Why pray the Rosary every day for a year?


Each time the Blessed Virgin has appeared-- whether it be to Saint Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes; to Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco at Fatima; or to Mariette Beco at Banneux-- she has asserted the importance, saving grace, and power of praying the Holy Rosary on a daily basis. Based upon her words, the Rosary is penance and conversion for sinners, a pathway to peace, an end to war, and a powerful act of faith in Jesus Christ. Pope Paul VI presented the Rosary as a powerful means to reach Christ "not merely with Mary but indeed, insofar as this is possible to us, in the same way as Mary, who is certainly the one who thought about Him more than anyone else has ever done."

To show us how this is done, perhaps no one has been more eloquent than the great Cardinal Newman, who wrote: "The great power of the Rosary consists in the fact that it translates the Creed into Prayer. Of course, the Creed is already in a certain sense a prayer and a great act of homage towards God, but the Rosary brings us to meditate again on the great truth of His life and death, and brings this truth close to our hearts. Even Christians, although they know God, usually fear rather than love Him. The strength of the Rosary lies in the particular manner in which it considers these mysteries, since all our thinking about Christ is intertwined with the thought of His Mother, in the relations between Mother and Son; the Holy Family is presented to us, the home in which God lived His infinite love."

As Mary said at Fatima, "Jesus wants to use you to make Me known and loved. He wishes to establish the devotion to My Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it; these souls will be dear to God, like flowers put by Me to adorn his throne."



Our Lady of Beauraing: The Final Apparition

Posted by Jacob

Today, January 3, marks the anniversary of the Blessed Mother’s last visitation to the children at Beauraing, Belgium. She appeared more than 30 times between November 1932 and January 3, 1933 to Albert, Gilberte, and Fernande Voisin (ages 9, 13 and 15) and Andree and Gilberte Degeimbre (ages 14 and 9). For more background information on this series of Marian apparitions, visit my January 1st entry.


On the evening of January 3, 1933, a large crowd (believed to be between thirty and thirty-five thousand people) assembled as the five children began praying the rosary, as had become their custom. After two decades were prayed, Albert, Gilberte, Andree, and Gilberte exclaimed the Blessed Mother’s presence and fell to their knees. Fernande, the oldest, wept as she could see nothing.
On this day, Our Lady of the Golden Heart, imparted what has been understood as the main promise of the Beauraing visits. To Gilberte Voisin she said, “I will convert sinners," before bidding her adieu.

To Andree she said: "I am the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven. Pray always." She then disappeared.


Fernande, still weeping, remained kneeling while the other children went inside for questioning by the local authorities. Without warning, she, and many in the crowd, heard a loud noise like thunder and saw a ball of fire on the hawthorn tree where Mary had frequently appeared. The Blessed Mother appeared and spoke to Fernande, inquiring as to whether she loved her Son and herself. When Fernande replied in the affirmative, Mary’s response was: "Then sacrifice yourself for me." At this the Blessed Virgin glowed with extraordinary brilliance and extended her arms, so that the girl could see her golden heart, before saying, "Goodbye," and disappearing from Beauraing for the last time.

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1 comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mausheimer/3731484766/in/set-72157614944548314

    I design and make rosaries. This is the one I made about Beauraing. See Description below photo for design elements.

    June 6, 2011 at 3:11 PM  

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