Our Lady of the Rosary October 7

Our Lady of the Rosary

October 7

Battle of Lepanto

This commemorative feast was established by Saint Pius V on the anniversary of the naval victory won by the Christian fleet at Lepanto (against Muslim invaders).  The victory was attributed to the help of the Holy Mother of God whose aid was invoked through praying the rosary.  

The celebration of this day invites all to meditate upon the mysteries of Christ, following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary who was so singularly associated with the incarnation, passion and glorious resurrection of the Son of God.

We should meditate on the 

Mysteries of Salvation

From a sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot

St. Bernard, abbot

The child to be born of you will be called holy, the Son of God, the fountain of wisdom, the Word of the Father on high.  Through you, blessed Virgin, this Word will become flesh, so that even though as He says: I am in the Father and the Father is in me, it is still true for Him to say: “I came forth from God and I am here.”

In the beginning was the Word. The spring was gushing forth, yet still within Himself.  Indeed, the Word was with God, truly dwelling in inaccessible light.  And the Lord said from the beginning: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction.  Yet your thought was locked within you, and whatever you thought, we did not know; for who knew the mind of the Lord, or who was His counselor?

And so the idea of peace came down to do the work of peace: The Word was made flesh and even now dwells among us.  It is by faith that He dwells in our hearts, in our memory, our intellect and penetrates even into our imagination.  What concept could man have of God if He did not first fashion an image of him in His Heart?  By nature incomprehensible and inaccessible, He was invisible and unthinkable, but now He wished to be understood, to be seen and thought of.

But how, you ask was this done?  He lay in a manger and rested on a virgin’s breast, preached on a mountain, and spent the night in prayer.  He hung on a cross, grew pale in death, and roamed free among the dead and ruled over those in hell.  He rose again on the third day, and showed the apostles the wounds of the nails, the sign of victory; and finally in their presence He ascended to the sanctuary of heaven.

How can we not contemplate this story in truth piety and holiness?  Whatever of all this I consider, it is God I am considering; in all this He is my God.  I have said it is wise to meditate on these truths, and I have thought it right to recall the abundant sweetness, given by the fruits of this priestly root; and Mary drawing abundantly from heaven, has caused this sweetness to overflow for us.

taken from Liturgy of the Hours Weeks 18-34

Tribulation & Trials by St. Bernard, abbot

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

I am with him in tribulation

From a sermon St. Bernard, abbot

I am with him in tribulation, says God.  Shall I then seek anything here below apart from tribulation?  For me it is good to cling to God, and also to put my hope in the Lord God, because he has said: I will rescue him and glorify him.

I am with him in tribulation.  My delight, he says, is to be with the sons of men—Emmanuel, God with us.  

He himself descended to be near those 

who are saddened in spirit, to be with us in our tribulation.  

One day we shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord—provided, however, that we are concerned here below to have him with us, as our companion on the journey, who will restore us to our true country or, better, as one who is now our way and our true country hereafter. 

It is good for me to be sad, O Lord, as long as you are with me, rather than to be a king apart from you, to feast without you, to boast without you.  It is better for me to embrace you in tribulations, to have you with me in the furnace, than to be without you in heaven.  For what do I have in heaven apart from you?  What have I desired on earth?  Gold is tested in the furnace, and the just by the trial of tribulation.  There, yes there, you are present with them, Lord.  You are there in the midst of those gathered in your name, as you were once with the three young men in the fiery furnace.

Why are we afraid, why do we hesitate, 

why do we flee from this furnace?  

The fire rages, 

but the Lord is with us in tribulation.  

If God is with us who can be against us?  And if he then rescues us, who will steal us from his hand?  Lastly, if he honors us, who can dishonor us?  If he honors us, who can humiliate us?

I will fill him with length of days.  It is as if he said more clearly:  I know what he desires, I know what he thirsts for, and what he likes.  He likes neither silver nor gold, pleasure nor curiosity, nor any of the honors of the world.  All this he considers as loss; all this he despises, counting it as dung.  He has totally emptied himself, and he does not allow himself to be concerned with things he knows can never satisfy him.  He knows in whose image he had been made, of what greatness he is capable; he does not strive to raise himself up only to be cut down from the highest state.

So I will fill him 

with length of days, 

for only the true light can refresh, 

only the eternal can fill him.  

Indeed this length of days 

has no end, 

this light knows 

no setting, and 

this fullness can never 

turn to disgust.

Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours, According to the Roman Rite, Ordinary Time, Catholic Book Publishing Corp.  New York, 1975

Glories of the Virgin Mother, Mary Mother of God

Virgin Mary, Mother of God St. Bernard of Clairvaux The Glories of the Virgin Mother From the homilies of St Bernard   She was prepared by the Most High and prefigured by the patriarchs There was only one mode of birth that was worthy of God, and that was to be born of a Virgin. Equally, who could come from a Virgin birth except God himself? The maker of mankind, if he was to be made man and destined to be born of man, would have to choose, to create a mother whom he knew to be worthy of him, who he knew would be pleasing to him.   It was his will that she should be a virgin, so that he could proceed from an unstained body, stainless, to purify mankind of its stains.   It was his will that she should be meek and humble of heart, since he was to become the outstanding example of these virtues, so necessary for the health of humanity. He granted childbirth to her, having first inspired her vow of virginity and filled her with the virtue of humility.   To put it another way, how could the Angel have addressed her as full of grace if any, even a little, of these virtues had been present in her already and not given to her by grace? It was given to her to be made holy. She, who was to conceive and give birth to the Holy of holies, was made holy in body by the gift of virginity and holy in mind by the gift of humility.   Adorned with the jewels of such virtues and radiant in both mind and body, the royal Virgin’s beauty draws the attention of the citizens of heaven itself, and its King is filled with desire for her and sends his messenger to her from on high.   The Angel was sent to the Virgin, it says. A virgin in body and a virgin in mind, a virgin by her own choice, a virgin, as the Apostle describes her, holy in mind and body. Not someone just now found by chance, but chosen from the beginning of time, foreseen and prepared by the Most High, waited upon by the angels, prefigured by the patriarchs, preached by the prophets.