Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
SATURDAY, July 2nd Mt. 9: 14-17 Entrance Antiphon: “Hail, Holy Mother, who gave birth to the King who rules heaven and earth.”
Saturday is the day dedicated to honoring the most Blessed Virgin Mary. After the sublime prayer of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is Opus Dei, the work of God Himself, there is no prayer more pleasing to Mary than the recitation of the most holy Rosary. In praying the Rosary we walk with Mary through the mysteries of the life of Jesus, the Son of God made man for our salvation!
In addition to meditating on Fr. Ed’s excellent article, we can take any one of the Rosary Mysteries that touch us most right now, and contemplate how that mystery speaks to us in our life.
MARY AND THE FRUITS OF THE MOST HOLY ROSARY! By Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
Our Lady of Fatima appeared six times to the little shepherd children of Fatima from May 13th to October 13th—on which day occurred the great Miracle of the Sun witnessed by over 70,000 people.
The messages given by Our Lady were many, simple but very profound, and all related to the honor and glory of God and the salvation of immortal souls. Being a loving Mother, Mary wants what is most important and best for her children, and that is the salvation of their immortal souls for all eternity. A mother seeing her children in danger will run to their rescue. So Mary has run to our rescue.
THE MOST HOLY ROSARY: KEY TO SALVATION, LADDER TO HEAVEN, GATE OF ENTRANCE TO GOD’S GLORY.
In every one of the six Apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, Our Heavenly Mother reiterated each time the same desire—and that was to pray the most Holy Rosary. If a Mother repeats herself to her children, then that repeated desire must be of capital importance; in this case, it is a matter of life and death, a matter regarding our eternal salvation! In sum, Mary wants to help us arrive safely at our heavenly home by the faithful recitation of the Holy Rosary.
This being the case, let us highlight some of the positive fruits that flow from the faithful recitation of the most Holy Rosary, that Our Lady of Fatima so ardently desires we pray for our salvation and the conversion and salvation of many sinners.
1. PRAYER IN GENERAL. Any prayer that we pray well is pleasing to Almighty God and will produce abundant fruits that we will only see upon our entrance into eternity.
2. GET TO KNOW THE WORD OF GOD. We should never forget that the most Holy Rosary is essentially a Biblical prayer; almost all of the Mysteries (20 in total) are derived explicitly from the Bible, which is the Living Word of God. For example, all of the five Joyful Mysteries are taken from the first two Chapters of the Gospel of Luke. Check it out!!!
3. VOCAL PRAYER. The Rosary is a wonderful prayer that we express vocally and it is a most efficacious tool to help children learn the art of prayer. By the way, the Fatima seers were mere children. Jesus said: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Mt. 19:14)
4. MENTAL PRAYER. The Rosary introduces us to the art of mental prayer, sometimes called MEDITATION. Many saints—such as, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Saint Ignatius of Loyola—insist that mental prayer or meditation is absolutely indispensable to arrive at deeper spiritual growth!
5. IGNATIAN CONTEMPLATION. Furthermore, the Rosary prayed well introduces us to another form of prayer that is termed IGNATIAN CONTEMPLATION. By this is meant, the proper use of the imagination in which you apply yourself to one of the scenes, also called Mysteries, and imagine you are part of the scene itself, living and interacting with Mary, with Jesus, and in the Joyful Mysteries, even with good Saint Joseph.
6. TRANSFORMATION. It is a wise saying that we become like those with whom we live or associate. In other words, we tend to imitate those we live with or those we call friends. As the proverb says: “Show me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are!” Applying this to praying the most Holy Rosary, if we are constantly thinking about Jesus, Mary, and Saint Joseph, talking to them, imagining interacting with them in their lives in contemplative prayer, then most likely we will start to imitate them. Until we can finally say in the words of the great Apostle Saint Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20)
7. DISCIPLINE. What is lacking in the lives of many, and that might be us, is a lack of discipline, a lack of order. Saint Ignatius states that one of the primary purposes of the Spiritual Exercises is to ORDER THE DISORDER in our lives!If the Holy Rosary is prayed well, prayed regularly, prayed with love and devotion, then the Holy Rosary can serve as an indispensable tool to order the many disorders that characterize our lives.
8. OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE AND ORDERING. There is an interesting detail in the Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico to Juan Diego on 12 December 1531. At one point, Our Lady told Juan Diego to cut the roses that were growing on the top of Tepeyac Hill. When he came down the hill, Our Lady actually ordered the roses in Juan Diego’s tilma with her own hands. This is symbolic of what Our Lady wants to do with us by our faithful recitation of the Holy Rosary. She wants to order the disorder in our lives. Often this means detach us from our attachment to sin!
9. PEACE OF HEART, MIND, BODY, AND SOUL. Another positive fruit of the faithful recitation of the Holy Rosary is that of peace of heart, mind, body, and soul—in other words, our total person! We all desire peace in our lives. Saint Augustine defines peace as such: “Peace is the tranquility of order.” As mentioned above, the recitation of the Holy Rosary brings about interior, as well as exterior, order. Consequently, the fruit will be peace. One of the many beautiful titles of Mary is QUEEN OF PEACE!
10. FILLS THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY WITH JOY. It must be said that every time we pray the Rosary individually, or in the context of the family, or in the context of the Parish, or wherever the Holy Rosary is recited with love, fervor, attention, and devotion, this homage paid to Mary, as well as to Jesus—the two are never separated, fills the Immaculate Heart of Mary with immense and overflowing joy! A gesture of attention and love shown to Mary will never be forgotten by our Heavenly Mother and she will repay you with abundant graces here and forever with eternal life!
