October, the Month of the Rosary

Praying the Rosary has the power to change the course of human history. It has indeed done so on several occasions.

The renowned Battle of Lepanto is one obvious manifestation of the extraordinary power of this Marian prayer. In 1571, Pope St. Pius V called upon Western Christendom to pray the Rosary for victory over the significantly stronger naval fleet of the Muslim Turks, and specifically requested the Rosary confraternities to intensify their Rosary prayer in preparation for the October 7 naval battle. The sailors of the Christian fleet were likewise armed with the weapon of the Rosary.

It is said that while the battle raged, St. Pius V was granted a heavenly vision and exclaimed: "Victoria, Victoria!" The Christian fleet had delivered a deadly blow to the Turkish navy, the Church and the West were saved from Islamic invasion, and the feast of "Our Lady of the Rosary" was liturgically instituted. The October 7 feast, beyond a memorial of thanksgiving, should also remind the Church of the power of the Rosary in regards to our present time of monumental difficulties.

A more recent example was the dramatic standoff in 1986 between the Philippines Army under the command of the dictator Marcos and the two million Filipino faithful who were armed with Rosaries in downtown Manila. With tanks and gunmen having received the order to open fire on the crowd who were together praying the Rosary, Our Lady of the Rosary interceded.

Jaime Cardinal Sin, Cardinal Primate of the Philippines at the time, relayed the testimony given by a number of soldiers of what had actually taken place. A large-scale silhouette of a woman dressed in white appeared between the military and the people. Upon seeing the silhouette, not a single member of the military obeyed the order to open fire upon the crowd. This Marian miracle eventually led to the fleeing of the corrupt Marcos government on February 25, 1986, and to the establishment of democratic government in the Philippines.

The month of October also calls to mind the inspirational guidance of Pope Leo XIII, popularly known as the "Pope of the Rosary." He was also particularly responsible for designating October as the "Rosary Month." In one of his numerous encyclicals on the Rosary, he wrote:

October is the month to return to a more devout praying of the Rosary. It is the month to become more generous in our quantity of Rosary prayer. It is the month to make a Rosary examination of conscience.

Have I lost a past fervor for praying the Rosary? Could I offer more Rosaries than I currently do for the present state of the family, the Church and the world? Does my family daily pray the Rosary together? Am I praying my Rosary from the heart, meditating on the Gospel mysteries of my own salvation and the salvation of the entire world, and contemplating the "face of Christ" through the eyes and the heart of Mary?

Throughout the Rosary month, Mother of All Peoples will offer great papal excerpts, classical mariological excerpts, as well as contemporary commentaries that testify to the power and the imperative of daily praying this most efficacious Marian prayer. John Paul II has called us to pray especially for the intentions of world peace and family peace in his 2003 apostolic letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

The imperative for heavenly assistance from the Lady of the Rosary and the Mother of All Peoples for our present world situation is, I believe, well beyond the perils facing the Church and the West during the times of the Battle of Lepanto. For the contemporary approaching evils constitute attacks both on world peace ad extra and upon the nature of family, faith and morals, and even the most basic precepts of the natural law ad intra: abortion, euthanasia, cloning, homosexual marriages, the Aids epidemic, contraception, abortifacients, pornography, child prostitution, child abuse and neglect, and now, in the Netherlands, the legal killing of children under 12 years of age through euthanasia laws.

We need to change the present course of human history. We need to pray the Rosary.