Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, of the Most Holy Rosary, the anniversary of her glorious triumph at Lepanto in 1571.
“The feast of the Holy Rosary was instituted to honor Mary for the Christian victory over the Turks at Lepanto on October 7, 1571. Pope St. Pius V and all Christians had prayed the Rosary for victory. The Rosary is a powerful means of uniting families, communities, and nations in the Mystical Body of Christ. In reciting the Rosary we say, “pray for us sinners,” not “pray for me.” The prayers of the Rosary take us out of ourselves by adoring and thanking God, and particularly by meditating on the doctrinal truths of the 15 Mysteries. Moreover, as Pope Leo XIII wrote, “. . . the Rosary is by far the best prayer by which to plead before her (Mary) the cause of our separated brethren.””
Pray the Rosary every day. Commit yourself to doing it for one week. You will see the fruits that quickly, and you will be hooked for life. The Rosary is a weapon, and Our Lady is a military helpmate.
This is war.
Virgin Most Powerful, pray for us!
Our Lady of Victory, of the Rosary, pray for us!
INTROIT
Let us all rejoice in the Lord as we celebrate the feast in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, upon which the angels rejoice and praise the Son of God.
Ps. 44:2. My heart overflows with good tidings; I sing my song to the king.
COLLECT
O God, Your only-begotten Son has purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation by His life, death, and resurrection. May we who meditate on those mysteries in the most holy rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary imitate the virtues they proclaim and obtain the promises they offer. Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.
“Apart from the signal defeat of the Albigensian heretics at the battle of Muret in 1213 which legend has attributed to the recitation of the Rosary by St. Dominic, it is believed that Heaven has on many occasions rewarded the faith of those who had recourse to this devotion in times of special danger. More particularly, the naval victory of Lepanto gained by Don John of Austria over the Turkish fleet on the first Sunday of October in 1571 responded wonderfully to the processions made at Rome on that same day by the members of the Rosary confraternity. St. Pius V thereupon ordered that a commemoration of the Rosary should be made upon that day, and at the request of the Dominican Order Gregory XIII in 1573 allowed this feast to be kept in all churches which possessed an altar dedicated to the Holy Rosary. In 1671 the observance of this festival was extended by Clement X to the whole of Spain, and somewhat later Clement XI after the important victory over the Turks gained by Prince Eugene on 6 August, 1716 (the feast of our Lady of the Snows), at Peterwardein in Hungary, commanded the feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church. A set of “proper” lessons in the second nocturn were conceded by Benedict XIII. Leo XIII has since raised the feast to the rank of a double of the second class and has added to the Litany of Loreto the invocation “Queen of the Most Holy Rosary”. On this feast, in every church in which the Rosary confraternity has been duly erected, a plenary indulgence toties quoties is granted upon certain conditions to all who visit therein the Rosary chapel or statue of Our Lady. This has been called the “Portiuncula” of the Rosary.“
Amen, brother