This month of October is a particularly Marian time in the practice of Catholic piety. Most especially it is linked to Mary through the rosary.

 

The rosary evolved over the centuries in the faith of the Church. Its history is particularly related to the Battle of Lepanto which took place on Oct. 7 in 1571. On that occasion Pope Pius V implored the Catholic faithful to pray the rosary asking Mary’s intercession to protect Europe from a Muslim flotilla.

He attributed the subsequent Christian victory to the Blessed Mother’s response to those prayers.

 

Mary herself was said during famous apparitions to have encouraged the rosary. At Lourdes, St. Bernadette stated that Mary held a rosary and told the beads as Bernadette recited it. At Fatima, Mary urged the young visionaries to pray the rosary daily. And she promised that praying the rosary would bring peace and an end to World War I, then in progress.

 

There are several aspects of the recitation of the rosary that attest to the importance of it in our spiritual lives. First, there is simply the enduring history of that form of prayer. Its use has never disappeared or died out, and in our own day it is still widely used by the Church all over the world. In effect, it is a unifying element for the faithful both in time and throughout the world.

 

Second, the rosary is a constant tool for the review and the transmission of the faith. With the traditional Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the rosary (and now with the addition of the Luminous mysteries given to the Church by Pope St. John Paul II) we are encouraged again and again to think of Jesus and Mary. Those mysteries review various moments of their lives as described in the Gospels, as well as the Church’s Marian devotion.

 

Finally, the rosary is an antidote to some of the great challenges of our time. Our modern society is characterized by our increasingly short attention spans. We are surrounded by noise and a constant barrage of information and images, some of it significant, some not. Our virtual based society deprives us of silence, of simply allowing ourselves to be with God. The quiet repetition of the rosary, reflecting on the life of Christ and on Mary, responds to this spiritual lack in a way that can bring about the peace promised by Jesus, a peace the world cannot give.

 

Because Mary herself linked the recitation of the rosary to peace, I would suggest that during this month of October, and even beyond it, we offer our own praying of the rosary for peace. We might start with praying for an end to the terrible suffering and death taking place because of the war in Ukraine. A humanitarian crisis has been generated by the refugees fleeing violence there. Families on both sides are losing sons and daughters to the slaughter. And there has been the threat of introducing the scourge of nuclear weapons.

 

In these days we are following with shock and horror the coordinated terrorist attack on Israel and the response to those attacks. The Catholic bishops of the United States have joined Pope Francis in calling for, “a cessation of violence, respect for civilian populations and the release of hostages.” The danger of a wider spread of violence is clear. With such hardened positions and histories on all sides, praying the rosary seeks Mary’s intercession where human efforts have failed time and again.

 

Closer to home, we might pray for peace and strength in families. The family is under great stress from lax moral values to the promotion of gender ideology that contradicts the plan of God found in Scripture, Church teaching and in our hearts. It cries out for a spiritual renewal for the good of spouses, parents and children.

 

In all of these cases, the spirituality of the Christian faithful over the ages has found strength and help in praying the rosary. Make the month of October a real month of the rosary in your own prayer life!