Genesis 2:18-24 / Hebrews 2:9-11 / Mark 10:2-16
The month of October reminds us of many things. It reminds us that it is the last quarter of the year and like the toilet roll, the closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
Before we know it, the school term will come to an end, it will be a time to go for holidays, Christmas will be soon and we will wonder what kind of bonus we are going to get.
But before we move on too fast, the Church wants us to pause and holds out the Rosary before us. Yes, for the Church, the month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary. And why is it so?
It began at a place called Lepanto on the coast of western Greece.
A great naval battle took place there on the 7th October 1571. A hastily gathered coalition Christian fleet from European Catholic states set sail to face the mighty main fleet of the Ottoman Empire which was sailing in from the east.
The Christian fleet was greatly outnumbered by the Ottoman armada. The Pope at that time, Pope Pius V, called on the Church to be united in a Rosary crusade to help the Christian soldiers in that battle.
Because defeat for the Christian fleet would mean that Christian Europe would be overrun by the Ottomans and that would mean the end of Christianity in Europe.
Furthermore, the unity of the Catholic Church was severely weakened by the Protestant Reformation which began in 1517.
So by 1571, the Pope could only call upon a handful of loyal Catholic states to unite and fight the invading Ottomans.
Also, the Ottomans took advantage of a disunited and weakened Christian Europe to launch an attack and were confident of a victory.
So the two forces clashed at the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea.
And after 5 hours of intense fighting, the Ottomans were decisively defeated, and the Ottoman advance was halted and the Mediterranean Sea was freed of Ottoman occupation.
But before the Christian fleet set sail, all the soldiers were given rosaries and it was said that the Christian soldiers fought with swords in one hand and rosaries in the other.
The victory was credited to the Virgin Mary’s intercession, and even Pope Pius V, who was hundreds of miles away from the battle scene, had a foreknowledge of the victory when he gave thanks for victory even before the battle ended.
Though the victory was termed “miraculous” yet it does not mean that no lives were lost or that no blood was shed.
About 7500 Christian soldiers died, and on the Ottoman side there were about 20,000 dead, or wounded or captured.
The Christian fleet lost 17 ships, but the Ottomans lost 50 ships, and 137 ships were captured and about 10,000 Christian slaves rowing the Ottoman ships were freed.
Certainly a major defeat for the Ottoman Empire from which they never recovered and it was indeed a miraculous and religious victory for the Church.
The intercession of Mary was reinforced in the faith of the Church and the Rosary earned its reputation as a powerful form of prayer.
But the Rosary is not just a simple prayer prayed by soldiers and sailors in a war zone.
It is simple enough for children to pray it and they must be taught how to pray it.
They may not know what the repetitive prayers of the Rosary means, but Psalm 8 tells us that on the lips of children and of little ones, God has found praise to foil the enemy and to silence the foe and the rebel.
It’s just like how we say “Amen” at the end of the prayers at Mass.
We may not even remember what was prayed but our collective “Amen” means that the prayers will be presented to the Lord.
Similarly the prayers of the Rosary said by children has the ability to call upon the power of God in times of distress.
But children won’t know how to pray the Rosary if we the parents and adults don’t teach them how to pray.
Donoso Cortes used to say : "Our world today is in a poor state because there are more battles than there are prayers".
And many of the battles are fought, of all places, in the home.
As in a war, there are no unwounded soldiers. In other words, in every war, there will be casualties.
And just as in a war, so it is in a divorce – there will be casualties.
And the first casualty in a divorce is love – God’s love.
And following that will be the next casualty – the children.
The end of world would not be caused by a nuclear holocaust. The end of the world would come about when there are no more prayers and when children don’t know how to pray anymore.
The month of the Rosary reminds us that it is our duty to teach our children how to pray the Rosary and to pray it with them.
Some people may say that the Rosary is monotonous repetition of prayers. Père de Foucauld used to say: "Love is expressed in a few words, always the same, repeated time and time again "
But it is precisely out of these monotonous repetition of prayers from the lips of children and of little ones, God has found praise to foil the enemy and to silence the foe and the rebel.
And out of the lips of children and of little ones, God will put an end to wars in the world and the battles at home.
A Rosary a day will keep the war away.
So let us pray the Rosary and pray it with our children every day.