In the 12th and 13th centuries there was a heresy that was popular in France that saw the material world as being inferior to the spiritual world, that rejected many of the sacraments of the Church and that promoted an austere practice of the faith as a way of rejecting the material world. St Dominic encounter this heresy and tried to battle it through preaching and debates. Tradition passes down that in a period of fasting and prayer, he sought the Blessed Mother for guidance. She revealed to him the rosary prayer, asking him him to preach the mysteries of the rosary and to pray the decades of the rosary as a spiritual weapon. The word rosary comes from a Latin word that means rose garden. When we lift up each hail Mary as we pray the rosary, we are planting a garden of roses. St Dominic converted many souls with the rosary prayer. The devotion to the rosary spread throughout the Catholic world.
Starting in the 8th century, Muslims from Northern Africa had expanded into the Mediterranean region. In 1571, Pope Pius V, who was a member of the Dominicans, formed an alliance between the Papal States, Spain, Venice, and other smaller Christian states to work together to stop Ottoman aggression. On October 7 of 1571, this alliance battled the Muslim navy in the Mediterranean Sea. The pope asked Catholics around the world to pray the Rosary for victory. Victory was achieved. In gratitude, he instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Victory. Two years later, Pope Gregory XIII changed the name to the Feast of the Holy Rosary. In 1716, after another important victory against the Muslims, the feast was extended to the entire Church. Since 1913, we have been celebrating this feast each year on October 7 as a memorial mass.
Pope Leo XIII called the rosary “the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings. There is no more excellent way of praying.
In the Gospel today, Jesus’ disciples each him to teach them how to pray. The rosary prayer is a great way for us to pray, based on mysteries of the faith found in Sacred Scripture related to the life of Jesus and the life of Mary.
Because of today’s memorial mass honoring Our Lady of the Rosary, the month of October is known in the Catholic faith as a month dedicated to Mary and a month dedicated to the rosary. We unite our prayers with the prayers of the Blessed Mother today.
No comments:
Post a Comment