"Pray the Rosary every day..." Our Lady of Fatima, 1917

(Catholics worship God only and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary.)

What is the Rosary? In cooperation with the Holy Spirit, the Rosary is a recited prayerful meditation on Christ's life through His joyful, sorrowful, glorious and expanded luminous mysteries (meaning things hidden in God until He reveals them). We were commanded to pray the Rosary for peace in the world and for the conversion of souls by Church-approved Marian apparitions (supernatural appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary). *Read Saint Louis De Montfort's "The Secret of the Rosary."

Rosary elements are found throughout Scripture and have been repeated by the faithful since they were revealed: the Archangel and Elizabeth greetings to Mary, "Hail [Mary], full of grace, the Lord is with thee," "Blessed art thou..., and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, [Jesus]," (Luke 1:26-[28-42]-56), Jesus' Incarnation, Nativity, Passion, Death, Resurrection, Descent of the Holy Spirit upon His Church, the privilege and honor conferred upon Mary, their lives within, "The Lord's Prayer" (Matthew 6:5-[9-13]-15), and the "Glory Be," see 1Peter 4:11. Nothing in the Rosary opposes the Word of God; the Bible even says to believe beyond Scripture, see 2 Thessalonian 2:1-[15]-16.

After Archangel Gabriel said, "...no word shall be impossible with God," Mary, whom God filled with grace and favor, responded, "...be it done to me according to thy word," saying 'Yes' to God, cooperating with and dispensing God's grace of the Incarnation and subsequent Redemption to us.

Mary's words: "My soul doth magnify the Lord," "...all generations shall call me blessed," and "Do whatever he tells you" are in cooperation with the grace of God who "hath done great things to me" drawing us closer to His Son, Jesus Christ, see Luke 1:26-[48-49]-56; John 2:1-[5]-11.

A Marian apparition gave the present form of the Rosary to Saint Dominic, ~1208, who prayed it to convert sinners and Albigensian heretics in France. Rosary prayers (spiritual weapons) quickened Mary to aid the Catholic Christians in a miraculous defeat at the Battle of Lepanto, Oct. 7, 1571, against the mighty Ottoman Turk Muslims out to destroy Christianity.

Those who love God and neighbor are open to praying the Church-approved Rosary while more deeply contemplating the life, death, and glory of Christ. These repetitious Words of God sanctify our lips and hearts, amending our lives with the fruits and virtues contemplated and called into our souls from the grace of Jesus' life, so helping us to become more like Him, see Matthew 6:5-8.

Marian apparitions have appeared throughout time to chosen people. In Fatima, Portugal, 1917, Our Lady of Fatima (Blessed Virgin Mary) warned three children Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, who likewise warned us, that because of sin we will have wars, famines, plagues, persecution of the Church and souls lost to Hell. As a Carmelite nun, Lucia offered hope saying: "...the Rosary is the prayer which God, through His Church and Our Lady, has recommended most insistently to us all as a road to and a gateway of salvation: 'Pray the Rosary every day.'"