With the start of the month of October, our hearts and minds surely go to her: Mary, the Mother of God and our mother, too. Tradition has it that this month is especially dedicated to Mary under one of her most glorious titles: “Our Lady of the Rosary”.
It was Saint Dominic who, under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, rendered the rosary into its actual classical form. Over the ages, many saints have promulgated the rosary as a powerful tool in God’s hands, coupled with the decisive maternal intercession of Mary, for the salvation of our very souls. It is worth mentioning what the 17th century French priest and confessor, Saint Louis Marie de Montfort, said about this life-changing Marian prayer:
“If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins ‘you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory’. Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practise black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if – and mark well what I say – if you say the Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins”.
The rosary’s saving effects are certainly evident. At this very moment I am gently being reminded of the sweet and reassuring words of the great Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on the subject. In his greeting before praying the Angelus in Piazza Matteotti during his pastoral visit to Genoa on 18 May 2008, the German Pontiff said: “Tradition tells of how the Madonna, in her first appearance to Benedetto Pareto – who was worried about how he would go about building a church in that place so far from the city – said: “Trust in me! You will not lack the means. With my help everything will be easy. Only be firm in your will”.
‘Trust in me!’ Mary repeats this again to us today. An ancient prayer, very dear to popular tradition, has us address these words to her, that today we make our own: ‘Remember, O, most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided’.”
The rosary incarnates this comforting reality entirely. This is so because in it we say to both the Triune God and Mother Mary that we love them, that we want them as our protectors! The acclaimed American Bishop, especially known for his preaching and evangelisation work on television and radio, Fulton John Sheen, portrays this fact very beautifully.
“Love is never monotonous in the uniformity of its expression. The mind is infinitely variable in its language, but the heart is not. The heart of a man, in the face of the woman he loves, is too poor to translate the infinity of his affection into a different word. So the heart takes one expression, ‘I love you,’ and in saying it over and over again, it never repeats. It is the only real news in the universe. That is what we do when we say the rosary. We are saying to God, the Trinity, to the Incarnate Saviour, to the Blessed Mother: ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’ Each time it means something different because, at each decade, our mind is moving to a new demonstration of the Saviour’s love.”
The four mysteries of the Holy Rosary, namely the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious, educate our affections, control our lives and shape our spirits by God’s providential care that passes to us through Mary’s maternal solicitude.
Father Patrick Peyton CSC, founder of the post-world War II worldwide movement, the Family Rosary Crusade, used to say: “The family that prays together stays together”. Can I strengthen my family by assembling each member to pray together this family-transforming Marian prayer daily?
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
SAN GWANN