Oct
07
2017
0
By Anonymous (not verified)
This month we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on Oct. 7. It is an extraordinarily special feast this year as it is the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, who, when she appeared on Oct. 13, 1917, announced herself as "The Lady of the Rosary."
Did you know that St. Faustina had a great devotion to praying the Rosary? Not only that, but after leaving this earthly life on Oct. 5, 1938, St. Faustina's funeral was held on Oct. 7, 1938 - the First Friday of that month and the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Saint Faustina had made it a practice in her religious life to pray five decades of the Rosary every Saturday with her arms outstretched, like Jesus on the Cross (see Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 246). She also often prayed the Rosary for the dying, as her Guardian Angel had prompted her. She wrote in her Diary, "When I went to the garden one afternoon, my Guardian Angel said to me, 'Pray for the dying.' And so I began at once to pray the Rosary with the gardeners for the dying. After the Rosary, we said various prayers for the dying" (314).
Saint Faustina also knew that the Rosary was her spiritual weapon. She wrote in her Diary:
Did you know that St. Faustina had a great devotion to praying the Rosary? Not only that, but after leaving this earthly life on Oct. 5, 1938, St. Faustina's funeral was held on Oct. 7, 1938 - the First Friday of that month and the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Saint Faustina had made it a practice in her religious life to pray five decades of the Rosary every Saturday with her arms outstretched, like Jesus on the Cross (see Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 246). She also often prayed the Rosary for the dying, as her Guardian Angel had prompted her. She wrote in her Diary, "When I went to the garden one afternoon, my Guardian Angel said to me, 'Pray for the dying.' And so I began at once to pray the Rosary with the gardeners for the dying. After the Rosary, we said various prayers for the dying" (314).
Saint Faustina also knew that the Rosary was her spiritual weapon. She wrote in her Diary:
... towards evening I felt very exhausted and could not make my Holy Hour, so I asked Mother Superior to allow me to go to bed early. I fell asleep as soon as I lay down, but at about eleven o'clock Satan shook my bed. I awoke instantly, and I started to pray peacefully to my Guardian Angel. Then I saw the souls who were doing penance in purgatory. They appeared like shadows, and among them I saw many demons. One of these tried to vex me; taking the form of a cat, he kept throwing himself onto my bed and on my feet, and he was quite heavy, as if [weighing] a ton. I kept praying the Rosary all the while, and toward dawn these beings vanished, and I was able to get some sleep. When I entered the chapel in the morning I heard a voice in my soul, "You are united to Me; fear nothing. But know, my child, that Satan hates you; he hates every soul, but he burns with a particular hatred for you, because you have snatched so many souls from his dominion (412).
To the soul who trusts in Jesus, He says, "You are united to Me; fear nothing."
If Satan hates you, it is not a bad thing - rather, it is a very good thing, because it means you are serving the Lord and doing His will. There is no reason to fear Satan hating you, though, as Jesus told St. Faustina. Turn with trust to Jesus and Mary. Turn to them by praying the Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for souls, like children turning to their parents and hiding in their loving arms.
26cr
