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 Creed of Saint Lucian of Antioch

Posted by Jacob

Today, January 7, we celebrate the feast of Saint Lucian of Antioch (also know as Saint Loukianos, died 312), early Martyr of the Church. Saint Lucian spent the majority of his life in prayer, contemplation, and spiritual teaching.  Prior to his martyrdom, he was a well-respected leader of the church of Antioch.  The Creed he penned, proclaiming the glory of the Lord, follows:



We believe, in accordance with the evangelic and apostolic tradition, in one God the Father Almighty, the Maker and Provider of all things.


And in one Lord Jesus Christ His son, the only-begotten God, through whom all things were made, who was begotten of the Father before all ages, God of God, Whole of Whole, One of One, Perfect of Perfect, King of King, Lord of Lord, the living Word, Wisdom, Life, True Light, Way, Truth, Resurrection, Shepherd, Door, unchangeable and unalterable, the immutable likeness of the Godhead, both of the substance and will and power and glory of the Father, the first-born of all creation, who was in the beginning with God, the Divine Logos, according to what is said in the Gospel: 'and the Word was God' through whom all things were made and in whom 'all things consist': who in the last days came down from above and was born of a Virgin, according to the Scriptures, and became man, the Mediator between God and man, and the Apostle of our Faith, and the Prince of Life; as He says: 'I have come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me'; who suffered for us; and rose for us the third day, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father, and again is coming with glory and power to judge the living and the dead.


And in the Holy Spirit given for consolation and sanctification and perfection to those who believe; as also our Lord Jesus Christ commanded His disciples, saying: 'Go ye, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' -- clearly of a Father who is really a father, and of a Son who is really a son, and of the Holy Spirit who is really a holy spirit, these names being assigned, not vaguely nor idly, but indicating accurately the special personality (hypostasy), order, and glory of those named, so that in personality they are three, but in harmony one.


Having then this faith, having it both from the beginning and to the end, before God and Christ we anathematize all heretical false doctrine. And if any one, contrary to the right faith of the Scriptures, teaches and says that there either is or has been a period or time or age before the Son of God was begotten, let him be accursed (anathema). And if any one says that the Son is a creature as one of the creatures, or generated as one of the things generated, or made as one of the things made, and not as the Divine Scripture have handed down each of the things aforesaid, or if any one teaches or preaches a gospel other than we have received, let him be accursed.


For we truly and clearly both believe and follow all things from the Holy Scriptures that have been transmitted to us by the Prophets and Apostles.

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