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October Devotion: The Holy Rosary
Since the 16th century Catholic piety has assigned entire months to special devotions. 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. We highly recommend that you read Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, or "On the Most Holy Rosary." It explains even further this wonderful devotion, and introduces the optional mysteries of light, or Luminous mysteries.
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INVOCATION
Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us.
TO THE QUEEN OF THE HOLY ROSARY
Queen of the most holy Rosary, in these times of such brazen impiety, manifest thy power with the signs of thine ancient victories, and from thy throne, whence thou dost dispense pardon and graces, mercifully regard the Church of thy Son, His Vicar on earth, and every order of clergy and laity, who are sore oppressed in the mighty conflict. Do thou, who art the powerful vanquisher of all heresies, hasten the hour of mercy, even though the hour of God's justice is every day provoked by the countless sins of men. For me who am the least of men, kneeling before thee in supplication, do thou obtain the grace I need to live righteously upon earth and to reign among the just in heaven, the while in company with all faithful Christians throughout the world, I salute thee and acclaim thee as Queen of the most holy Rosary:
Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us.
TO OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY
O Virgin Mary, grant that the recitation of thy Rosary may be for me each day, in the midst of my manifold duties, a bond of unity in my actions, a tribute of filial piety, a sweet refreshment, an encouragement to walk joyfully along the path of duty. Grant, above all, O Virgin Mary, that the study of thy fifteen mysteries may form in my soul, little by little, a luminous atmosphere, pure, strengthening, and fragrant, which may penetrate my understanding, my will, my heart, my memory, my imagination, my whole being. So shall I acquire the habit of praying while I work, without the aid of formal prayers, by interior acts of admiration and of supplication, or by aspirations of love. I ask this of thee, O Queen of the holy Rosary, through Saint Dominic, thy son of predilection, the renowned preacher of thy mysteries, and the faithful imitator of thy virtues. Amen.
FOR THE CRUSADE OF THE FAMILY ROSARY
The Family Rosary Crusade, organized and directed by Father Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., sought to revive the practice of families reciting the Rosary daily within their homes. The Crusade has the encouragement and support of Pope Pius XII and it is succeeding admirably in realizing the desire of the Pope that no family would allow a day to pass without the recitation of the Rosary. This prayer was composed by Cardinal Spellman when the Crusade visited his Archdiocese.
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 you to bless this Crusade so that from every home the incense of this prayer will daily rise before you, O admirable Mother.
O Queen of Homes: by the power of the Rosary we beseech you to embrace all the members of our family in the love of your Immaculate Heart. May you abide with us and we with you, praying to you while you pray for us. May you preside in our homes as once you did at Nazareth with Jesus and Joseph, filling them with the holiness of your presence and inspiration.
O Queen of Peace: it is you who have placed the Rosary in our hands. It is you who bid us to recite it daily. By the power of the Family Rosary we beseech you to obtain peace for uspeace within our hearts, our homes, our country and throughout the world. Through the daily recitation of the Family Rosary we beg you to keep sin from our souls, enmities from our hearts and war from our shores. By the graces received from the devotion of the Family Rosary we pray to be made helpful to one another in following the paths of virtue so that we may be found worthy to be called children of your family, children of your home. Amen.
Cardinal Spellman
Prayer Source: Prayer Book, The by Reverend John P. O'Connell, M.A., S.T.D. and Jex Martin, M.A., The Catholic Press, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, 1954
Sign of the Cross: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Apostles Creed: I BELIEVE in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. >From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Lord's Prayer: OUR Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary: HAIL Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and in the hour of our death. Amen. (Three times)
Glory Be: GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Father Benedict Groeschel on the Rosary
THE HOLY ROSARY
Catholic Caucus: The Holy Rosary
The Power of the Rosary - A Weapon Against Terrorism
Rosary May Contribute to Unity Says Protestant Theologian
Papal Address on the Rosary as a Weapon of Peace
Very simple guide to praying/learning the Rosary
October: Month of the Holy Rosary
Tips on Praying a Family Rosary
SRI LANKA CATHOLICS START ROSARY CHAIN FOR PEACE
Rosary Aids Spiritual Growth, Says Pope
Pray the Rosary
Rosary to Mark St. Martha's Feast
From: Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14
Visit to Jerusalem
[1] Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas,
taking Titus along with me. [2] I went up by revelation; and I laid before
them (but privately before those who were of repute) the gospel which I
preach among the Gentiles, lest somehow I should be running or had run
in vain. [7] But on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted
with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted
with the gospel to the circumcised [8] (for he who worked through Peter
for the mission to the circumcised worked through me also for the Gen-
tiles), [9] and when they perceived the grace that was given to me,
James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to
me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the
Gentiles and they to the circumcised; [10] only they would have us re-
member the poor, which very thing I was eager to do.
Peter and Paul at Antioch
[11] But when Cephas came to Antioch I opposed him to his face, be-
cause he stood condemned. [12] For before certain men came from
James, he ate with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back
and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. [13] And with
him the rest of the Jews acted insincerely, so that even Barnabas was
carried away by their insincerity. [14] But when I saw that they were not
straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before
them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew,
how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
Commentary:
1-10. St Paul had ended his first apostolic journey by returning to
Antioch in Syria, from where he had set out. We know that the Christian
community in that city, which was an important crossroads of race and
culture, had developed as a providential result of the dispersal of Jerusa-
lem Christians following on Stephen's martyrdom (cf. Acts 11:19- 26).
Some of these refugees had brought the new faith to Antioch but had
confined themselves to preaching and converting Jews. Later, through
the activity of other Christians, Jews of the Diaspora, that is, domiciled
outside Palestine, and pagans also began to adopt the new religion.
Barnabas had been commissioned by the Jerusalem church to organize
the young Christian community in Antioch (cf. Acts 11:19-24). He later
chose Paul, who had been living quietly in Tarsus, to act as his assis-
tant (cf. Acts 11:25-26).
The disciples in Antioch, where the name "Christians" was first used to
descrie them, belonged to the whole gamut of social and ethnic back-
grounds, as we can see from the short list of "prophets and teachers"
of the church at Antioch (cf. Acts 13:1-3): some were of African origin,
like Symeon "who was called Niger"; others came from he western
Mediterranean, like Lucius of Cyrene; Manaen was from the household
of Herod the tetrarch; and there were Jews from communities outside
Palestine--for example, Barnabas and Saul themselves.
Among these different types, we find some Christians of Jewish back-
ground who felt that pagan converts to Christianity should observe the
prescriptions of the Mosaic Law (including the detailed precepts which
Jewish tradition kept adding to that Law); these guardians of the gate
of entry into the chosen people were requiring that pagan converts be
circumcised, as all Jews were.
When these "Judaizers" from Jerusalem (cf. Acts 15:1) asserted that
circumcision was necessary for salvation, they were raising an issue
which went much deeper than simply conforming to the Law of Moses:
was the Redemption wrought by Christ enough, of itself, for attaining
salvation, or was it still necessary for people to become part of the
people of Israel, conforming to all its ritual requirements?
Clearly, this question was a source of considerable division. Acts 15:2
refers to its causing "no small dissension". The present passage of
Galatians shows that Paul, receiving a revelation from God, decided to
grasp the nettle by stating unequivocally that Christ's redemption--on
its own, and alone--brings salvation. In other words, circumcision was
not necessary, nor did the elaborate ritual regulations of Judaism
apply to Christians. In Jerusalem Paul expounded "the Gospel" he had
been proclaiming to the Gentiles. He was accompanied by Barnabas,
and by a young disciple, Titus, the son of pagan parents, quite possi-
bly baptized by Paul himself (cf. Tit 1:4, where he calls him his "true
child"), who would later became one of his most faithful co-workers.
1. Between his conversion and the date of his letter, St Paul had visited
Jerusalem three times (cf. Acts 9:26; 11:29-30; 15:1-6). Of these three
journeys he here mentions only two, omitting the time he and Barnabas
went there (cf. Acts 11:29-30), because that visit was not particularly
significant.
The Judaizers' demands were inadmissible and clearly dangerous. That
was why Paul and Barnabas had opposed them openly at Antioch, and
in fact it was their failure to achieve unity and peace on this point that
had led them to go up to the Holy City to obtain a decision from the
Apostles themselves and the priests living in Jerusalem.
10. The Acts of the Apostles show us how concerned the early Church
was about looking after the material needs of its members. We can see
this, for example, when it tells us about "serving tables", which refers to
the work of giving help to the needy: this began to take up more and
more time, with the result that the seven deacons were appointed to
allow the Apostles to concentrate on their own specific work--prayer
and the ministry of the word or preaching (cf. Acts 6:1-6).
St Paul was faithful to this charge about not forgetting the poor, as we
can see from many references in his letters to collections for the poor
(cf. 1 Cor 16:1-3; 2 Cor 8:1-l5; 9:l5; etc.). Indeed, one of the reasons
for his last visit to Jerusalem was to hand over the monies collected in
the Christian communities of Greece and Asia Minor.
11-14. In his dealing with Jews, St Paul sometimes gave way in secon-
dary matters, provided that this did not take from the essence of the
Gospel: he had Timothy, whose mother was Jewish, circumcised "be-
cause of the Jews that were in those places" (Acts 16:3), and he him-
self kept to Jewish practices in order to allay suspicion and jealousy
(cf. Acts 21:22-26). Similarly, he recommends patience and certain
understanding towards those "weak" in the faith, that is, Christians of
Jewish origin who held on to some Jewish observances connected with
fast days, clean and unclean food and abstinence from the flesh of ani-
mals sacrificed to idols (cf. Rom 14:2-6; 1 Cor 10:23- 30). But on the
key issue of Christians' freedom from the Mosaic Law, the Apostle was
always firm and unambiguous, relying on the decisions of the Council
of Jerusalem.
Paul's correction of Peter did not go against the latter's authority. On
the contrary, if it had been just anyone, the Teacher of the Gentiles
might have let the matter pass; but because it was Cephas, that is,
the "rock" of the Church, he had to take action in order to avoid the
impression being given that Christians of Gentile origin were obliged
to adopt a Jewish lifestyle.
Far from undermining the holiness and unity of the Church, this epi-
sode demonstrated the great spiritual solidarity among the Apostles,
St Paul's regard for the visible head of the Church, and Peter's humility
in correcting his behavior. St Augustine comments: "He who was re-
buked was worthier of admiration and more difficult to imitate than he
who made the rebuke [...]. This episode serves as a fine example of
humility, the greatest of Christian teachings, because it is through hu-
mility that charity is maintained" ("Exp. in Gal.", 15).
12. When he speaks of these Judaizers as coming "from James", this
does not mean that they had been sent by that Apostle. It is, rather, a
reference to their coming from Jerusalem, where, after the persecution
organized by Herod Agrippa and the forced flight of St Peter (cf. Acts
12-17), St James the Less remained as bishop. But what is probable is
that these Christians, who had not given up the Mosaic Law and Jewish
observances, made use of that Apostle's name: as "the brother of the
Lord", he enjoyed universal veneration and respect.
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries".
Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate.
Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University
of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin,
Ireland.
Reprinted with permission from from Four Courts Press and Scepter
Publishers, the U.S. publishers.