The renowned Swiss theologian offers in this little book very beautiful and practical reflections for praying and living the 15 mysteries of the Rosary. He makes the profound truths and events of our salvation take on a freshness and splendor by allowing the reader to enter his own contemplation of the mysteries. Von Balthasar's theology is a theology that does not read like theology, but one that derives from prayer and leads back to prayer.

Contemplating each of the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries, with his focus on Jesus' giving himself for us - and Mary's part in it - Von Blathasar leads the reader to see that "Christian prayer can attain to God only along the path God himself has trod" - a God who not only addresses his Word to us, but makes it live among us.

Von Balthasar says his meditations are designed to "free the prayer of the Rosary from a certain narrowness, alien to Mary's own spirit and easily leading to monotony, and to nourish it . . . with the fullness of God's saving thoughts and saving deeds for the world."