Our Lady of the Rosary 7 Oct 2012 Sermon

19th Sunday after Pentecost 7.10.12  Our Lady of the Rosary


Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Historically the feast was established due to the Lepanto naval battle in 1581 and another reprieve from Islamic advance in 1716.

If God is on our side numbers do not matter, as the Israelites learnt in Old Testament times.

So we call on Mary to help fight our battles, military or otherwise. Her way of fighting is not with swords or guns but with the power of God, to which she has unlimited access.

In a Rosary we ask her fifty times to pray for us. Why do we repeat it so many times? It is not that she is hard of hearing but because we are emphasizing the point. We mean it fifty times as much.

Also we are keeping up a non-stop chorus of prayer. The repetitious nature of the Rosary is helpful here. It is not because we need to convince God or Mary by saying the same thing over and over. It is to keep up a constant prayer. We repeat the words because they are true at every moment and we want to fill every moment with an affirmation of God’s goodness, thus bringing His healing into the world. So the prayer goes on...

The Rosary is a strong petitioning prayer from which we can expect many graces to come.

It is also a prayer of meditation as we seek to deepen our understanding of the faith, the central mysteries which we constantly recall.

We call them to mind so often because they are the most important things that have ever happened in human history and we cannot afford to stray from them.

One of the powerful effects of the Rosary is the change that it brings about in the one praying it. From that change others will come. The final victory will come closer each time a loyal child of Mary invokes her in this special prayer.

We take on the qualities of Mary as we open ourselves to God’s word (Joyful), offering to share His sufferings (Sorrowful) and proclaim Him to the world (Glorious).

When we pray the Rosary we enter the mysteries, not just as a pious meditation but in real practical terms we are advancing the cause of salvation. We are not just thinking about things; we are actually causing them to happen when we pray the Rosary.

We need this prayer in a time when the Church is under attack, often physical but also spiritual, for example the moral crises we face in our present world; the loss of morale, direction and confidence within the Church. It is necessary to go back to the basic mysteries and recover strength.

The more we believe the more powerful our prayer becomes.

Better still if the prayer is prayed with others. The historic victories mentioned earlier were the result of a whole campaign of prayer. If we are to move mountains it needs a combined and sustained effort.

All Catholics should pray the Rosary – one set of mysteries a day; more if possible. We will find it rewarding and so will everyone else. The prayer of one helps all.

We would pray if our country was about to be invaded, or some other obvious crisis emerged. Don’t wait till then! There are crises enough already, and we need to get to work.

We fight the battles and we win them, if we pray this prayer – the Holy Rosary.