The Rosary and Sacrifice

Why does Mary want her children to say the Rosary?  She appeared and said the Rosary with Bernadette at Lourdes, and to the children of Fatima she gave herself the title of Our Lady of the Rosary.   One would expect within the Catholic Church then that every Catholic would be only too willing to say the Rosary.   One would also expect that in Catholic Schools there would be time set aside for the recitation of the Rosary.    Yet this is not the case, though there is a growing number of teachers who do   When the Reformers took over the Church and Catholic Education in the seventies they followed up the claim that Mary was bad for Ecumenism by claiming we did not really need Mary at all.    I remember speaking up at one stage when even  the recitation of the Hail Mary after the bidding prayers at Mass was being dropped.    And yet still devotion to Mary is attacked, though thank God by a smaller number of people.

I remember someone speaking up once to a group of people and saying "She is just an ordinary woman"   This was meant to discourage devotion but it was in fact the very reason we have devotion to her in the first place.   The Angel Gabriel did not appear to a Princess in a Palace or a lady of wealth but to a lowly maiden living in a little village called Nazareth.    She had found favour with God and as the angel said was 'full of grace'.   But there was no pride in her and as she told her cousin Elizabeth "He that is mighty has done great things to  me.   He has put down the mighty from their seat and exalted the humble"     When Jesus was born her whole life was devoted to Him.   And as we have seen in my previous blog she was appointed by Jesus as the Mother of the Church.   Although her motherhood is not of the flesh she is the Mother of our souls and of our Salvation.    At Fatima she showed the children her heart surrounded by thorns.   Her heart spoke of her love for us and the thorns were the sins we offend her with.   Just as the Sacred Heat of Jesus burns with love for us then so does the Immaculate Heat of Mary.   Her Immaculate Heart is burning with love for all her children, and she wants all her children to go to Heaven.    That is why we have her apparitions, she is a mother calling her children back to the love of their Father.    She is ready to intercede with Jesus on our behalf to win us grace and not punishment. 

So she tells us again and again to say the Rosary.   But again and again we refuse.   We
 make excuses that the Rosary takes up too much of our time.   Sorry Mary I can only give you a few minutes today   We want prayers to be easy and anyway who said that if I do not say the Rosary I will go to Hell.    This of course is correct you may not go to Hell but what Mary is saying is that if you do not say the Rosary someone else may go to Hell because nobody is praying for him or her.    Yes, it does take time but that time is something you have sacrificed.   My wife and I now say three Rosaries a day and I can tell you it is not easy for when I am called to join her Rosary I am usually doing something I consider important in my life and would rather she left it today.   But if I kept that attitude I would quickly lapse and fail to offer sacrifices of any kind.   Yes, the going gets tough but the more sacrifices I make the more Grace Mary can use for those who  go to hell because they have no one to pray for them.     And is saving souls not the reason why I am a Christian?      .      

 

   

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