Whenever Our Lady has appeared on earth, whether at Fatima, in Lourdes, or to our holy father St Dominic in 1208, she has told us to pray the Holy Rosary. 

On the 13th May 1917, Our Lady appeared on a small Holm Oak tree to three little shepherds in the Cova da Iria in Fatima. She asked the children to pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world, and the end of war. As such, the Holy Rosary must not remain an ornament, or a sentimental gift, or a pretty necklace that hangs by our bed. It must be taken in our hands, just as Our Lady does. Mary leads us, and asks us all of us to pray the Rosary every day, just as she asked the little children. When Lucia, the older of the three shepherd children, asks if Francisco will also go to heaven, our Lady replies “He will go there too, but he must say many Rosaries.” 

In October 1917, Our Lady says: “I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue to pray the Rosary every day.” So many times, Our Lady gives us this instruction in her various apparitions throughout the world. Why pray the Rosary, because Our Blessed Mother knows what is best for every single one of us, and as every mother, she wants the best for her children. Mother Mary told us to pray the rosary every day. The Rosary is not a set of beads, not just a set of Biblical meditations, but above all, a means of prayer. It has to be prayed, which means that it connects us to God, who is the object of our prayers. Mary guided Sr Lucia and conversed with her. Mary is conversing with us too and guiding us to Jesus whenever we pray the Rosary. 

In 1208, St Dominic had the privilege of being the first person to receive the prayers of the Rosary from Mary. He learned how to pray the Rosary, and thus how to ponder the mysteries of Christ’s incarnation, his life, his saving work. Our Lady came to St Dominic in a dream, and she told him that the Rosary is the “weapon, the Holy Trinity wants to use to reform the world”. In other words, God wills that the renewal of the world, the turning away from sin and violence and hatred, should happen through a prayerful meditation on the truth and light of the Gospel. Indeed, Our Lady repeatedly promises that God will convert hearts and transform the world through the Rosary for the Rosary is a proclamation of the saving works of God through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. 

Hence Mary told St Dominic, “In this kind of spiritual warfare, the principal weapon has always been the ‘Our Father’ and the ‘Hail Mary’, which are the foundation-stone of the New Testament.” What this means is that the essence of the Rosary is the heart of the Gospel, a proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

To understand this Good News that changes hearts and converts the world: first, we pray the prayer that Jesus taught us, the prayer that dares to call God ‘Our Father’. We place the words of the Son of God on our own lips. Thus, we are formed by God’s power and grace in the virtues of the Son towards the Father: humility, obedience and trust.  Through the ‘Our Father’, we allow ourselves to be transformed by grace and become more and more like Christ, more truly God’s sons and daughters. 

The ‘Hail Mary’ recalls the pivotal moment in history that changes all of creation. The Gospel today tells of that moment of the incarnation when, through Mary’s obedience and faith, God becomes Man in Mary’s womb. Through her ‘Yes’, joy has filled the whole world. For as Zephaniah says: “Lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord.” Every time, we pray the ‘Hail Mary’, we recall the wonderful work of God claiming this world for Christ, rescuing men and women from Satan’s lies, and making us, co-heirs with Christ to the Kingdom of heaven. For each ‘Hail Mary’ is in fact a proclamation of the victory of God. The more fervently we pray it, with faith in the victory of God, with humble trust like Mary’s, then the more victorious we are, in spiritual battle against the enemies of God. 

Hence, Sister Lucia, the visionary of Fatima said: “The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.” 

In the month of the Holy Rosary, Our Lady reminds us all of God’s promise. Pray the Rosary every day. Pray the Holy Rosary for peace, and pray it for an end to all evils. Just as the apostles prayed in the Upper Room in Jerusalem with Our Lady, and the Holy Spirit came down in the form of fire, so when we pray the Rosary, we join Our Lady and the Apostles, and the Holy Spirit comes to us. The Spirit of God comes to drive away evil. The Holy Spirit comes to bring healing grace and strength from heaven. And the Holy Spirit kindles the fire of love in our hearts. 

For our own salvation and the renewal of the world comes from having God’s love in our hearts. Then, like Our Lady, who treasured and pondered the mysteries of God in her heart, we shall also be filled with the grace of God, and we shall know the joy and victory of having God-with-us. 

(Based on Fr Lawrence Lew’s homily on the Holy Rosary, October 2019)



Short Biography:

Fr Lawrence Lew, OP, is the Chaplain for Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. He is the global Promoter General for the Holy Rosary, overseeing the growth and promotion of the Rosary Confraternity for the worldwide Dominican Order. In particular he has a love for Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima, and a promotes the message and lessons of Fatima.