Hello Father Angelo,

I wanted to ask you a question about which devotion I could choose to practise. I have been looking for something suitable for me for some time, but I cannot find the right prayer for me…

You are surely more experienced than me (considering that I am only an 18-year-old Catholic boy), so I hope you can help me.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Have a good evening.

God bless you.

The priest’s answer

Dearest,

1.I recommend praying the Holy Rosary.

At Fatima, Our Lady asked everyone to recite the Rosary.

She asked that even the children recite it. In fact, the visionaries were children.

2. There are many, indeed countless, benefits brought by the Rosary. One could say that they are all summarised in the Gospel event of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth.

3.Through this prayer, Our Lady is made present and active in our lives.

Mary is the woman God spoke of at the dawn of creation when he said: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. You will strike her heel, but she will crush your head’ (Genesis 3:15).

It is true that the offspring that will come from that woman is Jesus Christ.

But in the meantime, Jesus is intimately united with his Mother.

There is therefore an antinomy between the devil and Our Lady. They cannot be together. When she makes herself present, the devil flees in the same way that when dawn appears, the darkness of night inexorably flees and disappears.

4.As Padre Pio of Pietrelcina used to say, Our Lady has two tasks: to bring us to Jesus and to intercede for us with Jesus. 

First of all, she brings us to Jesus. How?

In the Rosary prayer, she makes Jesus present in all the events of his life, so that this prayer makes Jesus present and active with his saving omnipotence in our lives, in our families, and in our activities.

What could be more beautiful, more magnificent, and more powerful?

5.In particular, Our Lady carries Jesus in the same way she carried him to the house of Elizabeth, who at that moment was six months pregnant with John the Baptist. Jesus made this child leap for joy, purified him from his mother’s womb as had been prophesied, and greatly sanctified him.

How can we not think that when we welcome Our Lady in the prayer of the Holy Rosary, she brings Jesus who purifies and sanctifies our children?

Through the daily Rosary, our children are sanctified and protected from all evil day after day through her.

And not only our children, but also our families and our activities. 

If this is so, as I firmly believe, one cannot live without the Rosary, just as one cannot live without the presence of Our Lady and without the presence of Jesus, ‘who is over all, God blessed forever,’ as the Holy Spirit says through Paul in Romans 9, 5.

6.The second task of Our Lady is to intercede for us.

Her power of intercession is enormous, I would say divine, infinite.

This is because she is the Queen Mother, the Gebirah, as the Jews called her.

Now, in those days, the Queen Mother had greater power than the queen herself. She had the same power as the king.

This is why her power of intercession is enormous, divine, infinite. We can understand, then, why Blessed Bartolo Longo, in his novena to Our Lady of the Rosary, writes at a certain point: ‘You already promised St Dominic that those who seek graces will obtain them through your Rosary; and I, with your Rosary in my hand, dare to remind you, O Mother, of your holy promises’.

7.I like to remember that when Our Lady appeared in Lourdes, she was holding a Rosary. While Bernadette prayed, she counted the beads of the Rosary, as if to say that she was making those prayers her own and presenting them to Jesus with her power of intercession.

In addition, there was a golden rose above each of her feet. This means that when Our Lady makes herself present through the prayer of the Rosary, she is allowed to set her feet in our lives, in our families, in our activities, so that everything may blossom in an excellent way, like a golden rose.

The month of October, traditionally the month of the Rosary, is about to begin.

Commit to reciting it every day. You will see how many things will blossom, starting with your life of grace and your Christian fervour.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about the Rosary. I bless you and will gladly remember you in my prayers.

Father Angelo

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