03/27/2022 -Laetare Sunday

Today is Laetare Sunday, and in Ireland also Mothers Day.

It is a good day to remind ourselves just how much Our Lady wants us to pray her rosary.

Journalist Mellisa Keating reminds us of Our Lady’s requests.

“The Rosary is a common theme in Marian apparitions. Here are some of the times she has made it clear that she wants us to pray it:

1973 (Akita, Japan): Our Lady warns Sr. Agnes that we ought to “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary.”

1917 (Fatima): The Blessed Virgin revealed herself as “Our Lady of the Rosary” and requested frequent recitation of it.

1858 (Lourdes): Our Lady was holding a Rosary in her first apparition. The first thing she said to Bernadette was a request that Bernadette pray her Rosary. They later prayed it together.

1830 (Miraculous Medal): On Mary’s first apparition to St. Catherine Labouré, before she even brought up the Miraculous Medal, she bemoaned the fact the Rosary wasn’t prayed more often.

There are more, but you get the idea. The Blessed Virgin loves the Rosary. She wants us to talk to her by praying it. “

03/26/2021 – Blessed Magdelina Caterina Morano

Today saint, Blessed Magdalena Caterina Morano, learned to love the rosary in the midst of her family. The family that prays together stays together, and for Magdalen, who experienced the loss of her father, sister and five brothers, by the time she was eight years old, it was the rosary that kept her mother and last living sibling united with the family members who had passed.

At eight, Magdalena became the sole breadwinner of the little family and in this her reliance on Our Lady became absolute. Working and studying she qualified and became a teacher at 14. She loved being a teacher but more than anything she wanted to teach the children in her class about God as a nun. But she had to wait almost 20 years until she was 33. By then she had saved enough to buy her mother a house.

Entering the convent, she prayed for the grace,““of staying alive until she had become a saint.” Though she had longed for the religious formation of a convent, the reality was that through daily Mass, Rosary, fidelity to duty and sacrificially frugal living she had been formed in sanctity in the School of Mary.

Her achievements as a consecrated nun and catechist are impressive, and her guidance for the sisters in the many convents and schools she founded, are still followed today. She advised that when undertaking anything give “one glance to earth and ten to heaven,” (referring to reliance on the rosary). She told her sisters that “that holiness is all about doing God’s will, this being the only way to show our love for Him.”

A favourite song of hers was “Long live Mary, may Mary always be alive. Long live Mary and the One who created her, for without Mary you cannot be saved.”

03/24/2022 – St. Gabriel the Archangel

In order to meditate better on the rosary, many people imagine themselves at the scene of the rosary mystery and listen to the participants in the scene.

The LORD’s messenger, St Gabriel the Archangel’s feast is celebrated today in the traditional calendar. Today is also the vigil of the Solemnity of the Annunciation. It would be a good to meditate on the Annunciation and the Visitation by imagining the scene. Think about Mary’s room which must have certainly been a quiet simple abode of deep prayer. Or the Temple where Zachary served six months before and where he was visited by the Archangel Gabriel too, and then of course Zachary’s home, that she shared with his wife Elizabeth, probably the comfortable home of a Jewish priest, and the inner enclave where Elizabeth in her confinement would spent much of her time, and where she probably met with her cousin Mary.

In the Bible, we first encounter Gabriel in the story of Daniel. It is Gabriel who interprets Daniel’s visions for him. In Jewish commentary of Scripture, Gabriel is considered the Angel of Israel.

If this is true then it is not surprising that it is Gabriel who is chosen by God to bring the message to Zachary that he would have a son in his old age. The son, John the Baptist, would prepare Israel for the coming of the Messiah. Archangel Gabriel is then chosen to carry God’s message to the young Virgin Mary.

He begins with a greeting, “Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee”. The Archangel Gabriel delivers God’s request of Mary, and responds to her question and reassures her with the news of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. When Mary gives her humble Fiat “Be it done unto me according to thy word,” Gabriel takes leave of the Virgin Mary.

03/23/2021 – St. Thomas Aquinas

St Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican priest and theologian, loved the Rosary.

Through the Rosary he was so devoted to the Blessed Virginand so grateful to her for this devotion that he composed a prayer in her honour saying that the Virgin Mary “must be shown every honor, preached and praised, and invoked by us in our every need.”

“O most blessed and most sweet Virgin Mary full of mercy,to thy compassion I recommend my soul and body, my thoughts, actions, life and death.O my Lady, help and strengthen me against the snares of the devil; obtain me true and perfect love with which to love thy most beloved Son and my Lord Jesus Christ with my whole heart, and after Him to love thee above all things.

My Queen and Mother, by thy most powerful intercession,grant that I may persevere in this love until deathand after death be conducted by thee to the kingdom of the blessed.”

P.S. Here’s a wee video of the Mens rosary in Cork in March. Next one is April 2nd https://youtu.be/e73ZpNwfwSI

03/22/2022 – Power of the Rosary Fulton Sheen

Br. John Paul Puschautz, a Dominican aspirant, describes his personal rosary miracle.

“After a couple of challenging but enriching years of study in France, I was inspired to ask my superior to renew my consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary by making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Fatima.

I received permission to embark on this adventure with Br. Patrick (another aspirant) but we were told to set out in the simplicity and abandonment of the apostles, which meant we were to hitchhike without any phone, money, or plans. Let go and let God.

Let go of all our illusions of control and let God reveal his paternal providence…(in this adventure). To go through this pilgrimage we needed to imitate the perfect disciple, Mary, and to hold on tight to our chain of hope, the Rosary.

The Rosary is the chain of hope which connects us to heaven through Mary. When we hold our rosary in faith, we hold the hand of Our Mother which gives us the confidence to face any danger with courageous hope. An image of this is the cord you sometimes see toddlers holding connecting them to their parents in order to not get lost in the crowds. In the crowds and distractions of this world we can hold on tight to our chain of hope to guide us to our heavenly home.

The Rosary also unites us to our brothers and sisters. ..Much like this human chain, the Rosary unites all of Mary’s beloved children. … A Rosary a day keeps the devil away by anchoring us in heaven. It is the perfect antidote in whatever trial, for it brings us “to Jesus through Mary.” On my pilgrimage to Fatima, I experienced daily miracles of God’s presence through Mary’s intercession. On my last day traveling, I was dropped off in a foreign city in the middle of the night. Without many options, I started walking and praying my rosary.

I asked a factory worker on a night shift taking a smoke break if I was going in the right direction. After confirming this he asked what I was doing in that part of town, at that time of night with such strange clothes. I explained that I was a Catholic religious brother on the last leg of a 15 day hitchhiking pilgrimage, just a couple of hours away from my destination. Much to my surprise he offered to drive me the rest of the way after he got out of work. God arranged this meeting. This man needed a sign of God’s presence in his life as much as I needed a ride, and I was able to be that sign for him”.

03/20/2022 – Josef Bilcewski

Today’s saint, Jozef Bilczewski was a Polish Archbishop and in many ways, a model for our Shepherds.

When Msgr Bilczewski, at age 40, was ordained bishop, “he spelled out very clearly his pastoral plan which can be summed up in the words “totally sacrifice of oneself for the Holy Church”.

Among other things he pointed out the need for the development of devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament and frequent reception of Holy Communion…using pastoral letters and appeals addressed to the priests and the faithful of the Archdiocese…(speaking) of the problems of faith and morals of the time as well as of the most pressing issues of the social sphere.

He also explained devotion to the Eucharist and to the Sacred Heart in them and the importance of religious and moral formation of children and youth in the family and in school.

He taught for the Church and for the Holy Father. Above all, he took great care to cultivate many holy priestly vocations. He saw the priest as first and foremost a teacher of faith and an instrument of Christ, a father for the rich as well as for the poor.

Taking the place of Christ on Earth, the priest was to be the minister of the Sacraments and for this reason his whole heart had to be dedicated to the celebration of the Eucharist, in order to be able to nourish the people of God with the body of Christ.” (Catholic.org)

When a bishop is so zealous and effective it is important to look at the sources of grace in his mission. Pope Benedict XVI when canonising St Jozef, gives us a glimpse of these sources.

“St Jozef Bilczewski was a man of prayer. The Holy Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, meditation, the Rosary and other pious practices formed part of his daily life. A particularly long time was dedicated to Eucharistic adoration.”

03/19/2022 – Forgiveness

03/18/2022 – Our lady of Loretto

Many people complete the rosary with the beautiful litany to the Blessed Virgin, The Litany of Loreto.

Today is the anniversary of the shrine of Our Lady of Loreto in the Cathedral by the same name.

The litany was composed as a votive offering at this shrine by “a celebrated Florentine composer, of the early years of the eighteenth century,” in thanksgiving for a miracle granted him by Our Lady.”

This composer, whose name was Barroni, all at once lost his hearing, like Beethoven; after having exhausted the succor of art without success, he invoked that of Mary, and set out on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Loreto.

There he was cured, after praying with faith, and in his gratitude to the Holy Madonna, he composed, by inspiration, in her praise, a chorus, which, under the title of Litanie della Santa Casa, was performed for the first time on the 15th of August, 1737.”

Beads of Power