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, January 29, we celebrate the feast of
Saint Blath of Kildare (deceased 523) a tireless servant of her fellow man, and an example of how the simplest and most ordinary tasks of our daily lives can become sanctified and extraordinary when completed in devotion and love of Jesus Christ. I wrote about Saint Blath last year, and am reposting that post here, given the importance of the lesson and model of her holy life. May we all look to our own actions, and embrace the life of service that Saint Blath of Kildare so perfectly modeled.
Sometimes our lives seem quite simple and ordinary. In comparing ourselves to the Holy men and women who came before us, saints and martyrs, we may feel as if we fall short, or aren’t accomplishing daily tasks of any great significance. Saint Blath of Kildare demonstrates for us that even the most simple and ordinary tasks of daily life can become extraordinary and sacred when completed with unfailing love and devotion to Christ.
Saint Blath of Kildare (born unknown, deceased 523), also known as Flora (as her name means “flower), was a lay-sister of the Convent of Saint Brigid in Kildare, Ireland. Saint Blath was especially devoted to Saint Brigid, who founded the monastery which would become the center of religious teaching, art, and study.
Saint Blath served as cook for the monastery, the sisters of which having taken a vow of poverty, frequently gave away all their food to the poor. Saint Blath’s simple, personal sanctity, and unending faith in the Lord, is credited for consistently putting just enough food on the table for the sisters—whether it be due to stray dogs showing up at the kitchen door with bacon, the monastery’s cow producing supernatural quantities of milk, or pounds of butter and bread given away miraculously appearing in the larder the next day. It is said that, under the care of St. Blath, that the bread and bacon at St. Brigid's table were better than a banquet anywhere else at the time.
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