The rosary was given to save the world!
The following text is taken from an interview with Sister Lucia, (one of the Fatima visionaries), by Father Fuentes in December 26, 1957
"Look,
Father, the Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has
given new efficacy in the recitation of the Holy Rosary. She has given
this efficacy 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, of the families in the
world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples
and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I
tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot solve by the
prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save
ourselves."
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen:
"If
you wish to convert anyone to the fullness of the knowledge of Our Lord
and to His Mystical Body, then teach him the Rosary. One of two things
will happen. Either he will stop saying the Rosary — or he will get the
gift of faith."
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/kralis/040918
By Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
J.M.J.
From
the earliest days, the Church asked its faithful to recite the one
hundred and fifty Psalms of David. This custom still prevails among
priests, who recite some of these Psalms every day. [9] However, it was
not easy for anyone to memorize the one hundred and fifty Psalms. Then,
too, before the invention of printing, it was difficult to procure a
book of the Psalms. That is why certain important books like the Bible
had to be chained like telephone books are today; otherwise people would
have run off with them.
Incidentally, this gave rise to the
stupid lie that the Church would not allow anyone to read the Bible,
because it was chained. The fact is, it was chained just so people could
read it. The telephone book is chained, too, but it s more consulted
than any book in modern civilization!
The people who could not
read one hundred and fifty Psalms wanted to do something to make up for
it. Therefore, they substituted one hundred and fifty Hail Marys. They
broke up these one hundred and fifty, in the manner of the Acathist,
[10] into fifteen decades, or series of ten. Each part was to be said
while meditating on a different aspect of the Life of Our Lord.
To keep the decades separate, each one of them began with the Our Father and ended with the Doxology of Praise to the Trinity.
St.
Dominic, who died in 1221, received from the Blessed Mother the command
to preach and to popularize this devotion for the good of souls, for
conquest over evil, and for the prosperity of Holy Mother Church and
thus gave us the Rosary in its present classical form.
The Black
Death, which ravaged all Europe and wiped out one-third of its
population, prompted the faithful to cry out to the Mother of Our Lord
to protect them, at a time when the present moment and death were almost
one. [11]
The Black Death has ended. But now the Red Death of
Communism is sweeping the earth (circa 1950). I find it interesting
that, when the Blessed Mother appeared at Fatima in 1917 because of the
great decline in morals and the advent of godlessness, she asked that,
after the "Glory be" we add "have mercy on all souls; save them from
hell and lead us to heaven."
It is objected that there is much
repetition in the Rosary because the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary are
said so often; therefore some say it is monotonous.
That reminds
me of a woman who came to see me one evening after instructions. She
said, "I would never become a Catholic. You say the same words in the
Rosary over and over again, and anyone who repeats the same words is
never sincere. I would never believe anyone who repeated his words and
neither would God."
I asked her who the man was with her. She
said he was her fiancé. I asked: "Does he love you?" "Certainly, he
does," "But how do you know?" "He told me." "What did he say?"
"He said 'I love you.'"
"When did he tell you last?"
"About an hour ago."
"Did he tell you before?"
"Yes, last night."
"What did he say?"
"I love you."
"But never before?"
"He tells me every night."
I said: "Do not believe him. He is repeating; he is not sincere."
The
beautiful truth is that there is no repetition in, "I love you."
Because there is a new moment of time, another point inn space, the
words do not mean the same as they did at another time or space.
Love
is never monotonous in the uniformity of its expression. The mind is
infinitely variable in its language, but the heart is not. The heart of a
man, in the face of the woman he loves, is too poor to translate the
infinity of his affection into a different word. So the heart takes one
expression, "I love you," and in saying it over and over again, it never
repeats. It is the only real news in the universe. That is what we do
when we say the Rosary, we are saying to God, the Trinity, to the
Incarnate Saviour, to the Blessed Mother: "I love you, I love you, I
love you."
Each time it means something different because, at each decade, our mind is moving to a new demonstration of the Saviour's love.
The
Rosary is the best therapy for these distraught, unhappy, fearful, and
frustrated souls, precisely because it involves the simultaneous use of
three powers: the physical, the vocal, and the spiritual, and in that
order.
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."
If you wish to convert anyone to the fullness of
the knowledge of Our Lord and to His Mystical Body, then teach him the
Rosary. One of two things will happen. Either he will stop saying the
Rosary — or he will get the gift of faith. [12]
NOTES:
Catholic World News, 12/21/01, "Saying The Rosary is Good for You."
"Temporal
punishment — It is the constant teaching of the Church that the
voluntary act of penitential works has always been part of true
repentance. The Council of Trent (Sess. XIV, c.xi) reminds the faithful
that God does not always remit the whole punishment due to sin together
with the guilt. God requires satisfaction, and will punish sin, and this
doctrine involves as its necessary consequence a belief that the sinner
failing to do penance in this life may be punished in another world,
and so not be cast off eternally from God." Catholic Encyclopedia, 1918.
Fr. Patrick Payton lead 'The Family Rosary Crusade.'
Supremi Apostolatus Officio,' 1884
Cf. Rosarium Virginis Mariae,' n. 3
Cf.
'Augustissimae Virginis Mariae,' ('On the Confraternity of the Holy
Rosary,') Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, promulgated on December 12, 1897.
Enchiridion
n.48. An indulgence is the pardon granted by the Church for the debt of
penance we owe for sins. A plenary indulgence is a full pardon for such
penances. A partial indulgence remits some penance owing. To gain a
plenary indulgence you must be free from all attachment to sin, even
venial sin. You must go to confession, receive Holy Communion, and pray
for the intentions of the Pope.
Ibid. Five decades at least
must be recited continuously, with devout meditation on the appropriate
mysteries, which are to be announced if said aloud.
www.newadvent.org/fathers/1801150.htm
An
Akathist (or "Acathist") in the Byzantine Church is a hymn of
thanksgiving or supplication used on special occasions. It has a
standard form comprising 13 sections, each one made up of a Kontakion
and an Ikos. There are many different Akathist prayers in use in the
Eastern Church. The one most widely known, however, dates from the early
7th century AD and is known as 'The Akathist to the Most Holy
Theotokos.'
A brief presentation on this prayer can be found
in the article Acathistus from the Catholic Encyclopedia. The term
"Akathist" means "not sitting" which refers to the fact that it is
celebrated in a standing posture.
The Black Death (bubonic
plague with pulmonary infection), originated in Eastern Asia, passed
through India to Asia Minor, Arabia, Egypt, Northern Africa, and
directly to Europe by the Black Sea. In Europe, the epidemic began in
1346 and spread throughout Christendom, ending in 1353 on the shores of
the Black Sea. The entire period was preceded by peculiar natural
phenomena, as floods, tidal waves, and abnormally damp weather. The loss
of human life in Europe alone is said to have amounted to twenty-five
million people. The disease usually began suddenly and death occurred
within three days. Great self-sacrifice was shown by the clergy,
especially by the Franciscans, who are said to have lost 100,000 friars
and nuns through the epidemic. (source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1918.)
Excerpt
taken from "Roses and Prayers," in the book 'The World's First Love,'
by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, publisher McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New
York, 1952.
Archbishop Sheen Today! -- Praying the Rosary
By Barbara Kralis
© Catholic Online 2004
The
medical and scientific communities have recently proclaimed what
Catholics have known for centuries — reciting the Rosary is good for
you. [1]
However, the medical experts missed the raison d'être
for the origin of the Rosary when they hypothesized it was developed by
man to give those praying a sense of well-being as a result of their
slowed cardiovascular rhythms.
Not quite, O men of modern science; but, nice try.
In
truth, Heaven was the originator of the Rosary. The Blessed Virgin, in
the 13th century, gave the Rosary to St. Dominic. Because belief of this
Sacred Tradition requires faith, it is much easier to reason that man,
for health reasons, devised the Rosary.
The above modern
hypothesis is not entirely in the wrong, for there are a great number of
benefits (graces) received by reciting the Rosary, both of the body and
of the soul.
Praying the Rosary does bring us peace when prayed
well and it consequently does slow down the cardiovascular rhythms of
our body. More importantly, it gives us a more perfect knowledge of
Christ. How does it do this?
The Rosary is 'a Christocentric prayer. It has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety.
The
Rosary is the perfect compliment to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It
sustains and echoes our sacramental life. The Rosary is a 'path to
contemplation' — a path that Pope John Paul II said he follows daily,
realizing each day's work within the mysteries of the Rosary.
Moreover,
the Rosary purifies our souls, gives us victory over our enemies,
allows us to practice virtue, sends us graces and merits, and allows us
to help pay our debts against our temporal punishment. [2]
The
Rosary is also a prayer for peace in our families and in our world. What
better time than in this era to pray the family Rosary, as Fr. Patrick
Peyton instructed. He said, "The family that prays together, stays
together." [3]
Pope Leo XIII, often called "the Pope of the
Rosary," strived to maintain the tradition of this prayer, which he
asserted was a strong spiritual weapon against evil. [4]
In
addition, Sacred Tradition tells that The Fifteen Promises of the Virgin
Mary (to those who recite the Rosary) was revealed in a message to St.
Dominic and Blessed Alan 1208 A.D.
Our world owes a great debt of
gratitude, perhaps more than our human minds can understand, to the
holy St. Dominic. It is impossible to talk about the Rosary without
significant mention of St. Dominic. Sacred Tradition and thirteen recent
Popes tell us that Mary first revealed the Rosary devotion to St.
Dominic.
Having received a vision of the Blessed Mother, Dominic
began to spread the prayer of the Rosary in his missionary work among
the Albigensians, a neo-Manichaean group of fanatical heretics.
Albigenses believed that everything material was evil and everything
spiritual was good. St. Dominic used the Rosary to convert the heretical
Albigensians.
The Rosary was most strongly supported by the
tradition of the Dominican Order. Pope Leo XIII affirmed over and over
the Dominican origin of the Rosary and in a letter to the Bishop of
Carcassone (1889), he accepts the tradition of Prouille, France, as the
place where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic, revealing
the devotion to the Rosary.
Pope Alexander VI in 1495, addressed
St. Dominic as "the renowned preacher long ago of the Confraternity of
the Rosary, and through his merits, the whole world was preserved from
universal ruin."
During an interview that Pope John Paul II gave in Germany during 1980 he held up his Rosary and said:
"This is the remedy that should be used in the struggle against evil. Pray the Rosary daily."
Mindful of the action of Pope Pius V in the Battle of Lepanto, Pope John Paul II, said in his Angelus address of October 1983:
"It
is not a question now of asking for great victories, as at Lepanto and
Vienna, rather it is a question of asking Mary to provide us with
valorous fighters against the spirit of error and evil, with the arms of
the Gospel, that is, the Cross and God's Word. The Rosary prayer is
man's prayer for man."
On 16 October, 2002 the Pope John Paul II
began the twenty-fifth year of his service as Successor of Peter. He
chose to celebrate his anniversary — the fifth longest Pontificate in
history — by writing an Apostolic Letter: Rosarium Virginis Mariae, The
Rosary of the Virgin Mary.
In one of the most beautiful of his
documents Pope John Paul announces the Year of the Rosary — October 2002
— October 2003. He urges us to rediscover the Rosary: to 'contemplate
with Mary the face of Christ.' [5]
Those who pray the Rosary
regularly would do well to be enrolled in the Dominican
Archconfraternity's Spiritual Rosary Confraternity.
As Pope Leo
XIII said in his encyclical on the Confraternity, "whenever a person
fulfills his obligation of reciting the Rosary according to the rule of
the Confraternity, he includes in his intentions all its members, and
they in turn render him the same service many times over." [6]
A
plenary indulgence is granted if the Rosary is recited in a church, or
public oratory or in a family group, a religious community or pious
association; a partial indulgence [7] is granted in other
circumstances." [8]
Carry your Rosary upon your person whenever
possible. The popular devotion is the most powerful prayer outside of
the Holy Mass. Do not miss one day without it.
Fr. Chad Ripperger's Breastplate of St. Patrick (Modified) & Binding Prayer ("In the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, and by the power of the Most Holy Catholic Church of Jesus, I render all spirits impotent...")
Deliverance Prayers II The Minor Exorcisms and Deliverance Prayers compiled by Fr Chad Ripperger: Breastplate of St. Patrick (Modified) I bind (myself, or N.) today to a strong virtue, an invocation of the Trinity. I believe in a Threeness, with a confession of an Oneness in the Creator of the Universe. I bind (myself, or N.) today to the virtue of Christ’s birth with his baptism, to the virtue of his crucifixion with his burial, to the virtue of his resurrection with his ascension, to the virtue of his coming to the Judgment of Doom. I bind (myself, or N.) today to the virtue of ranks of Cherubim, in obedience of Angels, in service of Archangels, in hope of resurrection for reward, in prayers of Patriarchs, in preaching of Apostles, in faiths of confessors, in innocence of Holy Virgins, in deeds of righteous men. I bind (myself, or N.) today to the virtue of Heaven, in light of Sun, in brightness of Snow, in splendor of Fire, in speed of l...
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