The Rosary, Source of Victory

By Chris Sparks

White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross. - G. K. Chesterton, "Lepanto"

Blessings to all who chose Oct. 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, as the day they entrust their lives to her. Congratulations on your consecration to Jesus through Mary!

Have you ever heard of Lepanto? We have the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary thanks to the historic battle at Lepanto.

The 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia tells us in its article about Pope Pius V, "In 1570 when Solyman II attacked Cyprus, threatening all Christianity in the West, [Pope Pius V] never rested till he united the forces of Venice, Spain, and the Holy See. He sent his blessing to Don John of Austria, the commander-in-chief of the expedition, recommending him to leave behind all soldiers of evil life, and promising him the victory if he did so. He ordered public prayers, and increased his own supplications to heaven. On the day of the Battle of Lepanto, 7 Oct., 1571, he was working with the cardinals, when, suddenly, interrupting his work, opening the window, and looking at the sky, he cried out, 'A truce to business; our great task at present is to thank God for the victory which He has just given the Christian army.' He burst into tears when he heard of the victory, which dealt the Turkish power a blow from which it never recovered. In memory of this triumph he instituted for the first Sunday of October the feast of the Rosary, and added to the Litany of Loreto the supplication 'Help of Christians'."

It is said that Pope Pius V had beseeched the people of Europe to pray the Rosary fervently for victory against the invading Islamic forces. We all need to learn from his example: the Rosary brings us victory. The Rosary offers us the spiritual weapons we need to triumph over all temptation in life. The Rosary is a strong defense against evil and a great help towards good.

The Rosary unites our minds and hearts to the words and actions of Jesus Christ. From the life of Jesus comes our salvation. Through the Incarnation comes all grace. So when we ponder the mysteries of the Incarnation in our hearts and pray the great, common prayers of the Church - the Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be - we are drawing ever nearer to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary in the Body of Christ, those Hearts that keep, now and forever, the memories of the two most extraordinary lives in the history of the cosmos.

We become like Jesus and Mary, transforming our memories to match theirs, conforming our hearts to theirs, allowing our lives to become like the life of God and His one perfect creature; allowing our loves to become like the love of God and Mary, she who is the Father's Daughter, the Son's Mother, the Spirit's Spouse.

In the Rosary's repetition of mysteries and memories, of prayers and praises, is our strength. When we remember the memories of God and His Mother, we become like them in many ways. Mary, we are told repeatedly throughout the Gospels, "pondered these things in her heart." She meditated over and over again on the mysteries of the life of her Son and grew in wisdom and holiness. And God models that same spirit of tireless repetition, of always contemplating the beloved anew. As Chesterton said,

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. - G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, "The Ethics of Elfland"

So if you pray the Rosary, keep going and don't stop for anything! If you've never really made the Rosary a part of your prayer life before this, start now, especially since you've given Mary everything to bring it to Jesus. Pray the prayer Mary gives us as the path to victory, as the chain to bind the devil and the lifeline to draw us all home to heaven in the end. Start now, this minute, as soon as you've finished reading this piece. Pray for peace in the world, as Our Lady asked us to do at Fatima. Pray for the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the reign of the Sacred Heart. And pray for all of us involved in HAPP, both at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy and around the world. We'll be praying for you.

If you consecrated to Jesus through Mary, we'd love to hear your story. Please take a moment and share your journey below. If you have pictures, we'd love to see them, too. Just email them to HAPP@Marian.org!