October 21 - Our Lady of Europe The Rosary of the Virgin Mary (VII) The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables [...] the basis of my Episcopal motto: Totus Tuus. The motto is of course inspired by the teaching of Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort, who explained in the following words Mary's role in the process of our co [...] in us (cf. Gal 4:19). This role of Mary, totally grounded in that of Christ and radically subordinated to it, “in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power
October 20 - Consecration of Portugal to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (1646) The Rosary of the Virgin Mary (VI) Even now, amid the joyful songs of the heavenly Jerusalem, the reasons for giving [...] continues to relate her personal account of the Gospel. Mary constantly sets before the faithful the “mysteries” of her Son, with the desire that the contemplation of those mysteries will release all their [...] their saving power. In the recitation of the Rosary, the Christian community comes in contact with the memories and the contemplative gaze of Mary.
October 25 - Consecration of Toledo’s Cathedral to the Blessed Virgin (Spain, 1075) The Virgin Mary Stops the Invasion of Christendom On Saturday, October 25, 732, the first day of Ramadan, the Moslem invaders [...] the Franks, just north of Poitiers, France. The leader of the Franks, Charles Martel, defeated the Arab army, which had to retreat. This victory ended the Moslem invasions north of the Pyrenees. Charles [...] Charles Martel attributed his victory to the intercession of the Virgin Mary.
October 6 - Our Lady of All Help (1640) The Rosary of the Virgin Mary (IV) Thereafter Mary's gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look [...] times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of a mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received [...] Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14)
Slavic Byzantine Church, Our Lady of Prokov - Saint Romanos the Melodist (6th C.) The Cantor of the Virgin Mary The only authority for the life and date of this greatest of Greek hymn-writers is the account [...] during the reign of Anastasios. It was in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos that he received the charisma of sacred poetry from the Blessed Virgin. One Christmas Eve, the Virgin Mary appeared to him [...] glorified God. He went up to the ambo and began the strains of his he parthenos semeron ton hyperousion tiktei. After this improvisation for the feast of the Nativity, he composed about one thousand kontakia
de Montfort, the author of an excellent work on the Rosary, and, closer to ourselves, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, whom I recently had the joy of canonizing. As a true apostle of the Rosary, Blessed Bartolo [...] depths of his heart: “Whoever spreads the Rosary is saved!” As a result, he felt called to build a Church dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Pompeii, against the background of the ruins of the ancient [...] October 3 - Our Lady of the Place (Rome, 1250) The Rosary of the Virgin Mary (II) It would be impossible to name all the many saints who discovered in the Rosary a genuine path to growth in holiness. We
Lady of the Assumption (Naples, Italy, 11th C.) The Rosary of the Virgin Mary (I) The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God [...] still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which [...] which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry
Longo - Apostle of the Rosary (d. 1926) The Rosary of the Virgin Mary (III) The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her [...] himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months [...] features. When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger” (Lk 2:7).
discouraged, had hidden “by fear of the Jews” (Jn 20:19), so the faith of the Church was concentrated in its entirety on Mary. Therefore, each Saturday is the memory of the Virgin Mary who believes and who awaits [...] September 2 - Our Lady of Stinging Nettles (Germany, 1441) Memory of Mary on Saturdays (II) Humbertus de Romanis, Master General of the Order, gave three more reasons for choosing to dedicate Saturdays [...] awaits the resurrection of her Son. 7. The Mother of Jesus herself showed a preference for this day, in the church of Blacherne in Constantinople. Each Friday evening, without any human intervention, the
September 28 - Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (Issoudun, 1854) The Salutation to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary Hail, Heart most holy, Hail, Heart most meek, Hail, Heart most humble, Hail, Heart most pure [...] most faithful, Hail, Heart most blessed, Hail, Heart most merciful, Hail, most loving Heart of Jesus and Mary; Thee we adore, Thee we praise, Thee we glorify, To Thee do we give thanks Thee we love, With [...] illuminate it, And sanctify it; That in it Thou may live and reign both now and forever, And in the ages of ages. Amen.
