Feast of the Holy Rosary

"Such is Mary’s Rosary, a new and fruitful vine, which began to blossom at Gabriel’s salutation, and whose fragrant garlands form a link between earth and heaven."    Abbot Guéranger

"It is customary with men of the world to balance their accounts at the end of the year and determine their profits. The Church is now preparing to do this as she comes to the Feast of Christ the King, and that of All Saints and All Souls and the end of the Liturgical Year.

But today’s feast is a reckoning even more solemn, the profits even bigger: the Church opens her balance-sheet with the gain accruing to Our Lady from the mysteries, which compose the entire liturgical cycle.

Christmas, the cross, the triumph of Jesus, these produce the holiness of us all; but before and above all, the holiness of Mary. The crown, which the Church thus offers today to the Queen of heaven and earth, is made up of the triple crown of those sanctifying mysteries; joyful, sorrowful and glorious. These were the cause of her joy, the cause of her sorrow and of her glory.

The Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries and the glorious Mysteries in the life of Jesus her Divine Son. They are an integral part of her life as well. Such is Mary’s Rosary; a new and fruitful vine, which began to blossom at Gabriel’s salutation, and whose fragrant garlands form a link between earth and heaven.

In its present form, St. Dominic made the rosary known to the world at the time of the struggles with the Albigensians, that social war of such ill-omen for the Church. The rosary was then of more help than armed forces against the power of Satan; it is now the Church’s last resource.

It would seem that, the ancient forms of social prayer being no longer loved by the people, the Holy Spirit has willed by this easy and ready summary of the liturgy to maintain, in the isolated devotion of these unhappy times, the essential of that life of prayer, faith, and Christian virtue, which the public celebration of the Divine Office formerly kept up among the nations.

This simple weapon given by the Mother of God and conceived by the eternal Wisdom of God is far-reaching in its effects. It leads wandering man to the Queen of Mercy, it destroys ignorance of the fundamentals of the Faith, ignorance which is the food of heresy, and it teaches him to find once more ‘the paths consecrated by the Blood of the Man-God, and by the tears of His Mother.’ (Pope Leo XIII, Sept. 8, 1892 Encyc. On the Rosary)

Pope Leo XIII and every Pontiff of modern times has pointed out, over and over again, that the Holy Rosary is the means of salvation more than once experienced by our fathers. In fact, Pope Leo consecrated the entire month of October to the Holy Rosary, this devotion that is so dear to heaven. Pope Leo honored Our Lady in her litanies with a new title, Queen of the most holy rosary; and raised this day to the honor of a second class feast with a proper Office. This feast is also a memorial of glorious victories, which do honor to Our Lady of the Rosary.

Heaven itself corroborated these honors given to Our Lady. Only a short time after this, Our Lady of Fatima appeared in 1917, and in October of that year, the very month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, She announced to the world: "I am the Lady of the Rosary."

Let us list here a small fraction of the victories directly obtained from God through the Holy Rosary.

• The Battle of Lepanto which saved Rome and Vienna, and thus the Pope and the Emperor, from Moslem subjugation
• The deliverance of Vienna by Sobieski
• The victory given to Prince Eugene of Peterwardein
• The raising of the siege of Corfu
• The taking of Belgrade
• The deliverance of Brazil from Communism in this century
• The withdrawal from Soviet Troops from Austria on Oct. 26, 1955

On this Feast of the Holy Rosary, the joys experienced on the other feasts of the Mother of God, are all gathered up and resumed in this one, for us, for the angels, and for Our Lady herself. Like the angles then, let us offer, together with Mary, the homage of our just delight to the Son of God, her Son, her King and ours.

The mysteries of Jesus and Mary are our instruction and our hope. The Church prays today that they may also be our rule of life and our pledge of eternal salvation. That is the power of the Holy Rosary.

Our Lady’s mysteries are before all time in God’s sight, like those of Her Divine Son; like these they will endure for all eternity; like them they rule the ages, which circle round the Word and Mary, preparing for both in the Old Testament and perpetuating their presence by the ceaseless praise of the most holy Trinity, in whose name all Christians are baptized.

The Rosary honors all these mysteries. Today’s feast is a glance back upon the cycle of Redemption as it draws to a close. From these mysteries and today’s view of them all, we learn from Our Lady herself in this passage from Proverbs, which the Church applies to Mary: "Now therefore, my children, consider my ways; imitate me, that you may find happiness." ‘Blessed is he that watches at her gates.’

Let us pray to Mary, rosary in hand, thinking of her at the same time, meditating on her life and her greatness, and watching, for even just 15 minutes each day, at the entrance to the palace of this incomparable Queen. The more faithful we are to the Rosary, the more assured will be our salvation and our progress in true life.

Let us congratulate the Queen of the Holy Rosary on her perfect life, all truth, and justice, and meekness, which won her the love of the supreme King. Let us proclaim the nobility of her race, unequalled in the whole world. All grace, all light, all life, are to be found in our Lady; by her holy rosary she has multiplied flowers and fruits in the garden of the Church. Every offering acceptable to God comes from Mary, with and by Jesus.

The Rosary, piously meditated, prepares us for the Sacrifice of the altar, that august memorial of the mysteries which it imprints in the heart and mind of the Christian. Why not then, pray the holy rosary in the car as one drives to holy Mass. Pray it in thanksgiving on the way home."

-- The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger, osb

The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

"John the Baptist has pointed out the Lamb, Peter has firmly established his throne, Paul has prepared the bride; their joint work, admirable in its unity, at once suggests the reason for their feasts occurring almost simultaneously in the cycle. The alliance being now secured, all three fall into shade; whilst the bride herself, raised up by them to such loftly heights, appears alone before us, holding in her hands the sacred cup of the nuptial-feast."

"This gives the key of today's solemnity, revealing how its appearance in the heavens of the holy liturgy at this particular season is replete with mystery. The Church, it is true, has already made known to the sons of the new covenant, in a much more solemn matter, the price of the Blood that redeemed them, its nutritive strength, and the adorng homage is its due. On Good Friday, earth and heaven beheld all sin drowned in the saving stream, whose eternal flood-gates at last gave way beneath the combined effort of man's violence and of the love of the divine Heart. The festival of Corpus Christi witnessed our prostrate worship before the altars whereon is perpetuated the Sacrifice of Calvary, and where the outpouring of the precious Blood affords drink to the humblest little ones, as well as to the mightiest potentates of earth, lowly bowed in adoration before it."

"How is it, then, that holy Church is now inviting all Christians to hail, in a particular manner, the stream of life ever gushing from the sacred fount? What else can this mean, but that the preceding solemnities have by no means exhausted the mystery? The peace which this Blood has made to reign in the high places as well as in the low; the impetus of its wave bearing back the sons of Adam from the yawning gulf, purified, renewed, and dazzling white in the radiance of their heavenly apparel; the sacred Table outspread before them on the waters' brink, and the chalice brimful of inebriation - all this preparation and display would be objectless, all these splendours would be incomprehensible, if man were not brought to see therein the wooings of a love that could never endure its advances to be outdone by the pretensions of any other. Therefore, the Blood of Jesus is set before our eyes at this moment as the Blood of the Testament; the pledge of the alliance proposed to us by God [Exodus 24: 8; Hebrews 9: 20]' the dower stipulated by eternal Wisdom for this divine union to which He is inviting all men, and its consummation in our soul which is being urged forward with such vehemence by the Holy Ghost."

"'Having therefore, brethren, a confidence in entering into the Holies by the Blood of Christ,' says the apostle, 'a new and living way which He hath dedicated for through the veil - that is to say, His flesh - let us draw near with a pure heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with clean water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He is faithful that hath promised. Let us consider one another to provoke unto charity and to good works [Hebrews 10: 19-24]. And may the God of peace who brought again from the dead the great Pastor of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Blood of the everlasting Testament, fit you in all goodness, that you may do His will: doing in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom is glory forever and ever. Amen! [Hebrews 13: 20,21].'"

"Nor must we omit to mention here, that this feast is a monument of one of the most brilliant victories of holy Church in our own age. [Blessed Pope] Pius IX had been driven out from Rome in [November] 1848 by the triumphant revolution; but the following year, just about this season, his power was re-established. Under the aegis of the apostles on June 28 and the two following days, the eldest daughter of the Church [a former nickname for France], faithful to her past glories, swept the ramparts of the eternal city; and on July 2, Mary's festival [the feast of the Visitation on the traditional calendar], the victory was completed. Not long after this, a twofold decree notified to the city and the world the Pontiff's gratitude and the way in which he intended to perpetuate, in the sacred liturgy, the memory of these events."

"On August 10, from Gaeta itself [a town between Rome and Naples], the place of his exile in the evil day, [Blessed Pope] Pius IX, before returning to reassume the governments of his States, addressing himself to the invisible head of the Church, confided her in a special manner to His divine care, by the institution of this day's festival; reminding Him that it was for His Church that He had vouchsafed to shed all His precious Blood. Then, when the Pontiff re-entered his capital [on 12 April 1850, when he was finally assured that the French would not interfere in his affairs], turning to Mary, just as [Pope St.] Pius V and [Pope] Pius VIII had done under other circumstances, the Vicar of Christ solemnly attributed the honour of the recent victory to her who is ever the help of Christians; for on the feast of her Visitation it had been gained; and he now decreed that this said feast of July 2 should be raised from the rite of double major to that of second class throught the whole world [under the pre-1962 system of classifying feasts and holy days]. This was a prelude to the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which the immortal Pontiff had already projected, whereby the crushing of the serpent's head would be completed."


Precious Blood of Jesus, save us!
Sanguis Christi, inebria me!

-- The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger
** Sadly enough, this feast is not celebrated, not even as an optional memorial, in the current liturgical calendar. But it is observed by those following the 1962 calendar.

Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus

"Our new-born King and Saviour is eight days old to-day; the Star that guides the Magi is advancing towards Bethlehem, and five days hence will be standing over the Stable where our Jesus is being nursed by his Mother. To-day the Son of Man is to be circumcised; this first sacrifice of his innocent Flesh must honour the eighth day of his mortal life. To-day also a Name is to be given him: the Name will be Jesus, and it means Saviour. So that mysteries abound on this day: let us not pass one of them over, but honour them with all possible devotion and love.

But this day is not exclusively devoted to the Circumcision of Jesus. The mystery of this Circumcision forms part of that other great mystery, the Incarnation and Infancy of our Saviour - a mystery on which the Church fixes her heart not only during this Octave, but during the whole forty days of Christmastide. Then, as regards our Lord’s receiving the Name of Jesus, a special Feast, which we shall soon be keeping, is set apart in honour of it. There is another object that shares the love and devotion of the Faithful on this great Solemnity. This object is Mary, the Mother of God. The Church celebrates to-day the august prerogative of this divine Maternity which was conferred on a mere creature, and made her the co-operatrix with Jesus in the great work of man’s salvation.

The holy Church of Rome used formerly to say two Masses on the first of January; one was for the Octave of Christmas Day, the other was in honour of Mary. She now unites the two intentions in one Sacrifice, in the same manner as, in the rest of this Day’s Office, she unites together the acts of her adoration of the Son, and the expressions of her admiration for and confidence in the Mother.

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And now, what shall we give in return to this Saviour of our souls for the Circumcision which he has deigned to suffer in order to show us how much he loved us? We must, according to the teaching of the Apostle, circumcise our heart from all its evil affections, its sins and its wicked inclinations; we must begin at once to live that new life of which the Infant Jesus is the sublime model. Let us thus show him our compassion for this his earliest suffering for us, and be more attentive than we have hitherto been to the example he sets us."

-- The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger
 
** Given the Holy Father's Summorum Pontificum Motu Proprio, I decided to offer a post on the Circumcision of Jesus instead of the Theotokos.

THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH

"Everything is Mystery in this holy season. The Word of God, whose generation is before the day-star, is born in time - a Child is God - a Virgin becomes a Mother, and remains a Virgin - things divine are commingled with those that are human - and the sublime, the ineffable antithesis, expressed by the Beloved Disciple in those words of his Gospel, THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, is repeated in a thousand different ways in all the prayers of the Church;- and rightly, for it admirably embodies the whole of the great portent which unites in one Person the nature of Man and the nature of God.

The splendour of this Mystery dazzles the understanding, but it inundates the heart with joy. It is the consummation of the designs of God in time. It is the endless subject of admiration and wonder to the Angels and Saints; nay, is the source and cause of their beatitude.
 
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A word upon the symbolism of the colours used by the Church during this season. White is her Christmas Vestment; and she employs this colour at every service from Christmas Day to the Octave of the Epiphany. To honour her two Martyrs, Stephen and Thomas of Canterbury, she vests in red; and to condole with Rachel wailing her murdered Innocents, she puts on purple: but these are the only exceptions. On every other day of the twenty she expresses, by her white Robes, the gladness to which the Angels invited the world, the beauty of our Divine Sun that has risen in Bethlehem, the spotless purity of the Virgin-Mother, and the clean heartedness which they should have who come to worship at the mystic Crib.

During the remaining twenty days, the Church vests in accordance with the Feast she keeps; she varies the colour so as to harmonize either with the red Roses which wreathe a Martyr, or with the white Amaranths which grace her Bishops and her Confessors, or again, with the spotless Lilies which crown her Virgins. On the Sundays which come during this time - unless there occur a Feast requiring red or white or, unless Septuagesima has begun its three mournful weeks of preparation for Lent - the colour of the Vestments is green. This, say the interpreters of the Liturgy, is to teach us that in the Birth of Jesus, who is the flower of the fields,we first received the hope of salvation, and that after the bleak winter of heathendom and the Synagogue, there opened the verdant spring-time of grace."

-- The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger