The month of October gives us the chance to remember the great gift of the rosary and the difference it can make in our spiritual lives and in the world. The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary Oct. 7 finds it origin in the victory of the Battle of Lepanto Oct. 7, 1571.
This year marks the 450th anniversary of that important moment in European history when the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic states from Spain and Italy, defeated in a naval battle the fleet of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Many say the victory was made possible by a shift in the wind accompanied by a vision of Our Lady which inspired the troops.
The battle was a key turning point that stopped the Ottoman Empire’s military expansion, and many theorize it saved Christianity in Europe. Pope St. Pius V ordered all of the soldiers on the ships and all of Europe to pray the rosary on the day of the battle, and he himself led a rosary procession in Rome. We are told that in the afternoon of that day, he was granted a miraculous vision of the victory. Afterwards, he declared the day the feast of Our Lady of Victory, and it later became known as Our Lady of the Rosary because of the power from this prayer.
The rosary is a mysterious prayer because of its simplicity, but also because of its depth. It has been prayed and loved consistently by faithful Catholics since the beginning of the second millennium. It is a prayer beginners can learn, and it can lead us into the depth of the Christian life. It is loved by the simplest souls and some of the greatest mystics of the Church.
Our Lady herself, most especially in her appearance at Fatima, but also in other apparitions, has begged us to pray the rosary daily. She said that it was essential to bring peace to our families and to our world, and she asked us to pray the rosary to bring an end to war.
Those who start to pray the rosary regularly find in it eventually a mysterious attraction and incredible power. Many find their lives begin to change through the strength of this prayer. They are drawn to deeper conversion; they experience more peace and their desire for holiness grows. Its simplicity is found in the repetition of the prayers from memory that are intended to allow us to enter into the mysteries of the life of Jesus and Mary. Some find it helpful to combine Scripture reading and even some silence with the prayers to aid in meditation on the mysteries.
Some have accused Catholics of violating the command of Jesus with the rosary, when Jesus said, “When you pray, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words” (Mt 6:7). It is possible to recite the rosary in this false way, treating it as a magic formula that effects things by saying meaningless words. But this is not the way the rosary was meant to be prayed. The repetition of the Hail Mary, rather, is often compared to a child speaking words of love over and over again. As St. John Paul II said in his important encyclical on the rosary, which he wrote in 2002, “If this repetition is considered superficially, there could be a temptation to see the rosary as a dry and boring exercise. It is quite another thing, however, when the rosary is thought of as an outpouring of that love which tirelessly returns to the person loved with expressions similar in their content but ever fresh in terms of the feeling pervading them” (“Rosarium Virginis Mariae,” 26).
In this way the repetition of prayers in the rosary actually works with our human psychology and can allow calm and focus as we enter more deeply into love. Again as St. John Paul II explained, “By its nature the recitation of the rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord’s life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are disclosed.” The rosary leads us to union with Jesus as we contemplate with it the life of Jesus and Mary.
Pope Francis has often said he prays the rosary every day. In 2017, I had the chance to meet Pope Francis with a group of priests after a Wednesday audience. After posing for a photo with us he pulled his rosary out of his pocket and held it up to us, and with great insistence urged us to pray the rosary and not to forget to pray for him. Let us join Pope Francis in this month of October and pray together the rosary for peace in our world, in our families, in our Church. Let us pray for deliverance from the pandemic and conversion of hearts back to God. Let us surrender our own lives to Our Lady so that she can help us to imitate Jesus in every moment of our lives.
