The Making of Spiritual Weapons & Shields
While the world was celebrating a rubbish, pagan and frankly a satanic day of Halloween, the brave young men and women of the Neocatechumenal Way of Toronto were making potent, effective, and destructive spiritual weapons. Weapons that can fire at the enemy and his minions 53 Hail Mary rounds and 6 Our Father shells at a time and a single moab Creed. The beautiful weapons were built in different shapes, colours, materials and sizes. And even while they were being built the youth summoned the aid of our Lady by reciting the Rosary. And so, the rounds were being tested and fired while they were being meticulously and precisely crafted by the platoon of spiritual soldiers.
Earthly Platoon of Spiritual Weapon Makers
The genesis of the Rosary(1)
There has long been a tradition in the Church that St. Dominic de Guzman (1170-1221) is the source of the Rosary. In the 12th century, the Albigenses heresy was widespread in Europe, especially in southern France and Italy. The Albigenses denied the mystery of the Incarnation, rejected Church sacraments and condoned many secular activities considered evil by the Catholic faith. Among the efforts by the Church to combat this heresy was the organization of the mendicant orders, including one led by St. Dominic. The Dominicans, as they became known, tried to reverse the vile teachings of the Albigenses by roaming the countryside preaching against the heresy, trying to influence the fallen away back into the Church. Tradition has it that St. Dominic’s efforts were most effective following a visit from the Blessed Virgin Mary in the year 1214. Neither Dominic nor his order ever made this claim.
The legend spread from an alleged dream of Blessed Alan de la Roche in the 15th century, more than 250 years after Dominic died. De la Roche was a respected writer and theologian of his time (c. 1428-1478) and instrumental in spreading the Rosary devotion throughout the Western Church. In his dream, Mary gave Dominic the Rosary and instructed the saint to preach the Rosary as part of his effort to thwart heresy. According to de la Roche, Mary said to Dominic, “If you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter.” The Psalter refers to the Angelic Prayer, the Hail Mary. Among those who related this beautiful story is St. Louis Marie de Montfort in the book “God Alone: The Collected Writings of Saint Louis Marie de Montfort.”
Sister teaching Rosary making mastery and precision
Padre Pio and the Rosary(2)
Many Saints have been ardent devotees of this Spiritual weapon. One of these Saints was our beloved Padre Pio, he is one of the most beloved saints in the Catholic Church, and he frequently quoted as saying that the Rosary was his “weapon.” Rumor has it that, a few days before his death, Padre Pio told some Friars in his room “Bring Me My Weapon!!” When the Friars saw no physical weapons near him, Padre Pio exclaimed that the Rosary was the true weapon against the Devil. Padre Pio always wore the Rosary around his arm at night. Concerning the Rosary, Our Lady herself said to Padre Pio: “With this weapon you will win.” Convinced of the power of the rosary, Padre Pio always held the rosary in his hands. When his death was approaching, he recommended the rosary to his spiritual children by saying: “Love Our Lady and make her loved. Always recite the rosary.” Padre Pio had an astonishingly unconditional, total, perennial, unwavering love for the Virgin Mary. He used to tell a story: “One day Our Lord making rounds of Paradise saw some strange faces. He asked Peter: Who let these people in? Peter: ‘There is nothing I can do.’ The Lord: ‘But you have the key.’ Peter: ‘There is nothing I can do, and you can’t do either.’ The Lord: ‘What do you mean?’ ‘It’s your mother. She has another key. She lets them in’.”
Platoon Leader checking out the craftsman quality
Rosary effective as a shield - The Miracle of Hiroshima(3)
Plenty of Saintly and laity evidence exist about the power of the Rosary and much is readily available for consumption on the internet. What is fascinating is that the Rosary is also a shield and it can defend and guard against human acts or atrocities. One such example is the Miracle of Hiroshima this is 4 Jesuit priest survive the blast while only being less than half a kilometer from ground zero.
The Hiroshima attack killed around 80,000 people instantly and may have caused about 130,000 deaths, mostly civilians. Four Jesuits were nearby the hypocenter of the attack on Hiroshima, but they survived the catastrophe, and the radiation that killed thousands in the months following had no effect on them.
The Jesuits priests Hugo Lassalle, Hubert Schiffer, Wilhelm Kleinsorge, and Hubert Cieslik were at the rectory of the church of Our Lady of the Assumption, one of the few buildings that resisted the bomb blast. The four religious never doubted that they had been blessed with protection by God and the Blessed Virgin Mary. "We were living the message of Fatima and we prayed the Rosary every day," they explained.
Hiroshima after the bombing - 4 Catholic priests
Our Lady’s 15 Promises to Those Who Pray Her Rosary(4)
What's more the Holy Rosary is an enormous source of grace, it is one of the most powerful sacramentals of the Catholic Church. But most importantly is that Our Lady has made fifteen specific promises to those who faithfully pray the Rosary throughout their lives. It is absolutely imperative to pray and long for these special graces because for starters our Lady will meet us in death but also intercede for us when we are in front of her Son and Father to be judged. Below is the list of the 15 promises our Lady, Mother, beloved Virgin Mary has made to her faithful devotees:
1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.
[A signal grace may be a simple sign in daily life that answers a question made in prayer or points towards God’s will. For example, seeing a rose after finishing a novena to St. Therese of Lisieux could be considered a signal grace. Signal graces are often subtle or seemingly coincidental.]
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
[In other words, anyone who faithfully prays the Rosary and asks for Mary’s intercession will not go to hell.]
6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered and never overwhelmed by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall grow in grace and become worthy of eternal life. [An unprovided death means dying while not in a state of grace (that is, in dying with unconfessed mortal sin in the soul). The Blessed Mother promises that anyone who regularly prays the Rosary, and earnestly tries to live according to God’s will, will be spiritually prepared when their time of death comes.]
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have, during their life and at their death, the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
12. All those who propagate the holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of my only son Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion of my Rosary is a great sign of predestination. [That is, devotion to the Rosary is a good indication that the devotee is on the path to Heaven.]
Fatima's message daily Rosary prayer is a must(5)
Sister Lucia dos Santos, one of the children to whom Our Lady appeared at Fatima, mentions how essential it is to pray to receive grace and overcome temptation, and how the Rosary is an accessible prayer not only for the seers who were children then but also for most all people. “All people of good will can, and must say the Rosary every day,” she says. “Why? In order to put ourselves in contact with God, to thank Him for His benefits and ask for the graces we need. It is the prayer which places us in familiar contact with God, like the son who goes to his father to thank him for the gifts he has received, to talk to him about special concerns, to receive his guidance, his help, his support and his blessing.”
Pointing out that we all need to pray every day, Lucia says that God asks us for “a prayer which is within our reach: the Rosary, which can be recited either in common or in private, either in church in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament or at home, either when traveling or while walking quietly in the fields,” she explains. “A mother of a family can say the Rosary while she rocks her baby’s cradle or does the house work. Our day has 24 hours in it. It is not asking a great deal to set aside a quarter of an hour for the spiritual life, for our intimate and familiar converse with God.”
She describes how she believes that after the Holy Mass, praying the Rosary — taking into account its origin, the prayers in it, and the mysteries of the Redemption we recall and meditate on for each decade — “is the most pleasing prayer we can offer to God and one which is most advantageous to our own souls. If such were not the case, Our Lady would not have asked for it so insistently.”
Sources
https://www.simplycatholic.com/where-did-the-rosary-originate/
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/padre-pio-and-the-madonna
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/32445/the-miracle-of-hiroshima-%E2%80%93-jesuits-survived-the-atomic-bomb-thanks-to-the-rosary
https://www.goodcatholic.com/fifteen-rosary-promises/
https://www.ncregister.com/blog/fatima-s-sister-lucia-explains-why-the-daily-rosary-is-a-must