Please Add to your Daily Rosary intentions, for the Love of God

NATIONAL ROSARY CRUSADE  

If My people, who are called by My Name, humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14

It is certain that America is at the most crucial moment of her history. At this time we would do well to keep in mind the power of the Rosary and the message of Fatima. The Rosary is not merely a devotion, it is a weapon. Never has this weapon been more needed than it is today.

rosary (Photo credit: Muffet)

The Rosary has proven itself as a weapon of protection. Some of the battles in which victory was attributed to the Rosary are: The battle of Lepanto in 1571, which the Church commemorates on October 7th as the feast of the Holy Rosary; the battle of Vienna in 1683 and the battle of Belgrade in 1716. These battles were won against all odds by the power of the Rosary. In each instance Europe was saved from the forces of Mohammed.

In the 20th century we have witnessed many examples of Rosary victories. After WWII, the Allies partitioned Austria into four zones. The Russians were in control of the most important section; Moscow, interested in maintaining its control in Austria, garrisoned a very large number of troops there.
It was then that a Franciscan priest, Fr. Petrus Pavlicek began a Rosary Crusade to save Austria. The Communists tried many times to take complete control but were not successful. In the meantime Fr. Petrus continued recruiting more members for the crusade. By April 1955 the crusade had 500,000 members. The Chancellor of Austria was summoned to Moscow, and was received on May 13th. He wrote: Today, a day of Fatima, the Russians are still hardened. Pray to the Mother of God that she aid the Austrian people. It seemed all was lost, but it was at this moment that God intervened. In May
1955, there was a miracle, the Russians suddenly granted independence to Austria. During the thanksgiving ceremony in Vienna all the speeches attributed the victory to the Virgin of the Rosary.

In 1964 Brazil came under 

 

Father Patrick Peyton, CSC in the Philippines, shaking hands with Filipinos who gathered for the Rosary Rally in the Archdiocese of Manila in 1953 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Communist control and it was quite probable that all of South America would fall. Fr. Patrick Peyton had been organizing the Family Rosary Crusade in Brazil and during that time more than 5.5 million people attended. Once again the Rosary was victorious. The civil and military chiefs of the liberators were almost unanimous in attributing the victory to Our Lady of the Rosary.

On April 25, 1974 the Communists came to power in Portugal. Four teachers launched a National Rosary Crusade and obtained pledges of a million Rosaries. In November of 1975, without bloodshed, the Communists relinquished their power. Those four teachers founded a new religious order known as Alianca de Santa Maria (the Alliance of Holy Mary), which continues to promote the Rosary, in Portugal and abroad.

In 1952 Bishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote The World’s First Love, a beautiful book about Our Lady. It includes a prophetic chapter titled Mary and the Muslims, which is included with this article. Bishop Sheen makes it very clear that it is no mere accident that the Blessed Mother, in the 20th century, should have revealed herself in the little village of Fatima, so that to all future generations she would be known as Our Lady of Fatima. Fatima was the name of Mohammed’s daughter. Bishop Sheen believed that
Our Lady of Fatima would convert the Muslims. We believe she is our only hope for the United States and the world.

The culture of death has gained significant control in our political affairs in recent years. It is obvious that we cannot overcome this evil on our own. Politically speaking we are in the minority. That should not discourage us because God always works with minorities. When victory comes, there will be no doubt that it is the result of the power of God, not the actions of men.

We are now engaged in a war against worldwide terrorism perpetrated by those who profess to be Muslims - disciples of Mohammed. The fact that our culture has surrendered so many of its core Christian values to the Culture of Death fuels their determination to convert or destroy us. For that reason, we must take up our most powerful weapon: the Rosary. It has saved us in the past and it can save us now. We must ask Mary for the grace to convert our enemies and ourselves. Our prayers and
the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will help to establish the reign of Christ the King.

Original logo of the Family Rosary Crusade used until 2001 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On November 9, 1976, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) said: We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the Anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel.

It is time to launch a National Rosary Crusade to save America and the world. If you are moved to pledge one Rosary a day, for the conversion of America and the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, please fill out the form below and mail it to us. That way we can keep track of the number of people making pledges. Also, please feel free to make copies of these materials and pass them on to your family and friends. If you have a computer you can check out the web site:www.nationalrosarycrusade.com. 

 

Please direct questions to the P O Box below or our email address at
questions@nationalrosarycrusade.com or rosary4usa@yahoo.com. With Our Lady’s help we can bring about another great Rosary victory!

Amar A Dios,

Carole Duncan, Jeannine Eason
National Rosary Crusade, 1370 Trancas Street, Box 355, Napa, CA 94558-2912
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NATIONAL ROSARY CRUSADE PLEDGE
On this day I pledge to join the National Rosary Crusade by praying five decades of the Rosary
every day to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in reparation for my sins and the sins of America. If you
are already praying a rosary a day, just add the intentions of the National Rosary Crusade to that
rosary.
Mail to:
Signature ________________________ Date _________ National Rosary Crusade
[ ] Individual [ ] Family: Number of 1370 Trancas St., Box 355
Members Napa, CA 94558-2912  

Mary and the Muslims

by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Muslimism is the only great post-Christian religion of the world. Because it had its origin in the 7th century under Mohammed, it was possible to unite within it some elements of Christianity and of Judaism, along with particular customs of Arabia. Muslimism takes the doctrine of the unity of

Cover of The World's First Love

God, his majesty and his creative power, and uses it, in part, as a basis for the repudiation of Christ, the Son of God. Misunderstanding the notion of the Trinity, Mohammed made Christ a prophet announcing himself (Mohammed) just as to Christians, Isaiah and John the Baptist are prophets announcing Christ.

The Christian European West barely escaped destruction at the hands of the Muslims. At one point they were stopped near Tours and at another point, later on in time, outside the gates of Vienna . The Church throughout northern Africa was practically destroyed by Muslim power, and at the present hour, the Moslems are beginning to rise again.

If Muslimism is a heresy, as Hilaire Belloc believes it to be, it is the only heresy that has never declined. Others have had a moment of vigor, then gone into doctrinal decay at the death of the leader, and finally evaporated in a vague social movement. Muslimism, on the contrary, has only had its first phase. There was never a time in which it declined, either in numbers, or in the devotion of its followers.

The missionary effort of the Church toward this group has been, at least on the surface, a failure. For the Muslims are so far almost unconvertible. The reason is that for a follower of Mohammed to become a Christian is much like a Christian becoming a Jew. The Muslims believe that they have the final and definitive revelation of God to the world and that Christ was only a prophet announcing Mohammed, the last of God's real prophets.

At the present time, the hatred of the Muslim countries against the West is becoming a hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return, and with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world power. Muslim writers say, "When the locust swarms darken countries, they bear on their wings these Arabic words: We are God's host, each of us has ninety-nine eggs, and if we had a hundred, we should lay waste the world, with all that is in it."

The problem is how shall we prevent the hatching of the hundredth egg? It is our firm belief that the fears some entertain concerning the Muslims are not to realized, but that Muslimism, instead, will eventually be converted to Christianity--and in a way that even some of our missionaries never suspect. It is our belief that this will happen not through the direct teachings of Christianity, but through a summoning of the Muslims to a veneration of the Mother of God. This is the line of argument:

MARY 
The Qu'ran, which is the Bible for the Muslims, has many passages concerning the Blessed Virgin. First of all, the Qu'ran believes in her Immaculate Conception, and also in her Virgin Birth. The third chapter of the Qu'ran places the history of Mary's family in a genealogy which goes back through Abraham, Noah, and Adam. When one compares the Qu'ran's description of the birth of Mary with the apocryphal Gospel of the birth of Mary, one is tempted to believe that Mohammed very much depended upon the latter. Both books describe the old age and the definite sterility of the mother of Mary. When, however, she conceives, the mother of Mary is made to say in the Qu'ran: "O Lord, I vow and I consecrate to you what is already within me. Accept it from me."

When Mary is born, the mother says: And I consecrate her with all of her posterity under thy protection, O Lord, against Satan!"

The Qu'ran passes over Joseph in the life of Mary, but the Muslim tradition knows his name and has some familiarity with him. In this tradition, Joseph is made to speak to Mary, who is a virgin. As he inquired how she conceived Jesus without a father, Mary answered:

Do you not know that God, when he created the wheat had no need of seed, and that God by his power made the trees grow without the help of rain? All that God had to do was to say, 'So be it, and it was done.'

The Qu'ran was also verses on the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity. Angels are pictured as accompanying the Blessed Mother and saying: "Oh, Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and elected you above all the women of the earth." In the nineteenth chapter of the Qu'ran there are 41 verses on Jesus and Mary. There is such a strong defense of the virginity of Mary here that the Qu'ran, in the fourth book, attributed the condemnation of the Jews to their monstrous calumny against the Virgin Mary.

FATIMA 
Mary, then, is for the Muslims the true Sayyida, or Lady. The only possible serious rival to her in their creed would be Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed himself. But after the death of Fatima, Mohammed wrote: "Thou shalt be the most blessed of all women in Paradise, after Mary." In a variation of the text, Fatima is made to say, "I surpass all the women, except Mary."

This brings us to our second point: namely, why the Blessed Mother, in the 20th century, should have revealed herself in the insignificant little village of Fatima, so that to all future generations she would be known as "Our Lady of Fatima." Since nothing ever happens out of Heaven except with a finesse of all details, I believe that the blessed Virgin chose to be known as "Our Lady of Fatima" as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Muslim people, and as an assurance that they, who show her so much respect, will one day accept her divine Son too.

Evidence to support these views is found in the historical fact that the Muslims occupied Portugal for centuries. At the time when they were finally driven out, the last Muslim chief had a beautiful daughter by the name of Fatima. A Catholic boy fell in love with her, and for him she not only stayed behind when the Muslims left, but even embraced the faith. The young husband was so much in love with her that he changed the name of the town where he lived to Fatima. Thus, the very place where our lady appeared in 1917 bears a historical connection to Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed.

The final evidence of the relationship of Fatima to the Muslims is the enthusiastic reception which the Muslims in Africa, India, and elsewhere gave to the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Muslims attended the church services in honor of our Lady, they allowed religious processions and even prayers before their mosques; and in Mozambique, the Muslims who were unconverted, began to be Christian as soon as the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was erected.

MISSIONARIES 
Missionaries in the future will, more and more, see that their apostolate among the Muslims will be successful in the measure that they preach Our Lady of Fatima. Mary is the advent of Christ, bringing Christ to the people before Christ himself is born. In an apologetic endeavor, it is always best to start with that which people already accept. Because the Muslims have a devotion to Mary, our missionaries should be satisfied merely to expand and to develop that devotion, with the full realization that Our Blessed Lady will carry the Muslims the rest of the way to her divine Son. She is forever a "traitor," in the sense that she will not accept any devotion for herself, but will always bring anyone who is devoted to her to her divine Son. As those who lose devotion to her lose belief in the divinity of Christ, so those who intensify devotion to her gradually acquire that belief.

Many of our great missionaries in Africa have already broken down the bitter hatred and prejudices of the Muslims against the Christians through their acts of charity, their schools and hospitals. It now remains to use another approach, namely, that of taking the 41st chapter of the Qu'ran and showing them that it was taken out of the Gospel of Luke, that Mary could not be, even in their own eyes, the most blessed of all the women of Heaven if she had not also borne One who was the Savior of the world. If Judith and Esther of the Old Testament were pre-figures of Mary, then it may very well be that Fatima herself was a post-figure of Mary! The Muslims should be prepared to acknowledge that, if Fatima must give way in honor to the Blessed Mother, it is because she is different from all the other mothers of the world and that without Christ she would be nothing.

[Excerpt from The World's First Love by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
available through Ignatius Press. Printed with permission.]

 

 

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