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."



The Marian Creed of Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows

Posted by Jacob

Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, who I have written about before and chosen as one of three patron saints of this blog project, penned this beautiful creed, stating our beliefs about Our Blessed Mother.  While I have posted this previously, I can think of no better time than our celebration of the Marian Month of May to re-post this adoration of the most gracious and loving Virgin of Virgins.


I believe, O Mary, that you are the mother of all men.


I believe that you are our life and, after God, the sole refuge of sinners.


I believe that you are the strength of Christians, and their help, especially at the hour of death, that following thee, I shall not stray, that praying to thee, I shall not be abandoned, that standing with thee, I shall not fall.


I believe that you are ready to aid those who call upon thee, that you are the salvation of those who invoke thee, and that you are willing to do more good for us than we can desire; that even when not asked, you hasten to our assistance.

I believe that in your name is to be found a sweetness like to that experienced by Saint Bernard in the name of Jesus-----that it is joy to the heart, honey to the mouth and music to the ears and that, after the name of Jesus, there is no name through which the faithful receive so much grace, so much hope and so much consolation.


I believe that you are co-redemptrix with Christ for our salvation, that all the graces which God dispenses pass through your hands, and that no one will enter Heaven except through thee who are rightly called the "Gate of Heaven."


I believe that true devotion to thee is a most certain sign of eternal salvation.


I believe that you are superior to all the Saints and Angels, and that God alone surpasses thee.

I believe that God has given to thee in the highest possible degree, all the graces, special and general, with which He can favor His creatures.

I believe that your beauty and excellence surpass that of all Angels and men.

I believe that you alone did fulfill perfectly the precept: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God" and that the very seraphim of Heaven can learn from your heart how to love God.


I believe that if all the love which all mothers have for their children, all that all husbands and wives have for each other, all that all the Angels and Saints have for those who are devoted to them, were united in one, it would not equal the love that you have for even one soul.

| Labels:

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment. If you wish to submit a prayer request, however, please do so above, using the "Contact" tab.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)