From the Desk of Father Nathan

A Message from Father Nathan

My dearest people closest to my heart!

God bless you and your generous heart.

the Feast of Our Lady of Rosary

October 7

This week we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Rosary. The rosary has been a popular, scripturally-based set of prayers invoking Mary’s intercession since the Middle Ages.

The Origins of the Rosary

The most widely accepted legend of the rosary’s origins holds that Mary appeared to St. Dominic when he was struggling with preaching in the early 13th century and instructed him in this new prayer practice. In the apparition, Mary told him to encourage people to pray the rosary, and Dominic found subsequent great success in his preaching once he began spreading this devotion.

Given that the earliest recordings of this story dates from three hundred year after these events supposedly took place, the legend of Mary’’s appearance to Dominic is highly apocryphal. But it is true that the rosary grew in prominence in popular piety through the protection and support of Dominic and his Dominican friars.

Why is the rosary such a fitting Marian devotion?

In its essence, the rosary is a marriage of scriptural meditation and formulaic, repetitive prayers, whose aim is to facilitate the prayer practitioner’s contemplation of the events of salvation history narrated in Scripture. The prayer in their accompanying “mysteries” allows those who pray them to meditate on the events of salvation history that occurred in Mary’s and Jesus’ lives.

prayerful contemplation

This prayerful contemplation of God’s actions imitates Mary’s disposition of openness to God’s will (Lk 1:38) and continual pondering of God’s actions in her life (LK 2:19). Thus, the rosary is the Marian devotion par excellence, as it aims to instill in the devotee the very disposition of the Marian figure her or she contemplates in prayer.

Pope Pius instituted a feast day for Our Lady of Victory, Now known as the Feast of Our Lady of The Rosary

October 7th was chosen as the feast for celebrating Mary as Our Lady of the Rosary due to her intercession for the European naval forces in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Originally, Mary was honored today under the title “Our Lady of Victory”, to celebrate the aid she gave to the European navy. For on the day of the battle, Pope Pius V called upon Christians all over Europe to pray the rosary in anticipation of the cataclysmic naval battle, asking for Mary’s intercession in battle. After the victory Pope Pius instituted a feast day to Our Lady of Victory, commemorating the power of the rosary in obtaining Mary’s intercession. Three years later, the name of this feast was changed to Our Lady of the Rosary, and its’ presence in October led the entire month of October to be celebrated by many Catholics as the month of the rosary.

With lots of love and blessings.

Ever wanting to be faithful to your service,

— Fr. Sahayanathan Nathan