7 OCTOBER – OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

The Battle of Lepanto, 7th October 1571

 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

It is customary with men of the world to balance their accounts at the end of the year, and ascertain their profits. The Church is now preparing to do the same. We will soon see her solemnly numbering her elect, taking an inventory of their holy relics, visiting the tombs of those who sleep in the Lord, and counting the sanctuaries, both old and new, that have been consecrated to her divine Spouse. But today’s reckoning is a more solemn one, the profits more considerable: she opens her balance-sheet with the gain accruing to our Lady from the mysteries which compose the Cycle. Christmas, the Cross, the triumph of Jesus, these produce the holiness of us all. But before and above all, the holiness of Mary. The diadem which the Church thus offers first to the august Sovereign of the world is rightly composed of the triple crown of these sanctifying mysteries, the causes of her joy, of her sorrow, and of her glory. The joyful mysteries recall the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Jesus, Mary’s Purification and the Finding of our Lord in the Temple. The sorrowful mysteries bring before us the Agony of our blessed Lord, His being scourged, and crowned with thorns, the carrying of the Cross, and the Crucifixion. While, in the glorious mysteries, we contemplate the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour, Pentecost, and the Assumption and Coronation of the Mother of God. Such is Mary’s Rosary: a new and fruitful vine which began to blossom at Gabriel’s salutation, and whose fragrant garlands form a link between Earth and Heaven.

In its present form the Rosary was made known to the world by Saint Dominic at the time of the struggles with the Albigensians, that social war of such ill-omen for the Church. The Rosary was then of more avail than armed forces against the power of Satan. It is now the Church’s last resource. It would seem that the ancient forms of social prayer being no longer relished by the people, the Holy Spirit has willed by this easy and ready summary of the Liturgy to maintain, in the isolated devotion of these unhappy times, the essential of that life of prayer, faith and Christian virtue which the public celebration of the Divine Office formerly kept up among the nations. Before the thirteenth century popular piety was already familiar with what was called the psalter of the laity, that is, the Angelical Salutation repeated one hundred and fifty times. It was the distribution of these Hail Marys into decades, each devoted to the consideration of a particular mystery, that constituted the Rosary. Such was the divine expedient, simple as the Eternal Wisdom that conceived it and far-reaching in its effects, for while it led wandering man to the Queen of mercy, it obviated ignorance which is the food of heresy, and taught him to find once more “the paths consecrated by the Blood of the Man-God, and by the tears of his Mother.”

Thus speaks the great Pontiff who, in the universal sorrow of these days, has again pointed out the means of salvation more than once experienced by our fathers. Leo XIII in his Encyclicals has consecrated the present month to this devotion as dear to Heaven. He has honoured our Lady in her Litanies with a new title, Queen of the most holy Rosary, and he has given the final development to the solemnity of this day by raising it to the rank of a second class Feast, and by enriching it with a proper Office explaining its permanent object. Besides all this, the Feast is a memorial of glorious victories which do honour to the Christian name. Soliman II, the greatest of the Sultans, taking advantage of the confusion caused in the West by Luther, had filled the sixteenth century with terror by his exploits. He left to his son, Selim II the prospect of being able at length to carry out the ambition of his race: to subjugate Rome and Vienna, the Pope and the Emperor, to the power of the Crescent. The Turkish fleet had already mastered the greater part of the Mediterranean, and was threatening Italy when, on the 7th October 1571, it came into action in the Gulf of Lepanto with the pontifical galleys supported by the fleets of Spain and Venice. It was Sunday. Throughout the world the confraternities of the Rosary were engaged in their work of intercession. Supernaturally enlightened, Saint Pius V watched from the Vatican the battle undertaken by the leader he had chosen, Don John of Austria, against the three hundred vessels of Islam. The illustrious Pontiff, whose life’s work was now completed, did not survive to celebrate the anniversary of the triumph, but he perpetuated the memory of it by an annual commemoration of our Lady of Victory. His successor, Gregory XIII, altered this title to our Lady of the Rosary, and appointed the first Sunday of October for the new Feast, authorising its celebration in those churches which possessed an altar under that invocation.

A century and a half later, this limited concession was made general. As Innocent XI in memory of the deliverance of Vienna by Sobieski had extended the Feast of the most holy Name of Mary to the whole Church, so in 1716 Clement XI inscribed the Feast of the Rosary on the universal Calendar in gratitude for the victory gained by Prince Eugene at Peterwardein on the 5th August under the auspices of Our Lady of the Snow. This victory was followed by the raising of the siege of Corfu, and completed a year later by the taking of Belgrade.

[Note: In 1913 Pope Saint Pius X moved the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary to the 7th of October]

The joys experienced on the other Feasts of the Mother of God are all gathered up and resumed in this one for us, for the Angels, and for our Lady herself. Like the Angels, then, let us offer, together with Mary, the homage of our just delight to the Son of God, her Son, her King and ours.

Lesson – Proverbs viii. 22‒24; 32‒35

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made any thing from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived. Now therefore, you children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that hears me, and that watches daily at my gates, and waits at the posts of my doors. He that will find me, will find life, and will have salvation from the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Our Lady’s mysteries are before all time in God’s sight, like those of her divine Son. Like these they will endure for all eternity. Like them they rule the ages which circle round the Word and Mary, preparing for both in the days of figures, perpetuating their presence by the incessant glorification of the most holy Trinity in whose name all Christians are baptised. Now the Rosary honours all this series of mysteries. Today’s Feast is a glance back upon the Cycle as it draws to its close. From these mysteries, from this view of them, we must draw the conclusion formulated by our Lady herself in this passage from Proverbs which the Church applies to her: “Now therefore, my children, consider my ways. Imitate me, that you may find happiness.” Blessed is he that watches at her gate! Let us pray to her, rosary in hand, considering her at the same time, meditating on her life and her greatness, and watching, were it but for a quarter of an hour, at the entrance to the palace of this incomparable Queen. The more faithful we are, the more assured will be our salvation and our progress in true life.

Gospel – Luke i. 26‒38

At that time the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said to her: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among among women.” Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the Angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with God. Behold you will conceive in your womb, and will bring forth a son and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of David his father: and he will reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the Angel: “How will this be done, because I know not man?” And the Angel answering, said to her, “The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And therefore also the Holy which will be born of you, will be called the Son of God. And behold your cousin Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: because no word will be impossible with God.” And Mary said: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Gospel is the same as on the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary. “At that time, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the Virgin’s name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said to her: Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.” “Blessed are you among women,” repeated Elizabeth a few days later, “and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” These two salutations, with the name of Mary added to the Angel’s greeting and the name of Jesus to Elizabeth’s, constituted the Ave Maria in the time of Saint Dominic, the promulgator of the Rosary. The prayer, “Holy Mary Mother of God” which now so beautifully completes the formula of praise received the sanction of the Church in the sixteenth century. No better Gospel could then have been chosen for today, for it gives the original text of the Rosary and describes the first of its mysteries.