October 24
“If evils increase, the devotion of the People of God should also increase. And so, venerable brothers, we want you to take the lead in urging and encouraging people to pray ardently to our most merciful mother Mary by saying the Rosary during the month of October.”
-Pope Paul VI
For Reflection:
Is my devotion to prayer keeping up with the increase of evil around us? What one way can I increase my devotion today?
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October 23
"Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary, for the Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world."
-St. Pio of Pietrelcina
For Reflection:
What are the evils of the world rampant in our midst today? What one “evil” is assailing me personally? Am I willing to pick up the weapon of the Rosary and fight against it through the intercession of Our Blessed Lady?
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October 22
“The rosary is not a road, but a place, it has no goal but a depth. To linger in it has great compensations."
-Romano Guardini
For Reflection:
How is it that the Rosary is a place? How can I linger in it so as to reap its compensations? What does this require of me when I sit down
to pray the Rosary?
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October 21
“Contemplating the scenes of the Rosary in union with Mary is a means of learning from her to ‘read’ Christ, to discover his secrets and to understand
his message.”
-St. John Paul II
For Reflection:
To what extent is Mary helping me to “read” Jesus better? What impact is this having on my life of prayer and my daily life?
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October 20
“The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In the recitation of the Rosary, the Christian community enters into contact with the memories and the contemplative gaze of Mary."
-St. John Paul II
For Reflection:
As I pray the Rosary, do I make a mental effort to see Jesus through the eyes of Mary? When I next pick up my beads, I will ask Mary to help me see her Son through her so that I might know Him more perfectly.
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October 19
“If [the pray-er of the Rosary] should listen daily to this secret teaching in the depth of his heart, this prayer would kindle in him the desire of heaven, of the glory of God, and the salvation of souls; it would give him a love of the cross and strength to carry it, and from time to time a foretaste of heaven, a certain savor of eternal life.”
-Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
For Reflection:
What do I think it means to “listen to this secret teaching in the depth” of my heart? To what extent have I experienced any of the spiritual realities of this quote while I have prayed the Rosary? How can I aid myself during my prayer time to listen more closely?
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October 18
“The proficient who would thus live a little better each day by the spirit of the Rosary, would reach the contemplation of the mystery of Christ, a certain penetrating understand of the life of the mystical body, or of the Church militant, suffering, and triumphant. Under the continual direction of Jesus and of Mary Mediatrix, he would enter increasingly into the mystery of the communion of saints.”
-Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
For Reflection:
According to this quote, what is contemplation of the mystery of Christ? How can the Rosary help us to do this? Here, Mary is called “Mediatrix.” (Refer to page 26 for the definition.) How have I experienced Mary as mediatrix?
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October 17
“[The Rosary’s] form is that of a prayerful and contemplative presentation, capable of forming Christians according to the heart of Christ.”
-St. John Paul II
For Reflection:
Have I experienced my own heart being conformed to that of Christ as I have prayed the mysteries of the Rosary? Have I witnessed an increased desire for virtue in my life? How have my attitudes, habits, actions, and reactions come under the influence of Christ as a result of my prayer time? (Read the next three Grace Lines to see how this is accomplished through the Rosary).
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October 16
“Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the Rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.”
-Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2708
For Reflection:
How can meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary help to move me toward “the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him?”
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St. Teresa of Avila shows us it is never too late to get serious about our prayer life. Born Dona Teresa Sanchez Cepeda Davila y Ahumada, Teresa was an active child with a big imagination and great sensitivity of heart. Little Teresa and her brother Roderigo were intrigued by the lives of the saints and the martyrs, and often sought to imitate their holy example.
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