Our Lady of the Rosary - Our Lady of Victory - October 7

Our Lady of the Rosary

October 7



October is the month of the Holy Rosary, and today is a very special Feast. The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, originally named Our Lady of Victory, after the rosary was attributed to the great naval victory at Lepanto over the Turks on October 7, 1571.

It seems by our current state of affairs, not much has changed over the last 400 plus years. Neither has the value of praying the rosary changed since the days of Lepanto, as Our Lady of the Rosary continues to bring victory and defeat over evil today. 

“7 October 1571 was a Sunday. Mass that day was celebrated throughout the fleet with particular solemnity, since all were well aware that the testing time of battle might be close…Crucifix in hand, Don John proceeded in a fregata along one wing, to rectify order in the line of battle and hearten the men.... As the ships of the Holy League laboured onwards, their oars dipping and lifting, the Turks could see priests like dark-robed insects, scurrying across decks, crucifix in hand, often scrambling high into the rigging, the better to exhort that crowd of armed men waiting on deck....All at once, the wind that morning turned right around…. While Ali’s ships visibly lost momentum, all along Don John’s battle line, lanteen sails were being shaken out along spars. They filled as if from a mighty and confident breath. As they heard or half heard the chaplains’ insistent voices, there were few in the League fleet who doubted that God had intervened.” (Excerpted from Jack Beeching, The Galleys at Lapanto)

Years in the making, in 1571, the time was right for the Turks “to bring all Europe within the dar al-Islam, the House of Submission” – submissive to the sharia law.” (Excerpted from H. W. Croker III, Lepanto, 1571: The Battle That Saved Europe) But after just five hours, the “Christian victory was far more complete than anyone had dreamed. The victory seemed to many quite miraculous, and victory was immediately attributed to Our Lady Queen of the Rosary — soon to be called by a new title, Our Lady Queen of Victory.” (Excerpted from Michael Novak, Remembering Lepanto!)

Our Lady of The Rosary
Apostleship of Prayer

For items related to the Holy Rosary please see

Lynn’s Timeless Treasures Catholic Goods

Art
Madonna of the Rosary by Lorenzo Lotto – (Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary are depicted above the Madonna as Our Lady presents the rosary to Saint Dominic)

Morning Offering Prayer

Morning Offering Prayer

The Morning Offering prayer is based on three revelations of Our Lord.

"When you awake, enter at once into My Heart, and when you are in it, offer My Father all your actions united to the pulsations of My Heart …” Our Lord to Sr. Josefa Menendez

"When you awake in the morning, let your first act be to salute My Heart, and to offer Me your own . .” Our Lord to St. Mechtilde

"It is not merely by praying that souls are saved, but through the actions of even the most ordinary lives lived for God . . . Offer Me everything united to My life on earth. . . . Offer Me all the crosses of the world. There are so many, and few think of offering them to Me in expiation for sins . . ." Our Lord to Gabrielle Bossis

God Our Father

I Offer you my day.

I offer you my prayers, thoughts, words,

actions, joys and sufferings.

In union with your Son Jesus heart,

Who continues to offer Himself in the Eucharist

For the salvation of the world.

May the Holy Spirit who guided Jesus

Be my guide and my strength today,

So that I may witness to your Love

With Mary the Mother of Our Lord and of the Church.

I pray especially for this month’s intentions

as proposed by the Holy Father.

Amen.

The Holy Father's Prayer Intentions
October 2010
Catholic Universities
World Mission Day

Saint Francis of Assisi - October 4

Saint Francis of Assisi and the Stigmata

While in supernatural ecstasy, a state where the mind rivets its attention on a religious subject and the activity of the senses are suspended, Saint Francis of Assisi received the stigmata. Marks "fashioned in his members by the hand of the living God," Saint Francis received visible signs of the Passion of Christ on his hands, feet and side.

Saint Bonaventure wrote this in his work, Lengenda Minor (Minor Life). “Two years before Francis, the faithful servant of Christ, gave his soul back to God, he was alone on the top of Mt. Alverna. There he had begun a fast of forty days in honor of the archangel Michael and was immersed more deeply than usual in the delights of heavenly contemplation.

As he was drawn aloft through ardent longing for God one morning near the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, and was praying on the mountainside, he saw what appeared as a seraph with six bright wings gleaming like a fire descending from the heights of heaven. As this figure approached in swift flight and came near the man of God it appeared not only winged but also crucified. The sight of it amazed Francis and his soul experienced joy mingled with pain. He was delighted with the sight of Christ appearing to him so graciously and intimately and yet the awe-inspiring vision of Christ nailed to the cross aroused in his soul a joy of compassionate love.

Because of this new and astounding miracle unheard of in times past, Francis came down from the mountain a new man adorned with the sacred stigmata, bearing in his body the image of the Crucified not made by a craftsman in wood or stone , but fashioned in his members by the hand of the living God.” (From the Legenda Minor of St. Bonaventure [Minor Life of St. Bonaventure])

Heavenly Father,
You gave Your servant Francis
the grace of intimate union with Your crucified Son.
Help us with the cross we bear that, united with You,
we too may know the peace and joy that Francis received.
We ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

  Apostleship of Prayer
The Likeness of Christ Crucified

For items related to Saint Francis of Assisi
please see Lynn's Timeless Treasures Catholic Goods

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Art
St. Francis in Ecstasy – Caravaggio
St. Francis in Ecstasy – Bellini
St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata – Giotto