Daily Archives: October 7, 2026

Our Lady of the Rosary

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One of the great things about teaching in the OCIA classes is the questions which come from people who are not yet baptized or people from other Christian denominations who seek to be in full communion with the Catholic Church. Sometimes they are the “big” questions about Sacraments and papal infallibility, but sometimes they are questions which ask about things we cradle-Catholics don’t think about because,… well, they have just always been there.

This past summer one of the “new” Catholics chatted with me on the sidewalk in front of Church. The conversation centered around Marian feasts and celebrations. Basically the person noticed that there were a lot of Marian celebrations – most of which they understood – but they wondered about the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary: why is it celebrated and how is it different from other days. And besides, the gospel for the Memorial is Luke’s account of the Annunciation, which is the event in the life of Mary the Church celebrates as a Solemnity.

So why do we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary?

The historical origin of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary lies in the naval Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. Pope St. Pius V, a Dominican pope with a strong devotion to the Rosary, called Christians throughout Europe to pray the Rosary as a coalition fleet of Christian states, called the Holy League,  confronted the Ottoman navy. After the unexpected victory of the Holy League, Pius V attributed the outcome to God’s grace obtained through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the prayers of the faithful. In thanksgiving, he established a feast called Our Lady of Victory. Two years later, Pope Gregory XIII changed the title to The Feast of the Holy Rosary. Over time the celebration was extended to the universal Church and eventually fixed on October 7, the date on which it remains today. 

While Lepanto explains why there is a feast day, the feast ultimately celebrates a devotion that had already become a central means of Christian prayer: the Rosary

Most Marian feasts commemorate one of four things: events (e.g. the Annunciation), dogmas (e.g. the Immaculate Conception), Marian apparitions (e.g. Our Lady of Guadalupe), or Marian patronages (e.g. Our Lady Help of Christians). The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary celebrates neither a dogma nor a moment in Mary’s life. Instead, it celebrates the Rosary itself as a privileged means of contemplating the mysteries of Christ.

In the Rosary, the focus is not first on Mary but on the Incarnation, the Passion, the Resurrection, and the entire mystery of salvation, as viewed through Mary’s eyes. St. John Paul II famously described the Rosary as a “compendium of the Gospel.” In that sense, the feast is almost as much a feast of Christ-centered meditation as it is a Marian feast.

Unlike many Marian feasts that direct attention to a singular privilege or event, Our Lady of the Rosary points believers to a lifelong practice of prayer. In that sense, it is perhaps the Church’s most explicitly devotional Marian feast. It honors Mary precisely because she teaches the Church how to gaze upon Christ. As Pope Paul VI wrote in Marialis Cultus, the Rosary is “a Gospel prayer, centered on the mystery of the redemptive Incarnation.” That may be the deepest reason why the feast occupies a distinctive place among all Marian celebrations: it celebrates Mary not only as one who receives grace, but as the one who leads the Church into the mysteries of her Son.

Image credit: “Christ at the home of Martha and Mary” | Charles de La Fosse | Private collection in a castle in Lorraine (France); Galerie Didier Chéreau, Paris | PD-US

The Invitation

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This coming Sunday is the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time. “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast” (Mt 22:2-3) Rabbinic and Hellenistic sources indicate that a two-stage invitation was quite normal – an ancient “Save the Date” coupled to the actual invitation itself. In the 1st century, the invitation was sent well in advance of the banquet. The invitation was acknowledged and accepted by those invited, who then received a courtesy reminder on the day of the banquet itself.

The problems begin “on the day” – but they refused to come.  A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ (Mt 22:3-4). The invitees who had committed themselves to attend the banquet simply declare their unwillingness/refusal to come (ouk ēthelon elthein). What are we to make of this reaction?  There are two avenues often pursued: one personal, one political (of sorts). One could take the approach that the invitation to come was a threat to the invitees’ own pursuits. They want to do what they want to do when they want to do it. One goes to his field and another to his business. These aren’t excuses (as in Luke 14:18-20), but personal concerns that they think are more important than the king’s invitation to this most important celebration for his son.

On a political scale, refusal of a king’s invitation, especially by so many and so suddenly suggests something is afoot. There are two likely things: a general snubbing and disrespect toward the king, or perhaps more sinisterly, a conspiracy and that would be tantamount to rebellion (2 Sam 10:4). But then the king is a patient and accommodating person (again, cf. the preceding parable).

Either way, the unwillingness/refusal to come share the festive occasion with the King is to send the signal that loyalty and commitment are waning. In religious terms, people are wandering from the Covenant. Yet, the king does not strike out or retaliate, but sends a second group of slaves. This element of the story is peculiar to Matthew. Not only do those invited continue to refuse, but some go so far as to abuse and kill the messengers as well. If “a second time” (v.4) is considered the day of the feast – and there is good reason to do so since “everything is ready” – then it may be that Matthew is not talking about early and later prophets, but the Christian evangelists of Matthew’s own time. Certainly, many of the late-1st century evangelists were ignored; some were martyred.

Image Credit: Parable of the Great Banquet by Brunswick Monogrammist (circa 1525) National Museum, Warsaw | Public Domain