Introduction

In the age in which we live, dominated and polluted by the spirit of materialism, relativism, and neo-paganism, the praying of the Rosary has received numerous criticisms from other Christians and even from some Catholics. On this, Pope John Paul II, saw an “urgent need to counter a certain crisis of the Rosary, which in the present historical and theological context can risk being wrongly devalued, and therefore no longer taught to the younger generation.” He observed that some people thought that “the centrality of the Liturgy, rightly stressed by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, necessarily entails giving lesser importance to the Rosary.” In his Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, he claimed that Pope Paul VI pointed out that, “not only does this prayer not conflict with the liturgy, it sustains it, since it serves as an excellent introduction and a faithful echo of the liturgy, enabling people to participate fully and interiorly in it and to reap its fruits in their daily lives.”

In the above teaching of Pope John Paul II, he stressed the point that the Rosary is still and will continue to be relevant in the life of the Church. It is on this ground that I have decided to reflect with you on the importance and effectiveness of the Rosary in the life of the Church. By the Church here, one understands the Mystical Body of Christ which is all of us who are united to Him. He is the head of this Mystical Body. In Mary’s Divine Maternity, and as Mother of Jesus in the flesh, she is the Mother of the Mystical Jesus, His Mystical Body the Church. The effectiveness of her role as a Mediatrix, the Reparatrix of the whole world in the mission of the Church is vividly demonstrated in the use she makes of the Rosary. It is on this that the importance and the relevance of the Rosary are realized. Understanding this very well will help us to appreciate the daily recitation of the Rosary especially in this October which is its month.

The Origin and Brief History of the Rosary:

The Rosary has a long tradition of the Church. Its origin is attributed to St. Dominic. It was given to him by Our Lady for the express purpose of finally crushing the Albigensian heresy and as a means for the conversion of sinners.  Around 1475, when the devotion to Mary through the Rosary was disappearing, Blessed Alan de le Roche re-established the Confraternity of the Rosary after the death of St. Dominic. On October 7, 1571, St. Pius V established the feast of the Most Holy Rosary after the divinely ordained victory over the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto. Pope Leo XIII alone wrote twelve documents on the Rosary, embedding it as a public devotion within the Church and proclaiming it “a spiritual weapon against the evils afflicting society.” He also established October as the Month of the Rosary.  In France the Rosary Basilica was built on the site of Our Lady’s apparition in 1858. In Portugal, on October 13, 1917, during the World War I, Our Lady appeared to the Fatima children and identified herself, “I am Our Lady of the Rosary.” She asked them to pray many Rosaries in reparation for the sins committed against her Immaculate Heart, to pray for the end of the war and for peace, for the conversion of Russia, the conversion of sinners and the salvation of souls. Pope John XXIII asked the synod of bishops to pray the Rosary in preparation for the Second Vatican Council.  Pope John Paul II issued his encyclical “Rosarium Virginis Mariae. He added the Luminous Mysteries recounting the public life of Jesus to the recitation of the Rosary and declared October 2002 to October 2003 the Year of the Rosary.

The Rosary as a spiritual weapon against evils in society:

The above exposition underscores how the Rosary has been perceived and believed to be  “a most powerful warlike weapon against evils.” Thus through the Rosary as a gift from heaven by Mary, Jesus Christ through his Church continues his destruction of the Kingdom of darkness. For this reason the Church authorities acknowledged that after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Divine Office, the most effective prayer isthe Most Holy Rosary.  For 800 years it has been the cause of innumerable miracles, conversions, and victories. It is believed and has been proved right that the Rosary brings peace, not a false peace, illegitimately gotten through compromise, but a true peace, won honestly by directly opposing evil with good.  When the Rosary is prayed with humility and a simple confidence in the good God who lavishes his wonders on his children, it saves nations from annihilation. Pope Pius XI confirmed this assertion when he said, “The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put demons to flight and to keep oneself free from sin,” and according to him, “If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the Rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors.”  If one follows this advice, he or she will have the assurance of Louis de Montfort who believed that if  one says the Rosary faithfully until death, he does assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins, you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory.  This means that praying the Rosary is a sure vehicle of salvation, therefore can save us from ultimate annihilation, the only one that really matters is the end—hell.

Owing to the spiritual power of the rosary to destroy evil, the enemies of Jesus Christ hate it. The agents of the Devil have contempt for it. Their malice is an incredible testimony to the irresistible power arrayed against them. On the other hand many Christians, though love the Rosary: not just for what it accomplishes—such as dispelling darkness of heresy, appeasing the wrath of God and driving away those that hate Christ. They love it simply because of who it leads them to.  Padre Pio on this had this to say: “The Rosary is a weapon.”  Who is behind it? Who gives it its power? Indeed, “who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array? That person is Mary.” The Rosary leads us through Mary to Jesus and then to the Trinity. Pope Pius IX said, “Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.”

Father Desmond Chilagorom  

The word “pilgrim” comes from the Latin “peregrinus,” meaning “foreigner” or “stranger,” and in the deepest sense, that is what all Catholics are: a people whose home is not this world, but the Heavenly Jerusalem, toward which our lives move us. But in that journey, we often make smaller journeys, or “pilgrimages” — journeys made to sacred places for the purpose of veneration. The Jewish people in the Bible did this in so many ways: In Deuteronomy 16:16 - “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.” On their way on these three pilgrimages - Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Tabernacles -- they would sing their Pilgrim Songs (Psalms 119-133). Extra-scripturally, they made pilgrimages to the tomb of Rachel and places like Mt. Carmel.

We still mark out sacred spaces and make pilgrimages to them, like our Old Covenant ancestors, but with this difference: we are not bound to journey. The Old Covenant is fulfilled, and we are not Muslims for whom pilgrimage (hajj) is considered a sacred duty. Instead, we go on pilgrimage in the spirit of the Gospels — to remember, and for the purposes of denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and leaving behind our daily lives to follow Him. Matthew 16:24-25 states “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it.’”

We might journey in a spirit of penance, fasting and giving alms along the way. We might do so joyously, in thanksgiving for blessings received, or in a spirit of supplication for blessings desired. Or we might do so simply to be blessed by being in the presence of holy relics or by walking on ground hallowed by Our Lord or the Saints. Whatever our more particular purposes, leaving behind what is comfortable to us and visiting a strange place is a way to get out of a “spiritual rut” and step outside our normal routines which can sometimes keep us distracted or focused on the wrong things — or perhaps focused too much on otherwise good things. When made with the right attitude, pilgrimage is a way to “lose” our lives for His sake.

Christians had always traveled to the Holy Land, but pilgrimages there became much more common after the most famous pilgrim of them all, St. Helena, made her way to the land where Jesus walked. Helena was born in the mid-200s, into a humble state of life. She “married up,” though, and became the wife of Constantius Chlorus, Caesar of Rome. She bore Constantine the Great in the year 274, and was forsaken by her husband in A.D. 292. After her husband’s death, however, her faithful son took over the throne, restored his mother to courtly life, and gave her the title of “Augusta.” In A.D.312, her son began his conversion to Catholicism, after having a vision assuring him that, under the sign of Christ he would conquer contenders to the throne, and his mother soon followed, surpassing him in the Faith and becoming such a good Christian that the Historian Eusebius (ca. A.D. 260 - ca. 341) said of her: “She became under his (Constantine’s) influence such a devout servant of God, that one might believe her to have been from her very childhood a disciple of the Redeemer of mankind.”

Constantine published his Edict of Milan (A.D. 313) which ensured the tolerance of Christianity. He and his mother traveled to the Holy Land and sought out relics and the places important in Our Lord’s earthly life. St. Helena and her son built churches at the places of His Nativity, Entombment, and Ascension, and brought the True Cross and other relics to a church built in Rome just to house them - Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Church of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, located in Rome). We memorialize St. Helena’s finding of the True Cross every 14 September — the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

People thereafter flocked to the Holy Land in even greater numbers, including many Church Fathers and individuals who left accounts of their travels. After his conversion, St. Jerome went there, and to the desert of Chalcis where he studied Hebrew and Sacred Scripture, and to Antioch where he was ordained. He was quick to teach that pilgrimages aren’t necessary for the Christian life or for salvation, and that God can be reached from anywhere. He was concerned, too, about exposure of the Christian, especially monks, to the bad influence of big cities, and explained himself in a letter to a monk who asked him if he should make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem: “What is praiseworthy is not to have been at Jerusalem but to have lived a good life while there. The city which we are to praise and to seek is not that which has slain the prophets and shed the blood of Christ, but that which is made glad by the streams of the river, which is set upon a mountain and so cannot be hid, which the apostle declares to be a mother of the saints, and in which he rejoices to have his citizenship with the righteous.”

In June 2012, this parish is going on a pilgrimage to Ireland. The pilgrimage begins with a Mass with Pope Benedict XVI in Dublin and then moves through different historical and spiritual landmarks along the Irish countryside. Why Ireland? In the history of Christianity, except for Rome and Italy, no other culture or people have contributed to the preservation and evangelization of Christianity the way the Irish have. Following the fall of the Roman Empire and subsequent Viking, and barbarian invasions which left Europe in a very dark era, it was the Irish monastic communities that came back to the mainland of Europe and re-evangelized, re-educated and re-established foundations that had once been destroyed.

It is our hope that many of us will participate in this moment of grace that will inebriate the soul with a longing for sacredness, fill the lungs of our spiritual life with a desire for more of the good things of God, penetrate our hearts with a desire to do His will above all, enable our hands to embrace our brothers and sisters in the most loving ways and find Him where he can be found.

Father David Regan  

Daily routines, rituals and comfort zones are a part of our lives. When we are confronted with changing or skipping them we can make the change with eager anticipation, with reluctance, with resignation or with anger. Today’s gospel presents us with parable about subjects being invited by a king to a wedding feast for his son. The invitation is ignored, refused and even violently rejected. We can look at this parable and ponder reasons why such an invitation would have such negative results. We know from our own personal experience that it can take more energy and time in thought to refuse an invitation we should accept for our own good and the good of those who invite us than it actually does to accept the invitation and show up with the proper attitude. Jesus presents this parable to invite us to look at how we respond to the invitation we have accepted to follow him in the special and ordinary events of our lives. The rituals of prayer and Sunday Mass are key in our faith life.You are probably reading this column because you accepted the invitation of Jesus to come to Sunday Mass and took the bulletin home. Each week Jesus invites all who say they want to follow him to come to be renewed by his love and presence in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Sunday Mass can be seen as an ordinary part of our weekly routine and that is good. At times we can struggle with finding time on Saturday evening or Sunday to come to Mass with all that can come into our lives on the weekend. But when we accept the invitation and come to Mass we always walk away enriched and renewed by God’s love and presence. In speaking with the parents of some of the children who are going to be confirmed this year and next, I asked them what challenges they face in living out the commitment they made at baptism when they promised to bring their children up to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us. Each group spoke of the fast pace of life on weekends. We have so filled Saturday and Sunday with sports, shopping and other activities that at times God does not fit in. Ironically, we have Sunday because it was given to us as a day of rest, a day to be renewed by spending time with God and those we love. Each day we are invited to be enriched by God’s love and presence by taking some time, no matter how brief, to be with him in prayer.

Making Sunday Mass a part of our weekly routine and prayer a part of our daily routine calls us to do what we must do in all the experiences we have: put our heart and soul into these experiences. We know when we are just going through the motions. The fast pace and busyness of life can “make” us do things externally without really giving them our full time, attention and presence. With the technology of cell phones and texting we communicate with people far more frequently at times than we ever did in the past. While this is good, this communication which can be excessive at times can distract us from who we are with at the present moment and what we are doing. In the second part of the parable in today’s gospel, the king sends his servants to invite anyone they find to his son’s wedding feast. We see that there is one person who comes and does not have a wedding garment. We look at this not so much as what he is wearing to the feast, although what wear to come into God’s presence at Mass is something to consider and be done tastefully and modestly, but as to what his attitude is. When we pray or come to Mass, what is our attitude? We can be taken up by who else is there, what priest is saying the Mass or what accent he might be speaking with. When the king sends out his servants he does not ask them to discriminate in who they invite in his name. Our quest at Mass is not to think about who is worthy or unworthy in our eyes to be there, but to be grateful for having been invited. As we put our minds and hearts into participating in Mass and speaking to God in prayer, we are renewed and filled with life and peace we can get no where else. In the second reading St. Paul says that he is strengthened by Christ in all things. Whether he has an abundance of what he needs or is lacking in what he needs, he is not only able to cope, he is grateful for the gift of faith which brings him hope and peace wherever he is and whatever his doing. In all things, Jesus is part of who he is.

Last Sunday many people accepted the invitation to be part of the Stand for Life on Route 110 in Huntington. This is an annual event I have been blessed to be part of for many years. Each year I join with hundreds of others who stand along the highway with signs proclaiming the dignity of all human life and pray that we will come to the point in our nation where we cease to promote abortion and all those practices that demean, abuse or take human life. Prayer and Sunday Mass open our minds to do more than we would ever consider or do on our own. Those we love and who love us become an integral part of who we are. Through, with, and for them, we find ourselves involved in experiences that would never be possible or considered if we had never known them or allowed them into our lives. Their presence in our lives is a sign of God’s love and how much fuller and richer our lives become when God is a conscious, welcome, and integral part of who we are. That happens more and more as we are faithful to Sunday Mass and daily prayer.

Father Walden