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.
Daniel, thank you for praying for my conversion.
Daniel is correct. The Rosary is very powerful and very necessary. It helps to pray in a group. You can also tune into Catholic radio or EWTN and similar CatholicTV networks, to pray the Rosary daily at their scheduled broadcast times. Also, there are tapes and CDs of Pope St. John Paul II, Ven. Fr. Patrick Peyton (the “Rosary Priest”) and other famous clerics, praying the Rosary, that you can put on and follow. There are also some beautiful CDs of religious orders of nuns and Catholic
choirs, praying the Rosary, along with beautiful, traditional Catholic liturgical hymns to Mary. Vatican Radio lists multiple broadcast times daily, of the Rosary, prayed in Latin. There are also special events broadcast with the Pope praying the Rosary, on Vatican TV and radio.
On the Vatican News app there are many things. If you look in the upper left-hand corner, you will see Radio Vaticana and to the right, you will see what they are broadcasting right now. If you click on what they are broadcasting right now (currently they are doing Lauds) you can listen to it. If you click on “Radio Vaticana,” you will also see the current item being broadcast plus the Schedule, which you can click on to see what else they will have. They have a great deal of traditional, beautiful, holy prayers, hymns, daily Lauds and Vespers (from the Divine Office), Gregorian Chants, Sacred Music, the Rosary, Angelus, the Mass in Latin (Novus Ordo), and much more. Broadcasting in Latin helps with inclusion of Catholics of all languages. For shows that have a Narrator just set your language (English, for me). Very holy, sweet, gentle, and peaceful. Deeply uplifting and relaxing. There is a nine-hour time zone difference between California and Rome. In the Autumn and Spring, the time zone difference changes to 8 hours for a short time, because Europe and the U. S. change to and from Daylight Savings Time on different dates.
In regards to my comment of Sept. 18 at 10:04pm: if I go to the “Vatican News” app on my cell phone, and click on “Vatican News” listed at the top of the app selections (not “Web Radio”)– and click on first, “Radio Vaticana,” and next, “Schedules,” I will see every item that they broadcast, listed in my time zone (Pacific Daylight Time). If you want to listen, let’s say, to the daily Latin Mass (Novus Ordo) listed at 22:19pm (10:19pm)– the actual Mass is being broadcast from the Vatican, 9 hours later, at 7:19am, Rome time. There is a very convenient Rosary recitation on the Schedule, at Noon, Pacific time. And another Rosary recitation, at 2am, Pacific time.
The “Vatican News” app is free. I got it a long time ago, at the Play Store.
Praying the rosary with others would be insufferable for me. I’ve heard the way peeps in church drone on with hail mary after hail mary at such a slow pace. And you don’t even get to say the whole prayer the way the peeps do it: a “leader” says the first half and everyone else only gets to pray the second half, and I get irritated waiting for the “leader” to finish her half and sometimes that peep’s voice is abraisive. Nope, private rosary for me.
“Daniel, thank you for praying for my conversion.” Well, from one Vatican 2 sinner to another, I shall offer you my poor prayers. You have my word.
The rosary can’t be necessary and isn’t necessary. It’s an optional devotion. The Church does not require anyone to say the rosary.
Similarly the Church does not require wearing scapulars. Those can’t be and aren’t necessary. They are optional devotions.
The Church does not require novenas. Those also can’t be and aren’t necessary. They are optional devotions.
As I understand it, the rosary developed in a pre-literate society as a way for illiterate Catholics to pray the 150 psalms representationally by substituting a Hail Mary for each psalm.
Now that people can read, much better to pray the actual psalms, in my opinion.
The graces of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from God, can all be rejected, and the graces of her Divine Son can all be rejected, too. You were given the gift of free will by your Creator. You can even reject Him if you choose to. Why go to the Catholic Church, and yet, refuse all the great spiritual graces and gifts offered through the Church, to assist you in sanctification and Salvation of your soul? You have so very little to help you, then! And no hope of special graces to help you with difficult or dangerous things in life, and no healing miracles to pray for and hope for. Were you baptized, confirmed, receive your First Sacraments, as a child, of Penance and First Holy Communion? Do you believe all of that is of no value, too? Many evangelical Protestants would totally agree with you. Many believe that baptism is just a “church ritual” and church Sacraments (established by Christ, with His Sanctifying Grace) are of no value. The intercession of the Mother of Christ, Mary, and all the Saints, are useless. Only a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ”– nothing else— no flawed, “manmade church”— can save your soul. What a shame. Go join them.
Although the tradition developed, of early Christians and monks reciting the 150 psalms or 150 “Hail Marys,” St. Dominic was given the Rosary in an apparition of the Blessed Mother, in a forest neae Toulouse, France, in the early 1200s. The saint was struggling to convert the Albigensian heretics, and Mary gave him the Rosary as a spiritual weapon and instructional tool, to teach them about Christ. Do not denigrate Christian believers of long ago, who taught and passed down religious teachings by sacred oral traditions. They memorized a great deal, were linguistically rich, and knew great wisdom– – today’s people do not have that fluency. The ancient cultures were much different than todayy’s world. Young boys of wealthy families typically were educated, but young girls had less opportunities. Many people, educated or not, knew their Faith well, and were excellent teachers for it. Some became saints. There were some great saints who were nuns, that were well-educated, like St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). She mastered many subjects and was a great genius as well as a saint. The Church’s great, ancient oral tradition is considered as very sacred.
The poster is correct, of course, that — strictly speaking — the rosary isn’t necessary. If people benefit from it, good for them. If people don’t want to pray it, good for them also. It’s not the only spiritual option. Those who say it’s the best prayer option or that everyone should pray it need to justify that stance. There are some pushy rosary warriors out there. None of the twelve apostles prayed the rosary.
The strangely prejudiced, ignorant, arrogant attitudes of some of these commenters towards Our Blessed Mother, the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is totally unacceptable. You do not have to regularly say your Rosary– a precious, blessed sacramental, from which many tremendous Divine Graces flow. But at least, if you are Catholic and love Jesus Christ, honor His Most Blessed Mother, Queen of Heaven. Say a “Hail Mary” in a little prayer for your wife, your children, and your own earthly mother. Honor Our Lady on her Feast Days and attend Holy Mass. Practice her holy Virtues and make sure your children know, love and honor her. Teach them the “Hail Mary” and how to say the Rosary, and give each child a Rosary. Ven. Fr. Patrick Peyton, the Rosary Priest, encouraged Catholic families to daily pray the Rosary together. As he used to say, “The family that prays together, stays together. And a world at prayer is a world at peace.” Praying the holy Rosary brings great peace to most people, as well as beautiful graces and healings.
Fr Illo, I am grateful you promote devotion to Mary and sustain your courage to speak to the power of the rosary. It and the Lord’s Prayer are the most powerful prayers I find. Witness to victory that does not harm the other is the only justice there is that still holds freedom of will and peace at heart. God Bless You.
The Feast of the Holy Rosary is on Oct. 7th. Many churches will hold Novenas for that beautiful Feast. On Oct. 1-7, for an entire week, the Vatican is hosting “One Million Children Praying the Rosary,” at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens. Thousands of children and families from Catholic schools and parishes in Rome will attend. Children and families worldwide will participate in their countries. Everyone will pray for world peace and unity. This event has been held for more than two decades, by the Pontifical Foundation, Aid to the Church in Need. This year, the event has been expanded from one day to a whole week.