10/9/2022 – Feast of St. John Henry Newman

Today is the Feast of St Cardinal John Henry 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.”

09/23/2022 – St. Padre Pio

Today is the feast of St Padre Pio.

“Padre Pio was always seen fingering his Rosary beads and was known to be a great lover of the Rosary.

Here are just a few of the many things St Pio said of the rosary.

”Satan wants to destroy this prayer, but in this he will never succeed. The Rosary is the prayer of those who triumph over everything and everyone. It was Our Lady who taught us this prayer, just as it was Jesus who taught us the Our Father.”

“In times of darkness, holding the Rosary is like holding your Blessed Mother’s hand. Pray the Rosary every day. Abandon yourself in the hands of Mary. She will take care of you.”

“The attention must be on the “Hail Mary” and to the greetings which you give to the Virgin and on the mysteries which you contemplate. She is present in all the mysteries and she participated in everything with love and pain.”

“Love our Lady and make her loved; always recite the Rosary and recite it as often as possible.”

(Kathleen Hattrup)

09/22/2022 – Feast of Naming of Mary

Today is the traditional feast of the naming of the infant Mary by her parents Ss Joachim and Ann.

In her mystical The City of God, Venerable Maria Agreda describes this event “Mary named by Saint Anne.”Being informed of these and many other mysteries, the holy angels heard a voice from the throne speaking in the person of the Father:“

Our chosen One shall be called MARY, and this name is to be powerful and magnificent. Those that shall invoke it with devout affection shall receive most abundant graces; those that shall honor it and pronounce it with reverence shall be consoled and vivified, and will find in it the remedy of their evils, the treasures for their enrichment, the light which shall guide them to heaven. It shall be terrible against the power of hell, it shall crush the head of the serpent and it shall win glorious victories over the princes of hell.

”The Lord commanded the angelic spirits to announce this glorious name to Saint Anne, so that what was decreed in heaven might be executed on earth. The heavenly Child, lovingly prostrate before the throne, rendered most acceptable and human thanks to the eternal Being; and She received the name with most admirable and sweet jubilation.The holy angels honored and acknowledged Most Holy Mary as the future Mother of the Word and as their Queen and Mistress enthroned at the right hand of her Son; they showed their veneration of her holy name, prostrating themselves as it proceeded from the throne in the voice of the eternal Father, especially those, who had it written on the devices over their breast.

On the eighth day after the birth of the great Queen, multitudes of most beautiful angels in splendid array descended from on high bearing an escutcheon on which the name of MARY was engraved and shone forth in great brilliancy. Appearing to the blessed mother Anne, they told her that the name of her daughter was to be MARY, which name they had brought from heaven, and which Divine Providence had selected and now ordained to be given to their child by Joachim and herself.The more than happy father accepted the name with joy and devout affection. They decided to call their relatives and a priest and then, with much solemnity and festivity, they imposed the name of Mary on their Child.

The angels also celebrated this event with most sweet and ravishing music, which, however, was heard only by the mother and her most holy Daughter.Thus was the divine Princess named by the Holy Trinity; in heaven, on the day of her nativity, and on earth, after eight days.”In the Holy Rosary we are blessed to pray the Holy Name of Mary twice in every Ave. We should pray her name with great love, the love of a child for his Mother and the love of a loyal subject for his Queen.

09/21/2022 – Protected from the sea by the Holy Rosary

Eileen wrote to us saying:

“In 1986, our family spent nine weeks of the summer in Co. Kerry. The house was in a field, 1.5 miles from the nearest village. The sea was half a mile away, and there was a stream running past the end of the garden.

My husband worked in Dublin Monday to Friday and he came down to Kerry every weekend to join us. I was alone with the children with no car, no television, no radio or phone.

One Thursday evening in August at 7pm approx., I looked out the kitchen window and to my disbelief I saw what was the sea making its way up the back garden. Immediately I took up the mats on all the floors and put them across chairs so they would not be ruined by the flood. The five children and myself knelt down and prayed the Rosary.

I then went to the neighbour to ask her to mind the children while I ran up to my brother-in-law’s house to ask him if we should leave the house.

He was shocked when he saw the sea in the back garden. Later, we heard there was a German neighbour on the mountain side with binoculars and he said the tide turned about 8pm. The house and shop nearby were flooded. The food in the shop was destroyed and the fridge was floating in water. The two chalets further up the road were two feet deep in water. Not a drop entered our house! Thank you Mother of the Holy Rosary.”

09/16/2022 – The added rosary

“My Grandparents made a trip to Italy in 1980. While there, they were able to see the Vatican and they purchased 5 rosaries to give to each of their grandchildren. After you purchase the rosaries, you could have Pope John Paul II bless them, and then they would mail them back to the families. So, this is what my grandparents did and when they returned home, they anxiously waited for the rosaries to appear in the mail.

When they arrived, the 5 white crystal rosaries were in the box, along with a pink crystal rosary! They didn’t understand why they received this extra rosary and they put it aside. It was a few months later that my mother found out that she was pregnant, and in September of 1982, she had a little girl. Saint Pope John Paul II knew my grandparents wanted to give ALL of their grandchildren a rosary from their trip!” ( Epic Stories of the Rosary by Laura Hensley)

P.S. The Coastal Rosary for LIFE & FAITH in Ireland is on Sunday October 9th at 2.30pm. Sign up a location at www.coastalrosaryireland.ie

09/04/2022 – Blessed Dina Belanger

The Rosary was the mainstay of Blessed Dina Belanger, today’s saint, from her childhood in Quebec until her death.

Dina felt the call of a religious vocation but because of family and educational obligations she could not enter yet. At 16 years Dina had to go live in the big city of New York.

To guard her heart which she had already given to Jesus she “drew up a rule of life for herself: morning and evening prayers, daily Mass and Communion, Rosary; at least ten minutes of meditation in the morning, and weekly confession. She also included her duties towards her neighbour and herself. In addition, she examined her conscience each night.”

Returning home at nineteen, she experienced a “dark night” in her soul, and to survive this ordeal she again turned to the Rosary.When at last she received the religious habit, Dina wrote ‘I was a Religious of Jesus and Mary! On my breast, the cross; at my waist, the blessed Rosary. I now belonged forever to that institution which I cherished as the hand that led me to this blessed sanctuary of peace and love.

O Jesus, make me worthy of the title I bear. Help me to pay the debt of gratitude…..fashion my soul Yourself, according to the spirit of ‘Jesus-Marie’,…. Act in me with Your sweet Mother to the praise of these Sacred Names.’ After only six years, in the weeks before her death, one of the Sisters would always come and pray the Rosary by Dina’s bedside. This caused the dying nun to say one day, ‘Holy Communion is my bread, the Rosary, my dessert!'”

As she lay dying, nuns “were saying the Rosary aloud by her bedside. (Dina followed the prayer and) moved her lips in response. At the fifth decade, the recitation was interrupted so as not to tire her; but the dying nun raised her beads at eye level beseechingly as though requesting the continuation of the prayers.”

09/03/2022 – First Saturday

Happy First Saturday.

Jesus explained the five great sins committed against Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart to Sr. Lucia on May 29-30, 1930, saying:

“There are five kinds of offences and blasphemies spoken against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

First: blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception

Second: against her Virginity

Third: against the Divine Maternity, refusing, at the same time, to receive her as the Mother of mankind

Fourth: those who seek publicly to implant, in the hearts of children, indifference, disrespect, and even hate for this Immaculate Mother

Fifth: those who revile her directly in her sacred images

Here, dear daughter, is the motive that led the Immaculate Heart of Mary to petition Me to ask for this small act of reparation (The First Saturdays). And, out of regard for her, to move My mercy to pardon those souls who have had the misfortune to offend her. As for you, seek endlessly, with your prayers and sacrifices, to move Me to mercy in regard to these poor souls.”