Mary TV Daily Reflection 10/7/2011

October 7, 2011

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Feast of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

Dear Family of Mary!

 

"Dear children! Today, like never before, I invite you to prayer. Let your prayer be a prayer for peace. Satan is strong and desires to destroy not only human life, but also nature and the planet on which you live. Therefore, dear children, pray that through prayer you can protect yourselves with God's blessing of peace. God has sent me among you so that I may help you. If you so wish, grasp for the rosary. Even the rosary alone can work miracles in the world and in your lives. I bless you and I remain with you for as long as it is God's will. Thank you for not betraying my presence here and I thank you because your response is serving the good and the peace."

 (January 25, 1991)

 

On this beautiful feast, let's listen to Blessed John Paul II speak from his heart about the Rosary. I quote here from his Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae. No one understood better than Blessed John Paul II how peace hangs in the balance in our day. And no one comprehended more completely how that balance is in the hands of the Blessed

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Virgin Mary. And her hands are empowered by our Rosaries, prayed from the heart. The Rosary is the perfect tool, because not only does it provide intercession for the world, but it transforms those who employ it. We are changed as we pray and the world is changed as well. Blessed John Paul II wrote:

 

40. The grave challenges confronting the world at the start of this new Millennium lead us to think that only an intervention from on high, capable of guiding the hearts of those living in situations of conflict and those governing the destinies of nations, can give reason to hope for a brighter future.

 

The Rosary is by its nature a prayer for peace, 

since it consists in the contemplation of Christ, the Prince of Peace, the one who is "our peace" (Eph. 2:14). Anyone who assimilates the mystery of Christ - and this is clearly the goal of the Rosary - learns the secret of peace and makes it his life's project. Moreover, by virtue of its meditative character, with the tranquil succession of Hail Marys, the Rosary has a peaceful effect on those who pray it, disposing them to receive and experience in their innermost depths, and to spread around them, that true peace which is the special gift of the risen Lord (cf. Jn 14:27; 20:21).

 

The Rosary is also a prayer for peace because of the fruits of charity that it produces. When prayed well in a truly meditative way, the Rosary leads to an encounter with Christ in his mysteries and so cannot fail to draw attention to the face of Christ in others, especially in the most afflicted. How could one possibly contemplate the mystery of the Child of Bethlehem, in the joyful mysteries, without experiencing the desire to welcome, defend and promote life, and to shoulder the burdens of suffering children all over the world? How could one possibly follow in the footsteps of Christ the Revealer, in the mysteries of light, without resolving to bear witness to His "Beatitudes" in daily life? And how could one contemplate Christ carrying the Cross and Christ Crucified, without feeling the need to act as a "Simon of Cyrene" for our brothers and sisters weighed down by grief or crushed by despair? Finally, how could one possibly gaze upon

Image by Lawrence OP via Flickr

the glory of the Risen Christ or of Mary Queen of Heaven, without yearning to make this world more beautiful, more just, more closely conformed to God's plan?

 

In a word, by focusing our eyes on Christ, the Rosary also makes us peacemakers in the world. By its nature as an insistent choral petition in harmony with Christ's invitation to "pray ceaselessly" (Lk 18:1), the Rosary allows us to hope that, even today, the difficult "battle" for peace can be won. Far from offering an escape from the problems of the world, the Rosary obliges us to see them with responsible and generous eyes, and obtains for us the strength to face them with the certainty of God's help and the firm intention of bearing witness in every situation to "love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Col 3:14). (John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae. N.40)

 

Blessed John Paul II, pray for us! Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us!

 

In Jesus and Mary!

Cathy Nolan

 

P.S. Please pray for Mary TV as we begin to prepare for the live streaming from Vienna on November 17, 2011 at St. Stephen's Cathedral, with visionaries from Medjugorje. We will keep you updated as to the schedule!

 

 

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