As we all know, October is the month dedicated to the holy rosary and it is Respect Life Month. This devotion and this divine mandate as contained in the fifth commandment go together, in October and all year round.
Our Blessed Mother entrusted the rosary to St. Dominic at a time in the Church when a terrible heresy was spreading. The heresy was called Albigensianism, and it was a reincarnation of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism. No matter what the popes and Catholic kings and princes of that time in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries did, this heresy continued to spread. St. Dominic had recently founded a mendicant order to preach, pray and, by good example, combat this heresy and the rosary given him by the Blessed Mother was his best weapon against the wiles of Satan. This heresy was defeated, and thousands returned to the Church through the efforts of St. Dominic and his early companions using the rosary and teaching the people the rosary.
The rosary is a devotional prayer every Catholic should know and pray. It is as easily learned today as it was in St. Dominic’s day and its power is tremendous. Through Our Blessed Mother’s maternal care for us we literally pray our way through the entire life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Like Mary, we join ourselves to Him in every moment of His earthly life and ours.
As I mentioned, October is also Respect Life Month. Our fight to defend life from conception to natural death is not over. We certainly must thank Almighty God for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but now we must pray and work peacefully to ensure that every state will enact laws to protect and defend human life and dignity. When we pray the holy rosary with sincerity and devotion, and do so every day for this intention, we are doing what pleases the Lord. By asking Our Blessed Mother to protect and defend the unborn and their mothers and fathers, to protect the disabled and the elderly, and to defend the most vulnerable among us, she always acts on our behalf and those for whom we pray.
I urge you to make this month of the holy rosary and Respect Life a holy time of prayer and active defense of and support for life. Deus vult!