For the readings of today's mass, go to
Today's memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary goes back to this day in the year 1571, when the many of Europe's Catholic navies united in battle against the navy of the Ottoman Empire and won a great victory. Before the battle, Pope Pius V called upon Christians all over Europe to pray the rosary in anticipation of this massive battle, asking for Mary's intercession on behalf of the Christian fleet. In celebration of the victory, Pius V instituted a feast day named Our Lady of Victory, commemorating the power of rosary in obtaining Mary's intercession. In 1574, the name of the day was changed to Our Lady of the Rosary, and its date in October helped to establish October, along with May, as being a month of special devotion to Our Mother. (Which is the reason why the statue of our Mother is placed beside our pulpit in our church in May and October)
The rosary, rightly so, is an extremely popular form of prayer for us Catholics. It combines the use of repetition in saying the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be while meditating on the events of salvation history that are the focus of each of the mysteries being pondered. As we do so, we imitate the example of Mary in her openness to doing the the will of God, as we see in the story of the Annunciation (Lk. 1:26-38), and the frequent times in Luke's gospel that she then ponders God actions in her life and in the life of her new born son (see Luke 2: 15-20, for example).
Today let us commit ourselves to try to pray at least one decade of the rosary. And may we imitate the example of our Blessed Mother as we do so.