Our Lady of the Rosary October 7

OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY   OCT 7, 2017

THE STUNNING BLUE WINDOW AT CHARTRES 

Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  This feast dates from the 16^th Century.   The Church encouraged the prayer of the rosary to petition Our Lady’s assistance at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, a naval battle between the Ottoman Empire and a league of Christian states in Europe.   After the European victory the Church in thanksgiving declared October 7 as the date for her feast.

I take out my rosary beads from time to time but often instead of the Hail Mary I count out the beads repeating antiphons that are among my favorites: thanks to God, invocations to the Spirit and the like.  I had occasion to visit an elderly woman some years ago and she discussed the prayer of the Rosary.  I told her that I sometimes finger through the beads with prayers different from the Hail Mary.   And she said to me, “The Blessed Mother isn’t going to like that.”    This made me smile and maybe brought a smile to Mary’s face, too.  (This story appears elsewhere on these pages.)

In the rosary, during our decades of Hail Marys we are encouraged to remember the mysteries of Christ’s life, the sorrows of Our Lady, and the gifts of the risen Christ.   In recent years the Luminous Mysteries were added to the traditional list.

I build on this tradition by remembering the mysteries of the mothers and other women in my life who have died and are now joined with Our Lady.  For me, then, the five decades become a decade for my mother, two decades, one for each of my grandmothers, a decade for my godmother and a decade for my sister.

I set aside in this way the traditional mysteries of the rosary, but since I stick to the Hail Mary, my friend will not find it necessary to suggest that I am neglecting the Blessed Mother.