Editorial -Fr. Joel D’Souza

Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Church is very rich in tradition. "There are many devotions within the Church's treasury, choose only a few and remain faithful to them." (St. Jose Maria Escriva). It is a human tendency to get bored with and try something new. Devotions help us to come close to God, they are not sacraments but sacramentals that prepare us to receive the sanctifying grace. The church and all the saints recommend us to have devotion to Our Blessed Mother. Mary brings us closer to Jesus. "If you want to reach Jesus, you should use the same means which He used to reach you i.e. Mary (St. Louie de Montfort)." If you want your heart to be in love with Jesus, focus on being Mary's, and she will help you. If we have a very fervent devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, she will keep, protect and sustain us on our goal to reach her Son.

There are different ways by which we can show our love to Mary, wearing the brown scapular, or bringing her flowers on her feast day. To celebrate her feast day with special solemnity, one can do the 33-day consecration of St. Louie de Montfort. There is one devotion that stands out above the rest, which is at the highest ranks, the pre-eminent Marian devotion i.e. the praying of the rosary. The first impression of the rosary would be something which old ladies do in the Church, nuns do in convents or people do at funerals. According to the pious traditions (not legends or myths), our Lady gave the rosary in the 13th century to a man named Dominic, who was a great priest, a holy priest. Since that time we can be sure that the rosary has been there in the hands of all the saints. Bl. Alan de la Roche revived the devotion to the rosary. St. Louie de Montfort wrote the greatest book on the Rosary. St. Pius V asked all the Christians in the world to pray the rosary so that Rome and Vatican would not be taken over by the Ottoman Empire. He DD Express 5