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The Power of the Rosary: a Remedy for Society, our Spiritual Weapon

Writer's picture:  Olivia M. Bannan Olivia M. Bannan

Part 2

A very powerful prayer tool we have is the rosary.

The Rosary, containing 150 Hail Marys, (the number of the Psalms), is sometimes called the Psalter of Mary. It helps us lose our temerity and to fulfill Christ's command to evangelize. We meditate on the events of the life of Jesus and his teachings. The Rosary is not a bunch of words hastily prayed so that we can accomplish or get something. It is our visit with Our Mother Mary, by her side, reminiscing, pondering and growing in the love of Jesus. She is teaching us how to become Christlike.

St Dominic Guzman is a good example of the value of the rosary. In 1208 the founder of the Dominicans was in anguish because he was failing in his attempts to convert the Albigensian heretics. The Albigensians did not believe in the Trinity, nor in the divinity ad humanity of Jesus Christ and they rejected the sacraments of the church and the Divine authority. St Dominic was not able to change minds in spite of all his work. He traveled from village to village teaching the truths of the faith. He was jeered, insulted, and pelted with stones. He prayed and rarely slept. (1)

He complained in prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary and she responded in kind, " Wonder not that you have obtained so little fruit by your labors, you have spent them on barren soil, not yet watered with the dew of Divine grace. When God willed to renew the face of the earth, He began by sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic Salutation. Therefore, preach my Psalter composed of 150 Angelic Salutations and 15 Our Fathers, and you will obtain an abundant harvest." (1)

St Dominic was doing all under his own power, his own steam, his own energy. But after the Blessed Virgin Mary visited and gently instructed him, he preached the mysteries of salvation--the Incarnation, the Redemption , and Eternal Life. As the Holy Virgin had taught him to do, he distinguished the different kinds of mysteries and after each short instruction he had ten Hail Marys recited. St Dominic found great success in placing himself in Mary's arms before going out to battle. The Albigensians were converted. He prayed first and asked for the blessings and direction of the Holy Spirit and then he was able to be successful.

The battering ram for spiritual warfare has always been the Rosary or Mary's Psalter. The very warnings of Mary then in the thirteenth century and in Fatima and now are the same. Heaven and earth must be one. Let us please pray for PAPA with such intensity. Let us pray for priests and make disciples of prayer. (PAPA handbook, p8, Apostolate)

Ask and He will Hear our Prayer....

1. Catholic-pages.com--St Dominic and the Rosary


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