The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1958-10-31
JOSEPH BREIC
This Is How
We Can Win

| really do not know why the Rosary is the pow
erful PRAYER that it is. | mean to say, at first glance
there does not seem to be much to 1t.
! can easily understand the master OF the mouse
who. in the old story, twitted his Irish servant by
inquiring why there were 10 Hail Marys in each
decade, and only one Our Father.
/ do not think his question was completely
answered by her reply: Everybody knows that one
Our Father is worth 10 Hail Marys.
That was quick-witted, and doubtless it had the
silencing effect of an Irish bull, but theologlcally and
even logically it lacked something.
The obvious rebuttal would be, "Well, then, why
not just say 10 Our Fathers?"
cANNoT EXPLAIN, / can only assert the
power of the Rosary. History testltles TO IL, anu
know it by personal experience.
This PRAYER can win crucial battles which can
alter the face of the world. 1t did SO at Lepanto, when
the Christian fleet smashed the vastly superior forces
of Islam and saved Christian Europe.
1t turned back the invaders at the gates OF
Vienna, and put to rout a great Swedish army at
Czestochowa in Poland. 1t broke, too, the first COM
munist aggression against Europe by overcoming Beia
Kun Immediately after the first World War.
The Rosary, prayed by millions in many lands,
brought World War Ii to a close in Japan on the
feast of Our Lady's~ Assumption into Heaven.
SUCH VICTORIES are spectacular, but in truth
they are not as remarkable as the spiritual marvels
wrought by the Rosary on the hidden battlefields of
individual souls.
Personally | perfer not to think what / might
have become, and into what selfish depths might
have sunk, had l not turned 10 the ROSARY III uWeS
when temptation shook me like a terrier shaking a
rat.
But there is something that the Rosary does
besides healing the spirit, repulSing He'll, and drawing
God out of Heaven to our rescue. 1t Eliminates and
deepenS the intellect; it opens the eyes OF the soul;
it brings the supernatural close and makes it real,
so that one can almost touch the angels.
And yet, as l said there does not seem to be
very much to it.
FIFTY TIME you repeat the Hail Mary; five
times the Lords Prayer, and five times the Gloria.
While YOU pray, you mediate on divine mySter-
les according to your capacity; and the capacity of
most of us for meditation is limited to say the least.
But that does not seem to matter to God. He accepts
us as we are; He gives us an A-plus for effort.
! had an Aunt who was as simple as a child;
but the Rosary, prayed from childhood into old age,
made her so holy that on her deathbed she said.
with wonderment in her voice, "Why the Blessed
Virgin has come for mel"
She was too humble to be other than astonished
and yet why shouldn't Our Lady have come to-
conduct her through the veil? Her fingers were worn
with Rosaries.
THERE DOES NOT SEEM to be very much to
the Rosary but it has been a favorite prayer OF
great intellects and towering saints. There are depths
in it that cannot be plumbed by the most magnifi-
cent minds, and yet a child can recite it.
What is even more impressive is the fact that
Our Lady herself has repeatedly been sent by God
to remind us that He wants us to say the Rosary to
transform the world. To Bernadette at Lourdes, to
the shepherds at Fatima, and to the youngsters of
Beauraing, Belgium, the Mother of God brought the
message: "Pray the Rosary"
In each case, she promised that in return, God
would shower down, through her, the graces needed
she said at Fatima; and at Beauraing: Il will convert
sinners"
This is the victory of victories-to win the
enemy to Gods side. How colossally history will be
altered when Russia returns to Him. And at Fatima,
holding the Rosary, Our Lady promised: Russia will
be converted"