Today we honor a Saint who started a new Order, the Order of Preachers, the Dominicans. When you see the letters O.P. after a priest' name, you know he is one of these.
Saint Dominic de Guzman was born in Spain of a noble family in 1170. In today's reading concerning him, it is written: '...While his mother was with child, she dreamt she was carrying in her womb a little dog holding a torch in his mouth, with which, as soon as he was born, he would set fire to the world...'. As a student, he sold his books to feed the poor during a famine, and offered himself to ransom a slave. At the age of twenty-five, after taking the religious habit he became acting Superior of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine in Osma, and was soon offered an episcopal chair at Compostella. He answered as afterward he also answered many times: "God has not sent me to be a bishop, but to preach." He accompanied his prelate to southern France on a commission for the king of Castille. There his heart was well-nigh broken by the ravages of the Albigensian heresy, a variant of ancient Manicheanism, and the source of devastating wars in southern France. His life from that time on was devoted to the conversion of heretics and the defense of the Faith.
In the year 1199, while he was still a Canon Regular of St. Augustine and was preaching near the Spanish coasts, he was taken captive, with all his audience and a Brother in religion, by a band of pirates. They placed the prisoners in their galleys at the oars. When a furious storm broke, the young Saint exhorted the disciples of Mohammed to think seriously of their souls, to open their eyes to the truth of Christianity, and above all, to invoke the Mother of God. They did not listen until his third exhortation, at a moment when it was clear the ship and passengers could not be saved. They swore to him then that if the God of Christians preserved them by the intercession of His Holy Mother, they would dedicate themselves to their service. Immediately the storm ceased, and the pirates kept their word.
When in his 46th year, and with six companions, he began the great Order of Preaching Friars, this Order with that of the Friars Minor, founded by his contemporary friend Saint Francis of Assisi, was the chief means God employed to renew Christian fervor during the Middle Ages. In addition, Saint Dominic founded his Second Order for nuns for the education of Catholic girls, and his Third Order, or Tertiaries, for persons of both sexes living in the world. God abundantly blessed the new Order, and France, Italy, Spain, and England welcomed the Preaching Friars. Our Lady took them under Her special protection. During a debate with the heretics, a book by the Saint, defending Her Immaculate Conception, was thrown into the flames along with one by the heretics, to see whether one might be spared. Saint Dominic's was not injured, and many heretics were converted.
It was in 1208, while St. Dominic knelt in the little chapel of Notre Dame de La Prouille, and implored the great Mother of God to save the Church, that Our Lady appeared to him and gave him the Rosary, bidding him to go forth and preach it.
As our Blessed Abbot Gueranger states:
'Who could be truer knights than those athletes of the Faith, taking their sacred vow in the form of allegiance, and choosing for their Lady her who, terrible as an army, along crushes heresies throughout the whole world? To the buckler of Truth and the sword of the word, she who keeps in Sion the armor of valiant men, added for her devoted servant-soldiers the Rosary, the special mark of her own militia; she, as being their true commander-in-chief, assigned them the habit of her choice.'
During the famous battles in southern France against the Albigensians, with his Rosary in hand he revived the courage of the Catholic armies, led them to victory against overwhelming numbers, and finally subdued the heresy. His nights were spent in prayer; and, though all beheld him as an Angel of purity, before morning broke he would scourge himself to blood. His words rescued countless souls, and three times raised the dead to life. At length, on August 6, 1221, at the age of fifty-one, he gave up his soul to God.
"God has never refused me what I have asked," said St. Dominic. How could God refuse to respond to the single intention of His Saints, which is His own - the salvation and sanctification of souls? Saint Dominic has left us the Rosary that we may learn, with Mary's help, to ask what pleases God, and then to pray easily and simply with the same trust.
THE ORIGIN OF THE ROSARY DUE TO ST. DOMINIC The hermits of the first centuries, who could not read the psalter, used to recite one Our Father and one Hail Mary in the place of every psalm; and in order to note the number they said, they made use of small stones, or of seeds strung on a cord. St. Dominic was the first who made the custom general of substituting one hundred and fifty Hail Marys for the one hundred and fifty psalms; hence the rosary used to be called the Psalter of Mary. When, about the year 1200, the heresies of the Albigenseans wrought great mischief in the south of France and the north of Italy, St. Dominic was commissioned by the Pope to preach in refutation of their erroneous tenets. His efforts availed little, and he besought the aid of the Mother of God. She appeared to him, and bade him make use of the rosary as a weapon against her enemies. He accordingly introduced it everywhere, and before long it had effected the conversion of more than a hundred thousand heretics. The use of the Rosary soon spread throughout Christendom, and it became a most popular devotion. It is a method of prayer at once simple and sublime; the prayers are so easy that a child can repeat them, and the mysteries are so profound that they supply a subject for meditation to the most learned theologians. It is a prayer of contemplation as well as a prayer of supplication, for it places before the mind the principal truths of the faith. The Rosary is a compendium of the Gospels; a complete and practical manual of instruction wherein the chief points of Christian doctrine are presented under the guise of prayer. By meditation on the events of Our Lord's life faith and charity are increased; from the example of our divine Redeemer we learn to be humble, gentle, obedient; we are incited to imitate the virtues which the mysteries teach, to strive after what they promise us. Moreover the union of vocal and mental prayer makes the Rosary easy, pleasant, and profitable. As a method of prayer it is unrivaled; the longer and more devoutly it is practiced, the more one appreciates its excellence and becomes convinced of its supernatural origin.
CONSIDERATIONS OF THE HOLY ROSARY 1. The Rosary is well pleasing to God, because of its humility, and because it is an imitation of the unceasing song of praise sung by the angels.
The Rosary is the prayer of the humble, for in it well-known truths are simply stated and constantly repeated. The proud despise it, but God, Who looks down on the low things (Ps. cxii. 6), approves it. It is an imitation of the angel's song; we read in Holy Scripture that the angelic choirs cry to one another: "Holy, holy, holy. Lord God of hosts; all the earth is full of His glory " (Is. vi.3). And when we recite the Rosary, we praise the Mother of God in a similar manner. It is beyond a doubt that this form of prayer is most acceptable to the Mother of God, for when she appeared at Lourdes she had a rosary in her hand. Pope Pius IX unhesitatingly asserts that it is her gift to men, and she loves no other prayer as well.
2. The Rosary is a most useful devotion, for by it we obtain great graces and sure help in time of trouble; many indulgences are besides attached to it.
The Rosary is a very treasury of graces. Many sinners owe their conversion to it. It possesses marvelous power to banish sin and restore the transgressor to a state of grace. By it the just grow in virtue. All the saints who have lived subsequently to the institution of the Rosary have been assiduous in its use, and this may have contributed largely to their sanctification. Several holy bishops and servants of God are known to have pledged themselves by vow to recite it daily; St. Charles Borromeo, despite the numerous and pressing duties of his position, recited it every day with the seminarians and the members of his household. Blessed Clement Hofbauer was accustomed to say the Rosary while passing through the streets of Vienna, and rarely did he recite it in vain for the conversion of a sinner. It is recorded of several distinguished officers and victorious commanders that they never engaged in battle without first saying the Rosary, and to this they attributed their military successes. The Rosary has been called "the thermometer of Christianity," for the reason that where it is diligently recited faith is ardent, and good works are manifest; and where it is neglected religion is at a low ebb.
In seasons of general calamity, miraculous aid has been granted to Christendom by means of the Rosary; this was especially the case in wars with the Turks, the victory of Lepanto (1571), the deliverance of Vienna (1683), the victory of Belgrade were all owing to the power of the Rosary. It was said that the beads of the chaplet did more execution than the bullets of the soldiers. It was in thanksgiving for these victories that the Holy See instituted the feast of the Holy Rosary on the first Sunday in October. Pope Sixtus IV declared that many dangers which threatened the world are averted, and the wrath of God is appeased by the prayers of the Rosary. Our Holy Father Leo XIII says that: '...as in St. Dominic's time the Rosary proved a sure remedy for the evils of the age, so it may now effect much towards the amelioration of the ills that afflict society.'
Every one who recites the Rosary must feel its supernatural power; there is no prayer which affords more consolation in affliction, more tranquillity to the troubled breast. It soothes in sorrow, it imparts the peace spoken of in the Gospel. Another proof of its excellence is the hatred and contempt wherewith unbelievers regard it. The devil incites them to decry what is a fruitful source of grace to the Christian, and by which souls are wrested from his grasp. The Rosary has been richly indulgenced by the Holy See, and the recital of it strongly urged upon the faithful. An indulgence of five years and five quarantines may be gained if five consecutive decades be said, on a properly indulgenced rosary. Our Holy Father Leo XIII. has decreed that every day during the month of October, the Rosary, together with the litany of Loretto, be said in church either during the parish Mass, or in the afternoon, with the Blessed Sacrament exposed. For every time of assisting at this devotion seven years and seven quarantines are granted. 'Blessed Pope Pius IX bequeathed, as a legacy to the faithful, this admonition: "Let the Rosary, this simple, beautiful method of prayer, enriched with many indulgences, be habitually recited of an evening in every household. These are my last words to you; the memorial I leave behind me." Again he said: "In the whole of the Vatican there is no greater treasure than the Rosary."
An impervious shield against the fiery darts of hell is the name of Mary and the Angelic Salutation. The power of Satan is paralyzed when we utter this holy name. St. John Chrysostom assures us, "The holy names of Jesus and Mary have an intrinsic power over the devil and are a terror to hell." And well may we imagine it; is not Mary the woman that has crushed the head of the serpent? The blessed name of Mary spells defeat for Satan and his infernal kingdom. And it was precisely the Angelic Salutation that marked the overthrow of Satan's dominion on earth. The Ave Maria sounds to the ears of the devil as his death knell; it strikes terror to his very heart and thwarts his mischievous designs. As the shadows of night vanish at the approach of the dawn; as wax melts before the fire; so do the powers of darkness disappear and so does their force dwindle at the sound of the Hail Mary. Let us arm ourselves with this impregnable shield against the powers of the deep, "against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places" (Ephes.vi. 12).
The Rosary by St. Alphonsus de Liguori
It is well known, that the devotion of the most holy rosary was revealed to Saint Dominic, by the Divine Mother herself, at a time when the Saint was in affliction, and bewailing, with his Sovereign Lady, over the Albigensian heretics, who were at that time doing great mischief to the Church. The Blessed Virgin said to him: "This land will always be sterile until rain falls on it." Saint Dominic was then given to understand, that this rain was the devotion of the rosary, which he was to propagate. This the Saint indeed did, and it was embraced by all Catholics; so much so, that even to the present day, there is no devotion so generally practiced by the faithful of all classes as that of the rosary. What is there that modern heretics, Calvin, Bucur, and others, have not said to throw discredit on the use of beads? But the immense good which this noble devotion has done to the world is well known. How many, by its means, have been delivered from sin! How many led to a holy life! how many to a good death, and are now saved! To be convinced of this, we need only read the many books which treat on the subject. Suffice it to know, that this devotion has been approved of by the Church, and that the Sovereign Pontiffs have enriched it with indulgences.
Prayer to St. Dominic and St. Catherine
O holy Priest of God and glorious Patriarch, Saint Dominic, thou who wast the friend, the well-beloved son and the confidant of the Queen of Heaven, and didst work so many miracles by the power of the Holy Rosary; and thou. Saint Catherine of Siena, first daughter of this Order of the Rosary, and powerful mediator at Mary's throne with the Heart of Jesus, with whom thou didst exchange thy heart; do you, my beloved Saints, have regard to my necessities and pity the sad condition in which I now find myself. On earth you opened your hearts to the miseries of your fellow-men and your hands were strong to help them; now in heaven your charity hath not grown less nor hath your power waned. Pray, ah, pray for me to the Mother of the Rosary and to her divine Son, for I have great confidence that through your assistance I shall obtain the favor I so much desire. Amen.
Glory be, etc., three times.
In honor of St. Vincent Ferrer, Glory be, etc.
In honor of St. Thomas Aquinas, Glory be, etc.
(Indulgence of 3 years on each day of the Novena or Triduum,
if performed privately by the faithful.)
Let us arm ourselves with this powerful weapon of Our Lady. And, thank St. Dominic for bringing it into the forefront of battle.
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