October: Month of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin

In my flurry of posting activity yesterday it occurred to me that traditionally October is the month of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Due to the fact I have been posting so much, it took an email from a woman, a single mother who was in having a difficult time several years ago when I met her, to post on the importance of praying the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary during this month dedicated to doing so. Since then she has moved back home in the eastern U.S. and has been received into the full communion of the Church.

Dear Deacon Scott, Hello to you & your family!! I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me know that THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY could be & is there for me, all of us, and I had a divine encounter with Mary, once with praying with the Rosary and every day since she has been at my side & [my son's]. My dresser drawer was making noise mid AUGUST of this year & at first I was scared, once I realized the 2 rosaries were in the top drawer I thought something evil was trying to take them (it was the one you BLESSED for me & one I received from one of the RCIA members@[her parish]) but a day or so later I knew it was Mary and/or my Guardian Angel trying to get them out for me. I, for the first time ever prayed with the Rosary and I know Mary guided me the entire way. I also thought of [another person she came to know], one of the RCIA team mbrs there at the Cathedral & her experience with Mary that she shared with the group. I love you & your family and every one at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. Please tell Father Martin [her son] & I say hello and thank him for his utmost kindness. [My son] remembers him & asks about him from time to time. [My son] also asks about you frequently and how you are. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Always, [X, her son and dog Y]

The late English Dominican Fr. Vincent McNabb, in a homily for "Rosary Sunday" way back in 1936 stated" "The Incarnation is the centre of all our spiritual life. One of the means by which it is made so is the Holy Rosary. There is hardly any way of arriving at some realisation of this great mystery equal to that of saying the Rosary. Nothing will impress it so much on your mind as going apart to dwell in thought, a little space each day, in Bethlehem, on Golgotha, on the Mount of the Ascension." I urge you, dear reader, whether Catholic or not, pray the Rosary daily over the course of this month. Trust your most deeply sought after prayer intentions to the care of our Blessed Mother.

What could be more fitting during this Jubilee of Mercy than to pray the Rosary for the souls of our beloved dead leading up to the three day festival of All Saints/All Souls?