The vision of St. Dominic receiving the Rosary from the Virgin by Bernardo Cavallino, c. 1640. Public domain.
The Rosary, given by Our Lady to St. Dominic in a time of heresy, violence, and confusion, is one of Heaven’s mightiest tools, handed to us as a sword and a shield, as a way to plow and till the ground that we scatter the seed of the Word over; as a fishing hook when we serve as fishers of men; as a net to capture those souls who would fly away from the great tree that grew from the mustard seed, the Church.
By Chris Sparks
"My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God" – Our Lady of Fatima to Lucia dos Santos, June 13, 1917.
What CAN we do?
That question keeps appearing on the lips of Catholics almost every day these days. New tragedies, newly committed sins, new natural disasters and trials seem to crop up all the time, now. The world is a hard place for everyone these days, challenging our sense of what’s possible, of what will never be done, of what we all still agree on.
What CAN we do?
“So much death, what can men do against such reckless hate?”
That’s a line in the second movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a question asked by Theoden, king of Rohan, still struggling with the lingering effects of the wizard Saruman’s broken spell. The answer comes to him from one of the clearest Christ-figures in the trilogy: Aragorn, son of Arathorn, the rightful king of the realm of Gondor; a warrior poet like King David; and a great warrior.
The answer, of course, is to fight.
Strategy
But fight how? In what manner? Scripture gives us the answer, a perennial answer, one that has not changed:
For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens (Eph 6:12).
Now, of course, there’s a time to heed the call of the legitimate authorities to take up arms in defense of country. Of course, though the Catholic Tradition permits pacifism from some, it doesn’t demand pacifism from all. Of course, there is a time and place for legitimate self-defense, defense of one’s home, one’s family.
And yet Catholics could usefully give up the physical fight, but can never give up the spiritual fight. We can usefully lay down arms and turn to other duties, or even suffer as martyrs for Christ, His Church, or other good or valuable things, such as the lives or dignity of our fellow human beings. But we can’t set aside our spiritual arms, our spiritual combat with the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Further, the power of prayer is only limited by our sins, our lack of persistence, and our lack of trust. Jesus told St. Faustina: “The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is — trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive” (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1578). Prayer opens the door to the will of God working in power. That will, of course, is often a mystery to us.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways—oracle of the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
my thoughts higher than your thoughts (Is 55:8-9).
Tactics
But to take up a devotion asked for by Heaven in the ways and for the intention Heaven has asked for — that is a powerful, powerful thing to do.
As Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, explains in great detail in Champions of the Rosary: The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon, and in a moving narrative in 10 Wonders of the Rosary, the Rosary, given by Our Lady to St. Dominic (feast day: Aug. 8) in a time of heresy, violence, and confusion, is one of Heaven’s mightiest tools, handed to us as a sword and a shield, as a way to plow and till the ground that we scatter the seed of the Word over; as a fishing hook when we serve as fishers of men; as a net to capture those souls who would fly away from the great tree that grew from the mustard seed, the Church.
The Rosary is the heavenly toolkit with which we can join St. Francis of Assisi in the work to rebuild Christ’s Church, which, as you can see in the West, is falling into ruin. (I feel compelled to add—it’s certainly not falling into ruin around the world! The growth of the Church in Africa, Asia, and Latin America often goes unseen by us living in the West.)
The Rosary is that which gives strength and persuasive power to the brilliant minds of the Dominican Fathers, refuting heresy, preaching sound doctrine, and setting souls ablaze with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
The Rosary is the light shed from Our Lady, the treasury of the Mysteries of the lives of Jesus and Mary, those moments where eternity and time were one, were united in the Incarnation. It is from those Mysteries that all graces flow.
The Rosary is Heaven’s answer to the wars of history, to attacks on Christ and His Church in the long pilgrimage toward the Second Coming, as it was at Lepanto and Vienna, as it was against the Albigensian heresy and as it can be against the heresies and confusions of our own present day.
Answering impossible challenges
The Rosary is a crucial part of Heaven’s answer to our own time, the time described in the message of Fatima, when Our Lady came to Portugal under the title Our Lady of the Rosary. Among the things she asked of the little shepherds who saw her was praying the Rosary daily for peace in the world.
We need peace now more than ever. The power of the remedy of the Rosary has not changed. We are told by the Gospels that prayer is powerful, but it also must be persistent. We must persist in praying the daily Rosary for peace. For how long? At least until the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart. That means the true answer is — for as long as we are alive, or until we see the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart.
Now, August is the month of the Immaculate Heart, and with the Feast of St. Dominic, the wonder-working founder of the Dominican Order and of the Rosary, it's a great time to take up the daily Rosary for peace, if you haven’t already. If you are settled in for the long haul with the daily Rosary for peace, great! Consider how you can continue or grow your devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, the devotion given to us at Fatima as an answer to the errors abroad and subtly dominating our world today. Consider especially starting the First Saturday devotion.
Don’t give up. Don’t be afraid. Pray! Pray, people of God! It’s the most powerful move we can make, and it’s never a last resort. It’s the normal way we should live our lives and approach everything, from the ordinary to the extraordinary, the easy and hard and everything in between. Our lives are meant to be steeped in prayer, ongoing prayer, so that every waking moment is lived in communion with the Love and Life that made the universe, in relationship with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Pray for me, that I might practice what I preach. I’ll pray for you.
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