Each year, the month of October is dedicated to the Most Holy Rosary. This is primarily due to the fact that the liturgical feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is celebrated annually on October 7th. It was instituted to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary in gratitude for the protection she gives to the Church in answer to those who pray the Rosary.
Pope St. Pius V was instrumental in introducing this feast in commemoration to the miraculous victory of the Christian forces in the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. The pope attributed the victory more to the power of the Rosary than the power of cannons and the valor of the soldiers who fought there.
Dominican tradition tells us that the rosary was given to St. Dominic in an apparition by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the 12th century, in the church of Prouille, as a form of prayer to aid in the conflicts with the Albigensians, who were heretics from southern France believing that inside the essentially evil human bodies, the spirits of the angels dwelled who were trapped in their flesh cages.
However, it was St. Pius V who did much to further the spread of the Rosary and thereafter, became one of the most popular devotions in the Catholic Church. In fact, in 1569, he officially approved the Rosary in its present form with the Papal Bull, Consueverunt Romani Pontifices (the essence of the rosary's present configuration).
The Rosary is primarily a scriptural prayer. It is a compendium of the entire Gospel as Pope Pius XII said (AAS 38 [1946] p. 419). It draws its mysteries from the New Testament and is centered on the great events of the Incarnation and Redemption.
St. Pope John Paul II called the Rosary his favorite prayer, in which we meditate with Mary upon the mysteries which she, as a mother, meditated on in her heart (Lk. 2:19).
During the month of October, let us consider this beautiful prayer of the Rosary as a means that we, too, can use in order to draw us closer to Jesus and Mary by meditating on the great mysteries of our salvation.
On Monday, October 7th, the feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, I invite you to join us in praying the rosary in the prayer garden at 6:30 P.M., led by the Christian Mothers.