7 Oct 2016
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
This past Sunday, we heard the Apostles say to Jesus,
“Increase our faith.” They didn’t say,
“Increase our power,” or “Increase our influence.” Instead, they said, “Increase our faith;”
because faith is power; faith is a source of influence. Of course, so often faith can seem to be just
the opposite; it can repel people, and it doesn’t always bear the fruit we hope
for. But, still, we along with the
Apostles say to Jesus, “Increase our faith.”
It’s something we just can’t live without.
And the Rosary is a most powerful tool we have to help
increase our faith. As much as it’s a
Marian devotion, the object of the Rosary is Jesus and his life. We ask for our Blessed Mother’s intercession,
we pray to God the Father and the Holy Trinity.
But the point of it is to zero in on all those events in Jesus’ life and
death which strengthen our faith. It’s
no wonder, really, that there are so many miracles attributed to people praying
the Rosary.
The Rosary can help us increase our faith, and faith is the
most powerful “weapon” we have against: despair, worry, division among
people. It’s our weapon against the
devil and his tricks, as we see in the gospel today. But faith isn’t a once-and-done sort of
thing, of course; it has to be nurtured and worked at. Every day, we work on our faith, again and
again. Like praying the Rosary, Hail
Mary after Hail Mary, we dig deeper into faith.
On this Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, we give thanks to
God not only for the gift of faith, but for all those devotions and practices
which strengthen our faith. Jesus
answered the prayer of the Apostles when they said, “Increase our faith.” And he answers our prayers, too. “Increase our faith,” we pray to the
Lord. And we have our Blessed Mother and
the Rosary to do just that.
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