Time To Get Serious!

Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary
to obtain peace in the world…
for she alone can save it.
—apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, July 13, 1917

IT is long overdue to take these words seriously… words which require some sacrifice and perseverance. But if you do, I believe you will experience a release of graces in your spiritual life and beyond…

JESUS — THE CENTER OF THE ROSARY

The focus, the very center of the prayer of the Rosary, is the face of Christ: Jesus. This is why the Rosary is so powerful. When we contemplate the face of God, we are changed inside.

We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Cor 3:18)

But there is something more… something about this Lady who holds our hand as we pray (I think of the Rosary beads as being our Lady’s hand). Since she is the mother of the “whole Christ”, both Body and Head, she is uniquely able to distribute to us graces for our sanctification by virtue of the Holy Spirit within her; she who is “full of grace,” pouring out grace upon her children:

With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer. —JOHN PAUL II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, n. 1

And yet, there is even more. This “woman clothed with the sun” is also the same woman engaged in a battle with the ancient serpent, the devil or Satan (Gen 3:15, Rev 12). She has a fight to pick with a snake who’s been messing with her children.

At times when Christianity itself seemed under threat, its deliverance was attributed to the power of this prayer, and Our Lady of the Rosary was acclaimed as the one whose intercession brought salvation. —Ibid, n. 39

THE POWER OF ONE HAIL MARY

Listen, dear friends… I am not interested in starting a Rosary club. Rather, it is my hope that we will recognize one of the greatest weapons ever given to the Church in the Rosary, and take it up like a sword. I am certain that right now many sincere Christians are undergoing strong and sustained attacks from the enemy. There is a darkness and oppression that has grown exponentially. It can lead to anxiety, depression, feelings of guilt, anger, and division in our families. Many of the letters I receive are from souls who are feeling a sense of desperation in their situations. Furthermore, the signs of the times speak of the need to intercede for our world as judgment once again hangs over it like a flaming sword (see The Hour of the Sword).

I am also receiving more and more letters from men, good men, who nonetheless are struggling with the terrible demon of lust and the wicked snare of pornography (see The Hunted). There is nothing more powerful, however, than the combination of prayer and fasting, especially that prayer of the Rosary. For through it, you are entrusting your purity to the intercession of the Immaculate one.

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. —Bishop Hugh Doyle, ewtn.com

Don’t give up, dear brother! Don’t despair, dear sister! If the battle is hard, it is because it is indeed a battle. But as St. John reminds us, “the victory that conquers the world is our faith.” ^[1]1 John 5:4 That is, a heart that, despite feeling sunken in defeat, still cries out: “Jesus I trust in You!” Have you forgotten, that “it shall be that everyone shall be saved who calls on the name of the Lord”? ^[2]Acts 2:21 The Lord hears the cry of the poor—especially the poor sinner.

O soul steeped in darkness, do not despair. All is not yet lost. Come and confide in your God, who is love and mercy… Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet… I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy. —Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 1486, 699, 1146

But do not be deceived: we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling; we must pray and fight back with the dignity accorded us in our Baptism as sons and daughters of God. But not with weapons of the flesh!

For, although we are in the flesh, we do not battle according to the flesh, for the weapons of our battle are not of flesh but are enormously powerful, capable of destroying fortresses. (2 Cor 10:3-4)

There is nothing more powerful than the name of Jesus and ‘The Hail Mary reaches its high point in the words “blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”‘ ^[3]Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 435 Fr. Gabriel Amorth, the Chief Exorcist of Rome, relates how during an exorcism performed by one of his colleagues, the devil said:

Every Hail Mary is like a blow on my head. If Christians knew how powerful the Rosary was, it would be my end. —Echo of Mary, Queen of Peace, March-April, 2003

Indeed, the center of every “Hail Mary”, the “hinge” as it were, is the name of Jesus—the Name above all names—which causes the devil to tremble, for ‘His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies.’ ^[4]Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2666. Padre Pio once said,

Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary, for Her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today.

That’s because when we pray the Rosary, we are praying the Gospels, the Word of God, the living Word of God which pulls down strongholds, breaks chains, topples mountains, pierces the darkest nights, and liberates those entombed in sin. The Rosary is like a chain, binding Satan to the foot of the Cross. In fact, a few years ago, the Lord gave me this prayer, which I continue to use to this day when I must address oppressive evil spirits:

I bind you in the name of Jesus, with the chain of Mary, to the foot of the Cross and forbid you to return!

The Rosaries that we pray are the chains used to bind Satan in our personal lives, our family life, our society, and the world at large. But we must pray the Rosary to make those graces available.

The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer… The centre of gravity in the Hail Mary, the hinge as it were which joins its two parts, is the name of Jesus. Sometimes, in hurried recitation, this centre of gravity can be overlooked, and with it the connection to the mystery of Christ being contemplated. Yet it is precisely the emphasis given to the name of Jesus and to his mystery that is the sign of a meaningful and fruitful recitation of the Rosary. —JOHN PAUL II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, n. 1, 33

TIME IS SHORT

It is time to stop dismissing those beads as being that prayer which belongs to those “little ladies before Mass,” and to recognize it as the sword of the saints, the mantra of the martyrs, the song of the angels. If you feel a spark of hope in you now, then blow it into flame by picking up your Rosary, and never putting it down. These are not the times for complacency, but for decisive action on our part, surrendering ourselves to all the means of grace available to us, starting with the Sacrament of Confession, culminating in the Eucharist, and strengthening those graces with the little sacramental called the Rosary. Do not cave in to fear! Christ and His mother wish to hand you a victory!

Pray the Rosary every day. Pray it as a family. The temptation not to pray it should be a testimony in itself as to why you should.

We do not hesitate to affirm again publicly that We put great confidence in the Holy Rosary for the healing of evils which afflict our times. Not with force, not with arms, not with human power, but with Divine help obtained through the means of this prayer… —POPE PIUS XII, Ingruentium Malorum, Encyclical, n. 15; vatican.va

Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in Hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil… sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if—and mark well what I say—if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins. —St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary

First published May 8th, 2007

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1	1 John 5:4
↑2	Acts 2:21
↑3	Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 435
↑4	Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2666