Friday, October 7, 2022
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
           (click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Put wings on your prayer
Maybe you know what this day celebrates. I didn’t.
Four hundred and fifty years ago an Ottoman armada sailed into Mediterranean waters, heading for the Atlantic Ocean and what would soon be called America. On the way they might well have mounted an invasion of Italy to capture the “other” side of Christianity. The “Turks” already had laid hold of the eastern side.
Pope Pius V organized the Holy League, a Christian set of sailing ships, which met the Muslim ships at the Battle of Lepanto. The Christians were at a distinct disadvantage, and the pope called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory.
If it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters.
And victory there was. On October 7, 1571 the Christians overcame the greater numbers of their opponent, and everyone gave credit to Our Lady and the prayers prayed through her for victory. The Rosary had been given to Saint Dominic by Mary in a vision, when in 1206 he himself was battling the Albigensians. The Rosary was instituted as a tool against heretics.
But the Rosary is a simple, beautiful prayer, with not a whiff of warfare anywhere in it:
Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb: Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
(Painting by Caravaggio, “Madonna of the Rosary,” 1607)
Protestants often seem reluctant to go through someone else, someone who has died, someone in heaven, when they pray to God. There are certainly theological reasons for this, but I personally prefer to have a mediatrix. Mary, certainly. I also like to ask my own Aunt Mary Lou to pray for me, and my dad Roland, to pray for me. And my mother, and my grandparents, my other aunts and uncles … for them to put wings on my prayers.
I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, in the company and assembly of the just. Great are the works of the Lord, exquisite in all their delights. The Lord will remember his covenant forever.
Prayer can be confusing, but it can also be simple, just a few words, or none, or words I’ve used a thousand times. My friends Ken and Tricia pray the “Divine Chaplet” every day in the afternoon. Of course they know the words by heart:
For the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.
What a beautiful prayer!
(Galatians 3, Psalm 111, John 12, Luke 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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