The Rosary ~ A Gift From God to be Prayed
October 12, 2025
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever ~
On October 7, the Church celebrated the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. It was on that date in 1571 that a Christian navy defeated a Muslim one at the Battle of Lepanto. Pope Saint Pius V worked very hard over the previous year to unite the divided Catholics of Western Europe to meet the Muslim threat. A navy was assembled under the leadership of Don Juan of Austria to take on the much more powerful and experienced Muslim navy—a Muslim navy that carried 120,000 soldiers meant to sack Rome. From the time the Catholic navy set sail to find and attack the Muslim navy, Pope St. Pius V asked all Catholics throughout Western Europe to ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede for their navy by praying the Rosary for victory; and pray it they did. When the battle commenced in the Gulf of Patras, Greece, called Lepanto at the time, the Christian navy was able to miraculously defeat the Muslim one. At the moment victory was assured, by a word of knowledge from God, Pope St. Pius V back in Rome declared that the Catholic fleet had defeated the Muslim one and credited the prayers of the Rosary. In gratitude for the miraculous intervention by the Blessed Virgin, Pope St. Pius V instituted a new feast day. He ordered that, on the anniversary of the battle, all the bells of Rome be rung and the Rosary be prayed publicly, establishing the feast of the Holy Rosary (originally “Our Lady of Victory”) to be celebrated on the first Sunday of October. In time it was transferred to the actual date of the battle, October 7.
We live in a spiritual “Dark Age” that eclipses anything Christianity has seen in our 2025-year history. We need supernatural help – a way to powerfully pray anytime and anywhere for consolation, hope, and miracles. To that end, God has given us a gift from heaven: the Rosary—a light in the darkness when all other lights have gone out.
God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and I love the Rosary and want you to pray it daily. When the Blessed Virgin Mary visited St. Bernadette at Lourdes, she always prayed the Rosary on her 14 visits. When the Blessed Virgin Mary visited the children at Fatima, she told them to pray the Rosary daily. Simply put, heaven wants us to pray the Rosary daily. If all the Catholics in the world prayed the Rosary daily, Satan’s power would be broken, and the world would be converted to Jesus Christ. The Rosary is a gift from God, a superpower in your hands.
While the Church dedicates the month of May to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Church dedicates the month of October to the Rosary. Most Catholics don’t know how to pray the Rosary, and many just don’t know where to begin. Don’t be embarrassed, I know priests who can’t say a whole Rosary from memory (pray for priests!). Fortunately, my parents prayed the Rosary with my siblings and I throughout our childhoods, even when we didn’t want to. For that I am eternally grateful. Yet, despite that experience, it wasn’t until my conversion at the age of 26 that I deliberately set out to memorize the various prayers and mysteries of the Rosary, for I had never quite nailed it as a kid.
The Rosary is a prayer to the Holy Trinity through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Through it, prayers are answered, people healed, relationships strengthened, virtue fostered, consolation found, wisdom and understanding gained, battles won, disaster averted, protection granted, and hardened souls converted. The miracles brought about by praying the Rosary are countless. Take the time to do an internet search for miracles of the Rosary, you’ll see thousands. Maybe you have your own Rosary story to share? If you have ever prayed the Rosary, I can assure you that it has helped you in ways you don’t even realize.
Yet, just as important as having our prayers answered is the relationship the Rosary fosters. In a way it is like spending time with someone we love—the more time we invest with someone, the more we bond. Jesus, who is God, wants all of us to love His Mother as He does. He wants us to adopt her as our beloved mother too, for she has already adopted us. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the greatest of all of God’s creation and the greatest intercessor before God in heaven; and like a good mother, she desires our wellbeing and a personal relationship with each one of us. To these ends, the Rosary cannot be beaten.
The Rosary is prayed in the final 20 minutes before all Masses at Holy Redeemer. The reason for this timing is so that the Rosary can be prayed up to the start of Mass. If it is prayed 30 minutes before Mass begins, then it would end 10 minutes before Mass begins, and half the Mass-goers who enter the church in the ten minutes before Mass begins, would never even hear a Hail Mary. The Rosary prayed before the start of Mass isn’t just for the people who arrive early to pray the Rosary. It is for those who arrive at the last minute as well, to prepare people spiritually for Mass, and to inspire people to learn and pray outside of the church building. For these reasons, I would like the Rosary that is being prayed at Star of the Sea, to start 20 minutes before Mass begins instead of 30 minutes. And one day, after finding a solution to the musicians playing music in the choir loft before Mass at St. Thomas, to also have it prayed there 20 minutes before the start of Mass.
It is heartening to see so many of you pray at least a little bit of the Rosary in the final minutes before Mass begins. It has been even more heartening to see so many coming early enough to Mass to pray the whole Rosary. I encourage all of you who don’t do so already—especially families with kids—to start getting yourself and the kids ready 30 minutes earlier on Sundays for Mass, so that you can all be settled in a pew before Mass begins to pray the whole Rosary. You and your family will be eternally grateful.
If you don’t know how to pray the Rosary, please take as many “how to” brochures from the churches home with you. That way, everyone at home can have one to learn with or follow along with as well. Of course, you can always go online to find “praying the Rosary” guides. Like me at age 26, make a point of learning the Rosary and strive to pray it daily for the rest of your life: for you, your family, the Church, and the whole world.
Our Lady’s 15 Promises to Those Who Pray the Rosary
From Saint Dominic and Blessed Alan de la Roche
1. Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest Graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against Hell; it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant Mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for Eternal Things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
6. Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the Grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life.
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death, they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.
9. I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary.
12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only Son, Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
May Our Lord and His Blessed Mother Bless You,
Father Thomas Nathe
