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Pope’s November Intention: Use the Language of Love

Pope Francis’ November intention is “In the Service of Peace: That the language of love and dialogue may always prevail over the language of conflict.” Here’s a snippet of Deacon Ted Penton’s reflection on the pope’s message (the full article is found on Zenit).

Jesus didn’t allow Peter to defend him from an arrest by use of the sword. Nor did he call down legions of angels to save him from the Romans who tortured and executed him. Instead, he submitted to death on the cross. In some mysterious way, the Father used the death and resurrection of his Son for far greater purposes than any of his followers could have imagined. As Pope Francis eloquently stated, “In the silence of the cross, the uproar of weapons ceases and the language of reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue, and peace is spoken.”

This reflection ties in nicely with my previous post about the sin of pride and the virtue of humility. I also called out Jesus’ Passion as a time of peaceful and humble acceptance of God’s plan for us. Jesus showed us that humility is the language of love that Pope Francis refers to in his November intention. Because when we are humble we let God speak through us. His words are not filtered and drowned out by our pride. They aren’t muddled by our limited human minds. Even when our intentions are good, we still don’t possess the ability to see the “big picture” and construct the same language of love and dialogue that is as effective as God’s Word.

There’s another aspect of the November intention I want to discuss. We can’t confuse peaceful dialogue with weakness. All too often, we have this notion that love means letting others roll over us and do as they like. But look at Jesus’ example. He was all loving but He was certainly no pushover. He was unrelenting in preaching God’s truth and never backed down. He never told sinners that their actions were okay. But He did teach them what God desired for them and forgave them. He did this in a loving way that drew people closer, not further away. We too should imitate Jesus. We don’t shy away from preaching God’s truth but we must do it in a way that also shows God’s love.

When we pray the Third Luminous Mystery of the Rosary, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom and Heaven and His Call to Conversion, let’s keep the pope’s November intention in our hearts. Let’s remember to make an effort to convert any of our ways that create conflict into ways that create and foster God’s love. It’s not an easy journey letting go of our almost instinctive nature to fight hostility with hostility. But think about Jesus being scourged and how difficult it must have been for Him not to fight back in a hostile way. Ultimately, Jesus “won” because humiliation, torture, and death was not the end. He found the strength to endure all of that out of His love for us. We pray the Rosary this month asking God for that same strength to see that it is love, not hate, that will ultimately win and convert souls.

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New Video on Effective Rosary Prayer

No, I didn’t take a break from RosaryMeds in October. I got really busy preparing for a presentation I gave with Father Tony Vallecillo at Saint Robert’s Catholic Church on effective rosary prayer. It was exciting to put together many of the thoughts and ideas I’ve written about in my various articles into one presentation and to partner with someone who also is devoted to rosary prayer. Please watch this presentation and share it with those who love rosary prayer or want to learn more about it.

You can also watch other presentations on the Videos page.

Defeating Pride With The Rosary

The next of the seven deadly sins we’re looking at is pride. Many consider pride the worst of the seven deadly sins and also the foundation of the other sins. Pride means putting your wants and importance before anyone else’s authority. And what is a sin? It’s putting your desires in front of what God wants. When we sin, we knowingly act without regard to the consequences because we don’t accept any other law beyond our own. According to C.S. Lewis, it’s pride that leads to every other type of sin because it’s the anti-God state of mind.

Pride is so deadly because, by its very nature, it remains hidden. As Fr Dwight Longenecker puts it in his article on Catholic Exchange:

This is why pride is so deadly, because it is the one sin that hides itself so effectively. The proud person, by very definition, does not realize he is proud. If he realized he was proud he would repent, but it is pride which keeps him from seeing that he is wrong or sinful in any way. Pride is a very difficult sin to do anything about because the proud person will even go so far as to admit that he is proud, and that makes him even more “right” than he was before!

The Scriptural Connection

Look at how blinded the Pharisees were by their own pride that they could not accept Jesus’ teachings. They dwelled on their own self-importance and their understanding of God and the Law that they couldn’t accept the teachings of a poor carpenter from Nazareth. They criticized everything Jesus and His apostles did from breaking certain Mosaic laws to ministering to sinners; acts their pride did not allow them to do. So indebted to their pride that the Pharisees didn’t even come to believe after witnessing Jesus’ countless miracles.

We turn next to Saint Paul, or rather Saul before his conversion. Saul was a Roman Jew who persecuted the early Christians. He was so blinded by pride that he refused to accept the teachings of the apostles to the point of killing them (poor Saint Stephen). Saul justified what he was doing by claiming it was God’s work. In reality, he was just keeping the status quo where the power of the Law was taught and enforced by those who believed they were important and holy enough to wield it. Ironically, God physically blinded Saul on the road to Damascus to humble him. That event led to his conversion. Once a humble servant of God, Paul was able to preach God’s Word throughout the world because he could let go of his own self-importance. He teaches to this very day through his various letters in the New Testament.

The Rosary Solution

Humility is the heavenly virtue that counters pride. The humble heart thinks of others and understands and appreciates others’ talents and strengths. It also allows us to put our faith in God by recognizing His authority over us. The humble heart accepts Gods law while the prideful one fights and rebels against it.

Humility is the fruit of the First Joyful Mystery — The Annunciation. Mary proclaims, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38) when hearing God’s plan for her. She doesn’t consider herself high and mighty as a prideful person would. She doesn’t see God choosing her as some sort of award or even something to brag about. Instead, she sees herself as the humble servant called to do God’s Will. She doesn’t complain about God messing up her life’s plans. Instead, she realizes that God’s plan is the best plan even if it’s unconventional.

Humility also shows itself in the Third Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus’ Crowning of Thorns. It is a time when Jesus is mocked or tortured. At that time, He could have proven Himself as the Son of God by performing any number of signs. Jesus could have said that He didn’t have to take any more abuse from lowly humans since He was the Messiah. But Jesus humbly lived out God’s Will by enduring mockery and torture. Humility sometimes means suffering in doing what is right instead of constantly asking “Why me? Am too good for this type of treatment.” We should take Jesus’ example in the Third Sorrowful Mystery and always accept God’s plan for us even when it’s difficult or doesn’t make sense.

Ask yourself, are you humbly accepting God’s plan for you or is your pride causing you to rebel against Him? Are you depressed or saddened because you have a hard time accepting God’s Will? Ask yourself, is that your pride talking? Humility isn’t something to fear. It means greater freedom and comfort knowing that you are putting your life in the hands of some greater authority. And what better authority to place your life than our loving God and His Church?

Lepanto and The Feast of the Rosary

On October 7th, the Church celebrates Our Lady of the Rosary. The reason why we celebrate the Rosary on this date is that it is the anniversary of the Holy League’s victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. This battle was a massive naval battle between the Catholic countries of Europe and Turkish invaders. This victory’s importance was that it weakened the Turkish incursions into Europe who had their sights set on conquering Rome and turning it into a Muslim state.

The greatest weapon the Catholic military deployed at the Battle of Lepanto wasn’t a new type of galley ship, sword, or cannon. It was the Rosary. It played an integral role in the Holy League’s victory over the Turks. It is why we celebrate the Rosary on the anniversary of this battle. Days before the battle, the sailors fasted, confessed, and prayed the Rosary relentlessly. The spiritual preparation was so intense that women were not allowed near the ships so the men wouldn’t be tempted to indulge in any sinful thoughts or actions. All around Catholic Europe, people prayed the Rosary asking our Mother Mary for victory. And despite the odds not being in Europe’s favor, we attribute the sincere devotion to the Rosary as the changing factor in this battle.

What can we learn from the Holy League’s victory at Lepanto? Many of us may feel conflicted over the idea that we celebrate the Rosary’s connection to a military victory where thousands of men died horrifically. And while it’s unfortunate that humanity fights wars in the first place, we don’t celebrate the Battle of Lepanto because of the death and suffering in that battle. We celebrate God’s hand, through our intercessor Mary and the faithfulness of the Church, in protecting Christianity in Europe. Those were different times for sure. And while we may not be faced with massive military invasions now, we all engage in combat every day.

Most of us have some sort of challenge or hardship in our lives. Maybe it’s a strained or broken relationship with someone. Maybe we have financial worries. Perhaps we have a job we don’t find fulfilling, co-workers we can’t stand, or no job at all. Many of us battle various physical and mental illnesses. Some of us battle addictions. It’s easy to see life as just one large, depressing slog with no hope of it getting any better. And that is when we can look at the Feast of the Rosary and its military roots at Lepanto. Militarily, there was little hope of a Holy League victory against the much larger Turkish fleet. The Turks had stormed across much of Europe and won many battles. They were expecting this to be yet another victory in their campaign to conquer Europe, particularly Rome itself.

But in the midst of despair, Mary heard the sincere call for Her intercession. She guided the Holy League to victory at Lepanto despite the long odds. We should remember that she will guide us to victory over our hardships when we sincerely ask for Her intercession. There is nothing that can defeat a sincerely prayed Rosary. The book, Champions of the Rosary, which I reviewed, mentions countless encounters where devotion to the Rosary brought about miraculous results.

The Rosary’s power is why we should pray it every day, particularly in the morning before we “do battle” for the day. We need to prepare ourselves mentally, spiritually, and physically much like the Holy League did before the battle of Lepanto. Even when our life is rolling along smoothly, we do have to defend ourselves against sin and temptation. Satan’s army is so vast and deadly that it makes the massive Turkish fleet at Lepanto look like a parade of toy boats. And the consequences of a defeat to Satan’s army is much greater. In a military battle, the worst that can happen is that you lose your physical life. But in a spiritual battle, you can lose your soul and cut yourself off from God’s heavenly kingdom forever.

In this month of October, celebrate the Rosary by praying it regularly. Understand that we are at war every day against our own hardships and Satan’s minions. But our Mother Mary is there to help and even do the impossible if we ask for Her intercession. The Rosary isn’t some prayer that was useful hundreds of years ago. It can work wonders today if you sincerely pray it.

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New Luminous Mystery Page

As much as I enjoy writing about the Rosary, I also want to provide helpful resources for when you are actually praying the Rosary. I always wanted RosaryMeds to be a “hub” of Rosary knowledge. I can’t come up with great insights into the Rosary mysteries on my own but I can gather all the great ideas other people have across the web and make them accessible in one place.

Take a look at the new Luminous Mysteries page. For each mystery, it contains intentions, meditations, videos, and related articles. What I hope is that you will visit this page and browse a little for some inspiration and new Rosary meditation ideas. In the coming months, I also hope to provide similar pages for the other Rosary mysteries and update them regularly as I come across related web pages.

If you have comments and suggestions about what you would like to see on these pages or if you would like to see certain websites linked, please get in touch with me. I would love to work on whatever you find useful.

Conquering Envy Through the Rosary

Let’s talk about sin, specifically, the seven deadly sins (also known as cardinal or capital sins). Theologians in the early Church devised a list of sins that form the foundation for other sins. Think of it like the taxonomy, or classification, of sinful behavior. By reducing sin to a small list, teaching about sin and virtue became easier in the early Church because priests could teach people simple “do this, avoid that” style rules. The seven deadly sins as we know them today were formalized by Pope Gregory I in 590 AD and later expounded by Saint Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica. For those of you who never saw the movie Se7en, the seven deadly sins are:

gluttony
lust
greed
pride
sloth
wrath
envy

This article is going to focus on envy. In the age of social media and instant communication with others, it’s so easy to suffer from envy. We see people’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts about their fantastic vacations, cute families, crazy parties, and glamorous lives and it’s difficult to not feel envious. We fixate on the nice car our neighbor bought or the slightly larger TV that is in his living room. Unless you live in a completely isolated environment, it’s difficult not to see the blessings others have around you and not feel just a bit envious.

The Scriptural Connection

Of course, envy isn’t anything new. In fact, envy plays a prominent role in the first book of the Bible when Cain killed his brother Abel. Cain envied his brother because God favored Abel’s offering over his. What I find interesting is God’s response to Cain’s anger: “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance (mood) fallen? 7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

The Bible doesn’t say how much effort Cain put into his offering to God. Maybe he held something back and didn’t put forth his best crops for God but kept them to himself. Maybe Cain was lazy which lead to a small harvest. God basically challenges Cain to do better and work harder. But instead of accepting the challenge, Cain fixated on his brother’s good fortune to the point of murdering him. That is why envy, when not addressed, is such a deadly sin. It can grow and spread like cancer. It then cuts us off from others because all we see in others are our own desires. We don’t see others as our fellow brothers and sisters but more like a store’s windows displaying what we want but cannot have. It reduces people to the summation of their possessions. Many of the deadly sins are interconnected since we can see envy being related with pride (everything centered around what I want), greed (always wanting more), and wrath (hatred because you have what I want).

The Rosary Connection

Father Ed Broom wrote an article on Catholic Exchange about what we can do to combat envy. It’s worth a read. But of course, the Rosary also teaches us about envy and how to fight it. Let’s look at the Second Luminous Mystery — the Miracle at the Wedding at Cana. What does that have to do with envy? Let’s consider God’s miracles and blessings. When others receive them, are you happy for them or do you envy them? For me, one person’s unexpected blessings can bring about feelings of envy and resentment. I ask why other people have all the good fortune. Or, why has God saddled me with more hardship than someone else?

Of course, feeling envious is the wrong way to look at God’s blessings and miracles. To start, someone receiving a miracle or blessing doesn’t take any blessings away from you. God’s grace is not a zero-sum game where someone receiving grace deprives someone else of his. God has infinite power and hence, can dole out infinite grace. When others encounter miracles, Father Broom says we should thank God for all the blessings and miracles He performs in our lives. Yes, we may not have the cushy job, a huge bank account, a nice car, or a great phone. But we are alive and able to praise God by living the day as virtuously as possible. God gives us the miracle of a new day of infinite possibility. Don’t squander it by being envious of others. Let’s also look at the Second Joyful Mystery, the Visitation. Each Rosary mystery has an associated “fruit.” You can think of fruits like the lesson taught in each mystery. For the Visitation, the fruit is “Love thy Neighbor.” Of course, loving your neighbor is the opposite of envying or being jealous of your neighbor. Father Broom states that praying for those whom you envy will help fight that envy. It does this by taking that sinful fixation and transforming it to a healthy one. Your focus is on asking God to help you instead of being jealous of others. Fighting envy difficult, but so was traveling to Elizabeth’s home for Mary. She did it out of her love for her cousin. We too must take up that difficult challenge of fighting envy with love, prayer, and kindness (which is one of the seven heavenly virtues that combats envy). [amazon asin=B004661J04,1928832431,1973519054,0898704383,B017HI0F5W&text=Amazon&template=carousel]

Humane Vitae and the Value of Self-Discipline

If you’ve done any type of sports or exercise, you probably know the term no pain, no gain. All athletes must push themselves hard to obtain victory. Muscles only grow when they are challenged. Your heart needs a little bit of stress from cardiovascular activity to function its best. It’s just the way our bodies are designed to function — you need to periodically exert yourself to stay healthy.

Much like how we have to exercise our muscles, we also have to exercise our souls. Here’s another slogan you’ve probably heard — use it or lose it. But what does it mean to exercise and use your soul? Using your soul means feeding yourself with grace by practicing virtue. Is that easy? No, of course not. But much like how our bodies are designed to function best by stressing it a bit with exercise, our souls are at their best when we challenge ourselves by practicing virtues and avoiding temptations. Sounds hard right? The good news is that we’re not alone in this challenge.

The Catholic Church is a great spiritual fitness instructor. She has challenged people to work harder at developing their spiritual muscles. We may often want to quit when life gets challenging and temptations mount. But the Church is like that coach telling you, “you can do this!” Or, “just one more set!” The Church has never allowed people to cheat and take an easy way out of a difficult situation if doing so ultimately harms their spiritual state. There’s no, “you’ve gone to enough Masses” or “sure, commit a little sin; you’ve earned it.” The Church sets a high bar for our spiritual health understanding that it will be challenging. But it doesn’t veer away from teaching what is right just because many people find that path difficult and fail to live up to God’s expectations. The Church knows that it’s within everyone’s ability to lead a spiritually healthy lifestyle. You just have to make the effort.

Humanae Vitae

This Church’s mindset of uncompromising spiritual living is seen in the 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which we celebrated its 50th anniversary this past July. Many people, when they hear about Humanae Vitae, they immediately think, “Oh, that’s that document that is against artificial contraception.” But that’s like saying football is that sport where everyone just lines up and falls down. Sure, the Church’s position against artificial contraception is a core teaching of that document. But there’s so much more to it.

Humanae Vitae puts a challenge before all of us. It asks us to put the needs of our soul first in our lives even when recent inventions and social conventions make it seem like we don’t have to. Just because the birth control pill exists, abortion is legal in many countries, and pornography is readily available doesn’t make them good or healthy. Humanae Vitae wants us to realize that a life of immediate gratification is not necessarily happier because we don’t grow spiritually in accordance with God’s design. God’s design requires us to challenge ourselves to stay spiritually healthy. Consider this excerpt from Humanae Vitae about self-discipline and how it leads to “spiritual blessings.”

Self-discipline of this kind is a shining witness to the chastity of husband and wife and, far from being a hindrance to their love of one another, transforms it by giving it a more truly human character. And if this self-discipline does demand that they persevere in their purpose and efforts, it has at the same time the salutary effect of enabling husband and wife to develop to their personalities and to be enriched with spiritual blessings.
From Humanae Vitae, Section 21

The Rosary Connection

The whole Rosary is an exercise in practicing virtue and growing spiritually by challenging yourself. It’s not an easy prayer. It’s relatively long and repetitive. It’s tiring to say it every day, especially when it’s done in a meditative manner. But, the Rosary is a great prayer to tell God that you want to spend time with Him despite your access to various forms of entertainment. We tell Mary that we’ll pray Her Rosary because we believe that it’s one of the best ways to build grace.

There are so many Rosary mysteries that center around the theme of self-discipline. The one I’ll choose to mention is the Second Joyful Mystery, The Visitation. You really have to give Mary credit for traveling and helping Her cousin Elizabeth when She was pregnant. No one would have faulted Mary for cloistering Herself during Her pregnancy given Her circumstances. But She knew that was not what God was calling Her to do. And that is the core of many Church teachings — true happiness comes when we do God’s Will even when it is difficult or inconvenient. That is how we grow and stay spiritually fit.

Mary had a choice — does She try to bend God’s Will around Her desires or challenge Herself to follow the path as God designed? She’s our Heavenly Queen for a reason — She uncompromisingly chose to obey God’s Will in Her life. How about you? Are you growing spiritually by challenging yourself to follow God’s plan or are you feeding yourself spiritual junk food through sin and vice?

Coping with the Church Scandal One Rosary Bead at a Time

Have you read the book or seen the movie, The Martian? It’s a story that takes place in the future where a man is stranded on Mars after his crew leaves believing he is dead. In this story, the stranded scientist, Mark Watney, overcomes all sorts of challenges to stay alive. It’s one of those stories where everything that can go wrong does go wrong — storms, failed equipment, communication issues, etc. But he just works each problem as it came along to survive just one more day.

I think the Church is in a similar situation — everything that seems like it can go wrong is going wrong regarding the abuse scandal and accusations of coverups going up to the pope himself. The Church is in uncharted territory right now. We have a retired pope who may have known something about the Cardinals’ abuses who is silent on the matter. We have a sitting pope who is remaining silent. We have all sorts of insider leaks pointing to spiritual rot at high levels. It’s enough to make the strongest of us doubt that the Church will come out of this in a better state.

As individuals, we can’t do much regarding the Church scandals inside the Vatican. But like Mark Watney facing countless setbacks trying to survive on Mars, we will also face setbacks in the coming months as more news comes out. The key is not to get overwhelmed and abandon those who need our prayers the most. We can’t make this a “Vatican-only” issue. It’s a problem that all the faithful need to do our part. We just need to take each day in turn and live the best Christian example we can.

Charlie Johnston puts it well in his blog, A Sign of Hope, when he talked about the need to deal with reality before us, not how we want or expect it to be:

You are going to fail at some things, you are going to be wrong about some things, some of your cherished certainties are going to fall. Your faith is dependent on none of these things and your duty is not suspended because of your errors. If your faith is dependent on your certainty that you have it all figured out, it is just a subtle form of pride – and you know what pride goeth before. Follow the example of King David who, after he sinned grievously of his own fault, got up again at the behest of the prophet and lived his duty, even so. You will fail, you will err, you will sin of your own fault. God knows all of this. He waits to see whether, after each failure, you will get up and start again, humbly living your duty with steadfast resolve even though your fault is ever before you – thus trusting to Him, and not to your own virtue.

Charlie’s words remind me of the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, Jesus Carries His Cross. Jesus fell multiple times under the cross. Each time He resolved to get back up again and do God’s Will. He fell under the weight of sin too, our sins. But Jesus found the strength to not get discouraged about the seemingly hopeless situation He was in and did not give up. His will to follow through with God’s plan was greater than the pain He felt. Jesus got back up and completed God’s work one painful step at a time.

And so we too, are called to keep going and live our Catholic faith. It will be difficult at times when we hear about what is happening inside the Vatican. But, like I said in my previous article, our faith isn’t dependent on the virtue of men. It lies on the power and virtue of God Himself. Pray the Rosary and imagine each bead being one slow (sometimes painful) step out of the darkness and into God’s grace.

The Archbishop of San Francisco wrote a letter about the Church scandal. In it, he outlines a 3-step plan to keep us moving forward and repair the damage caused by the Church hierarchy. He asks for:

Praying the rosary daily – and for families, to pray the rosary as a family at least once a week;
Practicing Friday penance by abstaining from eating meat and one other additional act of fasting (e.g., another form of food or drink, or skipping a meal);
Spending one hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at least once a week

Coping with Controversy with the Rosary

These are unsettling times for the Catholic Church in the wake of abuses and cover-ups at the highest levels of the Church. It’s hard to learn about such corruption by people who are supposed to be spiritual leaders in a Church that espouses such high moral values. It can also shake your faith in an institution that is supposed to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

The cardinals and priests are spiritual leaders, but they are also human. They carry the same weaknesses as you and I. Those weaknesses include lust for power and the tendency to sin. Unfortunately, people move up through the ranks in the Church the same way they do in business or politics. They know what to do and what to say to move up the “corporate” ladder. It’s a ladder that is ascended via politics, not neccessarily holiness and virtue. While we hope that those who lead the Church focus on practicing a high level of virtuous behavior, increased power and authority often has the opposite effect. Fortunately, our Catholic faith is made up of more than the collective virtue of those who lead it.

I’m not going to tell you to ignore what’s going on at the higher levels of the Church. Ignoring the issues is what got us into this mess in the first place. We, as a community of believers, must confront and address these issues. But at the same time, we must remember that the cardinals, bishops, and even the pope, aren’t the center of the Church. The Church is not solely a human institution. It’s a divine institution with the Holy Trinity at its core.

When we pray, we don’t pray to the pope, cardinals, bishops, and priests. We pray to God! It’s an infallible and all-loving God that is the center of our faith. The clergy are servants of God to guide us. Our perfect God works through His imperfect vessels. And no amount of human corruption can weaken God. No amount of corruption can weaken His love for us and our desire to live in His grace.

Humans sin and we have to be accountable for our actions. What I will call the political side of the Church will go through hard times in the near future. But if you keep the right perspective, you will understand that the Church is far more than the sum total of virtue and sins of the clergy. She hasn’t survived and flourished over the centuries because of clerical virtue. She’s flourished because it’s God’s Church which can’t be destroyed by the inherent weakness of Her followers.

I think about the current difficulties the Church faces when I pray the Third Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary — Jesus Crowned with Thorns. I picture Jesus, battered and ridiculed. I then think about our Church and how battered She is right now; ridiculed by the behavior of those who are supposed to honor Her. Like the Romans paying fake homage to Jesus with a crown of thorns, we have clergy mocking Jesus by using His Church as a means to acquire riches and power and succumb to sinful weaknesses.

Christ Crowned with Thorns (Marten van Heemskerck)

But from the weakness, Jesus was ultimately triumphant. There is an element of hope throughout the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. We know that Jesus’ Passion ends in joy and triumph in His Resurrection. And we should know that the Church will ultimately be triumphant because that is what scripture and our faith tell us. As we confront these dark times ahead, remember that the true center of the Church is Jesus Christ. Our faith is built on Him, not on the imperfect, fallible humans who run it.

Champions of the Rosary

Did you know that the second part of the Hail Mary wasn’t introduced until the 14th century? Did you know that one of the most popular Rosary shrines was created by a former satanist who converted? Did you know that an image of Mary handing the Rosary to Saint Dominic miraculously appeared in a cave in Colombia in 1754? Did you know that in 1964, 2 million people gathered to pray the Rosary in Brazil?

How do I know all these little facts? Simple. I just finished reading Champions of the Rosary: The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon by Donald H. Calloway, MIC. I discovered it after stumbling across an excerpt of it on Catholic Exchange. I’m always on the lookout for books about the Rosary as they fuel my passion for both praying it and writing about it. Bottom line, there is something of value in this book for everyone whether you’re a devoted follower of the Rosary or a skeptic.

The books itself is divided into three parts. The first and largest part is the history of the Rosary. Each chapter takes you through a century and highlights the places, people, and events that shaped the Rosary. It can be a rather dense history lesson at times but stick with it because there are many gems to be found.

The second part takes you through the “Champions of the Rosary.” Each chapter highlights someone’s biography, Marian connection, Rosary connection, and quotations about the Rosary. While not as dense as the first part, again there are great pearls of wisdom and stories of dedication. Just thumbing through a few of the quotations in Rosary Gems sections can provide a little motivation for praying the Rosary if you find yourself tired or not in the mood.

The last part of the book explores the technical details of praying the Rosary. And while useful, the descriptions and meditations are rather shallow. This is not a book of meditation ideas. There are other books that provide much better Rosary meditation ideas (like these!).

I was captivated by the history and evolution of the Rosary explained in this book. I cannot believe just how passionately people have prayed and endorsed this prayer. The Rosary is so valuable that people have laid down their lives for it rather than give it up. The miracles associated with it are amazing — battles won, regions transformed, and people converted. It makes any of my excuses for not finding 20 minutes in a day to pray it seem so petty and selfish. If you’re looking for motivation to pray the Rosary, whether it be getting started or just a boost of energy, please read this book.

While I’ve been praying the Rosary regularly for years, I do have a new appreciation for it thanks to this book. I’m now trying to pray it more reverently — quietly, slowly, and kneeling when I can. I’m really trying to appreciate just how special the Rosary is. For example, the other day I was almost gitty over the idea of how proud and happy my Mother Mary must have felt that I was praying Her Rosary. Knowing that our prayers are important to Her is something I’ve always known intellectually, but only recently have felt it on a deeper level.

I always knew that praying the Rosary is good for you. But I was more like a child eating his vegetables because someone told me I should. But Champions of the Rosary explains why the Rosary is such an important prayer and why everyone must make a habit of praying it. It will help you internalize and understand its power. Give it a read. Hopefully, it will transform the way you approach the Rosary as it did for me.

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