We thank God for the gift of life and family!
God gives us life through our Dad and Mom, and for this reason we thank and honor God with our weekly worship and our daily prayers with the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Holy Mother Church. We also honor our parents by thanking them, helping and pray-ing for them, whether they are living or deceased. Human life is the supreme gift from God because God made us immediately and directly in the divine image and likeness, male and female God made us. Because we have the gift of life through our family, we can receive God’s divine life – sanctifying grace – assuredly through the seven sacraments beginning with Baptism into Jesus Christ and his divine family – His Catholic Church. God gave the Church the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony as sacrament for spousal unity and the blessing of children for God’s church and his human family. Jesus Christ raised up the natural union of a man and a woman to a sacramental union at the wedding of Cana, revealed in the Gospel of John, Chapter 2, so that the family can become a domestic church – a place of prayer and spiritual growth. Unfortunately, the family is under attack. When the Bolshevik revolution occurred in Russia to bring a communist party into power November 7, 1917, one of the first things the communist did was to allow for no-fault divorce. A person could divorce their spouse for any reason. The communist also prohibited adoption. Orphans would be cared for by the State. Soon the rapid increase of unwed couples, divorced couples and orphans caused incredible social upheaval. Since the communist threw out God’s plan of fruitful life with God and the religiously married couple at the center of family life, Russia was the first European country to legalize abortion, October, 1920. Before these tragic things occurred, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children: Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia, who was the oldest around age 10, in Fatima, Portugal, 1917, to pray the Rosary, especially for the conversion of Russia. She first appeared on May 13th and usually the 13th of every month until October 13th when she promised a miracle to validate the children’s vision of hell and her warning to mankind to re-pent, practice the Catholic faith and to pray daily, especially the Rosary, lest another great war occur (WWII), and communism spread its errors – of which we clearly see in today’s world. On October 13th an estimated 70,000 people gathered at the site of the apparitions. It had rained for days, and Mary appeared to the children and spoke to them, after which the sun appeared and began to “dance” and “rotate” and then plunge toward the earth. Many people ran in panic, others knelt and wept for their sins and many experienced conversions and miracles of healing. When the sun returned to its original place the ground and clothes of the pilgrims were completely dry. The Virgin Mary revealed herself as Our Lady of the Rosary and asked for all Catholics to practice the faith and pray the rosary daily to convert the world to her divine son, Jesus Christ. Fatima now has a large shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima where St. John Paul II visited to pray after having survived an attempted assassination on his life, May 13, 1981. He attributed his survival to the Virgin Mary’s intercession. St. John Paul II gave us another set of mysteries of the Rosary, the Luminous Mysteries in 2002 which can be prayed on Thursdays. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic De Guzman in 1214 a.d. and gave him the Rosary to help with conversions. These 15 Promises of praying the Rosary devotedly was received by another Dominican in the 15th century. Many people can attest to these promises for they have prayed the Rosary devotedly everyday with their family, or alone, and have received and seen others receive many natural and supernatural blessings.
1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me (the Blessed Virgin Mary) by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. [A signal grace is a sign from God. For example, seeing a rose after finishing a novena to St. Therese of Lisieux which could be considered a signal grace.] 2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will with-draw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered and never overwhelmed by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall grow in grace and become worthy of eternal life. [An uprovided death means dying while not in a state of grace. Mary promises that anyone who regularly prays the Rosary, and earnestly tries to live according to God’s will, will be spiritually prepared when their time of death comes.] The other nine promises can be found on the back cover. During this month of October, the Month of Respect Life and the Rosary, please consider praying the Rosary with family and friends, and before the Sunday Mass.
Peace through Jesus and Mary,
Fr. Thomas McCabe
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