“Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?”

          Our Lord urges us today to persistence and perseverance in prayer. We probably have all experienced times when this kind of faithfulness is difficult, when God does not seem to hear our prayers, when we are tempted to despair or discouragement.

          It is fitting that we receive this admonition to perseverance in prayer from our Lord in the month in which the Church invites us to a greater love and devotion to our Lady’s Rosary. Throughout history, the Church, especially through the person of the Roman Pontiff (the Pope), has frequently exhorted the Christian faithful to entrust the most difficult and urgent of prayers to God through the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin in the recitation of the Holy Rosary.

          October’s dedication as the month of the Rosary began in 1571. After years of the Muslim Ottoman Turks expanding into Europe, provoking an existential crisis for the Christian West as the Turks threatened more and more of Christian civilization, the Papal States under Pope St. Pius V assembled the Holy League to stop the Turkish advance into Europe. As the Christian fleet confronted the Turks (whose boats were largely manned by enslaved Christians) on October 7^th, the Confraternities of the Rosary throughout the Catholic world lead processions through the streets of their cities, invoking the intercession of the Mother of God for Her Son’s people through the prayer of the Holy Rosary.

          After the Christians’ decisive defeat of the Turkish fleet, St. Pius V declared October 7^th the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, also known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. Over time, the entire month of October became dedicated to the Rosary, as the opportunity for Catholics to renew our practice of this excellent prayer so important to our Catholic identity.

          We also hear today of the importance of Sacred Scripture in St. Paul’s second letter to Timothy: “from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The Rosary is a scriptural prayer, with the Our Father taught by our Lord Himself in the Gospels, and the Hail Mary that begins with the Gabriel’s salutation and Elizabeth’s joyful greeting of Mary from St. Luke’s Gospel. Many likely also know that the 150 Hail Marys of the original “full rosary” (the Glorious, Joyful, and Sorrowful Mysteries) parallel the 150 Psalms that structured the life of the first great masters of prayer, the monks.

          When people ask what the Rosary is, we could start by explaining how it is prayed: one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, etc. But it is better to foreground the why of the Rosary: The Rosary is a way of meditating on the mysteries of the life of Christ and other important events in the history of salvation, as seen through the eyes of the human person who knew Him best, His Mother. Who, after all, was closer to Him? Who was more profoundly affected by His conception, birth, Passion, death, and Resurrection than She was?

          The Rosary, then, leads us to encounter Christ in the Scriptures. It is a first taste of the richness to be found in praying with the Word of God, especially in the practice of lectio divina – divine reading – in which we read and meditate on Sacred Scripture. Our prayer of the Rosary likewise becomes deeper and more impactful when we read and pray with the Scriptures, these two forms of prayer mutually enriching and deepening each other. It is no surprise that the most practiced in prayer with the Scriptures, monks and nuns who devote hours each day to reading and contemplating God’s word, also pray the Rosary. Their prayer of the Rosary is deeper because of their prayer with the Scriptures, and their reading of the Scriptures is more heart-felt and personal as a result of the time spent praying the Rosary.

In the words of Pope Pius XII, “the recitation of identical formulas, repeated so many times, rather than rendering the [Rosary] sterile and boring, has on the contrary the admirable quality of infusing confidence in him who prays, and brings to bear a gentle compulsion on the motherly heart of Mary” (Ingravescentibus malis). “Infusing confidence in [the one] who prays.” When we pray the Rosary faithfully (every day), we become like the woman commended by our Lord in the Gospel whose persistence is nourished by her confidence in the justice of her cause.

This woman must have been quite a force to be reconned with. The judge reasons, “I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.” Sometimes, we might come to prayer, including the prayer of the Rosary, with the frustration of one who seems ready to strike. Other times we come meekly, as one ready to collapse. In whatever spirit you find yourself, pray the Rosary regardless. In this beautiful manifestation of the closeness of Christ and His Mother, the one ready to strike will find a new perspective, and the weary will find consolation and the strength to go on.

Our Lord also commends praying together as Christians, and we know that the Blessed Mother Herself in Her different apparitions has commended praying the Rosary in common, just as the Popes have encouraged its prayer together as a family. The Rosary is a great way for us to pray together. For couples or families who are not yet comfortable with praying spontaneously together, the Rosary is especially helpful as a way to pray together as a family.

As Moses prayed for Joshua and his troops in the battle against the Amalekites, he grew weary, and so Aaron and Hur supported his hands as he interceded for the Israelites. We likewise need people to hold up our hands in prayer. We need accountability in our fidelity to our commitment to prayer. And when we pray with others, they hold up our hands and help us to persevere amidst doubts and weariness, and we do the same for them. Even when we do pray the Rosary on our own, all the saints who have loved this devotion so tenderly, pray along with us in the Communion of the Saints, propping up our prayers in their spiritual friendship.

          It is no accident that the Month of the Rosary falls right before the Month of the Poor Souls in Purgatory. Holy Mother Church so earnestly recommends the prayer of the Holy Rosary that She attaches indulgences to its intercession, so that any time we pray the Holy Rosary in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament or together with others, if we fulfill the “usual conditions” for an indulgence (prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father, sacramental confession and communion, and complete detachment from sin), we have the chance to liberate a soul from Purgatory to behold the Lord in Heaven.

          The rosary, then, is our chance to pray without ceasing, to hold up each other’s hands in our families and our communities, to be buoyed along by the prayers of all the saints who have prayed the Rosary for centuries, to be lead into a greater love for Christ in the Scriptures and victory of sin and temptation just as the Rosary lead the Holy League in saving the Christian West. May our renewed devotion to our Lady’s Rosary lead us to a greater love of the mysteries of Christ’s life, so that we might imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Rev. Royce V. Gregerson

Parish Church of Our Lady of Good Hope, Fort Wayne

XXIX Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXV