Blessed Mother | AirMaria.com

Our Duties to Our Blessed Mother

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:00:28 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

After having fulfilled our obligations toward the Son of God, we have three duties to his holy Mother:

The first is to prostrate ourselves in heart and in spirit at her feet asking her pardon for the cruel death of her Son, and for the most bitter sufferings of her pure heart which we have caused. In reparation, we must offer her all the honor, glory, and praise which have been, are, and will be forever rendered to her in heaven as well as on earth by the Most Holy Trinity, by the sacred humanity of her Son, by all the angels, and all the saints. We must also give ourselves to our Lady as her slaves, promising that we wish to serve and honor her all our lives in every way possible to us.

The second thing we must do for the Blessed Virgin is to remember that Our Lord Jesus Christ, dying on the cross, gave her to us as our Mother, and gave us to her as her children, when, addressing her, He said: “Behold your son”; and speaking to each of us in the person of Saint John: “Behold your mother:’ We ought to thank Our Lord with our whole heart for having given us His Mother to be our Mother; we ought to give thanks to the most holy Virgin for having received us as her children, and to beg our Savior that inasmuch as He has associated us with Him as the Beloved Son of Mary, He also makes us share His perfect filial devotion to His admirable Mother.

Our third debt to the Mother of Jesus is to acknowledge and salute her as our Mother, declaring that we desire to serve, love, and honor her as our Mother, obey her as a Mother and study to make ourselves like unto her as children should resemble their mother; and, consequently, to imitate her humility, her patience, her obedience, her purity, her mildness and docility, her charity, and all her other virtues. We must beseech our Lady to look upon us, her unworthy children, to protect and to guide us in all things and to be a mother to us both in life and in death.

St. John Eudes

The post Our Duties to Our Blessed Mother first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Thoughts on Our Lady from St. Faustina

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

O Mary, Immaculate Virgin, Pure crystal for my heart,

You are my strength, O sturdy anchor!

You are the weak heart’s shield and protection.
O Mary you are pure, of purity incomparable;

At once both Virgin and Mother,

You are beautiful as the sun, without blemish,

And Your soul is beyond all comparison.
Your beauty has delighted the eye of the Thrice – Holy – One.
He descended from heaven, leaving His eternal throne,

And took Body and Blood of Your heart,

And for nine months lay hidden in a Virgin’s heart.
O Mother, Virgin, purest of all lilies,

Your heart was Jesus’ first tabernacle on earth.

Only because no humility was deeper than yours.

Were You raised above the choirs of Angels and above all Saints.
O Mary, my sweet Mother,

I give you my soul, my body and my poor heart.

Be guardian to my life, Especially at the hour of death, in the final strife.

St. Faustina

The post Thoughts on Our Lady from St. Faustina first appeared on AirMaria.com.

A Gift from the Father: The Motherly Heart of Mary

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

The Father’s Perfection: the Blessed Mother

The divine Heart of Jesus, which burns with love for us who are guilty, finds in this regard a means worthy of the divine wisdom. He gives us his own dearly beloved Mother, Mary, as our mother and protector. She is the saintly creature among all saints and angels, to whom he refuses nothing, since she is the worthiest and most loved of all mothers. Besides, he has given her a very large heart, which enables her to notice even the smallest of tears and work for the salvation and sanctification of every single human being. She is the bridge that leads us to the most Holy Heart of Jesus.

Should we then despair if we happen to fall in sin and sink into a vicious life, despising the divine graces, if we no longer pay attention to the good example shown by other people, if we are deaf to every wholesome inspiration and become unworthy of new graces? No, not any more! In fact, we now have a Mother who has been given to us by God, a Mother who tenderly watches over every action, every word, every thought of ours.

She does not ask herself whether we are worthy or unworthy of the grace of her tenderness. She is only the Mother of Mercy; therefore, she rushes to our help even when we do not invoke her name, even when the poverty of our soul is so clearly evident. In fact, the more our soul is disfigured by sin, the more shall divine mercy show itself to us, that mercy which the Immaculate embodies.

SAINT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE

To continue with thoughts from St. Maximilian Kolbe ( who was martyred at Auschwitz, giving his life in place of another):

“One ‘Mary’ spoken within the darkness, aridity and unhappiness of sin reechoes in her heart, so much does she love us!” Meditation:“Sometimes you will find a kind of sad nostalgia coming over you, a kind of pleading or complaint: ‘Does not the Immaculata still love me?’ My dearly beloved children, I say to each and everyone of you individually in her name—remember what I say – in her name—she loves each and everyone of you, and she loves you at every moment without exception. This I repeat to you, my dear children, in her name.”

The post A Gift from the Father: The Motherly Heart of Mary first appeared on AirMaria.com.

She Will Crush Your Head…

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:00:17 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth,

refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother,

God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you.

I, (name), a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet,

humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have,

wholly to yourself as your possession and property.

Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body,

of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you.

If it pleases you, use all that I am and have without reserve,

wholly to accomplish what was said of you: “She will crush your head,”

and “You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world. ”

Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands

for introducing and increasing your glory to the maximum

in all the many strayed and indifferent souls,

and thus help extend as far as possible

the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

For wherever you enter you obtain the grace of conversion and growth in holiness,

since it is through your hands that all graces come to us

from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

V. Allow me to praise you, O sacred Virgin

R. Give me strength against your enemies

St. Maximilian Kolbe

The post She Will Crush Your Head… first appeared on AirMaria.com.

May 13th: Our Lady of Fatima; Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:00:36 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

MAY 13TH: OUR LADY OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT/

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

OUR LADY OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT

This title was given to our Blessed Mother in May 1868 by Saint Peter Julian Eymard to honor her in her relationship to the Holy Eucharist and to place her before us as a model in our duties and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Our Lady gives witness to being Christian. In her conduct toward the Blessed Sacrament, we learn what ours should be!

She believed in the reality of Christ’s presence in the Holy Eucharist. In other words, the virtue of faith was as necessary for her as it is for us. Great was her faith in her son, the Son of God, our Savior, and in all his teachings and deeds. This faith of hers found its particular exercise in regard to the Blessed Sacrament, the mystery of faith, the denial of which implies the destruction of the whole structure of our belief.

A second point in which Mary conformed to the general body of the faithful was her Sunday attendance at the Eucharist. And still another point in which the Blessed Virgin is our model is in her reception of Holy Communion during her life, and at the moment of her death. By her faith in and her love for our Lord in the Eucharist, Mary is an example for Christians and thereby brings us to fervent devotion to him.

Truly, we can call Mary, Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, and follow her faith and love for Jesus in the Eucharist. Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament is the chosen and official patroness of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. Her feast day is celebrated on May 13, the date on which the new Congregation received Archdiocesan approbation in Paris in 1856.

+++

PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT

Blessed are you, Mary, exalted Daughter of Sion! You are highly favored and full of grace, for the Spirit of God descended upon you. We magnify the Lord and rejoice with you for the gift of the Word made flesh, our bread of life and cup of joy. Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, our model of prayer in the Cenacle, pray for us that we may become what we receive, the body of Christ your son. Amen.

In all of Our Lady’s true apparitions, she desires there to be built a church where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass can be offered and where her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, can be adored and worshipped. Just one example of this occurred at Fatima, Portugal on May 13, 1917. It was the Feast of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament…

Prayers from Fatima

Pardon Prayer:
My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I implore Your pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You. Amen.

Angel’s Prayer:
Most Holy Trinity – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – I adore You profoundly and offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the earth, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifference by which He Himself is offended. And by the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and those of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners. Amen.

Eucharistic Prayer
Most Holy Trinity, I adore you! My God, my God, I love you in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

The post May 13th: Our Lady of Fatima; Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Mother of the Eucharist

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:00:45 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

AT THE SCHOOL OF MARY,
“WOMAN OF THE EUCHARIST”

In addition to her sharing in the Eucharistic banquet [of the first generation of Christians], an indirect picture of Mary’s relationship with the Eucharist can be had, beginning with her interior disposition. Mary is a “woman of the Eucharist” in her whole life. The church, which looks to Mary as a model, is also called to imitate her in her relationship to this most holy mystery.

Pope John Paul II, On the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church

+++

Her motherhood is particularly noted and experienced by the Christian people at the Sacred Banquet, the liturgical celebration of the mystery of the Redemption-at which Christ, his true body born of the Virgin Mary,, becomes present.

The piety of the Christian people has always very rightly sensed a profound link between devotion to the Blessed Virgin and worship of the Eucharist: this is a fact that can be seen in the liturgy of both the West and the East, in the traditions of the Religious Families, in the modern movements of spirituality, including those for youth, and in the pastoral practice of the Marian Shrines. Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist.

(Pope John Paul II : Redemptoris Mater)

Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament:

(a meditation from St. Peter Julian Eymard, Founder of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers)

THE MONTH OF OUR LADY OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT

The Month of Mary is the month of blessings and of grace for as St Bernard, in company with all the Saints, assures us, all grace comes to us through Mary. The month of Mary is a continuous festival in honor of the Mother of God, which prepares us well for the beautiful month of the Blessed Sacrament which follows it.

Because our vocation calls us to give special honor to the Holy Eucharist, we must not for that reason give any the less devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Far from it, he would be guilty of blasphemy who would say, “The Most Blessed Sacrament suffices for me; I have no need of Mary.” Where, then shall we find Jesus on earth if not in Mary’s arms ? Was it not she who gave us the Eucharist? It was her consent to the Incarnation of the Word in her womb that inaugurated the great mystery of repa?ration to God and union with us which Jesus accomplished during His mortal life, and that He continues in the Eucharist.

Without Mary, we shall never find Jesus, for she possesses Him in her heart. There He takes His delight, and those who wish to know His inmost virtues, to experience the privilege of His intimate love, must seek these in Mary. They who love that good Mother find Jesus in her pure heart. We must never separate Jesus from Mary; we can go to Him only through her.

I maintain, moreover, that the more we love the Eucharist, the more we must love Mary. We love all that our friend loves; now, was ever a creature better loved by God, a mother more tenderly cherished by her Son, than was Mary by Jesus? Oh yes, our Lord would be much pained if we, the servants of the Eucharist, did not greatly honor Mary, because she is His Mother, Our Lord owes everything to her in the order of His Incarnation, His human nature. It is by the flesh that she gave Him that He has so glorified His Father, that He has saved us, and that He continues to nourish and save the world by the Blessed Sacrament.

Let us, then, honor the Blessed Virgin by a daily sacrifice. Let us go to our Lord through her; shelter ourselves behind her, take refuge beneath her protecting mantle; clothe ourselves in her virtues. Let us be, in short, but Mary’s shadow. Let us offer all her actions, all her merits, all her virtues to our Lord. We have only to have recourse to Mary and to say to Jesus: “I offer Thee the riches that my good Mother has acquired for me” and our Lord will be very much pleased with us.

Sacramentum Caritatis, Part One, #28

From Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic exhortatation Sacramentum Caritatis, Part One:

The Eucharist and the Virgin Mary

33. From the relationship between the Eucharist and the individual sacraments, and from the eschatological significance of the sacred mysteries, the overall shape of the Christian life emerges, a life called at all times to be an act of spiritual worship, a self-offering pleasing to God. Although we are all still journeying towards the complete fulfilment of our hope, this does not mean that we cannot already gratefully acknowledge that God?s gifts to us have found their perfect fulfilment in the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother. Mary’s Assumption body and soul into heaven is for us a sign of sure hope, for it shows us, on our pilgrimage through time, the eschatological goal of which the sacrament of the Eucharist enables us even now to have a foretaste.

In Mary most holy, we also see perfectly fulfilled the sacramental way that God comes down to meet his creatures and involves them in his saving work. From the Annunciation to Pentecost, Mary of Nazareth appears as someone whose freedom is completely open to God’s will. Her immaculate conception is revealed precisely in her unconditional docility to God’s word. Obedient faith in response to God’s work shapes her life at every moment. A virgin attentive to God?s word, she lives in complete harmony with his will; she treasures in her heart the words that come to her from God and, piecing them together like a mosaic, she learns to understand them more deeply (cf. Lk 2:19, 51); Mary is the great Believer who places herself confidently in God’s hands, abandoning herself to his will. (102)

This mystery deepens as she becomes completely involved in the redemptive mission of Jesus. In the words of the Second Vatican Council, the blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son until she stood at the Cross, in keeping with the divine plan (cf. Jn 19:25), suffering deeply with her only-begotten Son, associating herself with his sacrifice in her mother?s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of the victim who was born of her.

Finally, she was given by the same Christ Jesus, dying on the Cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: Woman, behold your Son. (103) From the Annunciation to the Cross, Mary is the one who received the Word, made flesh within her and then silenced in death. It is she, lastly, who took into her arms the lifeless body of the one who truly loved his own to the end (Jn 13:1).

Consequently, every time we approach the Body and Blood of Christ in the eucharistic liturgy, we also turn to her who, by her complete fidelity, received Christ?s sacrifice for the whole Church. The Synod Fathers rightly declared that Mary inaugurates the Church’s participation in the sacrifice of the Redeemer. (104) She is the Immaculata, who receives God’s gift unconditionally and is thus associated with his work of salvation. Mary of Nazareth, icon of the nascent Church, is the model for each of us, called to receive the gift that Jesus makes of himself in the Eucharist.

The post Mother of the Eucharist first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Dedicated to the Woman I Love

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:00:18 +0000

DEDICATED TO THE WOMAN I LOVE:

The Woman whom even God dreamed of

Before the world was made;

The Woman of whom I was born

At a cost of pain and labor at a Cross;

The Woman who, though no priest,

Could yet on Calvary’s Hill breathe,

“This is my Body; This is my Blood”

For none save her gave Him human life.

The Woman who guides my pen,

Which falters so with words

In telling of the Word.

The Woman who, in a world of Reds,

Shows forth the blue of hope.

Accept these dried grapes of thoughts

From this poor author, who has no wine;

And with Cana’s magic and thy Son’s Power

Work a miracle and save a soul

Forgetting not my own.

The Servant of God: Archbishop Fulton Sheen

The post Dedicated to the Woman I Love first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Spouse of the Holy Spirit

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:00:02 +0000

One Minute Meditation

O Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, make me docile to His divine motions.

MEDITATION from Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene OCD:

“The Blessed, Virgin Mary,” says St. Augustine, “was the only one who merited to be called the Mother and Spouse” of God. She became the Mother of God because she was the Spouse of the Holy Spirit: “the Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee” (Lk 1:35), said the Angel, explaining the mysterious, divine manner in which she would become a mother, the Mother of the Son of God. At that moment the Holy Spirit, who had already possessed Mary’s soul from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception, came upon her with such exceptional plenitude that He formed within her the sacred Body of Jesus.

Justly, therefore, does Mary deserve the name of Spouse of the Holy Spirit: she is His possession, His sanctuary, His temple. The divine Paraclete may well say to her in the words of the Canticle: “My sister, my spouse, is a garden end a fountain sealed up” (4:12). Mary is a garden enclosed:” because she was never defiled-even for an instant by the shadow of sin, was never subject to the winds of unruly passions, never taken up with any affection for creatures.

Filled with grace from her conception, Mary is always the faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit, attentive docile to all His impulses and inspirations. If Mary’s sublime privileges are reserved for her at we can, nevertheless, imitate her interior dispositions: keeping our heart, in imitation of hers, always attentive and docile to the action of the Holy Spirit.

The post Spouse of the Holy Spirit first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Meditation on the Eve of the Nativity of Mary

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:00:58 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

PRESENCE OF GOD:

O Mary, my Mother, teach me to live hidden with you in the shadow of God.

MEDITATION:

The liturgy enthusiastically celebrates Mary’s Nativity and makes it one of the most appealing feasts of Marian devotion. We sing in today’s Office: “Thy Nativity, O Virgin Mother of God, brings joy to the whole world, because from you came forth the Sun of Justice, Christ, our God.”

Mary’s birth is a prelude to the birth of Jesus because it is the initial point of the realization of the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of mankind. How could the birthday of the Mother of the Redeemer pass unnoticed in the hearts of the redeemed? The Mother proclaims the Son, making it known that He is about to come, that the divine promises, made centuries before, are to be fulfilled. The birth of Mary is the dawn of our redemption; her appearance projects a new light over all the human race: a light of innocence, of purity, of grace, a resplendent presage of the great light which will inundate the world when Christ, “lux mundi ” the Light of the World, appears.

Mary, preserved from sin in anticipation of Christ’s merits, not only announces that the Redemption is at hand, but she bears the first fruits of it within herself; she is the first one redeemed by her divine Son. Through her, all pure and full of grace, the Blessed Trinity at last fixes on earth a look of complacency, finding in her alone a creature in whom the infinite beauty of the Godhead can be reflected.

The birth of Jesus excepted, no other was so important in God’s eyes or so fruitful for the good of humanity, as was the birth of Mary. Yet it has remained in complete obscurity. There is no mention of it in Sacred Scriptures and when we look for the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel, we find only what refers to Joseph; we find nothing explicit about Mary’s ancestry except the allusion to her descent from David. Our Lady’s origin is wrapped in silence, as was her whole life. Thus, her birth speaks to us of humility. The more we desire to grow in God’s eyes, the more we should hide ourselves from the eyes of creatures. The more we wish to do great things for God, the more we should labor in silence and obscurity.

2. In the Gospel the figure of Mary is, as it were, completely overshadowed by that of her divine Son; the Evangelists tell us only what is necessary to present the Mother of the Redeemer, and in fact, she enters on the scene only when the narrative of the Incarnation of the Word begins. Mary’s life is confounded with, is lost in, the life of Jesus: truly she lived “hidden with Christ in God.” Let us note, too, that she lived in obscurity, not only during the years of her childhood, but also during the whole period of her divine maternity, yes, even during the triumphal moments in the public life of her Son, even when a certain woman, enthusiastic about the wonderful things that Jesus did, cried out in the midst of the crowd.” Blessed is the womb that bore Thee and the breasts that nursed Thee!” (Lk 11,27).

The Feast which we celebrate today is an invitation to the hidden life, to hide ourselves with Mary in Christ, and with Christ in God. Many times it is God Himself who, through circumstances or the decisions 6f our superiors, makes us live in obscurity. We should be very grateful for this, and take advantage of these opportunities to make more progress in the practice of humility and self-effacement. At other times, however, God gives us responsibilities, offices, apostolic works which bring us into prominence, but even in such circumstances we should try to efface ourselves as much as possible. Certainly we must not refuse the assignment, but we should know how to withdraw as soon as our activity is no longer needed for the success of the work entrusted to us. All the rest-praise, applause, the account of our success or the excuse for our failure-should not concern us. In the face of all this we should strive to remain wholly indifferent. An interior soul should long to hide itself as much as it can under the shadow of God, for, if it has been able to accomplish some little good, it is convinced that in reality all has been the work of God; therefore, it eagerly seeks that all may redound to His glory alone. Let Mary’s humble, hidden life be the model of ours, and if, in emulating her, we have to struggle against our ever-recurrent tendencies to pride, let us confidently seek her maternal aid, and she will help us to triumph over all vainglory.

COLLOQUY:

“When I feel myself tossed about in the sea of this world amidst storms and tempests, I keep my eyes fixed on you, O Mary, shining star, lest I be swallowed up by the waves.

“When the winds of temptation arise, when I dash against the reefs of tribulations, I raise my eyes to you and call upon you, 0 Mary. When I am agitated by the billows of pride, ambition, slander or jealousy, I look to you and I invoke you, O Mary; when anger or avarice or the seductions of the flesh rock the fragile little barque of my soul, I always look to you, 0 Mary. And if I am troubled by the enormity of my sins, troubled in conscience, frightened at the severity of judgment, and if I should feel myself engulfed in sadness or drawn into the abyss of despair, again I raise my eyes to you, always calling on you, O Mary.

“In dangers, in difficulties, in doubts, I will always think of you, O Mary; I will always call on you. May your name, O Virgin Mary, be always on my lips and never leave my heart; in order that I may obtain the help of your prayers; grant that I may never lose sight of the example of your life. Following you, O Mary, I shall not go astray, thinking of you I shall not err, if you support me I shall not fall if you protect me I shall have nothing to fear, if you accompany me I shall not grow weary, if you look upon me with favor, I shall reach the port” (St. Bernard).

Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene OCD (Divine Intimacy)

The post Meditation on the Eve of the Nativity of Mary first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Our Lady of the Rosary

Sr. JosephMary f.t.i. — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:00:04 +0000

Ave Maria Meditations

October 7th: Our Lady of the Rosary

Feast of the Holy Rosary

The feast of the Holy Rosary was established by Saint Pius V on the anniversary of the naval victory won by the Christian fleet at Lepanto, October 7, 1571. The victory was attributed to the help of the holy Mother of God whose aid was invoked through praying the Rosary. The celebration of this day invites all to mediate upon the mysteries of Christ, following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary who was so singularly associated with the incarnation, passion and glorious resurrection of the Son of God.

Our Lady Of The Holy Rosary Novena Prayer

My dearest Mother Mary, behold me, your child, in prayer at your feet. Accept this Holy Rosary, which I offer you in accordance with your requests at Fatima, as a proof of my tender love for you, for the intentions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in atonement for the offenses committed against your Immaculate Heart, and for this special favor which I earnestly request in my Rosary Novena: (Mention your request).

I beg you to present my petition to your Divine Son. If you will pray for me, I cannot be refused. I know, dearest Mother, that you want me to seek God’s holy Will concerning my request. If what I ask for should not be granted, pray that I may receive that which will be of greater benefit to my soul.

I offer you this spiritual “Bouquet of Roses” because I love you. I put all my confidence in you, since your prayers before God are most powerful. For the greater glory of God and for the sake of Jesus, your loving Son, hear and grant my prayer. Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation.

Pope John Paul II asks us to pray the Rosary (October 16, 2002), Pope John Paul II issued Rosarium Virginis Mariae – Apostolic Letter on Rosary of the Virgin Mary. He declared October 2002 October 2003 The Year of the Rosary, and added Mysteries of Light that focus on events of Christ’s ministry.

On September 30, 2001, after the morning Mass opening the Synod of Bishops, Pope John Paul II asked people to pray the Rosary. Here is his message:

“October is the month in which Mary Most Holy, Queen of the Holy Rosary, is venerated. Within the current international context, I invite all — individuals, families, communities — to pray this Marian prayer, possibly every day, for peace, so that the world can be preserved from the wicked scourge of terrorism.

“The terrible tragedy of September 11th will be remembered as a dark day in the history of humanity. In the face of this, the Church tries to be faithful to her prophetic charism and remind all men about their duty to build a future of peace for the human family. Certainly, peace is not separated from justice, but it must be nourished by mercy and love.
“We cannot forget that Jews, Christians and Muslims adore God as the only God. The three religions, therefore, have the vocation of unity and peace. May God allow the Church’s faithful to be agents of peace, in the front line of the search for justice and the prohibition of violence.
“May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede for all humanity, so that hate and death never have the last word!”

The post Our Lady of the Rosary first appeared on AirMaria.com.