Now that we have celebrated the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7th, the Spirit is showing us the great importance that needs to be given to this magnificent Marian prayer. The Rosary should certainly have a decisive role to play in our lives. We cannot afford living our human and Christian life without resorting to the contemplation of the life of Christ Our Lord at the school of Mary, His and Our Mother.
Thus the following reflections from people of great holiness and repute would surely encourage us to take up the Rosary beads and start praying the Rosary not simply from this month of October but make it, in the end, one of the very pivotal prayers that our heart can ever pray.
First, the Rosary is the weapon against evil. St Padre Pio says: The Rosary is the ‘weapon’ for these times. In another reflection St Pio states: Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother.
Second, the Rosary is the army which conquers the world. Blessed Pope Pius IX notes: Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.
Third, the Rosary is the greatest method for prayer. St Francis de Sales observes: The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary.
Fourth, the Rosary is a perfect prayer from which we obtain great graces from God. St Pio affirms: Go to the Madonna. Love her! Always say the Rosary. Say it well. Say it as often as you can! Be souls of prayer. Never tire of praying, it is what is essential. Prayer shakes the Heart of God, it obtains necessary graces!
Fifth, the effects of the Rosary are astonishing. St Josemaria Escriva put it: The holy Rosary is a powerful weapon. Use it with confidence and you’ll be amazed at the results.
Sixth, the monotony of the Rosary purifies the monotony of our sins. St Josemaria Escriva asserts with faith: Say the Holy Rosary. Blessed be that monotony of Hail Mary’s which purifies the monotony of your sins!
Seventh, the Rosary is the antidote for vainglory and pride. Again, St Josemaria Escriva claims: For those who use their intelligence and their study as a weapon, the Rosary is most effective. Because that apparently monotonous way of beseeching Our Lady as children do their Mother, can destroy every seed of vainglory and pride.
Eighth, the Rosary is to be prayed during the day not left before sleeping. St Josemaria Escriva gives us this valid advice: You always leave the Rosary for later, and you end up not saying it at all because you are sleepy. If there is no other time, say it in the street without letting anybody notice it. It will, moreover, help you to have presence of God.
Ninth, the Rosary makes the demons flee away from you, helps you not to sin and brings peace to our world. Pope Pius XI highlights this fact when he accentuates: The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin…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.
Tenth, the Rosary is the book of the blind, the simple and the aged. Archbishop Fulton Sheen explains to us why when he says: 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.
Eleventh, the Rosary is the remedy for evils as well as the root of all blessings. Pope Leo XIII states: The Rosary is 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.
Twelfth, the Rosary is a huge remedy for being healed from sin. Bishop Hugh Doyle put it this way: No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary: either they will give up sin or they will give up the Rosary.
Thirteenth, the Rosary is the resolution of all our problems. Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima counsels us: The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.
Fourteenth, the Rosary is the humblest means to put evil into shame and conquer it altogether. Dom Columba Marmion in his book Christ, the Ideal of the Priest, writes: Here is an example to help you understand the efficacy of the Rosary. You remember the story of David who vanquished Goliath. What steps did the young Israelite take to overthrow the giant? He struck him in the middle of the forehead with a pebble from his sling. If we regard the Philistine as representing evil and all its powers: heresy, impurity, pride, we can consider the little stones from the sling capable of overthrowing the enemy as symbolizing the Aves of the Rosary… The ways of God are entirely different from our ways. To us it seems necessary to employ powerful means in order to produce great effects. This is not God’s method; quite the contrary. He likes to choose the weakest instruments that He may confound the strong: “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong — Infirma mundi elegit ut confundat fortia” (1 Cor 1:27)… Have you not often met poor old women who are most faithful to the pious recitation of the Rosary? You also must do all that you can to recite it with fervour. Get right down, at the feet of Jesus: it is a good thing to make oneself small in the presence of so great a God. The demons are afraid of the Rosary. An exorcist once said: The demons were attacking me. So I grabbed my rosary and held it up. Instantly, the demons were undone and fled. Another figure who propagated the Rosary alot during his life, Blessed Bartolo Longo, the Apostle of the Rosary, was greatly attacked by demonic obsessions. In fact, the evil one tried to convince him that he was still consecrated to Satan. When despair and suicide knocked heavily at the door of his heart he immediately started praying the Rosary. Hence, what happened was that the mental demonic attacks ceased and he continued to increase in holiness.
Finally, the Rosary is a blow to the head of Satan. The former exorcist of Rome, Fr Gabriel Amorth, in one of his encounters with Satan, said that the evil one was being forced to confess this big truth: Every Hail Mary of the Rosary is a blow to the head for me; if Christians knew the power of the Rosary, it would be the end of me!
May these profound reflections, lovingly given to us by God through these great men and women of God, convince us that the Rosary has, in fact, an undisputable power. If that is the case let us pray it not just in the month of October but throughout the days of our lives.
