Victories of the Rosary
Note: This article is from Bob and Penny Lord's book "Victories of the Rosary"
“All we can do now, is pray!” When all else fails, when
there is nothing left to do, we pray. A last ditch effort; we’ve tried
everything else; it’s out of our control; now all that is left is to pray.
Instead, we should begin by praying, recognizing that the most
powerful tool we have is Prayer.
Saint Paul said: “Put on the armor of God, that you may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is
not against flesh and blood, but against the Principalities and the
Powers, against the world rulers of the present darkness, against the
spiritual forces of wickedness on high.”
Now, we are in the best of times; we are in the worst of times.
Our battle is not with humans, as St. Paul tells us. It is truly a battle,
possibly the final battle for our souls and those precious souls of our
families. What is the armor of God? What better armor can you
wear than that of the Virgin Mary? Who did you run to when you
were a child? Wasn’t it to Mama? We need our Mama. I remember
when I was a child, and I would have a nightmare. Who did I run to? My mother! And what did she say? “Did you pray before you fell
asleep?” Each time, I had forgotten to pray. Then, when she sent
me back to my bed with, “Now say your prayers and you won’t have
any more bad dreams.” I really didn’t have too much confidence
that it would work. Although her reassuring words turned out to be
prophecy, I never believed. But, it always worked!
“Put on the armor of God.” Who was chosen by God to bring
into the world His Son, to care for Him, to parent Him, to teach Him,
to protect Him, to love and cherish Him? Was it not Mother Mary?
Did Jesus not perform His first Miracle through the intercession of
the Blessed Mother? As we journey with Jesus and Mary in this
book, we see how many times the Mother of God, and our Mother,
interceded for us, how many times she had to make the decision for
us, at the cost of her most precious Son. And she said yes! If she
did that, knowing her Son would suffer, how much more would she
do now, as we turn to her, praying the Rosary, the one hundred and
fifty roses we place into a bouquet for her.
The Lord and His Mother, the Angels and the Saints have always
been interwoven. When we wrote of the Miracles of the Eucharist,
we not only learned more about the Holy Eucharist, we discovered
Mother Mary and her connection with the Eucharist. We encountered
the Saints: how they lived and died for the Eucharist. We learned
of the presence of the Angels during the Mass. When we wrote of
Mother Mary we became more fervently aware of the Eucharist, the
Saints and the Angels. When we wrote of the Saints, we could see
the love they had for the Eucharist, how they all turned to Mother
Mary and how many relied on the help of the Angels. We could see
the work of the Angels in Jesus and Mary’s life and in the lives of
the Saints.
The greats of our Church turned to the Lord, to His Mother,
to the Saints who had come before them, and to the Angels. They
knew they needed help and they were not past asking for it. Our
Popes all prayed the Rosary. It brought Pope Pius XII through the
horrible second World War. Pope John XXIII prayed 15 decades
of the Holy Rosary, every day. Our dear Pope John Paul II has a
Rosary on him, at all times. In his private chapel, as he prays for
guidance and direction from the Lord before the Blessed Sacrament,
you can bet he is turning to the Lady who saved his life May 13th,
1981. Beside his Bible and Office (Breviary) you are sure to find
the Rosary. When we interviewed the Archbishop of Zaragoza, and filmed the Shrine of Our Lady of Pilar, we were invited into
the Archbishop’s private Chapel. As with our beloved Pope John
Paul II and Archbishop Fulton Sheen, there beside his Bible, and his
Office, was hanging a Rosary!
The Angels and the Rosary
How many times, Dear Friends, have you been there to save
us, even from ourselves? Bob and I were still in the business world.
On this particular day, I was receiving some very upsetting phone
calls from customers and manufacturers. Time came for me to pick
up my grandson from high school; he was not old enough to drive.
As I drove toward his school, I became concerned that the anger that
had invaded my heart and soul might spread to my boy. Seeking
peace, as only the Lord and His Mother can provide, I prayed the
Rosary for a half hour, right up to the parking lot of his school.
Rob (my grandson) got in the car, and we then tried to get
onto the freeway. I was in the far right lane trying to merge into
traffic. I could barely squeeze into the slow lane on my left. Cars
were barely moving. Finally, having entered it, I tried to get into
the faster lanes, to no avail. I was blocked in: first by the car in
front, then by the car in the rear, and then by the car on the left who
would not move up and give me room to get in, no matter how much
I flashed my left-turn signal. Well, this was not helping my former
attitude a bit. Now, I was really getting upset!
Suddenly, I felt the car go out of control! I tried to steer the
wheel; it was locked! I shot out my right arm to block my grandson
from going through the window. I shouted, “No, Lord, not him.”
The car stopped dead! My foot started to shake. It was still on the
brake which had not worked. I had tried to push the brake pedal
through the floor board. When my trembling had subsided, I got
out of the car on my side. On Rob’s side, we were on the edge of a
precipice about forty feet above the road below.
A highway patrolman came to our aid. He shook his head
and said there was no earthly reason why we were not dead. The
tow truck arrived. The driver used some expletives, I will not repeat,
and shook his head as he helped us into the cab of his tow truck. Our
car was helplessly raised in the air behind us. When we arrived at
the gas station, the mechanic dialed the phone for me. I burst into
tears, as I tried to tell Bob what had happened. I really didn’t know
myself.
The mechanic later told Bob if Rob and I were not standing there in front of him, and if the highway policeman had not verified
the story, he would not have believed it. He showed us how the
axle had snapped in two, severing the wheel from the rest of the
car. The wheel should have spun off; we and the car should have
capsized and plunged into the road and the cars below. Instead, it
became wedged in the fender, and prevented the car from moving
and turning over. No one could explain it at the time. They had
never seen anything like it. It was as if someone had jammed the
wheel, bracing the car.
Was that an Angel who had wedged the wheel beneath the
car? Were they Angels who blocked my path, and locked me in the
right lane, not allowing us to go into the fast lane? If we had been in
the fast lane, we would have been going so fast, not only would we
have died but we would have taken other lives with us. There would
definitely have been a pile-up. Maybe it was someone else’s Angel
who interceded. Maybe it was the Guardian Angel of someone who
would discover the cure for Cancer.
Or could it be, it was that God heard my cry and called upon
our Guardian Angels to save my grandson? Or was it the Queen
of Angels to whom I had been praying the Rosary before I picked
up my grandson. Had She summoned her army of Angels? After
all, our grandson had always loved her. He had been in the Junior
Legion of Mary when he was a little boy. Did she have a special
plan for him?
We believe that all wars are Religious Wars, all battles between
Principalities and Powers, good fighting evil. We fight with guns and
bombs instead of prayer. Mothers’ sons and daughters die; families
lose their husbands and fathers, wives and mothers, sisters and
brothers; and the world is poorer for the loss of these precious loved
ones. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We have a more powerful
form of combat - on our knees. These are just a few instances where
Mother Mary was asked for her intervention through the Rosary,
and she said yes!
I know that there are countless more examples of battles fought
and won through the Rosary, but forgive us if we just cite these
few.
The Battle of Lepanto - 1571
It was the sixteenth century, and the Body of Christ was being
attacked from all sides. On one side, poor innocent believers were falling to an enemy from within the Church. The Church in Europe
would lose 6,000,000 of her most precious, faithful children to
heresy. As they did not know what was happening, they did not
fight. They did not pray for our Mother Mary’s intervention. And
so, they were lost to us. Praise God, they are now coming back
home to their Church, and they are so very beautiful. Could it be the
many rosaries said by their families and friends?
As this sneak attack was going on, other enemies of the Church
were attacking. Turkish forces were overtaking much of Christian
Europe. As this wave of followers of Mohammed invaded a country,
they not only took lives, they took souls. The name of Christ was
not heard in these lands for up to 700 years. They knew that they
would never be able to subjugate their conquests unless they could
take away all hope. Had Satan told them of his motto over the gates
of hell, “All you who enter here, abandon all hope.”
But they were not victorious where people prayed! The Turkish
fleet was attacking Austria. The Austrian fleet under Don Juan was
no match against the superior Turkish fleet. It looked as if another
country would be lost to Islam. Her family is in danger? They need
her? Mary to the rescue! Pope Pius V sent out word to the forces
of Christ, to pray the Rosary. A Rosary Crusade was waged on the
knees of the faithful, and the battle was won.
To the eyes of the world, the Austrian fleet was outnumbered.
But there was a powerful general that could not be seen by human
eyes. It was Mary and her Heavenly Army of Angels! Although the
Austrian fleet appeared finished, they were not. They were joined
by the Angels, with Michael the Archangel in front. Swords of faith
drawn, they were poised, just waiting for their Queen’s command.
The Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was placed at the helm of the
ship leading the Austrian fleet into battle, to victory.
Man’s weapons could not defend their land, but roses in the form
of rosary beads moved Jesus’ Heart and through His Mother Mary,
He did the rest. Jesus, I trust in You!
Battle of Vienna Sept 11 1683
We’re in the seventeenth century and the Turkish forces are
still forging ahead, hell-bent on conquering and subjugating all
of Christian Europe. We find ourselves in Vienna, in 1683. The
Emperor of Austria’s forces are exhausted and discouraged. They
are badly outnumbered and weary from battle. The Emperor in a
last ditch effort, sends word to King John Sobieski, Sovereign of Poland, imploring his help.
Now, this was not the first time that King Sobieski faced
overwhelming odds in battle. But the pendulum swung so
overpoweringly in the enemy’s favor, he did not know if this was to
be his death rather than his victory. As the Turkish invaders were
converging on Vienna, King John Sobieski turned to Our Lady of
Czestochowa: “Give us victory, My Lady, grant us your help and
salvation. As for me, do whatever you choose. I’ll accept your will,
whether it’s life or death.”
Suddenly a thought came to him: “Instead of honoring her
(Mother Mary), we have passed a lot of responsibility on to her.
Seeking honor and glory for ourselves, we’ve left the toil to her.
But she has accepted it. I don’t know why she loves us, yet she does
love us, even if we repay her with ingratitude and disloyalty.”
“Give us victory,” he prayed, “and let it be your victory alone.”
He came before the people and asked them to join him in publicly
placing all their trust in Our Lady. He knelt humbly before his Queen,
Mary most holy and one by one all the people knelt with him. He
began the Apostles Creed, reminding them what they believed, and
what so many before them had died for. All the faithful prayed, only
now, the prayers took on different meaning. They were no longer
just words; they were a battle hymn: This is what we believe; and for
this we die, rather than deny our Lord.
As they continued the Rosary, now reciting the Lord’s prayer,
the words “thy Will be done” took on new meaning. They were
truly commending their lives to the Father, self-abandonment, the
trust of children, of whom Jesus said: “The Kingdom of Heaven
is theirs”. The King placed his troops and all of Vienna under the
protection of Our Blessed Mother. Man, woman and child, peasant
and noble, King and soldier all intoned, with one voice and one
hope, the supplication, “Mary help us”. And help them, she did.
80,000 Christian troops, with King John Sobieski in front,
defeated a fierce Turkish army consisting of 250,000 barbarians.
Now, the Turkish army was known for their inhumane treatment
of soldiers and citizens. The mere thought of them approaching a
village would bring terror into the hearts of men as well as women.
What gave these people the courage to fight and win? The Mother
of God, “Mary, Help of all Christians”. What gave them the power
and the ammunition to use against the enemy? The Rosary Sri Lanka (Ceylon) - 1940’s
World War II was raging and ravaging nation after nation in
Europe and in Asia. No country was safe from the relentless forging
ahead, onslaught of the godless Nazi and merciless Japanese forces.
World War I, “the war to end all wars” had done no such thing. Adolf
Hitler, the man everyone thought was a harmless maniac, no one to
pay any attention to, was conquering most of Western Europe. The
tiny nation of Japan, which was negotiating with our government
right up to the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, was determined to rule
the rest of the world.
The atrocities that our service men shared after they returned
home gave us a clue to the inhumane torture they underwent in
prison camps. The rules governing the treatment of prisoners, that
had been set up by the Geneva Convention, before World War I,
did not seem to apply to the members of the Axis, as the NaziJapanese alliance was called. They acted as if they were exempt
from this governing body which was given the authority to insure
humanitarian treatment to all prisoners of war. The Nurenburg trials
brought out the open defiance of the Nazis as witnesses came forth,
testifying to the monstrous genocide and barbaric experimentation
done on civilians as well as prisoners of war.
The Japanese fleet was ominously approaching the tiny
nation of Sri Lanka. They were not equipped, in the smallest way, to
defend themselves against the powerful Japanese Navy. It seemed
all was lost. Then, the Bishop of Sri Lanka turned to Mother Mary.
He knew that her Son Jesus would not refuse her anything. He
promised the Lord he would build a Cathedral in His Mother’s honor
if they were saved from the enemy that was almost upon them. He
placed his small island under the protection of Mother Mary. We
can just see Mother Mary covering them with her mantle, blocking
the people of Sri lanka as they knelt praying the Rosary. We can see
her Heavenly Army of Angels spreading their wings, swords drawn.
Did they blind the eyes of the invading fleet so that they could not
see the small nation? No one knows! But as resolutely as they had
been converging on Sri Lanka, they turned around and did not attack
the small island. Why had they left them alone? Ask Jesus and
Mary when you see them!
Austria - 1950’s
Many of the Catholics in Germany, who refused to follow
Hitler and his henchmen, suffered at the hands of the S.S. and the Gestapo. Thousands were sent to Concentration Camps. In one
village, where there is a Shrine to Our Lady of Alt Otting, near
Munich, on the eve of the end of the war, a Priest and six villagers
were executed. What was their crime? They had gone to the Allied
forces to plead with them to not harm the Shrine to Our Lady. For
this, the Nazis brutally murdered them.
The shadow of the hammer and sickle was covering more
and more of Eastern Europe. As Hitler scorched the earth, the
Soviet troops watched and waited. They would have their fun, next.
In 1945, the Second World War ended, but for too many that did not
mean peace. Instead a new enemy was marching. God alone knew
what horrors that would mean. The people of Austria waited and
trembled.
Their worst fears came to pass. Russian troops occupied
their land. A feeling of helplessness began to spread through the
villages; the faithful began to turn to the Mother of God, their
Maria. They could not fight with man’s weapons; they were plainly
outnumbered. They would fight on their knees. They prayed as if
with one mind and heart, families, whole villages, men and women
alike, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, all pleading for
Our Lady’s intervention.
They had been forced to hail Hitler (Heil Hitler). And many
of their families had died rather than pay tribute to this pagan who had
set himself up as God. Now, as they prayed the Fifteen decades of
the Holy Rosary, they hailed their Mother and their Lord Jesus. And
their Heavenly Family heard them and came through. The Russian
troops just turned around and marched out of Austria. Without any
worldly reasoning, the Russian troops just pulled out. There was no
explanation ever given why they just upped and left. As quickly as
they had appeared, they disappeared.
What made them do it? Could it be that the Mother of
God, their Maria, and her Son, summoned Their Heavenly Army of
Angels and with the Rosary as ammunition, the Russians, knowing
they were outnumbered, retreated?
Brazil - 1960’s
Brazil has always been a country of the haves and the have
nots. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. The many poor live
in cardboard houses, while the few rich live in mansions. Sanitary
conditions are virtually unknown for most of the citizens of Brazil.
It is a nation of many Old Testament Lazarus’ who would relish some scraps from the tables of their own “rich man”.
It is a natural breeding ground for Communism to infiltrate
and spread. When your child’s stomach is swollen from starvation
and his lips are parched from lack of water, when you see your
family dying before your eyes because their is no medical aid for
them, any promise of hope sounds better than what you have.
It looked as if an even greater monster would swallow up
the innocent souls of Brazil. It was the eve of the elections. The
Communist party had campaigned well and hard. It was a shooin. Victory was certain! The celebrations had already begun in the
Communist Party Headquarters. Did the poor not realize they were,
like so many of their Hispanic brothers and sisters, only trading one
kind of inequity for another?
Who would tell them? There was no other voice they would
listen to. The Communists made it sound so good. They had
promised them change. And any change was better than what they
had. The poor would have a chance at education, health care, better
living conditions, benefits from Big Brother (the Communist Party)
unlike anything they had ever dreamed of. It sounded so good! It
looked as if the faithful, the poor who had no earthly wealth, only
Heavenly riches, would trade in their God and their Mother Mary
for the godless paganism of Communism, without even knowing
that was what they were doing.
Dusk had fallen. The streets were dark, except for some
lights streaming out from the buildings. Suddenly, light started
to cut through the darkness. It seemed far off, almost diffused,
flickering. From a distance, it appeared as if waves of rays were
flowing upward toward Heaven. As the light came closer, all the
eye could see were Brazilian women processing, carrying candles,
singing litanies to our Lady and praying the Rosary. They, like so
many of us, when we are in danger, were crying out to Mama. And
she was turning to her Son, as she did at Cana. And He was now,
not changing water into wine; He was changing men’ hearts of stone
into hearts made for Him alone. Through the Rosary, it was as if
Jesus was walking the earth once more, and the veils were lifting
from the people’s eyes, and they could see the Communists for who
they were.
The sure Victory became the surprising, but devastating Defeat!
The Philippines - 1980’s
The citizens of the Philippines had suffered at the hands
of President Marcos and his wife Imelda, who made a sport out of
selfish, excessive spending while their people starved. How the
people had loved President Marcos! How they had embraced him
and his bride. How they in turn had betrayed them. It seemed as if
there was no hope for the people. When someone attempted to better
conditions and try by election to bring about reform, he was killed.
Cory Aquino’s husband was such a man. He was returning to Manila
to run for office against President Marcos. He was assassinated as
he deplaned the aircraft, in front of his wife and family.
Cory Aquino fearlessly rose up to continue her husband’s
mission. And, the people responded. They went out into the streets
and processed, walls of humanity marching forward, flowers in one
hand and rosaries in the other, fingering the beads of their rosaries
as tanks with their young men came toward them. When it seemed
as if neither side would give in, suddenly the soldiers climbed down
from their tanks and joined the faithful, taking beads into their hand,
their guns replaced by the armor of God, the Rosary.
There are those who say, Our Lady appeared in the sky, to
the soldiers in Marcos’ army, and pleaded with them not to hurt her
children. There is a statue there in the square, to commemorate
this time when despair disappeared and hope appeared, when for a
moment the world could see the day when the “lion would lay down
with the lamb”!
Is there power in the Rosary? The Rosary has lived on, in
the hands of the faithful, in freedom and in captivity. But in a few
years, a man and a woman, who had the power to do good but chose
evil, will be forgotten.
As we have been writing about the Victories of the Rosary,
we started to understand what we believe the Lord is saying through
this book: There is hope! Be not afraid! See how I have responded
when you have turned to My Mother through the Rosary. I have
given you a means, a gift. All you have to do is reach out and pray.
I am listening!
Our Lady of Prompt Succor comes to Louisiana
The city of New Orleans in the Louisiana territory was
originally a French settlement in 1718, then became a Spanish
settlement in 1763, and then again a French settlement, before
Napoleon Bonaparte sold it to the United States in 1803. This can
all be said in one sentence, but the ramifications of such change were monumental.
A little community of French Ursuline nuns came to New
Orleans in 1727, to educate the settlers, and help in the hospital. All
went well until 1763 when the city came under Spanish rule. Many
Spaniards came, and with them Spanish nuns. Now the Ursulines
were predominantly Spanish, with a remnant of French nuns.
In 1800, the French took back New Orleans. It was only
eleven years since the French Revolution had devastated France, and
most particularly, the religious in France. Tales reached the Mother
Superior of the Ursulines (who was Spanish), of whole communities
of nuns being decapitated, subjected to inhumane atrocities, priests
exiled or killed in France. She feared for her community. She wrote
to the King of Spain, Charles IV, asking permission to leave New
Orleans immediately with her sisters. Soon after having sent the
petition, she and fifteen Spanish nuns left for Havana.
All that was left were seven French Ursulines, but they kept
everything going. The Mother Superior, Mother St. Andr‚ Madier,
longed for the strength of her cousin, Mother St. Michel. She wrote,
pleading with Mother St. Michel to come to New Orleans and take
charge of the community. She was well known for her leadership
ability and piety. Mother St. Michel was strong, having gone
underground when the Revolution began. In the south of France,
with the help of another woman, she had begun to rebuild her
community, and open a girls’ boarding school in Montpelier. When
she received word from Mother Andr‚, of their plight she dropped
everything and set out for the New World.
That’s when the trouble began, and Our Lady was put in
charge. Mother St. Michel appealed first to her Spiritual Director.
He refused her permission to leave France. The state of the
religious communities in France was a shambles. A woman of her
qualifications was needed in France. He sent her to the Bishop.
His refusal was even louder than the Spiritual Director. He almost
screamed at her, “The Pope alone can give this authorization....the
Pope alone!”
Now if you consider that Pope Pius VII was imprisoned by
Napoleon, and being transported from Rome to Versailles, and that
he was completely incommunicado, you can realize the futility of
the whole situation. However, Mother St. Michel was a feisty nun.
She wrote a letter to the Pope anyway. The thrust of her letter was as follows:
“Most Holy Father, I appeal to your Apostolic tribunal. I am
ready to submit to your decision. Speak. Faith teaches me that you
are the voice of the Lord. I await your orders. “Go” or “Stay” from
Your Holiness, will be the same to me.”
The letter had been written for three months, but there had
been no way to post it. The conditions of the country were such that
nothing was secure. So Mother Superior addressed Our Lady: “O
Most Holy Virgin Mary, if you obtain a prompt and favorable answer
to my letter, I promise to have you honored in New Orleans under
the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.” Part of the deal with our
Lady was that a statue would be carved, which would be brought to
New Orleans and made the protectress of the community.
Nobody acts more quickly than Mother Mary when she
wants something done. Mother St. Michel’s letter left Montpelier
on March 19, 1809, and permission was granted by His Holiness
April 28. She left for Louisiana with her statue of Our Lady. She
kept her word to Our Lady. As soon as she and her little group of
nuns arrived in New Orleans, Our Lady’s statue was placed in the
Convent Chapel, under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.
Devotion spread throughout New Orleans, even into other
areas of Louisiana. There are two memorable miracles attributed to
Our Lady of Prompt Succor’s intervention:
The first is the great fire of 1812.
The entire city of New Orleans was being ravaged by a
devastating fire, which was fanned by incredible winds. The fire
was heading straight for the little convent. One of the sisters place a
statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in the window, and prayed for
the aid of Mother Mary under this title. Within minutes, the winds
made a forty-five degree turn in the other direction. Witnesses who
saw the miracle proclaimed: “Our Lady of Prompt Succor has saved
us!”.
We did not try to list all of the Victories in this article, we wanted to give you a taste of them and hopefully you will now search to learn more about our Mother Mary.
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