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The rosary is the most powerful prayer and it can fix nations and criminals, said Fr John Theodore CSSp at the close of the 2017 series of Laventille Devotions last Sunday.
“Mary’s rosary is important for saving sinners. It can save our bandits,” he said, providing numerous examples in history of lives and countries changed when the rosary was prayed.
Recounting the Fatima apparitions a century ago when Mary identified herself as the ‘Lady of the Rosary’, he said God saw the world and sent his mother who gave the rosary.
This year the Church celebrated the centennial of the Apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima when she appeared to Lucia de Jesus, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, three shepherd children in Portugal six times starting May 13, 1917. The last apparition was October 13. When she first appeared, she asked the children to devote themselves to the Blessed Trinity and pray the rosary daily for world peace and an end to war.
Addressing the hundreds gathered, Fr ‘John T’, as he is known, explained that since sin often weakens prayer and a good life strengthens prayer, God never says no to sinless Mary who never says no to God. Using the wedding at Cana from the gospel as an example of Jesus’ obedience to His mother, Fr Theodore said Mary, knowing she would get what she wanted, instructed the servants to “do whatever He tells you”. He added, “Mary always gets what Mary wants…Mary got her miracle.”
Describing how the rosary has saved people, he said five rosary-praying priests remained untouched during the devastating Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in Japan. Everything had been destroyed but the priests’ house remained untouched, and most of the priests are still alive today.
Fr Theodore said prayers offered for Missouri soldiers who fought in four wars resulted in none being killed; and in the Battle of Lepanto, in a Catholic vs Muslim naval battle in the 16th century, Europe was saved from the Ottoman Turks. Pope Pius asked that the rosary be prayed and a wind change gave the Catholic fleet victory.
Fr Theodore said, “Mary is powerful against Satan because Satan’s weakness is his pride. He cannot stand humility…Satan cannot stay wherever there is humility and who is mother humility?”
To shouts of agreement from the crowd, he continued to give factual accounts of the power of the rosary, even against the work of abortion clinics, stating “God says to Satan: I’ll put a war between you and the woman. The rosary is powerful against all evil”.
Discussing the work of exorcists Frs John Nicola and Gabriel Amorth, he said they both agree that Satan flees when the rosary is prayed. He recounted incidents in Haiti where the rosary stopped voodoo spirits from entering ceremonies, and Nigeria where an apparition [of Christ] appeared to a Bishop and he received a rosary as the tool for countering the crimes of the Islamic extremist terrorist group, Boko Haram. Then Pope John Paul II speaking on the third secret of Fatima gave the rosary as the answer for world problems.
Fr Theodore also reminded that it takes a very strong prayer to pull someone back from the edge of hell and that the rosary can do that. He concluded his homily with a final reminder: “Many of our friends are into fornication, adultery and pornography. If they are in it for a long time, they may be on the edge of hell. Remember Mary said the rosary can save them.”
Fr Trevor Nathasingh, Parish Priest of the Laventille/Morvant/Success Village Cluster, agreed with Fr Theodore’s appeal saying everyone from the area “has a responsibility to pray the rosary for our sons and daughters”. While Laventille Devotions are national devotions, he added “it can be localised for the salvation and conversion of our children in this pastoral area”. – EH
