A study conducted in December 2024, based on clinical observations and spiritual insights, demonstrated that the rosary can be beneficial. It is like medicine for the soul and the body.
The study first highlights one element: the "litany-like" repetitions of the rosary appear to have a beneficial effect of easing tensions; they also promote emotional stability and “generate a uniquely holistic form peace.”
Unlike many "mindfulness" techniques that emphasize neutrality and detachment, the rosary is based on personal engagement, a relationship. In other words, it is not an incantatory mantra, but a dialogue.
Christian Spaemann, a renowned Austrian psychiatrist, seeks to demonstrate these differences. In a recent interview with journalist Barbara Wenz, Spaemann explains “that the Rosary opens not just the mind, but the heart to a presence that is maternal, concrete, and enduring.”
“We must first believe,” he says, “that the Mother of Jesus is truly our Mother and that she is present, with a heart open to us.” Once this threshold of trust is crossed, something changes. The experience is not limited to mystics or cloistered saints.
“Spaemann notes that in his own rural region of Upper Austria,. . . ordinary people—farmers, factory workers—are quietly rediscovering peace and hope through Marian prayer. ‘They find joy in the Mother of Heaven,’ he says, ‘and they carry that into their daily lives.’”
“Beyond the Christian context, Spaemann sees the rosary as a universal human rhythm. He believes it strikes a deep psychological, even physiological chord with us, echoing the primordial comfort of a child listening to the heartbeat of his mother.”
There is in this rhythm, a kind of remembered security, an entry point to transcendence. But he warns: the rosary is not a technique, it is an encounter. For Spaemann, that encounter became personal in his youth.
"’It's a lifeline,’ he reflects. Through the rosary, Mary's presence is sensed, not as a myth, but as a living reality—accessible, maternal, compassionate. Through the rosary, he says, her presence becomes clear, not through visions, but through inner recognition.”
While recent research focuses on physiological and psychological results, Spaemann invites us to adopt a broader perspective. The most profound fruit of the rosary, he insists, is not only serenity, but consciousness of eternity.
The Rosary, he says, leads us into silence, and in that silence, we can glimpse something staggering: that each of us is eternally desired, created in love, and destined pass not into oblivion, but into union with God.
"We go to the next world," he says, "as if from one room into another." In a culture so preoccupied with mental wellness, it may be surprising to find a prayer offering modern relief.
“But the Rosary does not just relieve anxiety. It reorients it. And unlike secular techniques that tend to loop inward, the Rosary reaches beyond the self—toward a face, a relationship, a promise.”
(Source : Zenit – FSSPX.Actualités)