Our Final Remedy?

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

What does this headline – “Christianity is finished in Iraq” (The Herald, 17 Aug, 2014) make you feel? The threat of genocide on our Iraqi brothers and sisters can happen anywhere. Their grotesque violence and mass murder leave many of us feeling helpless in the face of cruel injustice. Concurrently, we have conflicts in Syria, The Gaza, and Ukraine; the Ebola outbreak; airplane tragedies. As both Church and humanity, we feel threatened.

But are all these new? Throughout history, the Church and Christians have faced heresies, persecution, oppression and plagues. Our forebears must have experienced evil’s grip as we do now. Amidst all the tribulations, though, we still find God’s providence. One common thread running through the incidences is the Blessed Virgin Mary’s intercession. In the book, “The Five Warnings”, Fr. Faroni and Cisostomo highlighted several episodes.

According to tradition, in the 12^th and 13^th century, when the Albigensian heresy was widespread in southern France, Our Lady advised St. Dominic to counter it by asking the people to pray the Hail Marys alongside his preaching of our salvation mysteries. This is essentially what we do when we pray the Rosary, which was officially approved by Pope St. Pius V in 1569.

On 7 October 1571, members of the Confraternity of the Rosary in Rome processed praying the Rosary while Christian troops battled against the Muslim Turks to prevent the invasion of Rome. The outnumbered Christians won the battle. Hence we commemorate the victory by the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary on 7 October.

Praying the Rosary also saved Catholicism in Asia, when in 1646, the Dutch was prevented from conquering the Phillipines. The ill-equipped joint Filipino-Spanish forces prayed the Rosary before every encounter with the Protestant Dutch forces. (Fr. Marie-Dominic, n.d. as cited by Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo, 2006)

According to Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo (2006), however, the greater victories of the Rosary were against the apostate forces of Freemasonry and Communism. Since 1910, the Catholic Church in Portugal was heavily and openly persecuted by the Freemasons. By 1917, the country was nearing economic disaster and beset with lawlessness. World War I then worsened things. In 1917, Our Lady appeared in Fatima. She asked for the Rosary prayer and devotion to her Immaculate Heart; the people listened. After the apparitions, the Masonic government was defeated. A religious revival happened. And Portugal was spared from World War II, as Sister Lucia, one of the Fatima seers, foretold. (Freemasonry Watch / Fatima Crusader, n.d., as cited by Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo, 2006)

Since 1938, Austria lost its independence; first to Germany, and later given to Communist Russia. From 1947, Fr. Petrus Pavlicek, heeding Our Lady’s counsel to pray the Rosary daily for restoration of peace, started Rosary crusades with annual processions throughout the nation. In 1955, against all expectations, Austria was miraculously granted independence by Russia. (Charles E. Schaffer / Fr. Marie-Dominic, O.P., n.d., as cited by Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo, 2006)

In 1964, Brazil almost became a Communist state. Fr. Patrick Peyton preached a rosary crusade across the country. Its people prayed the Rosary fervently, kneeling or parading on the streets. Rosary marches were held. Inexplicably, President Joao Goulart, who attempted to sell out his country, was gradually abandoned by his aides. The military took over without bloodshed on 26 March; Goulart and the Communist leaders fled. On April 2, the people held a gigantic prayer march in thanksgiving to the Lord and Our Lady. (Fr. Marie-Dominic, O.P., n.d., as cited by Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo, 2006)

The victories of Our Lady’s intercession for Portugal, Austria and Brazil were influenced by Our Lady of Fatima’s messages. Sister Lucia understood from her that the Devil is waging the final battle against the Blessed Virgin, and that God is giving two last remedies to the world – the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This seems most urgent, since God always exhausts all means to win back mankind before He punishes the world.

To explain the importance of the Rosary, Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo uses the allegory of a mother sending her child to buy some milk, but being brought ice cream instead. Ice cream is better than milk, but it is not what she asked for. They added, (I quote) “Whatever else a person may do, even though they go to Mass every day, they still need to say the rosary in their home. It is the medicine our Mother has told us to take, to keep our faith strong and healthy.” (unquote)

Brothers and sisters, just as light shines the brightest in darkness, only in the midst of our world’s gloom, will the joy of the Gospel shine the brightest. Let us not despair, but use the remedy that God has given us – the Holy Rosary, which is the Gospel on beads. In this Month of the Rosary, let us pray the Rosary more fervently in the face of current events. We are not helpless; we have the most effective remedy against the Devil. It could be our final remedy.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us. Amen.

The Rosary as an Intercessory Prayer

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 2 October 2010)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Next Thursday, 7 October, the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. It is the anniversary of the Christian’s victory in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, two years after Pope St. Pius V officially approved the Rosary. The Church celebrates it not only to commemorate the victory, but also to thank God for His providence and remember the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Ottoman Turks were ravaging Eastern Europe then. If they succeeded in raiding the coast of Italy, they would gain control of the Mediterranean, and possibly invade Rome. As the Christian’s Holy League prepared for battle to stem this, Pope St. Pius V asked that the Rosary be recited publicly throughout Europe, for Our Lady’s intercession for victory. On the day of the battle, members of the Confraternity of the Rosary in Rome processed praying the Rosary (Feeney, downloaded 2 Oct 2009). Although outnumbered, the Christians won the battle miraculously in just a few hours.

While historians see it as a major battle of minor significance, the victory was a religious triumph to the Christians, and a psychological boost to the European world – the seemingly unbeatable Turks were beaten.

Closer to us, exactly 75 years after that, another celebration due to the intercession of Our Lady through the Rosary took place. It was the Feast of La Naval de Manila, first celebrated on 8 October 1646 in Manila. It marked the victory of the Spanish and Filipino Catholic forces against the invasion of the Dutch in 1646.

In the Battles of La Naval, the joint Filipino-Spanish forces had only two aged and ill-equipped Spanish warships to fight against the Dutch fleet that arrived in Manila. Remembering Lepanto, and as advised by the Dominican friars, the sailors prayed the Holy Rosary before each encounter with the Dutch between 15 March and 4 October. (Manila Bulletin, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009) They recited it in alternating choruses on the bridges of the two ships (Faroni and Crisostomo, 2006). Finally, the Dutch fleet gave up and left the country (Manila Bulletin, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009). In thanksgiving, the Spanish church leaders declared the first celebration of the feast in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary. Every year since then, on the second Sunday of October, there is a procession from Manila to Quezon City (Manila Bulletin, 2008). According to Fr. Marie-Dominic, as cited by Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo (2006), this victory was important because it saved Catholicism in Asia; had the Protestant Dutch won, Christendom might have been destroyed as in Sri Lanka when they conquered it in 1657.

Dear brothers and sisters, these are just two of many true and significant examples of how powerful the Rosary is. Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo wrote in “The Five Warnings” that even greater victories were won through the Rosary in the 20^th century, especially against the apostate forces of Freemasonry and Communism.

The intercessory nature of the Rosary is evident by the invocation to our Holy Mother to “pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death”. St. James wrote in the Bible, “…the fervent prayer of a righteous man is very powerful.” What more the prayer of our Blessed Mother, who was sinless and Jesus’ most perfect disciple, and now living with God in heaven?

In the Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II wrote that in the Rosary, we pray to Christ with Mary. He wrote, “If Jesus, the one Mediator, is the Way of our prayer, then Mary, his purest and most transparent reflection, shows us the Way.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#2679) says, “The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary”. As at the wedding of Cana, Mary makes our needs known to Jesus. Thus Mary, sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, fulfils her role as the Queen Mother of the Church, who prays with us and for us before the Father and the Son. (Pope JPII, 2002) And we know, that never was it known, that anyone who sought her intercession was left unaided.

Pope JPII further wrote, “To pray the Rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and his Mother”, for the psalmist says (Ps. 55:23), “Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you”.

Do we not hear of despair nowadays? Can our problems be too difficult for God? Accompanied by our Blessed Mother, we dare to go before Him and plead unceasingly. Praying the Rosary is the best way to do so.

References:

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Faroni & Crisostomo. 2006. The Five Warnings.

Feeney, R. n.d. St. Dominic & The Rosary. Downloaded on 2 October 2009 from the Catholic-pages.com website: http://www.catholic-pages.com/prayers/rosary_dominic.asp

John Paul II. 2002. Apostolic Letter: Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

Manila Bulletin (via Highbeam Research)