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Prayer

Nine Days of Prayer: Why Pray Novenas?

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Imagine this: With some trepidation about their future, a small band of people with a newfound faith commit to a period of intense prayer, out of obedience to their spiritual…

Imagine this: With some trepidation about their future, a small band of people with a newfound faith commit to a period of intense prayer, out of obedience to their spiritual master. He has left them seemingly on their own, promising something big on the horizon.

After they follow their leader’s instructions for nine days, God answers their prayers by acting in a singularly dramatic, transformative way. And the world is never the same again.

That’s precisely what happened to Our Lady, the apostles and the other early disciples of Our Lord. After His ascension they prayed, waited and perhaps even felt some anxiety over “losing” Him again.

But they also trusted and persevered. In the end, He rewarded them on the Day of Pentecost with the coming of the Advocate He had promised, the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:1–2:4).

Jesus had instructed His followers to pray, and they obeyed. They were not disappointed.

Those nine days of prayer can be seen as the model for the Catholic tradition of the novena. A novena (from the Latin novem, “nine”) is a prayer, or set of prayers, prayed for nine days, hours, weeks or even months.

It is often prayed for a specific intention or grace and may be directed to particular saints for their intercession.

Sometimes non-Catholics, and even a few Catholics, may ask, “Why should we pray novenas?” The short answer is simply that Jesus Christ calls us to pray. In fact, He tells us to “pray always without becoming weary” (Lk 18:1), to pray with persistence.

We’ll never go wrong when we obey Christ. He promises that prayer works, and He often responds with electrifying results.

But that’s only the first, most fundamental reason why we should pray novenas. A look at the history of this tradition provides ample encouragement for making it a personal practice.

Historical Background

Over the centuries, four specific types of novenas have emerged: novenas for mourning, preparation, petition and indulgences.

Novenas of mourning are the earliest type. They probably grew out of an early Christian custom of offering nine days of Masses for the departed. The global Church witnessed such a novena in 2005 with the death of Pope John Paul II.

Preparation novenas are joyful and anticipatory. They look toward major feasts (such as a Christmas novena) or celebrate the founder of a religious order.

Novenas of petition developed historically among the laity. They most likely originated as petitions for good health and eventually became generalized to include requests for other needs as well. For instance, a novena to St. Hubert, for protection against madness caused by a dog bite, was first prayed in medieval times and is still prayed today.

Many other novenas of prayer, directed to saints for special intentions, have proliferated over time.

The final type of novena, the novena for indulgences, overlaps with the others. The Church offers partial and plenary indulgences for more than 30 novenas, including one of the most recent, the Divine Mercy novena.

If the Church has not only approved and recommended a variety of novenas, but has also designated certain novenas as a prerequisite for an indulgence, we can be sure that these prayers are much more than just an instance of popular piety.

The Church recognizes the special value of the novena, whose form is particularly suited to overcome certain tendencies of our fallen human nature.

Boon to Prayer Life

We concupiscent human beings tend toward laziness. Countering that tendency, the repetitive form of the novena can serve to intensify and reinforce our prayer life. It forms a habit of persevering prayer in those of us who, left to our own devices, may fall away from prayer despite the best intentions.

Fallen human beings also tend toward rebellion. We balk at being told what to do. But following a divine prescription such as a novena can be the perfect remedy for such rebelliousness.

In praying a prescribed set of prayers, for a prescribed length of time, we are drawn out of ourselves and our vanities and into prayerful concentration and obedience. In this way, our prayer time is kept on track, becoming more focused by observing a set form.

A novena can also release us from a false attitude that we are somehow in control of a situation and its outcome through our prayers for a desired result.

With its repeated appeal to divine aid, the novena recognizes that we are helpless without God, and that control of the situation is squarely in His hands.

We are like the desperate widow in Jesus’ parable who repeatedly asked the judge for help — whose humble, persistent petitions the Lord offers as a model in prayer (see Lk 18:1-7).

To suggest that with a novena we relinquish (rather than make a play for) control may contradict popular perceptions. After all, some novenas actually promise “never to fail” should we meticulously follow their directions.

Of course, such instructions (always tacked on anonymously) are little more than superstition. Novenas are not magic and cannot manipulate the Divine Will. After praying in a specific way for a specific number of days, we are no more in control than we were at the start.

Instead, we receive from God a result of His own choosing. Our part is simply to demonstrate faithfulness in our commitment to prayer.

That’s not to say, of course, that novenas aren’t powerful. They certainly are, as is any faithfully attended prayer. A novena may even lead to miraculous results.

So, even though the specific, “guaranteed” promises attached to a number of novenas needn’t be taken literally, they do reflect the confidence in this approach to petition that has grown through the experiences of millions who have received answers to their prayers.

Novenas Work

In short, novenas work, and we should pray them because they are a valuable form of conversation with God and His saints. They flow from faith, and God always attends to the prayers of His faithful.

We may or may not get what we want. But as we pray novenas, we are praising, preparing, waiting and trusting. And we will be rewarded, just as Christ’s first disciples were, in whatever way God sees fit.

Perhaps, then, what “never fails” when we pray a novena is that we always grow in faithful perseverance. And again, like the first disciples, we will not be disappointed.

Karen Edmisten is the author of “The Rosary: Keeping Company with Jesus and Mary” (St. Anthony Messenger, 2009).

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Prayer

The Rosary and the Battle of Lepanto

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On Oct. 7, 1571, two years after the Vatican urged the Rosary for universal use, an event took place that caused the devotion to gain widespread popularity. One of the…

On Oct. 7, 1571, two years after the Vatican urged the Rosary for universal use, an event took place that caused the devotion to gain widespread popularity. One of the most famous (and bloodiest) naval battles in history took place that day on the Bay of Lepanto, off the coast of Greece. The opposing forces were Christians, made up of an alliance of fleets from Spain and Italy, against a far superior Turkish navy. The Muslim force was threatening to take over the Mediterranean Sea and hence be in a position to attack European countries. Pope Pius V asked the Christian faithful to pray the Rosary and seek the intercession of the Blessed Mother to defeat the Muslim navy. Despite being outnumbered, the Christian fleet prevailed. Accordingly, Pope Pius established Oct. 7 as a feast day of Our Lady of Victory, thus perpetually bringing honor to the Blessed Mother for her assistance. In 1573, Pope Gregory XIII (r. 1572-85) changed the name of the feast to Our Lady of the Rosary, a feast the Church continues to celebrate.

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Prayer

Glorious Mysteries Amid COVID-19

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The First Glorious Mystery: The Resurrection of Christ The risen Christ is alive and in our midst, where he promised to remain: “I am with you always, until the end…

The First Glorious Mystery: The Resurrection of Christ

The risen Christ is alive and in our midst, where he promised to remain: “I am with you always, until the end of the age (Mt 28:20). His presence among us is intensified by the fact we are members of his body because of our baptism, when we are grafted onto the Body of Christ, the Church. Everything about our faith, therefore, is inherently communal in nature. Because of our relationship with Christ, we are all in relationship with one another.

This trying and unusual time of the COVID-19 pandemic has posed many difficulties for the Church. We have been faced with a scenario we might never have imagined. Suspension of public celebration of Masses has left the faithful without the ordinary means of worship. Anxiety and disruption can overwhelm us. But we must never forget the promise of the risen Christ, nor our obligation to persevere in obedience and foster the unity he wills for the Church.

Our most privileged task as baptized Christians is to give Christ glory in the Church. Christ’s resurrection enables us to define our lives by faith in Christ’s victory over sin and death, and compels us to define our thoughts, words and deeds by charity above all else. It also gives us hope. Because we know that, despite whatever suffering we might face, Christ’s victory has been won for us.

The Second Glorious Mystery: The Ascension of Christ

Christ’s call to take up our crosses and follow him certainly passes through Calvary, and many of us stay there longer than we might imagine. And even beyond the resurrection, the road on which we follow Christ leads to heaven itself — as long as we stay on that road. Christ’s ascension is our reminder to do just that.

It is important in the midst of the turmoil and distress of this crisis to keep before our eyes the call to holiness. We take up our crosses and follow him, held up by the hope of where we are headed. There will be darkness along the way, but we must remember that even in the darkest times, God is present and active.

With holy lives, as people of faith, our task is to remind the world of this reality. Like Christ, we conform our will to the Father’s, and thereby, as members of his body, the risen Lord is at work through us. St. Teresa of Avila summed this up best: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

The Third Glorious Mystery: The Descent of the Holy Spirit

Jesus sends the Holy Spirit — the advocate — to the Apostles as the animator of their mission to spread the good news of Christ to the ends of the earth. The descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was a moment of definitive change for the Apostles, shaping the rest of their lives and bringing about their deaths (except for St. John). We, too, receive this same Holy Spirit and are called to live this same mission. Our life of discipleship, enabled by our life in the Holy Spirit, is what defines us.

The coronavirus pandemic, however, has offered us a moment for serious reflection, and even questioning, about who we are, what defines us and what we are meant to do. It’s also an opportunity for real clarity. Nothing else matters as long as we are growing in our relationship with the Lord through prayer and worship, and leading others to him through holy living and apostolic action. That is what the world needs most during times of crisis.

Like the Apostles who were sent on mission at Pentecost, each of us has the same calling. This begins at baptism, is intensified at Confirmation, and is renewed each time we receive the Eucharist and are sent forth from Mass. The pandemic reminds us that we are called to be salt in a melancholy world, light amid its dimness and yeast when so many are feeling flat. As disciples of the Lord, we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts, words and deeds to call the world to Christ’s truth and charity, no matter the cost.

The Fourth Glorious Mystery: The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In times such as these, we may be feeling downtrodden or even despairing. So how do we keep a perspective of hope during a time that feels largely devoid of hope? One way is by turning to our mother.

The life of the Blessed Virgin Mary uniquely illustrates how our lives are meant to mirror the Lord. We know that her “yes” to God meant acceptance of not only great joys, but of great difficulties and sufferings, too. Through her witness, Mary shows us how to transform our moments of pain into opportunities to receive God’s grace. She teaches us that life’s sufferings are a means rather than an end. With Mary, we can transform our sufferings by cooperating with God’s grace — and ultimately receive the disciple’s reward she has already been given.

Mary’s assumption into heaven gives us a reason to hope in the heart of Christian faith. Where Mary has gone, we hope to follow. Christ’s resurrection, and Mary’s privileged share in it, changes our perspective on life and death, gives both new meaning, and helps us to focus on what matters most.

The Fifth Glorious Mystery: The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen

Mary reigns as queen of heaven and earth not because of any greatness that the world would know. Her crowning is a recognition that her Son’s kingdom reigned completely in her heart. Like Mary’s, our hearts must be completely attuned to God’s voice. Mary is preeminent among “those who hear the word of God and do it” (Lk 11:28), and she is the image of the Church that awaits the “crown of righteousness,” as described by St. Paul (2 Tim 4:8).

The coronation of Mary speaks to her inestimable virtue. It is she who waited on God’s word and responded with love and generosity. It’s in Mary’s heart that we can find her Son. When we imitate Mary — in her humble holiness, charity and undying obedience to and faith in God’s will — Christ will reign in our own hearts. The difficulties we face due to this pandemic do not need to be occasions for strife and discord. Instead, even the most painful situations can be transformed by love when we allow Christ to reign in our hearts.

Mary’s privileged position in heaven also is a great spiritual aid for us. She is truly our mother — made so when we, her children, were baptized and incorporated into her Son’s body. Mary is the preeminent Christian disciple and model of holiness for the Church, and her intercession and protection can do wonders, if we simply ask.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael. Read rosary series here.

 

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Prayer

Does God Hear Me?

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We live in a world of instant gratification. If we have a question, we send out a text or an email and receive a response within minutes, sometimes seconds. If…

We live in a world of instant gratification. If we have a question, we send out a text or an email and receive a response within minutes, sometimes seconds. If we want something, anything, we stop in a store or hop online and it’s in our hands or at our doorstep almost immediately. It’s no wonder, then, that when we send up prayers to God, our urgent requests for things we need or want (or want to avoid), we expect a quick, clear answer, preferably made-to-order.

So we pray, and then sit back and wait. And wait, and wait, and wonder, “Why doesn’t God hear me?” Or, if He does hear me, why won’t He answer? In truth, it’s not that God doesn’t hear us, but that we don’t hear — or know how to hear — Him. We expect flashes of light, voices from above, or, at the very least, a plain-and-simple answer so obvious that there’s no way to misinterpret or miss it. But, as Elijah learned as he looked for God in the strong wind, in the earthquake and in the fire, sometimes we will find the answer to our prayer in the most unexpected places.

“After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave” (1 Kgs 19:12-13). So it was in the tiny whisper that Elijah finally heard God. Do we quiet our hearts and minds and bodies long enough to hear the whisper of God? Perhaps God is answering our prayers but in the busyness of our lives and the noise of the world around us the message simply can’t get through. We will never know if God is hearing us (and responding to us) unless we make time for silent prayer, not prayers of petition or even prayers of thanksgiving, but a receptive kind of silent, contemplative prayer where we simply sit and wait for God.

When God Seems Close

Most of us have experienced, at one time or another, a moment when God seemed incredibly close. Perhaps we sensed His presence in the voice of a friend who just happened to call when we most needed a listening ear, or maybe it was in the disappointment of a job we didn’t get that eventually led us to the job that seemed tailor-made for us. Sometimes it may be as simple as looking out at the ocean or sunset and feeling a deep God-centered peace that reminds us that life is going along exactly according to plan — maybe not our plan, but God’s plan.

How can we nurture those kinds of God moments in our lives? Through silent prayer, as Pope Benedict XVI suggested, as have many saints and holy men and women before him. If we take even a few minutes out of our busy days to sit in silence with God — not asking or talking, but waiting — we can begin to cultivate a receptive attitude that will allow us to recognize that whisper of the Spirit amid the storms and earthquakes of daily life.

Of course, if we find a way to listen truly for God, we may not always like what we hear, which leads to the next part of our question: Why doesn’t God answer my prayers the way I want them to be answered?

Demanding a Response

God is not like an ATM machine. We don’t punch in our prayer request and put out our hands waiting for the exact response. We go to God and pray that someone recovers from an illness or returns from the brink of some disaster. When just the opposite happens, it can certainly feel as though God is not really listening or, if He is, not really interested in what’s best for us. But that’s because we approach God from our humanness. We cannot begin to imagine how God works, what God has planned for us, and why certain requests don’t seem to be answered or heard.

And when our prayers feel unheard or unanswered, we can begin to feel abandoned by or cut off from God. We’re certainly not alone in that feeling. Some of the greatest saints in the history of our faith experienced the “dark night of the soul,” a term coined by St. John of the Cross. More recently, Blessed Mother Teresa’s letters revealed a decades-long dry spell where she felt separated from God.

“As for myself, Father — I have nothing to say — for the darkness is so dark, the pain is so painful. Sometimes the grip of pain is so great — that I can hear my own voice call out — My God, help me.… It is so painful to be lonely for God,” Mother Teresa wrote (“Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light,” Image).

Faith in the Darkness

Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., who edited two volumes of Mother Teresa’s writings, says that the saintly woman of Calcutta can teach us how to remain faithful despite our feelings of spiritual darkness.

“It does tell us something about what the nature of love is. We hear St. Thomas Aquinas saying, love is in the will. Mother Teresa really embodied that teaching,” he explained. “In our contemporary thinking so much depends on feelings — in love, in friendship, in marriage. In that, if the feeling is gone, then we think we don’t love anymore; we give up. But I think one of the secondary things that Mother Teresa teaches is something of what the nature of love is and fidelity to it.”

In other words, we have to remain constant in our faith, in our prayer life, in our knowledge that God is hearing us, listening to us and answering us in His own time. We cannot hope to understand God on human terms, but we can continually put ourselves before Him, knowing that God longs for us even more than we long for Him. And so we pray, and we wait, and we listen for that still small voice of the Spirit.

Mary DeTurris Poust is the author of “Walking Together: Discovering the Catholic Tradition of Spiritual Friendship” (Ave Maria Press, 2010). Visit her personal blog at www.notstrictlyspiritual.blogspot.com.

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Prayer

Six Reasons Why We Make the Sign of the Cross

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Catholics often make the Sign of the Cross casually, just as a nice gesture for beginning and ending their prayers. But when we learn to take this act seriously, signing…

Catholics often make the Sign of the Cross casually, just as a nice gesture for beginning and ending their prayers. But when we learn to take this act seriously, signing ourselves frequently with faith and reverence, remarkable results can take place. We find ourselves doing measurably better in our Christian life: praying with more passion, resisting our bad inclinations more effectively, and relating to others more kindly.

The Sign of the Cross, after all, is not merely a pious gesture. It is a powerful prayer, a sacramental of the Church.

Scripture, the Church Fathers and saints, and Catholic teaching offer six perspectives on the Sign of the Cross that reveal why making it opens us to life-transforming graces. Once we grasp them, we can make the gesture with more faith and experience its great blessings.

Six Reasons to Make the Sign

1. A mini-creed.

The Sign of the Cross is a profession of faith in God as He has revealed himself. It serves as an abbreviated form of the Apostles’ Creed.

Touching our forehead, breast and shoulders (and in some cultures, our lips as well), we declare our belief in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are announcing our faith in what God has done — the creation of all things, the redemption of humanity from sin and death, and the establishment of the Church, which offers new life to all. When we sign ourselves we are making ourselves aware of God’s presence and opening ourselves to His action in our lives.

That much alone would be enough to transform us spiritually, wouldn’t it? But there is much, much more.

2. A renewal of baptism.

First-century Christians began making the Sign of the Cross as a reminder and renewal of what happened to them when they were baptized. It still works the same way for us.

When we sign ourselves we are declaring that in baptism we died sacramentally with Christ on the cross and rose to a new life with Him (see Rom 6:3-4 and Gal 2:20). We are asking the Lord to renew in us those baptismal graces.

We are also acknowledging that baptism joined us to the Body of Christ and equipped us for our role of collaborating with the Lord in His work of rescuing all people from sin and death.

3. A mark of discipleship.

At baptism the Lord claimed us as His own by marking us with the Sign of the Cross. Now, when we sign ourselves, we are affirming our loyalty to Him. By tracing the cross on our bodies, we are denying that we belong to ourselves and declaring that we belong to Him alone (see Lk 9:23).

The Church Fathers used the same word for the Sign of the Cross that the ancient world employed to indicate ownership. The same word named a shepherd’s brand on his sheep, a general’s tattoo on his soldiers, a householder’s mark on his servants, and the Lord’s mark on His disciples.

Signing ourselves recognizes that we are Christ’s sheep and can count on His care; His soldiers, commissioned to work with Him in advancing His kingdom on earth; and His servants, dedicated to doing whatever He tells us.

4. An acceptance of suffering.

Jesus promised us that suffering would be a normal part of a disciple’s life (see Lk 9:23-24). So when we mark our bodies with the sign, we are embracing whatever pain comes as a consequence of our faith in Christ. Making the sign is our taking up the cross and following Him (Lk 9:23).

At the same time, however, it comforts us with the realization that Jesus, who endured the Crucifixion for us, now joins us in our suffering and supports us.

Signing ourselves also announces another significant truth: with St. Paul, we are celebrating that our afflictions as members of the body of Christ contribute to the Lord’s saving work of perfecting the Church in holiness (see Col 1:24).

5. A two-edged move against the devil.

When the devil watched Jesus die on the cross, he mistakenly believed he had won a great victory. Instead, the Lord surprised him with an ignominious defeat (see 1 Cor 2:8). From the first Easter morning through the present, the Sign of the Cross makes the devil cower and flee.

On one level, then, making the sign is a defensive move, declaring our inviolability to the devil’s influence. But, more importantly, the sign is also an offensive weapon, helping us reclaim with Christ all that Satan lost at the cross. It announces our cooperation with Jesus in the indomitable advance of the kingdom of God against the kingdom of darkness.

6. A victory over the flesh.

In the New Testament, the word fleshsums up all the evil inclinations of our old nature that persist in us even after we die with Christ in baptism (see Gal 5:16-22). Making the Sign of the Cross expresses our decision to crucify these desires of the flesh and to live by the Spirit.

Like tossing off a dirty shirt or blouse, making the sign indicates our stripping ourselves of our evil inclinations and clothing ourselves with the behaviors of Christ (see Col 3:5-15).

The Church Fathers taught that the Sign of the Cross diffused the force of powerful temptations such as anger and lust. So, no matter how strongly we are tempted, we can use the Sign of the Cross to activate our freedom in Christ and conquer even our besetting sins.

Apply These Truths Now

Right now, you can imprint in your heart these six truths about the Sign of the Cross by making it six times, each time applying one of the perspectives.

First, sign yourself professing your faith in God.

Second, mark yourself remembering that you died with Christ in baptism.

Third, make the sign to declare that you belong to Christ as His disciple and will obey Him.

Fourth, sign yourself to embrace whatever suffering comes and to celebrate your suffering with Christ for the Church.

Fifth, make the Sign of the Cross as a defense against the devil and as an offensive advance of God’s kingdom against him.

Finally, make the sign to crucify your flesh and to put on Christ and His behaviors.

Go through these six signings often in your morning prayer — and watch the grace flow through this ancient sacramental in the days to come.

Bert Ghezzi is the author of numerous books, most recently “The Sign of the Cross: Recovering the Power of the Ancient Prayer” (Loyola, 2006).

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Why the Rosary, Why Now?

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It’s easy for Catholics to take the Rosary for granted. We tend to purchase them as souvenirs, or carry them around with us, or even wear them — but we…

It’s easy for Catholics to take the Rosary for granted. We tend to purchase them as souvenirs, or carry them around with us, or even wear them — but we forget the immense power that they have when we actually pray them. And that’s really too bad, because a devotion to the Rosary can be the answer to so many struggles in our 21st-century world.

Our society today faces growing secularism and the disappearance of faith from the public square. We find ourselves confronting a world awash in the spread of evil and terrorism, war and violence. We are plagued by broken families, abounding distractions and a general lack of drive for holiness.

But the Rosary can help. And we know this because Mary herself told us this 100 years ago in Fátima, Portugal, when she appeared six times to three shepherd children once a month from May to October 1917. She told them repeatedly: “Recite the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.”

We also know the great value of the Rosary because it has manifested its power time and time again in the lives of men and women of faith throughout history. This, of course, isn’t because the Rosary is magical; it’s because it brings us to Jesus. As the late Cardinal Francis E. George, archbishop of Chicago, said at the conclusion of the Year of the Rosary in 2003: The Rosary “brings us to the heart of the Gospel.” Here’s how.

Break through the Noise

In today’s typical lifestyle, it is easy to become distracted and overwhelmed by all of the “noise.” Technology is constantly demanding our attention. We sit in front of screens and, at the same time, look at smaller screens. We are drawn in by the lure of social-media alerts and use texting as a primary form of communication. We have developed an “always on” or “always available” mentality, and noise no longer knows any boundaries. A Nielson report issued in June 2016 said that Americans, on average, spend more than 10 hours a day looking at some type of screen. It’s easy for us to tell ourselves we’re being productive and that this abundance of “screen time” is necessary, but the reality is that all that noise is damaging to our relationship with God.

This is not just a 21st-century problem, although it has become more pronounced in recent decades. In 1973, Cardinal Albino Luciani — then-archbishop of Venice who would go on to become Pope John Paul I — gave a homily that identified a “crisis of prayer” in the world — adding that part of the reason was due to the fact that “noise has invaded our existence.”

If he thought that life was noisy in 1973, what would Papa Luciani think of 2017?

We also face an abundance of internal noise. We are distracted by interior barriers to prayer that often manifest themselves in the form of pride and self-centeredness. In all of these moments of difficulty, we can turn to the Rosary. The meditative quality of the devotion can help focus us and break through the external noise. At the same time, by praying this simple prayer frequently, faithfully and with humility, we can break down our internal barriers.

In his homily recounted in the book “Why the Rosary, Why Now?”, Cardinal Luciani gives a beautiful and passionate defense of the Rosary — one that is just as relevant in 2017 as it was in 1973.

A Deeper Devotion to the Church

One of the intellectual, spiritual and even media giants of the 20th century was Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. Archbishop Sheen also had a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother, and he dedicated a book to her called “The World’s First Love, Mary, Mother of God.”

Many of you are probably familiar with Father Patrick Peyton, known also as “the Rosary Priest.” He’s the one who coined the phrase, “The family that prays together, stays together.”

But he didn’t just make up the phrase one day; he had been educated and formed on the immense value of the Rosary from birth.

Father Patrick Peyton. CNS photo/Family Theater Productions

Father Peyton was so used to praying the family Rosary every night, for example, that when he left home for the first time to work and was staying with another Catholic family, he was shocked and distressed when they all went to bed without gathering to pray first.

“While I pretended to sleep, I prayed my own Rosary and felt the pangs of homesickness, the bitterness of being among people whose ways were different from my own, whose sense of values failed to measure up to what all my training and experience had told me was normal,” he wrote.

This was clearly a pivotal experience for Father Peyton — one in which he realized he couldn’t take the faith given to him by his family for granted. And this is why, when tragedy struck later in his life, as he was preparing for priesthood, Father Peyton was able to turn to Mary. Through his devotion to her, Father Peyton was miraculously healed from a debilitating disease. And in response, he dedicated his life to spreading devotion to Mary. As he said, “The merit and the glory of every action I would ever perform would be hers and hers alone.”

Father Peyton went on to form the Family Rosary Crusade, making use of radio, film, outdoor signage and more than 260 rallies on six continents to promote family prayer to millions of people.

The excerpt describing this chapter in Father Peyton’s life included in “Why the Rosary, Why Now?” comes from Father Peyton’s biography and chronicles his life-threatening illness and his remarkable recovery — as well as the devotion to Mary and the Rosary that did not forsake him.

An Increase in Christian Discipleship

I think it’s safe to say that each of us, somewhere along the path of life, has come across someone of deep prayer or faith whom we greatly admire and perhaps even envy. I know that I have. This kind of witness is a gift, and it’s a reminder to each of us that we are called to establish our own close, loving relationships with Jesus.

To do this, we must encounter — a word that, in the Pope Francis era, has become a bit of a buzzword, but which is no less vital — Him Encountering Christ means getting to know him intimately, fully and without reservation. It means emptying one’s self so that we may be filled instead with the Holy Spirit.

There are many ways to encounter Christ in our daily lives: through prayer, the sacraments and, of course, the Eucharist. But a less-trod path to encountering Jesus is by developing a relationship first with His mother. After all, it was she who knew Him best, having carried Him in her womb. Mary lived with her eyes fixed on her son, watching over Him and learning from Him. She treasured each moment she had with Him and, as St. Luke’s Gospel says, pondered each in her heart.

The beloved St. John Paul II wrote in Rosarium Virginis Mariae, an apostolic letter on the Rosary, that the devotion is “one of the traditional paths of Christian prayer directed to the contemplation of Christ’s face.” When we pray the Rosary, we meditate on different moments of Jesus’ life, all through the lens of His holy mother. This contemplation leads to a personal encounter, which sets us on the path to Christian discipleship.

There is a startling dearth of Christian discipleship in the world today, mostly because it is not easy to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him, as we are instructed to do. As Christian disciples, however, we are called to set aside ego, selfishness and pride, and to instead prioritize others. It’s a countercultural life, but one which Mary and the Rosary can help to achieve.

Brings Peace to the World

One of my favorite Scripture verses comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Christian community at Philippi in which he counsels them on everyday living: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7).

Toward the end of 2014, Bishop Doeme had a vision in which Jesus appeared to him and handed him a sword. But when he reached out to take it, the sword turned into a Rosary. Jesus then spoke saying “Boko Haram is gone” three times.

St. Padre Pio

“It was clear that with the Rosary we would be able to expel them,” the bishop said. While this is a remarkable testimony to the power of the Rosary when it comes to fighting evil, it’s not unique.

Many other stories and holy people outline the protections that the Rosary can give, from the Battle of Lepanto, which saved the Christian West from Ottoman invasion, to St. Padre Pio, who called the Rosary “the weapon against the evils of the world today.”

In the included text, written in September 1951, Venerable Pope Pius XII put forth that the Rosary is an antidote to the evils facing the world at the time, such as the nuclear age, communism and the Korean War.

We find ourselves in different, but no less difficult, situations today with almost perpetual war in the Middle East, terrorism at home and abroad, and the persecution of Christians around the globe.

Pope Pius’ words about evil are just as applicable now as they were almost 70 years ago, and the Rosary continues to be the weapon we have to fight it.

Combats Secularism

A recent study performed by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., indicated that 13 was the typical age at which people were leaving the Faith. When asked if they would ever consider returning to the Church, that number raised its ugly head again — with, this time, only 13 percent of young people responding in the affirmative.

Both statistics are disturbing, but they unfortunately present an accurate picture of where we stand today in terms of widespread faith in our culture. We are losing it. In its place, our society is facing a rapid spread of secularism. In an address to U.S. bishops in January 2012, Pope Benedict XVI warned of the pervasiveness of secularism in American society saying, “It is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and culture spheres.”

But Pope Benedict was hardly the first pope to speak out against secularism. Pope Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 to 1903, was plagued by politics and the drama of atheist humanism during his time as successor of Peter. In several portions of an astounding 11 encyclicals on the Rosary (Pope Leo was known as the “pope of the Rosary”) — one of which is included in “Why the Rosary, Why Now?” — Pope Leo spoke out about the dangers of a world without belief. His words were strong and prophetic and are just as relatable now as they were then. Pope Leo believed strongly in the power of the Rosary to fight these growing troubles — and he was right. Praying the Rosary can help our world rediscover faith.

photoshooter2015 / Shutterstock.com

Helps Us Become Saints

Each of us is called to sainthood, but this life, as we all know well, is not easy. It requires sacrifice, dedication, heroic virtue and, above all, a close relationship with Christ and a determination to follow his will, come what may. Yet even though it’s not easy, sanctity is what each of us is called to.

This universal call to holiness is expressed in the Second Vatican Council’s Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church) — which reminds us that we are called to “be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” When wanting to achieve holiness, where else is it better to look than to those men and women who have already done so — that is, the saints themselves.“The saints and blesseds of paradise remind us, as pilgrims on Earth, that prayer, above all, is our sustenance for each day so that we never lose sight of our eternal destiny,” St. John Paul said. “For many of them the Rosary … was the privileged instrument for their daily discourse with the Lord. The Rosary led them to an ever more profound intimacy with Christ and with the Blessed Virgin.”

Among the many saints with a devotion to the Rosary were Pope St. John XXIII, St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Zelie Martin, Blessed John Henry Newman, Pope St. John Paul II and St. Louis de Montfort. Through their example, we find inspiration for ourselves to pray the Rosary more often to draw closer in holiness through Mary and her Son.

Gretchen R. Crowe is editor-in-chief of Our Sunday Visitor and author/editor of “Why the Rosary, Why Now?” (OSV, $14.95).

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