October is the second month dedicated to Mary. On its seventh day, we celebrate the liturgical memorial of our Lady of the Rosary. Historically speaking, the feast is reminiscent of the Christian victory over the Ottoman Turks at the crucial battle of Lepanto, which occurred on the same date in the year 1571. It is said that Pope Saint Pius V and the Christians, prayed the rosary for victory in earnest.

Spiritually, the rosary has been amply described by various saints and blessed as the weapon to employ in the ongoing combat against the powers of evil. For instance, Saint Josemaria Escriva said: “The holy rosary is a powerful weapon. Use it with confidence and you'll be amazed at the results”. Blessed Pope Pius IX declared: “Give me an army saying the rosary and I will conquer the world”. Whereas Saint Pio of Pietrelcina noted: “The rosary is the 'weapon' for these times”.

The great Dominican theologian, blessed Alan de la Roche, considered the rosary as one of the fountains of grace. He observed that “the holy rosary is the storehouse of countless blessings”. The rosary is an excellent prayer, thanks to which we are deeply steeped and enriched in the art of contemplation. In his apostolic letter, which speaks on the most holy rosary, ‘Rosarium Virginis Mariae’, blessed John Paul II wrote: “The rosary belongs among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation. Developed in the West, it is a typically meditative prayer…”. This special Marian prayer is in itself a magnificent means through which our Christian communities are gradually and surely transformed into genuine schools of prayer.

Blessed John Paul II strongly stressed that the rosary is essentially a christocentric prayer. He highlighted this important point at the introduction of his apostolic letter. “The rosary, though clearly

Marian in character, is at heart a christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium. It is an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial magnificat for the work of the redemptive incarnation which began in her virginal womb. With the rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the rosary, the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the mother of the redeemer”.

By letting ourselves be gently and soundly guided by Mary, our faith model, we start entering into the profound and challenging journey of meditating the mysteries of Christ. Thanks to her constant motherly intercession, we are daily helped and encouraged to gradually take on the key gospel values which form our Christian life. Interestingly enough, the more we entrust our troubled lives to Christ under the reassuring loving protection of Mary, our mother, the more we realise that our lives are becoming what they are meant to be: Christian.

That is why Archbishop Fulton Sheen said: “The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description”.

Make your life resourceful by connecting it with that of Jesus under Mary’s assistance. Pray the rosary daily.

■ Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap

San Gwann