The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on 7 October celebrates the protection of Christians through the intercession of the Mother of God. The entire month of October is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary (Queen of the Most Holy Rosary) and the Holy Rosary. The Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of great devotion of all Catholic devotions. October also marks the final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, on October 13, 1917, in Cova de Iria outside of Fatima, Portugal, the last of six monthly Marian apparitions to three shepherd children is said to have taken place.
We are called to pray the Rosary not only in the month of May and October or Saturdays but every day with a greater knowledge and appreciation of this prayer, and its power to transform our modern world like the transformation in the falling of communism in Russia into a religious freedom country. Our lady herself in her messages in apparitions in Lourdes and Fatima emphasizes the need to pray the rosary. Pope Benedict XVI quoted, �the rosary in fact provide a like for us with this primitive knowledge that repetition is a part of prayer, of meditation, that repetition is a way of settling oneself into the rhythm of tranquillity. It�s a matter of allowing myself to be carried away by the calm of repetition and of steady rhythm�. We are encourage to pray without ceasing, The church has encouraged the rosary prayer through many papal teachings. In praying the rosary, we remember the life of Jesus through the Rosary, and the role of his mother, Mary as first disciple in this plan of God, from Jesus� conception via the Holy Spirit in her womb, to the agony and yet triumph of the cross, to the glory of Christ�s resurrection and ascension, and to the birth of the Church at Pentecost.
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Our Lady�s 15 Promises to Those Who Pray Her Rosary
source: www.catholiccompany.com
1. Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
[A signal grace may be a simple sign in daily life that answers a question made in prayer or points towards God�s will. For example, seeing a rose after finishing a novena to St. Therese of Lisieux could be considered a signal grace. Signal graces are often subtle or seemingly coincidental.]
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for Eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means!
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
[In other words, anyone who faithfully prays the Rosary and asks for Mary�s intercession will be saved from hell.]
6. Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life.
[An unprovided death means dying while not in a state of grace. The Blessed Mother promises that anyone who regularly prays the Rosary, and earnestly tries to live according to God�s will, will be spiritually prepared when their time of death comes.]
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary.
12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my Sons, and brothers of my Only Son Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
[By this the Blessed Mother means that a devotion to the Rosary is a good indication that the devotee is on the path to Heaven.]
