Our Lady of the Rosary, Adoration and My Friend Mike

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Today we celebrate the memorial of our Lady of the Rosary, instituted by Pope Pius V. He attributed the naval victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 to the Blessed Mother's intercession after the Christian world sought her aid through the Rosary. The Nashville Dominicans provide an interesting summary of this miraculous event and of Pius V. I encourage you to read their article here.

As a Lay Dominican, I have come to treasure the rosary, contemplating the richness of its mysteries every day.

But I also have a fondness for this particular memorial beyond my love of the rosary. You will understand why after reading about my friend Mike. The article that follows is one of twenty stories from my book, Fleeting Glimpses of the Silly, Sentimental and Sublime:

Rosary Reflection - When Parents Pray The Rosary

"The faults of children are not always imputed to the parents, especially when they have instructed them and given good example. Our Lord, in His wondrous Providence, allows children to break the hearts of devout fathers and mothers. Thus the decisions your children have made don't make you a failure as a parent in God's eyes. You are entitled to feel sorrow, but not necessarily guilt. Do not cease praying for your children; God's grace can touch a hardened heart. Commend your children to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. When parents pray the Rosary, at the end of each decade they should hold the Rosary aloft and say to her, 'With these beads bind my children to your Immaculate Heart"'. She will attend to their souls."

(St. Louise de Marillac)

October - The Month of the Rosary - Calling Upon Mary

(Image source)

October is the month dedicated to the most Holy Rosary of our Blessed Mother Mary. 

We Dominicans love Mary. We treasure her Rosary and make it a priority in our daily prayer lives. Devotion to Mother Mary and the Rosary go hand in hand.

St. Mary Magdalene and the Dominican Order

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Today the universal Church celebrates the memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene - great sinner transformed by the forgiveness, mercy and grace of her beloved Lord into a great saint.

Over the centuries various spiritual writers have referred to her to as the Apostle to the Apostles, the Evangelist of the Resurrection and the Apostle of the Ascension.

The Dominicans have a great devotion to Mary Magdalene as explained here by the Nashville Dominicans. She is also the patroness of the Dominican Order. You can find out why by watching this most informative presentation by Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P..

Before visiting those sites, why not join the rest of the Dominican family, by reading the following excerpt from the Life Of St. Mary Magdalene by Rabanus Maurus, which is offered as the second reading in today’s Office of Readings  in the Dominican supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours:

Beware of what you desire...

The great Dominican preacher, St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), never hesitated speaking the Truth, no matter how uncomfortable it might make his listeners. 

Why? He had one and only one concern - the salvation of souls. 

How do these words of his make you feel?

A Lenten Reflection from St. Thomas Aquinas

(St. Agatha's, Canastota, NY)

I have been journeying through Lent this year with the aid of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. I thought you might find the following worthy of reflection and contemplation this Passion week:

“The Passion of Christ suffices to reform completely our entire life. For whosoever desires to live perfectly, need do nothing more than despise those things which Christ on the cross despised, and love the things which Christ loved. For no example of virtue is absent from the cross.

Why I am a Christian, and a Catholic

I've had people say, "you can't really believe that Christian stuff, can you?"

And then, once I became Catholic, some (certainly not all) Protestants began with, "You don't really believe all that Mary stuff, do you. Or that it's not bread and wine, but Jesus? Really?"

Well, let's start with why I'm a Christian.

At age 20, I wasn't really Christian in thought, word, or deed. I was exploring various philosophical and Eastern religious alternatives. But then I was confronted with reality.

The simple fact is that the New Testament documents are THE BEST ATTESTED DOCUMENTS of the ancient world, bar none.We have 9 manuscripts of Caesars Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, all of them dating from the 10th century. Scholars never voice any doubts about their authenticity.

Yet, we have literally tens of thousands of New Testament manuscripts, some of them dating from mere decades after the life of Christ, even within the lifetime of the Apostles. If one applies the same criteria to them that one applies to any other other ancient manuscript, there is no doubt whatsoever that they are, indeed, authentic and were written by those to whom Tradition ascribes authorship.

In addition, there is much internal evidence to suggest their authenticity. Take the Gospel of Luke, for example. It includes medical terminology of the day - exactly what one would expect of a 1st century physician. And it contains historical detail which has only otherwise recently come to light through archaeological means, e.g., Quirinius's governing of Syria in the late first century BC.

So, the New Testament is authentic. But, what of the content?
There are two factors which I find compelling.

One - Jesus was one of three things.
If He was not, as he claimed, the Son of God, indentifying Himself with YHWH ("Before Abraham was, I am"), then either he deliberately misled (i.e., he was a liar; hardly the "good man" that his non-Christian 'fans' would have him be), or he was deluded. So, Lord, Liar, or Lunatic? Liar and lunatic seem beyond absurd.

Two - the Resurrection. The apostles claimed this from the very beginning. Unless it's true, it's a truly absurd claim. So, if Jesus wasn't resurrected, why didn't Rome produce a body? Why didn't the Sanhedrin produce a body? Why would the the apostles go to their death for what they would KNOW to be a lie?
So, either one must accept the resurrection, or accept that the Romans, the Jews, and the Apostles all acted in an absurd manner.

So, I'm a Christian.

But, at about 31-32 years old, I was confronted with the question of what became of the Church Jesus left. Is it today's Catholic Church, is it today's Orthodox Faith, or some form of Protestantism. Examining the earliest post Christian writings, I found bishops, I found a belief that the bread and wine in the Eucharist somehow truly becomes the Body and Blood of Jesus.
I asked myself - did the Church go THAT far astray as soon as the last apostle died? Did Christ allow his spotless bride to become spotted? Did He leave her or forsake her?

Of course not!!!

I could no longer accept the Protestantism in which I'd been raised.

But, having been Protestant, I could never, EVER be Catholic. So I became Orthodox.

But the more I read, I kept coming across the information that I summarize here:  
https://www.facebook.com/notes/lou-pizzuti/first-post-apostolic-work-supports-the-papacy/548019735243684

Tomorrow, I celebrate the 19th anniversary of my reception into the Catholic Church, after God dragged me in, screaming and kicking.

(originally published 2/28/2014)