and from her to Christ, and through Christ to the Father, and that the Rosary was a vital means to participate with the life of Mary and to find the way to Christ. Leo instituted the custom of praying the Rosary daily during the month of October. The Rosary as a family prayer was endorsed by Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Ingruentium malorum: "In vain is a remedy sought for the wavering fate of civil life, if the family, the principle and foundation of the human community, is not fashioned after the pattern of the Gospel…We affirm that the custom of the family recitation of the Holy Rosary is a most efficacious means." Pope Pius XII and his successors actively promoted veneration of the Virgin in Lourdes and Fatima, which is credited with a new resurgence of the Rosary within the Catholic Church. Pope John XXIII deemed the Rosary of such importance that on 28 April 1962, he issued an apostolic letter where he appealed for recitation of the Rosary in preparation for the Second Vatican Council. Pope John Paul II issued the apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae which emphasized the Christocentric nature of the Rosary as a meditation on the life of Christ. He said: "Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as by the hands of the Mother of the Redeemer." On 3 May 2008, Pope Benedict XVI stated that the Rosary was experiencing a new springtime: "It is one of the most eloquent signs of love that the young generation nourish for Jesus and his Mother." For Benedict XVI, the Rosary is a meditation on all the important moments of salvation history. The Congregation for Divine Worship's directory of popular piety and the liturgy emphasizes the Christian meditation/meditative aspects of the rosary, and states that the Rosary is essentially a contemplative prayer which requires "tranquility of rhythm or even a mental lingering which encourages the faithful to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord's life." The Congregation for Divine Worship points out the role the Rosary can have as a formative component of spiritual life. Rosary encyclicals and Apostolic Letters Consueverunt Romani Pontifices – Pius V List of encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII on the Rosary Ingravescentibus Malis – Pius XI Ingruentium malorum – Pius XII Grata recordatio – John XXIII Christi Matri – Paul VI Rosarium Virginis Mariae – John Paul II Rosary beads