects of consecrated life, that is, the particular elements of special conformation to Christ and to Mary which characterise the programme of the life of consecrated persons.

         Consecrated persons have to look for the specific elements of their way of "starting afresh from Christ with Mary",  in the texts of the Council and other documents of the Magisterium of the Church. The post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation  Vita consecrata  remains for this purpose "the most significant and necessary point of reference" (RDC 3).