The Holy Rosary

Welcome to the podcast for the Christ by the Sea Catholic Collaborative for the parishes of St. Mary of the Assumption in Hull and St. Anthony of Padua in Cohasset. October is the month of the Most Holy Rosary. We're going to talk about that in just a second, but first some reminders of some upcoming events at both of the parishes.

There is going to be an annual Mass of Remembrance. This is where we remember and honor those who have died in the past year. Now, we're going to have that on Sunday, November 5th. And at St. Mary, it's going to be at the 10 a. m. Mass. And at St. Anthony, it's going to be at the 1130 a. m. Mass. That's our annual day of remembrance.

Also coming up in early November is National Vocations Awareness Week. It's going to be the week of November 5th. We always need more vocations to the priesthood. And we're going to have a Eucharistic Holy Hour to pray for vocations. We're going to have that Monday, November 6th at 6 o'clock at St. Anthony.

Tuesday, November 7th at 9 a. m. at St. Anne and then again on Friday, November 10th at St. Anthony after the 7. 30 a. m. Mass. National Vocations Awareness Week. Also a Rosary for Vocations is going to be Thursday, November 9th. That'll be At 8 30, that's before the 9 a. m. Mass at St. Anne. Now what is National Vocations Awareness Week? Well, actually it's something that started in 1976. When the bishops of the United States decided to designate the 28th Sunday of the year to begin national vocations awareness. And what it's designed to do is promote vocations, as we mentioned, to the priesthood, but also to the diaconate and the consecrated life through prayer and education.

And we renew ourselves in asking the Lord to send us more. Priests, deacons, and those who want to enter the religious life. Now, one more special event to tell you about, and that's the Barbara O'Brien Memorial Fish Fry. That will be Thursday, November 9th from noon to 8 p. m. at Jake's Seafood. Well, October is the month of the Holy Rosary.

And we know that the Rosary is one of the most popular devotions in the Catholic Church. St. John Paul II called the Rosary, His favorite prayer. Now the reason the church dedicates the entire month to the rosary is because during the month There's a feast day our lady of the rosary that actually Happened a few days ago back on october 7th.

Now the feast day was instituted by pope saint pius the 10th to commemorate The victory of christian forces in the battle of lepanto and he put that feast day on the calendar way back in 1571, so it's been part of the church's liturgical calendar for, uh, nearly 500 years. And he did that because he actually attributed more of the power of the rosary in winning that battle.

The rosary brought them more power than actually the cannons. Now we go way back to the 12th century for the story of how the rosary first came into the church. That the Blessed Virgin Mary gave the rosary as a form of prayer to Saint Dominic. Now, in the 16th century, as we mentioned, St. Pius X put this feast day on the calendar.

He also came out with something called a papal bull. This is like an official decree from the Pope, and I will not try to pronounce that in Latin, but what he did in that document was officially approve the rosary as we know it today in its current form. Um, it had been completed by adding the second half of the Hail Mary, which is Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. And also, adding the glory bead to the father at the conclusion of each mystery. Now as the Middle Ages went on, um, at monasteries, it, it came into use. You see, priests and monks pray, and deacons pray, something called the Liturgy of the Hours, the Divine Office But there were lay monks and devout lay people around monasteries who did not know how to read. They couldn't do the Divine Office. They couldn't pray the Liturgy of the Hours. So instead of doing 150 psalms, they would pray 150 Our Fathers and count them on a string of beads. An Ismarian devotion developed in the church.

It became common to substitute 150 Hail Marys for the rosary in place of the Our Fathers. Now, they were eventually subdivided into the decades we know, the 15 decades, by a Dominican friar. And of course, each decade, had to do with an event in the life of Jesus and Mary. Another Dominican in the 13th century would further divide the episodes in the history of salvation into what we know as the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries.

Now, Pope Leo XIII was a strong believer in the Rosary. He wanted to increase devotion to the Blessed Mother. So he is the one that, because of the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7th, wanted that to be part of the entire month of October. And so he had a papal document that he wrote. He actually wrote 11 encyclicals on the Rosary. So, Pope Leo XIII is a reason that the entire month in the Catholic Church is dedicated To the rosary. Now in 2002, St. John Paul II wrote his own document on the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary and he introduced, he proposed another set of mysteries, the luminous mysteries and of course we know them, what they are today. They are the baptism of Christ, the miracle at the wedding of Cana, The Proclamation of the Gospel, the Transfiguration, and the Institution of the Eucharist. In the opening words of this document, he talked about that the Rosary is Marian in character of course, but at the heart it is Christocentric.

Now if you love the Rosary, um, you might want to just Google that document, um, John Paul II, uh, Rosary. 2002, if you Google that, it will bring up the document again. It's one of those long Latin names, but it's very beautifully talks about the rosary, uh, the history of the rosary and how it is a path of contemplation.

It is contemplating Christ with Mary. So throughout the month of October, rededicate yourself. If you maybe have slipped away from, from doing the rosary on a regular basis, if it's one of the devotions, you've you've done in your, in your Catholic life, uh, consider setting aside a time every day, or maybe every week at least, and pray the mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary.

The Rosary is a powerful prayer for everyone. It is a meditation on the life of Jesus and Mary. And a way to draw closer to God and to pray for your loved ones. The rosary is a simple prayer, but it is also a profound one. It can help you to reflect on the mysteries of our salvation and to learn more about the love of God.

Pray the rosary today. and experience the power of this beautiful prayer. Thanks for listening to the podcast with the Christ by the Sea Catholic Collaborative for St. Mary of the Assumption in Hull and St. Anthony of Padua in Cohasset. Don't forget about our annual Masses of Remembrance on Sunday, November 5th, 10 a.m. at St. Mary and 1130 a. m. at St. Anthony.

This has been a production of the Parish Podcast Project.