Father Joseph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea parish in San Francisco, gave a 14-minute homily on Sunday, September 13.
September has four feasts of Our Lady. Last week on September 8, we celebrated the nativity of our Blessed Mother. Yesterday on the 12th, the Holy Name of Mary. On the 15th will be Our Lady of Sorrows. Finally on the 27th is our parish patronal feast, Mary Star of the Sea.
October 7 is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. On that day we will begin our rosary congress, eight days of penance and prayer. We pray the rosary every hour for eight days.
In 1683 the Ottoman Muslims were at the gates of Vienna, they were attacking by land. The king of Poland cobbled together an army to defend Europe.He put his army under the protection of Our Lady and had them pray the rosary.
In 1781, the Muslims attacked again but were stopped at Lepanto. The Pope asked everyone to pray the rosary and the Ottomans were defeated.
In 2001 we were attcked by Muslims in the air. President Bush asked the nation to pray. We Catholics prayed the rosary.
The rosary is our defensive weapon against the gnosticism of our time. We’re not facing a Muslim army but denial of God in our time.
In the Gospel today a man owes 10,000 talents. This first debtor cannot pay. But he does not forgive those who owe him money.
In 1871 German forces under Bismark are closing in on a village in France. Under the vision of Our Lady, there are the words, “But prary, my children.” That night the attack was called off and soon the Franco-Prussian War was over.
God allows Himself to be moved. Do not cancel your enemies but pray for them.
I don’t pray the rosary. I don’t find it to be a meaningful devotion. Too much repetition. It bores me. I pray in other ways.
I have found when praying the rosary with others the rosary is no longer boring for me. I find I must enter the prayers with a strong love of Jesus and Mary –and a strong destation of sin– so that God can give me a deep conviction of the importance of the conversion of sinners, which is the real reason the rosary is said. In my case, saying the rosary every day with a group has made all the difference.