29th Sunday Rosary & Persevering in Prayer

 

Today’s readings cause us to reflect upon persistent prayer. The story from the book of Exodus, when understood as being symbolic of prayer, shows us that if we keep praying and do not give up, our prayers will be answered. The Israelites battled against the Amalek, who waged war against them. During the battle, when Moses raised his hands, God’s strength and power would be given to the Israelites. But when Moses lowered his hands, the enemy would begin to win. When we raise our hands in prayer, God’s blessings and graces are with us. But when we lower our hands in prayer, because we give up—we lose God’s graces.

This is analogous of praying the Rosary, and so to speak, holding up our hands in prayer for a specific intention.

Some people accuse Catholics of vain repetition when we pray the Rosary, because all they hear are the repeated Hail Marys. But, what they don’t realize is we are meditating on the mystery and when we pray the Hail Marys and Our Fathers we are doing it in love.

Have you ever got tired of telling your spouse, “I love you”? Of course not. So it is with prayer. God never tires of hearing our prayers and we should never tire of praying-- because we love Him, even if we don’t get what we want, when we want it.

God never tires of the angels in heaven repeatedly singing to Him. The book of Revelation describes four living creatures who, day and night, ceaselessly say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." (Revelation 4:8)

Pope John Paul II in his encyclical “Rosary of the Virgin Mary”, said, “The rosary is nothing more than to contemplate with Mary, the face of Christ.” When we pray the Rosary we pray it in two ways. First, we pray with vocal prayers, as we recite the Our Fathers and the Hail Marys. But second, as we pray the vocal prayers, we also meditate on the life of Jesus and Mary in the mysteries we contemplate. For example, if we meditate on the Birth of Jesus praying the Our Father and 10 Hail Marys, we think about His birth in Bethlehem. In our heart--- we see the face of the Infant Jesus, as Mary holds Him in Her arms and lays Him in a manger.

In the first reading, Joshua mowed down Amalek and his army with the edge of the sword because Moses’ hands were lifted in prayer, so as to defeat the enemy.

Today, what is this sword, with regard to prayer? Do you remember when Boko Ha-ram kidnapped all those girls in Africa? The bishop of that diocese didn’t know what to do, so he went before Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration and begged the Lord to help him. Jesus came out of the Eucharistic Host, and Our Lord handed the bishop a sword. The bishop was astonished and reached and took the sword and when he grabbed it, it suddenly turned into a large Rosary. Jesus then said to the Bishop, “Boko Haram is gone. Boko Haram is gone. Boko Haram is gone.” After this experience, the bishop told the people his diocese to pray the Rosary as a weapon against Boko Haram and Boko Haram slowly returned the girls on their own. The Rosary overcame this terrible evil.

St. Padre Pio said, “The Rosary is the weapon for these times. Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother.”

The Rosary has helped win wars. In 1213, the Battle of Muret was won by the Rosary. 800 crusaders were outnumbered by 20,000 heretics. Catholics spent the night praying the rosary. In the morning all went to confession and received Holy Communion. During the battle St. Dominic prayed before a statue of Mary in a nearby church. The opposing army indulged in a night of drunkenness and debauchery. The following day, the Catholics won the war.

On October 7 of 1571 was the Battle of Lepanto off the Italian coast. Before the battle, all 81,000 sailors confessed & received Holy Communion. From the Ottoman Empire 274 Muslim ships outnumbered 208 Christian ships. Pope Saint Pius V asked all Catholics to pray the Holy Rosary. On the day of the battle the wind shifted causing the Catholics to handily beat the Muslims saving Europe from an invasion.

Our Lady of Fatima said if people do not cease offending God, a worse war (World War II) will break out. She said Russia will spread her errors causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. Sister Lucia said Russia’s errors involve atheistic communism. At every apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917, She asked the three children to pray the Rosary. It is clear to many Communism is spreading throughout the world today including here in our own country. A communist is running for mayor of New York City and many socialist and Marxist politicians have gained office.

On Sunday, in Wichita, the Diocese is holding a Family Rosary Rally at St. Catherine parish at 3pm. Our own Dave and Emily Leonard will speak about how the Rosary helped Molly when she was in the hospital. April Owens will testify how her atheist brother came back to God and received the Last Rites due to the Rosary and how the Rosary caused her mother to go Confession and her father to become Catholic. Kate and Jared Reichenberger will testify that when the family prayed the Rosary every night, their daughter prayed for a baby sister for six years, and how the Rosary helped them conceive their youngest child. Angie Marlett will give witness to how the Rosary keeps her sober from her alcohol addiction. Alex and Erin Flood were Protestants after watching a movie on Fatima, they began to pray the Rosary as a family, which led them to become Catholic.

The Rosary helped convert a satanist, Bartolo Longo. He was raised Catholic, but fell away from the Church and became a satanic priest. He eventually went to Confession, but fell into despair. He said, “I experienced a deep sense of despair and almost committed suicide. Then I heard an echo in my ear of the voice of Friar Alberto repeating the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary: ‘One who propagates my rosary shall be saved.’ Falling to my knees, I exclaimed: ‘If your words are true that he who propagates your rosary will be saved, I shall reach salvation because I shall not leave this earth without propagating your rosary.” From that moment, Bartolo Longo’s life was consumed with devotion to Our Lady and Her Rosary. He began to spread the Rosary wherever he could – preaching missions, giving out rosaries, teaching others to pray it, and encouraging public processions and recitations of the Rosary in areas where the faith had grown cold. He understood the Rosary not only as a private devotion but as a public proclamation of the truths of the Faith. He built the world’s largest basilica dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, Italy.

Pope Leo XIII was elected on May 8^th, the anniversary of the feast of Our Lady of Pompeii. Today, by divine providence, the same day as the Family Rosary Rally, Bartolo Longo, was canonized and made a saint by Pope Leo. Saint Bartolo and St. Preca influenced St. Pope John Paul II to add the Luminous mysteries to the Rosary.

There is no better way to be persistent in prayer then by repeatedly praying the Hail Mary while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary and God will answer our prayer because He loves when we pray with love to His Mother asking Her to pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

Saint Bartolo Longo once said, “Oh, if only I could have an immense voice so as to invite all the sinners of the world to love the Rosary of Mary!”

My friends, what we need to do is pray the Rosary every day with your family and pray it when you make your Holy Hour, for by doing so, we will mow down the enemy, Satan and his evil spirits, by the power of the Holy Rosary. Our country and the world will become free of atheistic communism.

And our country and the world will become free of atheistic communism.