Catholic Life - Feasts, Fasts and Devotions
Printed by Washbourne
Imprimatur 1908

This entire month - especially the first Sunday - is devoted to honour the mysteries of the Holy Rosary.

The universal popularity of this devotion, and the wonderful graces obtained by its practice, are the best guarantees of its excellence.

The prayers of which it is made up were the favourite prayers of the Church in all ages. The mysteries commemorated make a review of what our Divine Redeemer did and suffered for us. In them we find incitement to practice the virtues most necessary for procuring eternal happiness.

It is easy to see, then, what a powerful means we have to persevere in the love of God, hatred of sin, and control of our passions. Besides, the example of Jesus and Mary encourages us, in our trials, to imitate them.

How many times has the remembrance of the nightly family Rosary of earlier years served as an anchor to a storm-tossed soul, or a shield to defend the youth forced by circumstances to face the dances of bad example or wily seductions? Those in charge of others ought to establish the recitation of the Rosary in common every night before retiring to rest. No matter how humble the home may be or how scant its comforts, the incense of family prayer will make it dear to God, and attract the protection of the Queen of Heaven. Every home thus blessed becomes a cradle of faith, a school of virtue, and a citadel of the Church against the assaults of immorality and infidelity.

"How oft, when trouble filled my breast,
Or sin my conscience pained,
Through thee I sought for peace and rest,
Through thee I peace obtained!
Then hence, in all my pain and cares,
I'll seek for help in thee,
E'er trusting, through thy powerful prayers,
To gain eternity."

Example - Gluck
Gluck, the celebrated composer, was the delicate son of very poor parents in Vienna. He had a beautiful voice, but when singing in the choir of the cathedral he took care that his singing was praying, and not an attempt to attract the attention of the audience.

One day when he had sung an anthem to Mary, in better style than usual, a monk went up to him, and said with emotion, "Oh, my son, you made me shed the most delicious tears of my life to-day. I have nothing to give you in token of my admiration but these Rosary Beads. Keep it in memory of me. Say at least a part of it every day; and if you are faithful to this practice, you will be as dear to God as you will some day be great amongst men."

Gluck was faithful to his Rosary. His family was too poor to allow him to continue his studies. It happened one evening that he was visited by a celebrated choir-master, who was commissioned to go to Italy to collect the works of Palestrina. As a result of the visit, he took the boy with him, promising to complete his instruction. Thence-forth, Gluck walked with giant strides on the path of fame, but was always faithful to his practices of piety.

At the Court of Vienna, in the midst of the evening's amusement, he - now the illustrious maestro - would disappear, and, like a priest for his Office, seek solitude to say his Rosary.

When death, after a glorious life, came to strike him down, it found him prepared. He held in his hand the Beads presented to him in his youthful days by the pious monk.

INSTRUCTION ON THE FESTIVAL OF THE HOLY ROSARY.
                             [First Sunday in October.]

ST. DOMINIC preached for a long time with untiring zeal against the heresy of the Albigenses, but few returned to the Church; he, therefore, redoubled his prayers and penitential works, and with special devotion besought the Queen of Heaven to assist him in his labors for the salvation of souls. The Mother of Mercy then appeared to him and taught him the rosary. Strengthened by the high privilege shown him by the Mother of God, he everywhere announced and taught this devotion. In a short time over a hundred thousand heretics were brought back to the bosom of the holy Catholic Church, and the devotion spread rapidly over the whole Christian world. Fraternities were formed and the Supreme Pontiff permitted the Friar Preachers to celebrate the Festival of the Rosary; this was observed with great solemnity. On the 7th of October 1571, the Christians, under the special protection of Mary, the Queen of Heaven, gained a glorious victory over the Turks; the Festival of the Rosary being at that time celebrated at Rome and in the provinces by public processions, in order that by her intercession the Turks might be restrained in their oppressions.
This victory was justly considered as the effect of Mary's intercession, and the holy Pope Pius V. instituted on this day in gratitude a festival which was called "Mary of Victory". This was united by Pope Gregory XIII. with the Festival of the Rosary, and fixed for the first Sunday in October. Finally, on account of another victory gained by Mary's intercession over the Turks in 1715 at Belgrade, Pope Clement XL ordered it to be celebrated by the whole Church, "that the hearts of the faithful might be thereby incited to the greater veneration of the Blessed Virgin, and that the grateful remembrance of the help received from above might never pass away."


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Today's story can also be found in October's St. Catherine's Academy Gazette, free to download.

Our Lady of the Rosary
Our Lady’s Feasts
Imprimatur 1945

Of all the devotions dear to the Mother of God, the Rosary has a wider distribution and has been approved by more agencies human and divine than any other. It was a devotion advocated by Our Lady herself in at least three separate apparitions, in different lands and in different centuries, some of quite recent occurrence. In 1858 she appeared to little Bernadette at Lourdes, exhorting her to say the rosary. Long centuries before this, tradition has it that she appeared to a young Spanish priest, Dominic de Guzman, and first described in detail how her Rosary should be said. Few records exist on the subject, but tradition appoints somewhere in the south of France, and the opening years of the thirteenth century, as the place and time of this first apparition. The young priest to whom she appeared was a missionary burdened with the task of fighting a heresy that was causing the ruin of thousands of souls and threatening to overwhelm the Church in France and ultimately in all Europe. Meeting with little success in his mission, Dominic threw himself at Our Lady's feet, begging for some special help in this emergency. Mary answered his plea by describing to him the method of preaching with the Rosary. Whatever the details of its origin, history bears out the fact that the Rosary has been one of the principal factors in the spread of Christianity since that time.

Dominic was not the first to use beads in counting prayers. Centuries before his time, fervent souls had kept account of prayers by using small pebbles or beads, in chaplets of varying prayers and lengths. But tradition ascribes to him the combination of vocal and mental prayers which we now know as the Rosary. A particular scene from Our Lord's life is appointed for meditation with each decade of ten Hail Mary’s, one Our Father, and one Gloria. The prayers themselves are a repetition of the vocal prayers most familiarly known to Catholics. Its very simplicity makes it a devotion quickly grasped by a child, by a new convert, by a person who cannot read. But the vocal limitations place no bounds on the meditation that accompanies the Mysteries. These, even the most learned will never exhaust. “O Queen of the holy Rosary, each mystery blends with thine The sacred life of Jesus in every step divine; Thy soul was His fair garden, thy virgin breast His throne,
Thy heart His faithful mirror reflecting Him alone.”

Our Lady's Rosary was the terrible secret weapon which turned back at least two great armies: the Turkish fleet was vanquished at Lepanto in 1571 by the power of the Rosary, and again in Hungary in 1716 the Mohammedan hordes were turned back by the same weapon. In gratitude for these victories, the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians was appointed to be kept on May 24th. The feast of the Most Holy Rosary is kept either on the first Sunday of October or on October 7th. Also commemorated is the feast of Our Lady of Victory.

It was more than six centuries after Dominic preached the Rosary that Our Lady again appeared, and again in France, in behalf of the Rosary. At Lourdes in the Pyrenees she manifested to a frightened little girl that she was “The Immaculate Conception” and that she wished her Rosary to be said. Since the eighteen successive apparitions there in 1858, an unending stream of pilgrims has poured into Lourdes from all parts of the world, and hundreds of miracles worked at the shrine defy the finest researches of medical science. Almost every Catholic has a Rosary and says it more or less faithfully. How many million miles Rosary beads have traveled through troubled fingers only God and His Mother know. How many miracles of grace it has worked in the lives of those who were faithful to this devotion, it must keep the angels busy to record. How many times it has pulled back from the gates of hell some wayward soul who perhaps has no other devotion, we shall have to wait for heaven to discover.

The vocal prayers of the Rosary are repeated over and over, perhaps because we are all children at heart and children love to ask the same thing over and over of a loving mother. Some have found in this a point to criticize; they have never sounded to its depths this prayer that is so dear to Mary. There are times in all our lives when, faced with pain or sorrow, our very thoughts seem to stop; in such paralyzing moments the only prayers that will come to our lips are those we have said since childhood: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Gloria. It is a natural thing that a stricken child should call upon its mother for help; so it is that we grope for our Rosary in the darkness of tragedy of temptation. And Our Lady does not fail to help: she is a careful mother.

Paradoxically, though the Rosary is limited to so few prayers said vocally, its possibilities for mental prayer have almost no limits at all. The greatest of mystics and scholars have lost themselves in the depths of the Mysteries presented by these scenes of the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of the Redeemer. The wings for soaring are to be found in any of the Mysteries; in the measure in which we can detach ourselves from earth, poor mortals that we are, we are allowed to fly to God.

Throughout the troubled centuries since Dominic first preached the Rosary, it has been a lifeline to heaven for millions of souls. Through the terrors of persecution in country after country, Christians who dared not convene for prayers, who were denied the Mass because all their priests had been killed, whispered in secret the prayer of the Rosary. In this way the Faith has been preserved, sometimes for centuries. Even today, many a Catholic struck down by an accident or sudden illness owes the grace of receiving the Last Sacraments to the fact that he carries a Rosary in his pocket. For that is an unmistakable sign that he is one who has a claim upon the Mother of God; he will have an intercessor to stand beside him at the throne of God. After a lifetime of saying, over and over, “Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death,” one could expect nothing else but that she would.

Exposition of Christian Doctrine -Part III Worship
By:A Seminary Professor
Imprimatur 1919 & 1920

Feast of the Holy Rosary
38. What is the feast of the Holy Rosary?
It is the feast by which the Church honors the joyful, the sorrowful, and the glorious mysteries in the life both of Our Lord and of His Blessed Mother.

39. Whence does the feast get its name?
From a formula of prayer called the Rosary (Rosary, from the Latin rosarium, a bed of roses. every Hail Mary is a spiritual rose which we offer o Mary - A Chaplet is one type of the Rosary, and consists of five decades. The name is derived from the Old French chaplet, a little hat (see pg. 606, note a), and then by extension a garland of flowers encircling the head. The resemblance of a string of beads to such a garland explains the application of the term to the Rosary) This formula is composed of fifteen decades of Hail Marys, with an Our Father at the beginning, and a Glory Be to the Father at the end of each decade. While saying these prayers the faithful are to meditate piously on the principal mysteries of the life of Our Lord and of the Most Blessed Virgin.

40. Which are these mysteries?
They are three kinds: joyful, sorrowful, and glorious. 1st. The joyful mysteries are: the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Our Lord, the Purification of Mary, and the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. 2d. The sorrowful mysteries are: the Agony of Our Lord, the Scourging, the Crowning with Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross, and the Crucifixion. 3d. The glorious mysteries are: the Resurrection of Our Lord, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin, and her Coronation in Heaven.

41. Who established the Rosary?
The pious custom of repeating the Angelical Salutation on pebbles, or beads, dates from the time of the anchorets; but St. Dominic fixed the number of Hail Mary's and added the meditation on the mysteries. It was an inspiration from heaven that prompted this saint to establish and propagate this devotion as a powerful weapon against heresy and vice, at a time when the Albigenses were impudently attacking the worship of the Most Blessed Virgin.

42. What is the origin of the feast of the Holy Rosary?
This feast was established to commemorate the victory of Lepanto gained by the Christian fleet over that of the Turks, October 7, 1571, the first Sunday of the month, at the very moment when the pious confraternities of Our Lady of the Rosary were engaged in the prayers and procession prescribed by their regulations. St. Pius V, who had begged the prayers of the faithful for the triumph of the Christian armies, learned of the victory by revelation. He ordered that it should be commemorated every year under the title of Holy Mary of Victory.

Two years later (1573), Pope Gregory XIII established a feast of double major rite under the name of the Rosary. He ordered it to be celebrated every year on the first Sunday of October in churches possessing a chapel or an altar under the invocation of Our Lady of the Rosary. It is now celebrated on October 7.

Subsequently, at the request of Maria Anna, queen of Spain, Clement X (1671) granted permission to all Spain to celebrate this feast. Its observance was extended to the universal Church by Clement XI (1716), after the victory gained over the Turks, by the Emperor Charles VI, in Hungary, at the very moment when the confraternities of the holy Rosary were marching in solemn procession and begging the Lord, through the intercession of Mary, to put an end to the violence of the Mussulmans.

Pope Leo XIII, in several apostolic letters, earnestly recommended the frequent saying of the Rosary to the faithful, especially in the month of October. In 1888 he raised the feast to the rank of double of the second class with proper Office and Mass; and he added to the Litany of the Most Blessed Virgin the invocation, "Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us."

43. How should we celebrate the feast of the Holy Rosary?
We should: 1st Greet Mary as the glorious destroyer of all heresy throughout the whole world; 2nd Thank her for the victories which Christian nations have gained over their earthly enemies through her intercession; 3d. Resolve to recite the Rosary frequently; for we may then hope that although many evils afflict the Church, yet, through Mary's help, the head of the infernal serpent will again be crushed, and the multitudes that have wandered far from God will return to the practice of faith and good works.

This month we are going to be featuring many many articles on the Most Holy Rosary; its history, benefits of the prayers said, its form and how to teach it to those big and small!

To start off our month of the Most Holy Rosary we will be giving away books on the Most Holy Rosary! Our give away will start today (October 1st) and end on the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary (October 7th Midnight PST). To enter the give-a-way please leave a comment on this blog post with your email (so we can contact you if you win) and also which book you would prefer if your name is drawn. That is all! If you feel so compelled, and we would love if you did, to share this link to others and spread the love of the Most Holy Rosary! Find out more after our day's Rosary story!

From The Vine and the Branches
 By: A School Sister of Notre Dame and Rev. R.G. Bandas
Imprimatur 1934

What Catholic is there, that does not love the Rosary of Our Lady? It was the great St. Dominic who first taught the rosary. By this beautiful prayer he brought many unbelievers into the Church.

The story is told that one day when St. Dominic was praying, he complained to our Blessed Lady, that his preaching did so little good. It was at the time of Pope Innocent III, a time when the Church was going through some of her darkest hours. Dominic begged our Lady to save the Church. She appeared to him and gave him the rosary. With beads in hand, he went out once more to preach; and everywhere he went, he taught the people to say the rosary. From that time on his preaching was successful.

Dominic was born in Spain in 1170. Already as a young student he showed his great kindness of heart. One time when a famine broke out and left thousands of people starving, Dominic sold his books, his furniture, and even his clothing, to help them. At another time he offered himself as ransom for a slave.

He became a priest and at the age of twenty-five went to France with his bishop. There they met an abbot from the same convent in which the great St. Bernard had lived more than fifty years before He was dressed in fine clothing and had many attendants. The abbot complained that in spite of all his preachings, he could not convert heretics.

"You forget," the two men told him, "that our Lord's disciples went out barefoot to preach to the people, and took nothing with them on their journey."

Dominic's heart was almost broken when he saw how the people of France had lost their faith. He spent the rest of his life in defending the faith and converting sinners. By and by other priests joined him in his work of winning back souls to Christ. When they were not preaching, they lived together like monks in the same house. that was the beginning of the Dominican Order, or the Order of Preachers, as it is sometimes called. The monks wear a white habit and scapular and a black mantle.

Besides the Order of men, St. Dominic also founded an Order for women who wished to live in a convent, and a Third Order for men and women living in the world. The nuns spend their time in teaching the young and the members of the Third Order help the others in defending the rights of the Church by their prayers and good works.

St. Dominic died in the year 1221 and his great Order soon spread all over the world.

Together with St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominic and his monks helped to make the Church strong and firm at a time when their help was most needed. IT was a great work, and it was done by men who like the disciples of Christ, went out poor and barefoot, and took nothing along on the journey.

How to Meditate on the Rosary
There are fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary: five Joyful, which tell us about the early Life of Our Lord; five Sorrowful about His suffering; five Glorious, telling us what happened after He rose from the dead.It is not enough to say Our Fathers and Hail Marys. We must at the same time think of the story of each mystery.

In this book two sets of thoughts are given, one thought might be read before each prayer.
The more often we say our Rosary the nearer we shall get to Jesus and Mary. Our Lady herself has asked us to say the Rosary frequently.

4 copies to give a way!

  The Garden of Roses of Our Lady; The Excellence of the Rosary and the Best Method of Reciting It

Written by FR M. Meschler, S.J. It contains the Excellences of the Rosary and the Best Method of reciting it. Not only must we pray often, we must also try to imitate the virtues shown forth in the Mysteries with meditations and vocal prayer, because meditation is of little value unless made practical. Impr 1906. 160 pages.

4 copies to give away!

The Holy Rosary Coloring Book

Contains excellent meditations on the 15 mysteries of the rosary; hence it will be appreciated even by adults.

Features 32 pages, size 8½"x11". Most pages have a line drawing, traditional artwork and an explanation on the opposite page. Always popular with children.

4 copies to give away!

If you are joining our Notebooking with Butler's Lives of the Saints the October Notebooking sheets are ready! There are 30+ saints this month as a few days have more than one Saint. How did you enjoy the September Notebooking pages? We sure are having fun learning about all the different saints!

Also now available for download are the October Liturgical Bulletin Board Pieces. Both the Saint's Pieces and the Title/Prayer Pieces are located below as well as on the Liturgical Bulletin Board Page.

Don't forget to hop on over to Crusader's For Christ to get the October Issue of the St. Catherine Acadamy Gazette! Some wonderful reading on the Most Holy Rosary! For those of you who already downloaded this wonderful gem, there has been an update you may want to look into.

Hopefully before the week is up we will also have the October Children's Lesson Planner downloads available. Our computer died and so we are busy remaking some things that will lost because of that. As always have a most blessed day!

The Willson family has but out another lovely edition of their newsletter! They have really out done themselves this time, it is just beautiful and full of information for the month of the Holy Rosary. We will be sharing parts of it here on the blog throughout the month of October along with a special give-away of books on the Holy Rosary!

In this edition you will not only find a most beautiful coloring picture of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary but also a maze, Little Poor Man of Assisi, Personal Bodyguards, Children’s Sermon, Honor the King, Blessed Virgin’s Rose Garden
and much more.

Visit the Willson's new website, Crusaders for Christ, to download this months edition!

The Liturgical Year - Time After Pentecost Book III
By: Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B.
Imprimatur 1927

Our Lady's visit to her cousin Elizabeth already engaged our attention whilst we ewre preparing for the Christmas festival. But it is only fitting to return again to an event so important in our Lady's life; the mere commemoration of this mystery made on Ember-Friday in Advent would be insufficient to bring forward all it contains of deep teaching and holy joy. Since in the course of centuries the holy liturgy has been gaining more and more completeness, it is but natural that this precious mine should come to be further opened in honour of the Virgin Mother. The Order of St. Francis, it would seem, as well as certain particular churches, such as Rheims and Paris for example - had already takne the initiative, when Urban VI, in 1389, instituted to-days' solemnity. The Pope counselled at fast on thevigil of the feast, and ordered that it should be followed by an octave; he granted for its scelebration the same indulgences as Irban IV had, in the previous century, attached to the festival of Corpus Christi. The Bull of promulgation, stopped by the Pontiff's death, was again taken up and published by Boniface IX, his successor on the Chair of Peter.

We learn from the lessons of the Office formerly composed for this feast, that the object of its institution was, a Irban conceived it, to obtain the cessation of the schism then desolating the Church. The Papacy, exiled from Rome for seventy years, had barely re-entered it, when hell, infuriated at a return which crossed all its plans, had taken revenge by ranging under two leaders the flock of the one sheepfold. So deep was the obscurity wherewith miserable intrigues contrived to cover the authority of the legitimate shepherd, that numbers of churches, in all good faith, began to hesitate , and ended at last in prefering the deceptive staff of the hireling. Thicker yet waws the darkness to grow,  till night should be so dense, that for a moment the conflicting mandates of three Popes would simultaneously spread through the world; whilst the faithful, struck with stupor, would be at an utter loss to discern accurately which was the voice of Christ's true Vicar. Never had the bride of the Son of God been in a more piteous situation. But our Lady, to whom the true Pontiff had turned at the first rising of the storm, did not betray the Church's confidence. During all those years whilst the unfathomable justice of the Most High let the powers of hell hold sway, she stood for the defence of holy Church, trampling on the head of the old serpent so thoroughly under her victorious foot, that in spite of the terrific confusion he had stirred up, he was unable to sully the faith of the people. Their attachment wa ssteadfast to the unity of the Roman See, whosoever might be, in this uncertainty, its veritable occupant. Thus the West, divided in fact, but in principle ever one and undivided, reunited herself spontaneously as soon as God's moment came for the return of light. The hour having arrived for the Queen of saints to assum the offensive, she would not content herself with merely re-establishing at its former post the army of the elect; Satan now must expiate his audacity by being forced to yield back to holy Church those conquests which for centuries had seemed his for ever. The dragon still raged at Basle, when Florence already beheld the heads of Greek schism, the Armenians and the Ethiopians, the cavillers of Jerusalem, of Syria and of Mesopotamia, all compensating by their unhoped-for adhesion to the Roman Pontiff for the anguish just suffered in the West.

It was now to be shown that such a return of nations, in the very midst even of the tempest, was indeed the work of her who had been called upon by the pilot, half enemy now put to confusion, little ones shall rejoice, all shall be filled with benediction, and Pontiffs shall be perfected. (Ps. cxxxi 8,9, 14-18). Let us join the tribute of our songs to John's exulting gladness, to Elizabeth's sudden exclamations, to Zachary's canticle; therewith let earth re-echo! Thus in bygone days was the ark hailed as it entered the Hebrew camp. Hearing their should, the Philistines learned that help had come from the Lord; and, seized with terror, they groaned aloud saying: "Woe to us; for there was no such great joy yesterday and the day before: woe to us! (I Kings iv 5-8) Verily this day the whole human race, together with John, leaps for joy and shouts with a great shout; verily this day has the old enemy good reason to lament: the heel of the woman (Gen. iii 15), as she stamps him down, makes his haughty head to wince for the first time: andJohn, set free, is hereby the precursor of us all. More happy are we, the new Israel, than was the old, for our glory shall never be taken away; never shall be wrested from us that sacred Ark which has led us dry-shod across the river (Josue iii, iv), and has levelled fortresses to the dust at its approach (Ibid. vi.).

Justly then is this day, whereon an end is put to the series of defeats begun in Eden, the day of new canticles for a new people! Yet who may intone the hymn of triumph but she to whom the victory belongs? "Arise, arise, O Debbora, arise; arise and utter a canticle (Judge. v 12). The valiant men ceased and rested in Israel, until Mary arose, the true Debbora, until a mother arose in Isreal (Ibid. 7). "It is I, it is I, " Saith she, "that will sing to the Lord. I will sing to the Lord the God of Israel (Ibid. 3). I magnify the Lord with me, as saith my grandsire David, and let us extol his Name together (PS. xxxiii 4). My heart hath rejoiced, like that of Anna, in God my Saviour (I Kings iii). For even as in his handmaid Judith, by me he hath fulfilled his mercy (Judit xiii 18), so that my praise shall not depart out of the mouth of men who shall be mindful of the power of the Lord for ever (Ibid. 25, 31; xv II). For mighty is he that hath done great things in me (Exod. xv 2, 3, 11); there is none holy as he (I Kings ii 2). Even as by Ester, he hath throughout all generations saved those who feared him (Esth. ix 28), in the power of his arm (Judith ix 11), he hath turned against the impious one the projects of his own heart, driving proud Aman out of his seat and uplifting the humble; the bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girt with strength; the abundance of them that were rich hath passed to the hungry, and they are filled (I Kings ii 4,5), he hath remembered his people, and hath had pity on his inheritance (Esth, x 12). Such, indeed, was the promise that Adam received and our fathers have handed down unto us: and he hath done to them even as he had promised (Ibid. xiii 15; xiv 5)."

Daughters of Sion and all ye who groan in the thraldom of Satan, the hymn of deliverance has sounded in our land! Following in her train, who beareth within her the pledge of alliance, let us form into choirs; better than Mary, Aaron's sister, and by yet juster title, she leads the concerts of Israel (Exod. xv 20, 21). So sings she on this day of triumph, victorious chants which, in the ages of expectation, preluded this divine canticle of hers. But the past victories of the elect people where but figures of that which is gained by our glorious Queen on this day in her manifestation; for she, beyond Debbora, Judith or Esther, has truly brought about the deliverance of her people; in her mouth the accents of her illustrious predecessors pass from the burning aspiration of the prophetic age to the calm ecstasy which denotes that she is already in possession of the long- expected God,. A new era is fitly inaugurated by sacred chants: divine praise receives from Mary that character which henceforth it is never to lose, even in eternity.

The preceding considerations have been suggested by special motive which led the Church to institute this feast in the fourteenth century. again, in our own day, as Mary shown that this date is indeed for her day of victory. On the second of July, in the year 1849, Rome was restored to the exiled Pontiff Pius IX. But we should far exceed the limits of our present scope, were we to strive to exhaust the teachings of this vast mystery of the Visitation. Besides, some have been already given in our Advent volume; and others more recently on the feast and octave-day of St. John's Nativity. (See the hard copy of the book for Vespers and explanation of the Mass for this day.)

Two more weeks until the 2011-2012 Holy Simplicity Planner starts! Get your copy now in time to get the most use out of your home*school*Liturgical Year planner! Plan next years lessons, yearly goals, daily task sheet and more!