To Catholics, October is the month of the Holy Rosary. In this month prayers and meditations are made through the intercession of the Holy Mother of God whose favorite devotion is the Holy Rosary. What is this devotion about? How did it originate?
The Holy Rosary is itself a form of meditation on the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary. Its purpose is to call to mind the virtues of the Lord and the Virgin Mary so that people would internalize these and become good Christians. When one prays the Rosary, he walks with the Son of God and his Mother in their journey from Nazareth to Calvary and beyond. Like the disciple, he becomes an active participant in the unfolding of events in the life of the Lord (and at times with the Virgin Mary) - events that are joyful, sorrowful, glorious, and enlightening, each corresponding to the four mysteries in this prayer.
Church tradition has it that this Marian devotion started in 1214 when it was introduced by Saint Dominic who had received it from the Blessed Virgin herself. In his book "De Degnitate Psalteri", Blessed Alan de Roche narrates:
"Saint Dominic, seeing that the gravity of people's sins was hindering the conversion of the Albigensians, withdrew into a forest near Toulouse where he prayed unceasingly for three days and three nights. During this time he did nothing but weep and do harsh penances in discipline so much that his body was lacerated, and finally he fell into a coma.
At this point Our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by three angels, and she said: "Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?" "Oh, my Lady," answered Saint Dominic, "you know far better than I do because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been the chief instrument of our salvation." Our Lady replied: "I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter."
So he arose, comforted, and burning with zeal for the conversion of the people in that district he made straight for the Cathedral. At once unseen angels rang the bells to gather the people together and Saint Dominic began to preach.
At the very beginning of his sermon an appalling storm broke out, the earth shook, the sun was darkened, and there was so much thunder and lightning that all were very much afraid. Even greater was their fear when looking at a picture of Our Lady exposed in a prominent place they saw her raise her arms to heaven three times to call down God's vengeance upon them if they failed to be converted, to amend their lives, and seek the protection of the Holy Mother of God.
At last, at the prayer of Saint Dominic, the storm came to an end, and he went on preaching. So fervently and compellingly did he explain the importance and value of the Holy Rosary that almost all the people of Toulouse embraced it and renounced their false beliefs. In a very short time a great improvement was seen in the town; people began leading Christian lives and gave up their former bad habits. "
From the thirteenth century to the present, the Holy Rosary has been a major prayer for Catholics. Priests have preached its effectiveness as a prayer, and lay faithfuls have embraced it, encouraged no doubt by the many miraculous events associated with it. Saint Louise de Monfort in his book "Secrets of the Rosary" calls the Rosary "the mystical rose tree of Jesus and Mary in life, death, and eternity." The rose in your Rosary, he adds, "will never wilt or die, and they will be just as exquisite thousands of years from now as they are today."
In this month of the Rosary, Catholics are reminded of the importance of this prayer in their search for peace of mind and peace of the whole world. Pope Paul VI in his encyclical, "Mense Maio," urged Christians to pray to Our Lady Queen of Peace for world peace. Our Lady of Fatima herself said in one of her apparitions in 1917: "Say the Rosary everyday, to obtain peace for the world."
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