Saturday, October 08, 2011
Our Lady of the Rosary
1. The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), “the goal of human history and the point on which the desires of history and civilization turn”.
The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium. It is an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redemptive Incarnation which began in her virginal womb. With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.(Introduction, part 1, of Blessed John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, on the Most Holy Rosary — http://www.vatican.va/holy_
I celebrated the Healing Mass last evening at the Little Shrine of Our Lady of Prince Edward Island and this morning I will have the Saturday Mass in honor of Our Blessed Mother at 9:30 a.m. A nice group attended last evening.
Below you will find the message of Our Lady given to Father Melvin. She spoke to him these words,
“I bless you, My son and all My sons and daughters who follow My Son, Jesus, and live in every country of the world. I am the Lady of the Rosary — a prayer I love very much. I desire that all Christians would pray this prayer every day. Through this prayer you will receive great graces to grow in the spiritual life. You will come very close to Jesus, My Son, and to Me, your Mother. This prayer is really the contemplation of the life of My Son, Jesus, and My role in union with My Son. Through the mysteries of the rosary you live in an abbreviated version of the whole New Testament starting with the Annunciation and ending with My Coronation as Queen of heaven and earth. My dear children, I call you all to pray your rosary every day and to pray it with great faith and love. You can pray the rosary for whatever intention but especially for the conversion of all those who do not believe and who do not pray. Offer it too for the sick in your family, in your parish community and in the whole church. Pray for yourself that you may have the strength to follow My Son, Jesus. I love you all.”
Father Melvin