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."
Today, on the
Solemnity of All Souls, we pray for the purification of the souls in Purgatory, remembering those who have gone before us, and entreating the Lord to take them into Heaven.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori wrote a Novena for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Below, his Prayer to Our Suffering Savior for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
O most sweet Jesus,
through the bloody sweat
which Thou didst suffer
in the Garden of Gethsemane,
have mercy on these Blessed Souls.
Have mercy on them.
Have mercy on them, O Lord.
O most sweet Jesus,
through the pains
which Thou didst suffer
during Thy most cruel scourging,
have mercy on them.
Have mercy on them, O Lord.
O most sweet Jesus,
through the pains
which Thou didst suffer
in Thy most painful crowning with thorns,
have mercy on them.
Have mercy on them, O Lord.
O most sweet Jesus,
through the pains
which Thou didst suffer
in carrying Thy cross to Calvary,
have mercy on them.
Have mercy on them, O Lord.
O most sweet Jesus,
through the pains
which Thou didst suffer
during Thy most cruel Crucifixion,
have mercy on them.
R. Have mercy on them, O Lord.
O most sweet Jesus,
through the pains
which Thou didst suffer
in Thy most bitter agony on the Cross,
have mercy on them.
Have mercy on them, O Lord.
O most sweet Jesus,
through the immense pain
which Thou didst suffer
in breathing forth Thy Blessed Soul,
have mercy on them.
Have mercy on them, O Lord.
(Recommend yourself to the Souls in Purgatory and mention your intentions here)
Blessed Souls,
I have prayed for thee;
I entreat thee, who are so dear to God,
and who are secure of never losing Him,
to pray for me a miserable sinner,
who is in danger of being damned,
and of losing God forever. Amen.
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