To Jesus, through Mary, for the greater glory of God.

The Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the great, universal spiritual weapon of Christians. Those who have prayed it know its power. Through the ages, the testimony of the greatest saints, as well as sinners, impel us to embrace it. Even Mary herself, from time to time, appears among us, continually urging us to pray it with renewed vigor.

Consider the events at Fatima, Portugal in 1917, that divine intervention that has shed so much light on the great international dramas of our age. Of the 117 titles that Our Lady has, at Fatima she chose to identify herself as “the Lady of the Rosary.”

Consider the words of the great men when they speak of the rosary:

  • St. Padre Pio: “The Rosary is the weapon.”
  • Pope Pius IX: “Among all the devotions approved by the Church none has been so favored by so many miracles as the devotion of the Most Holy Rosary.”
  • Pope Pius XII: “There is no surer means of calling down God’s blessings upon the family…than the daily recitation of the Rosary.”
  • Pope Pius XII: “The Rosary is the compendium of the entire Gospel.”
  • Pope Paul V: “The rosary is a treasure of graces.”
  • Pope Adrian VI: “The rosary is the scourge of the devil.”
  • St. Louis de Montfort: “The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart of Jesus, Our Redeemer, who loves His Mother.”

St. Francis de Sales affirmed that the greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary. St. John Vianney was seldom seen without a rosary in hand. The great “Angelic Doctor” of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, preached 40 straight days in Rome just on the Hail Mary. Pope Leo XIII wrote 9 encyclicals on the rosary, and Pope John XXIII spoke 38 times about Our Lady and the Rosary. He prayed the full 15 decades daily.

Think about this: each day has 1,440 minutes. If you will give just 1% of that to God, then withdraw from the world for 15 minutes and pray the daily rosary. Do that, and you, too, will see its power.

[Adapted from The Power of the Rosary.]