|
Month of October: Dedicated to the Holy Rosary
01 October 2020
“Queen of the Holy Rosary, Pray for us”
The month of October is dedicated in the Catholic Church to the devotion to the Most Holy Rosary. This is mainly because of the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary which is celebrated on October 7th. This feast was instituted to celebrate the miraculous victory over the enemies in the Battle of Lepanto, gained solely through the intercession of Our Lady by praying the Holy Rosary. The feast was first celebrated in 1571 as the feast of "Our Lady of Victory". In 1573, the feast was renamed "Our Lady of the Rosary" by Pope Gregory XIII and extended throughout the Universal Church by Pope Clement XI in 1716.
Long before this, in the 13th century, when the Church suffered greatly from the Albigensian heretics, it was Our Lady who appeared to Saint Dominic in a vision and instituted this devotion. Guided by Our Lady, Saint Dominic prayed and promoted devotion to the Holy Rosary amongst the people. Their faith and pious prayer proved to be a powerful weapon in defeating the evil forces. The heretics fell apart and those who had wandered from their faith were restored back to the Church. Ever since then, the devotion to the Holy Rosary has been a tradition followed in the Church as a powerful weapon against evil forces that endanger our faith and the peace and harmony of our families & communities. As Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical on Devotion to the Holy Rosary wrote " This devotion, so great and so confident, to the august Queen of Heaven, has never shone forth with such brilliancy as when the militant Church of God has seemed to be endangered by the violence of heresy spread abroad, or by an intolerable moral corruption, or by the attacks of powerful enemies." In our present day too, the Church has several harmful forces working tirelessly to weaken and destroy faith and it is of utmost necessity that this devotion be faithfully practiced today in our homes and communities.
In his Apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Saint Pope John Paul II wrote "As a prayer for peace, the Rosary is also, and always has been, a prayer of and for the family. At one time this prayer was particularly dear to Christian families, and it certainly brought them closer together. It is important not to lose this precious inheritance. We need to return to the practice of family prayer and prayer for families, continuing to use the Rosary.....The Rosary is both meditation and supplication. Insistent prayer to the Mother of God is based on the confidence that her maternal intercession can obtain all things from the heart of her Son.... To pray the Rosary for children, and even more, with children, training them from their earliest years to experience this daily “pause for prayer” with the family, is admittedly not the solution to every problem, but it is a spiritual aid which should not be underestimated.... The family that prays together stays together. The Holy Rosary, by age-old tradition, has shown itself particularly effective as a prayer which brings the family together. Individual family members, in turning their eyes towards Jesus, also regain the ability to look one another in the eye, to communicate, to show solidarity, to forgive one another and to see their covenant of love renewed in the Spirit of God." In our present times too the messages of Pope Leo XIII and Pope John Paul II are of utmost importance and relevance. It is esential that we use this powerful weapon against the forces of evil that continuously aim to destory faith and families/communities.
Let us dedicate this month to praying the Holy Rosary in our homes together with all our family/community members and meditate on the mysteries which are the events from the life of Christ on earth. As we pray for our personal needs, let us also pray for an end to the pandemic, all the persecuted Christians around the world, the intentions of the Holy Pope, the Universal Church, its Bishops, clergy and all its members that we may be preserved from the wiles of the devil in these difficult times.
Mother dear, protect us from the forces of evil that threaten to destory us and intercede for us in all our needs with your Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, we humble beseech you. Amen.