Feast of the Holy Rosary

"St. Dominic Receiving the Rosary from the Virgin Mary" - Artist unknown

Picture source

Today the Church honors the Blessed Mother of God under the title of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.

In honor of this day and of the momentous victory of Lepanto, let us offer our prayer of the Holy Rosary for our Christian brothers and sisters being persecuted by Islamic terrorists, especially in Iraq and Syria.

The following is a little history of the rosary written by Msgr. Charles Dollen.  It is taken from his book Listen, Mother of God!: Reflections on the Litany of Loreto.

The Rosary devotion...was introduced by Blessed Alan de la Roche, a Domincan who lived...in the fifteenth century.  He piously referred it to his founder, St. Dominic, and while it is true to the spirit of Dominic and has roots in other, older Marian forms, Blessed Alan deserves the credit.

...it soon earned the name 'The Psalter of the Poor,' or 'The Poor Man's Breviary.'  The monks and nuns gathered together in their chapels to chant or recite the Divine Office, which, at heart, has the 150 Psalms to center its liturgical piety...

The 150 Aves of the Rosary imitated the 150 Psalms, and the divisions by tens into decades make counting them on the fingers quite easy and effortless.

But the great power of the Rosary comes from the fifteen meditations or mysteries [Note: this was written prior to Saint John Paul the Great adding the Luminous mysteries]...

The clients of Our Lady of the Rosary find great joy and comfort in its history.  Among the great events associated with this devotion is the great naval victory of the Christians over the Moslems at Lepanto on October 7, 1571.  Pope St. Pius V urged Christians to fast and pray to save Christendom from the hands of the infidels.  Their record of pillaging and enslaving Christians was notorious.  The prayer that this saintly pontiff, who was a Dominican, decreed was the Rosary.

After the victory was announced, he proclaimed that day the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and he said, 'By the Rosary the darkness of heresy has been dispelled and the light of the Catholic Faith shines out in all its brilliancy..."

At Fatima, the Blessed Mother again approved the Rosary, as she has at most private revelations in recent centuries....

Pope Leo XIII was the great modern devotee of the Rosary and it was he who designated October as the Month of the Rosary.  He published many works on the Rosary and never ceased to urge it on others.

"To appease the might of an outraged God, " he states in Octobri Mense, 'and to bring the health of sul so needed by those who are sorely afflicted, there is nothing better than devout prayer and persevering prayers, provided that it be joined with a love and practice of Christian life.  And both of these, the spirit of prayer and the practice of Christian life, are best attained through the devotion of the Rosary of Mary..."

Among the various supplications with which we successfully appeal to the Virgin Mother of God, the Holy Rosary without doubt occupies a special and distinct place.  - Pope Pius XI

"This prayer is well-suited to the People of God, most pleasing to the Mother of God and most effective in gaining heaven's blessings." - Pope Paul VI

"Before we being reciting the Hours, or the Rosary, we should consider whom we are going to address, and who we are that are addressing Him, so that we may do so in the way we should.  I assure you that if you give all due attention to a consideration of these two points before beginning vocal prayers which you are about to say, you would be engaging in mental prayer for a very long time." - St. Teresa of Avila

"The Rosary is strength, it is power, it is a chain of gold which links us to Mary."  John Cardinal Carberry

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary

Pope Leo XIII personally started the practice of devoting October to the Rosary devotion.  In a letter of September 1, 1883, mindful of the Rosary's power to strengthen faith and foster a life of virtue, he outlined the triumphs of the Rosary in past times and admonished the faithful to dedicate the month of October to the Blessed Virgin through the daily recitation of her Rosary in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, in order to obtain through her intercession the grace that God would console and defend His Church in her sufferings.

For the Crusade of the Family Rosary

O Queen of the most holy Rosary:

with hearts full of confidence

we earnestly beseech you to bless the Crusade of the family Rosary.

From you came the grace to begin it.  

From you must come the grace to win souls to it.  

We beg yo to bless this Crusade

so that from every home the incense of this prayer will daily rise before you,

O admirable Mother. 

Father Patrick Peyton sought to revive the practice of families reciting the Rosary daily within their homes.  Let us pray the prayer in order to restore and revive the family rosary in our life.

Source:  The Prayer Book, Catholic Press, Inc.

Feast Day - Our Lady of the Rosary

Picture courtesy of Diocese of Armidale

Source for the following is EWTN


OUR LADY AND ISLAM: HEAVEN’S PEACE PLAN
Fr Ladis J. Cizik, Blue Army National Executive Director
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Islam

Islam is an Arabic word that can be defined as "to make peace." Islam is the religion founded by Mohammed, which considers the Koran as its holy book. In addition, Islam accepts the New Testament of the Christians and the Old Testament of the Jews as Divinely inspired works. Followers of Islam are known as Muslims (also: Moors, Turks, and Moslems) and, just as Jews and Christians, believe in only one God. Yet, over the centuries, Muslims have engaged in tremendous wars with Christians and Jews. It would seem that there is little hope for peace. However, Heaven's Peace Plan, involving Our Lady, is evidenced at Fatima, Portugal as well as other places around the world.

Fatima

The Moors once occupied Portugal. The village of Fatima was given the Islamic name of the well-loved Princess of the nearby Castle of Ourem. She died at an early age after marrying the Count of Ourem and converting to Catholicism. Baptized with the Christian name of Oureana, she was named at birth "Fatima," like many other Moslem girls, in honor of the daughter of Mohammed. Of his daughter, Fatima, the founder of Islam, Mohammed, said: "She has the highest place in heaven after the Virgin Mary."

It is a fact that Moslems from various nations, especially from the Middle East, make so many pilgrimages to Our Lady of Fatima's Shrine in Portugal that Portuguese officials have expressed concern. The combination of an Islamic name and Islamic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is a great attraction to Moslems. God is writing straight with crooked lines, as we will see. Fatima is a part of Heaven's Peace Plan. It is hope for the world.

The Koran

In the Koran, the holy name of the Blessed Virgin Mary is mentioned no less than thirty times. No other woman's name is even mentioned, not even that of Mohammed's daughter, Fatima. Among men, only Abraham, Moses, and Noah are mentioned more times than Our Lady. In the Koran, Our Blessed Mother is described as "Virgin, ever Virgin." The Islamic belief in the virginity of Mary puts to shame the heretical beliefs of those who call themselves Christian, while denying the perpetual virginity of Mary. Make no mistake about it, there is a very special relationship between the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Moslems!

The Holy Land

The Holy Land has been a real battleground between the Islamic peoples and Christianity over the centuries. Evidence of this are the numerous churches and basilicas that have been built by the Church, destroyed by, the Moslems, rebuilt by Catholic Crusaders, leveled again by the followers of Islam, and so on over the course of history. However, there is one remarkable exception: the Basilica of Saint Anne in Jerusalem.

The Crusaders built this church and named it in honor of the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the Crypt of St. Anne's Basilica, a statue of the Infant Mary is venerated on what is believed to be the exact spot where Our Lady was born. Their great reverence for Our Lady precluded the Moslems from destroying her birthplace. The foundation for Heaven's Peace Plan at Fatima, Portugal, can be found in the Land of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Spain

As the Moslems swept through Spain in the 8th century, a great religious treasure was buried for safe-keeping in the earth, high in the Estremadura Mountains. It was a much venerated statue of Our Lady holding the Divine Child Jesus that was a gift of Pope Gregory the Great to Bishop Leander of Seville. After the overthrow of Moorish occupation, the image was uncovered in the year 1326, subsequent to a vision of Our Lady to a humble shepherd by the name of Gil. Our Lady's very special statue was enshrined in a nearby Franciscan Monastery next to the "Wolf River."

The Moslems, during their Spanish occupation, had actually named the river. The Islamic term for Wolf River is "Guadalupe" (Guada = River; Lupe = Wolf). Hence, the famous Catholic image in Spain has been known, since the 14th century, by the Islamic name of "Our Lady of Guadalupe."

Mexico

In the fullness of time, we can be sure that Almighty God knew that the Islamic religion would pose a serious threat to Christianity. God also knew that the Spanish missionaries would face grave resistance in the "new world" from the mighty Aztec Indians. The Aztecs worshipped an evil stone "serpent god" that demanded human sacrifice. It was extremely difficult to win souls for Christ from these bloodthirsty savages. However, with God all things are possible. Our Lady appeared to a humble Aztec Indian convert by the name of Juan Diego in 1531. When asked her name by Juan Diego, at the request of the local bishop, Our Lady's response, in the Aztec language, included the words "te coatlaxopeuh" (pronounced: "te quatlasupe") and meant "one who crushes the head of the stone serpent."

To Juan Diego and his fellow Aztecs, this revelation had great meaning, coupled with the miraculous image of Our Lady standing on top of a "crescent," the symbol of this evil serpent god. A tidal wave of conversions to Catholicism ensued. However, Bishop Zumarraga, who was from Spain, made what was no doubt a "heavenly mistake" that one day may lead to the mass conversion of Moslems. To the Bishop's Spanish ears, Our Lady's Aztec name of "Te Quatlasupe" sounded just like the name of the revered Madonna from Spain with the Islamic name, "Guadalupe." Hence, the bishop named the Mexican Madonna "Our Lady of Guadalupe." It is interesting that the "crescent" is also the symbol for Islam and that America's Shrine to Our Lady has an Islamic name.

Battle of Lepanto

On October 7, 1571, a great victory over the mighty Turkish fleet was won by Catholic naval forces primarily from Spain, Venice, and Genoa under the command of Don Juan of Austria. It was the last battle at sea between "oared" ships, which featured the most powerful navy in the world, a Moslem force with between 12,000 to 15,000 Christian slaves as rowers. The patchwork team of Catholic ships was powered by the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct material disadvantage, the holy pontiff, St. Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory. We know today that the victory was decisive, prevented the Islamic invasion of Europe, and evidenced the Hand of God working through Our Lady. At the hour of victory, St. Pope Pius V, who was hundreds of miles away at the Vatican, is said to have gotten up from a meeting, went over to a window, and exclaimed with supernatural radiance: "The Christian fleet is victorious!" and shed tears of thanksgiving to God.

What you may not know is that one of three admirals commanding the Catholic forces at Lepanto was Andrea Doria. He carried a small copy of Mexico's Our Lady of Guadalupe into battle. This image is now enshrined in the Church of San Stefano in Aveto, Italy. Not many know that at the Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Spain, one can view a huge warship lantern that was captured from the Moslems in the Battle of Lepanto. In Rome, look up to the ceiling of S. Maria in Aracoeli and behold decorations in gold taken from the Turkish galleys. In the Doges' Palace in Venice, Italy, one can witness a giant Islamic flag that is now a trophy from a vanquished Turkish ship from the Victory. At Saint Mary Major Basilica in Rome, close to the tomb of the great St. Pope Pius V, one was once able to view yet another Islamic flag from the Battle, until 1965, when it was returned to Istanbul in an intended friendly token of concord.

The Rosary

At Lepanto, the Victory over the Moslems was won by the faithful praying the Rosary. Even though they had superior numbers, the Turks really were overmatched. Blessed Padre Pio, the Spiritual Father of the Blue Army, said: "The Rosary is the weapon," and how right he was!

The Battle of Lepanto was at first celebrated liturgically as "Our Lady of Victory." Later, the feast of October 7th was renamed "Our Lady of the Rosary" and extended throughout the Universal Church by Pope Clement XI in 1716 (who canonized Pope Pius V in 1712).

And with that we are back to Fatima, Portugal where Our Lady, when asked her name, said: "I am the Lady of the Rosary." At Fatima, Our Lady taught us to pray the Rosary every day. Heaven presented its peace plan at Fatima and truly gave us hope for the world. Conversions were promised at Fatima: the conversion of sinners; the conversion of Russia; and what also appears to be the conversion of Islam. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Taken from:
Soul Magazine
© 2001 The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, U.S.A., Inc.
September - October 2001, page 6

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