The Rosary is a Weapon Indeed

So apparently according to The Atlantic, a mainstream leftist publication, the Rosary is a violent extremist symbol now. I gotta say at this point I am used to Catholic things taking heavy fire from the world but this is a new one. The article seriously tries to link having a desire to commit acts of terrorism to the Most Holy Rosary. It had such a crazy premise in fact that The Atlantic changed the article title twice because of how much flak they received. 

The original title was “How the Rosary Became an Extremist Symbol”.  The content of the article is not the most coherent but generally it takes the theology of the Rosary being a weapon against the devil and tries to claim that is a dangerous belief. I won't go into the content of it any more than that though. If you want to read it go ahead but prepare to get a bit angry or at least confused. I did want to take this opportunity to highlight the awesome power of the Rosary devotion however and partially respond to the article. 

The Rosary has been a staple of my daily prayers for a while now. In the beginning it seemed monotonous but after learning about meditating on the mysteries it became easier. The theology of the Rosary as a weapon against evil is actually what got me into praying it. The article from the Atlantic has only cemented and increased my devotion to the Holy Rosary as a sword for slaying the devil. For many in the Church today the Rosary seems like a prayer devotion for old holy grandmas but in actuality it is for all Catholics. Men in general but especially young men should be praying the Rosary and the stories of it being used to combat evil help to encourage men in taking up the devotion. The history of the Rosary is a very interesting one, intertwined with spiritual and physical warfare. 

The Rosary finds its origin in a battle for souls. In the early 1200s St. Dominic was in France trying to convert the Albigensian heretics but was having little luck. He was doing penaces and preaching but he knew there was something missing. Dominican tradition gives an account of what happened next. Discouraged, St. Dominic went off on a 3 day retreat seeking God’s help. He received a vision of the Virgin Mary during this time in which she instructed him to preach her Psalter. This meant to preach the 150 Hail Mary’s but with her special instruction of adding meditations on the 15 mysteries dividing the Hail Mary’s into decades with Our Father’s in between. The idea of using prayer beads and praying 150 Our Father’s or Hail Mary’s had already existed but the addition of meditations was new. The meditations on Christ’s life would help the Albigensians recognize their errors. 

Furthermore, this devotion is capable of winning real wars just as much as spiritual ones. The Battle of Lepanto is one well known military victory attributed to the Rosary. This naval battle took place in 1571 and the Ottomans had not lost a naval engagement since the previous century. Prior to this they were unmatched in their continued expansion into Europe. The Ottomans had a few thousand more men and 66 more ships. Europe was suffering from the Protestant revolt but St. Pope Pius V’s Holy League was able to send a force to respond. The Pope, who was also the first Dominican to be Supreme Pontiff, asked all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory. The result? A total slaughter of the Ottoman naval forces. Pope Pius V actually saw a vision of the victory before Rome had even received the news and told his treasurer to thank God for the victory before joyously retiring to his oratory. What, or more accurately who, was the victory attributed to? Our Lady of the Rosary, often also called Our Lady of Victory. This is why the Feast for Our Lady under that title is on October 7th, the anniversary of the victory. We as Catholics yearly celebrate the great triumph won for us by grace provided through the prayer of the Rosary.

So then the Rosary is a weapon, but that is a good thing. Our good Mother Mary, by the approval of her Son Jesus Christ, has gifted us this special weapon to defeat evil in the world. It is the sword we Catholics can wear on our belts (or keep in our pockets), carrying it with us for when we may need it. People can prattle on all day about how prayer is dangerous but the only individuals it threatens are Satan and those who choose to serve him.