by Father Jim Whalen 2007 issue 2 of CATHOLIC Life and Family
Father Whalen was the former Spiritual Director to the Legion of Mary in Ontario
Pro-life disciples realize that the struggle in which we are engaged, we need all the power and help that is available. Never was the world so corrupt. Never was the world so anti-life. Never was the world so in need of the power of the Rosary.
We are surrounded by moral decay and a modem holocaust of innocent infants. There are now over 55 million surgical, abortions in the world each year. Over 250 million are murdered each year through contraceptive or chemical means. We are plagued with countless abuses of people of all ages. Our society has promiscuity, pornography, pedophilia, sterilization, euthanasia, and assisted suicide. The family is under attack as evident in the decadent messages invading our homes, masking pro-death choices under the guise and appeal of seeking self satisfaction and pleasure. We witness world-wide to broken relationships (unstable families, an epidemic of divorces, troubled children), and we are confronted with the evils of secularism, modernism, and relativism.' Pope Pius XII stated our situation clearly: "The greatest sin in the world today is the loss of all sense of sin". Pope Paul VI reminded us. "The world is under the power of Satan". Practical atheism is the norm for many.
Many Catholics have forgotten Our' Lady Of the Rosary. They have forgotten one of our greatest treasures, one of our greatest weapons in our spiritual baffle, the pro-life "Power of the Rosary". We need to once again pray the Rosary daily to build a Culture of Life and defeat the Culture of Death. Father Patrick Peyton, known as "The' Rosary Priest" tells us about this priceless treasure: "The Rosary is the most powerful weapon we can take into our hands. The family that prays together, stays' together". What the Rosary can do for individuals, it can do for families, for communities, for parishes, for dioceses, for nations, and for the world. It can heal divisions, end quarreling, establish peace, and save lives. Tom Feely,_current director of the Family Rosary, states that the Rosary is "catechism on a string", a primary vehicle of Catholic Education. Fr Gabriel Uarty, OP, told the people of Ireland that: "The person that takes a Rosary in his or her hand, commands more power than the President of the United States".
..Many saints, popes, bishops, and priests through the ages have taught the power and importance of the Rosary:
Pope Pius IX: "Give me one million families praying the Rosary and the world is saved"
Pope Pius X: "Give me an army praying the Rosary and I will conquer the world".
Pope Pius XII: "The Rosary is the greatest treasure in the Vatican"
Pope John Paul II: "The Rosary is the solution to all of your problems".
Archbishop Fulton Sheen: ''The power of ' the Rosary is beyond description".
Bishop Hugh, Dole: "No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary - either he will give up sin or he will give up the Rosary".
St. Francis de Sales: ''There is no prayer as powerful as the Rosary when you meditate on its mysteries".
St. Louis de Montfort: "My Rosary is the infallible touchstone by which I can tell those who are led by the Spirit of God from those who are deceived by the devil".
St. Philip Neri: "There is no more powerful means to obtain God's grace".
St. Dominic: ''The Rosary is a tool to wipe out sin and convert sinners" .
St. Padre Pio "The Rosary"'is my mighty weapon".
Mother Teresa: "Pray the Rosary. Teach others to pray the Rosary".
John Henry Cardinal Newman: "The great power of the Rosary consists in the fact that it translates the Creed into prayer".
Frank Duff (founder of the Legion of Mary): 'The Rosary" is of paramount import:mce"
Fr. Fredrick Faber: "I cannot conceive a spiritual man who does not habitually say the Rosary".
Fr.' Christopher Matthews: "The Rosary is more powerful than the hydrogen bomb. It can save souls - bombs can't".
Sr. St. Lucia: "There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary"
Blessed Virgin Mary: "Whatever you ask of me through the Holy Rosary I will grant" .
Pope Leo XIII wrote nine encyclicals on the Rosary, stating its importance for our times and was proclaimed, "The Rosary Pope". No other devotion in history has been so highly revered and promulgated in almost all of our Lady’s apparitions. She has asked for devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Rosary. This is especially evident in the choice of her first apparition at Fatima on May 13, 1917, the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and her request for the "First Five Saturdays", in which she linked devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Rosary. All of her six apparitions are intertwined with devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Rosary.
Reflect on Our Lady's words at Fatima:
May 13: "Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world".
June 13: "I want you to say the Rosary every day".
July 13: "I want you to continue to say the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary".
Aug. 15: "I want you to continue to say the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary".
Sept.l3: "Continue to say the Rosary".
Oct. 13: "I want to tell you that I am Our Lady of the Rosary; continue to pray the Rosary every day".
In the last apparition at Fatima, she requested that a chapel be built to house the Blessed Sacrament. During the miracle of the sun she emphasized the importance of the Rosary in three visions
1) St. Joseph and the Child Jesus with Our Lady dressed in white with a blue mantle (reflection of Joyful Mysteries of Rosary).
2) As Our ,Lady of Sorrows (reflecting the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary).
3) As Our Lady of Mount-Carmel (reflecting the Glorious Mysteries ..
Throughout the history of the Catholic Church, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and the Rosary, has brought about victory. At the Battle of Lepanto, 1571, there was an attempt to destroy Christianity in Europe. Pope Pius V instructed all Catholic Churches to hold 40-hour devotions before the Blessed Sacrament and to recite the Rosary. Mary united the devotions to the Blessed Sacrament and the Rosary in the month of May dedicated to Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament:
1) May 13th: first apparition and in the month of October, which is dedicated to Our lady of the Rosary.
2) Oct. 13th: last apparition.
St. Anselm tells us: "Whatever God can do through His infinite power, Mary can do the same thing through her prayers". Archbishop Fulton Sheen with his sense of humor reminds us: "If there was one thing God could possibly regret, it would have to be He gave a woman so much power"