Mary and the Blessed Sacrament; Unlimited Power

In this world, where struggles for power abound, Catholics need to look no farther than the Rosary to access invincible and indomitable power. The Rosary as we have it today originated in the mid- to late fifteenth century, though legend has it that it first arose from St. Dominic, in the early thirteenth century, before falling into disuse. The Rosary was based on prayer traditions using multiple repetitions of the same prayer, at first the Lord’s Prayer, using knots on a rope to keep count.

However, the foundational elements of this powerful devotion were being formed long before St. Dominic. In the ninth century, Ireland, the laity began using a string of beads to keep count of the one hundred fifty Our Fathers they said to mirror the number of Psalms said by the regular clergy of convents in the Divine Office; at that time it was called “Our Lady’s Psalter”. In the similar practice in the Eastern Church, the laity usually used knotted rope.

In 1198, the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives began saying the Rosary of the Holy Trinity on a chaplet of three groups on nine beads. The prayer around which the chaplet was structured is the Trisagion. The Trisagion (τρ?ς thrice, ?γιος holy) is a doxology that is distinct from the sanctus concluding the Preface. The text of the Trisagion reads: "Hagios ho Theos, hagios ischyros, hagios athanatos, eleison hymas" [Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us]. The Trisagion was first mentioned in the 5th century as a devotional invocation that assumed a liturgical role in Eastern liturgies. In the 11th century, the Trisagion appeared in the Roman rite for the liturgy of Good Friday, where it is sung alternately in Greek and Latin with the improperia or Reproaches during the veneration of the cross.

In 1233, the Order of the Servants of Mary, known as the Servites, instituted their rosary known as the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. The form is used with a chaplet of seven decades.  In 1422, the Order of Friars Minor (the Franciscans) established the Rosary of the Seven Joys of Our Lady, also known as the Franciscan Crown. This rosary is said with seven decades of Hail Marys, book-ended by an Our Father and a Minor Doxology, with two more Hail Marys added at the end.  In 1851, the Vatican approved the Chaplet of St. Michael, consisting of nine groups of three small beads separated by a large bead. The prayers used are the Paternoster and the Ave Maria.  Eventually, the Chaplet became a devotion in addition to the Rosary. However, the Rosary is cherished in the Roman Catholic Church.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen did say,

“The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description.”

Mary is often called the “Treasurer of the Sacred Heart”, but she also stands in union with the Blessed Sacrament.  Mother Teresa, in her “Rosary Meditations” writes; "When we recite the Rosary in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, we love Jesus with the Heart of Mary. When we recite the Rosary in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, we offer Jesus the perfect Adoration of Mary. We join our own love for Jesus to Mary's worship and perfect love.  Jesus welcomes our time of Adoration as if it were Mary’s own prayer. No matter how weak our faith or how poor our love, Mary receives us into her Heart, and Jesus acknowledges our time of prayer as if it came directly from the Heart of his Mother. The Immaculate Heart of Mary makes up for what is lacking in our hearts".

The magnificent hymn, “Immaculate Mary”, gives us the true avenue to all power in the lines;

YOUR NAME IS OUR POWER, YOUR VIRTUES OUR LIGHT,

YOUR LOVE IS OUR COMFORT, YOUR PRAYERS OUR MIGHT”. 

We must remember, with Mary Jesus is never far off.  This union, of Jesus and Mary, gives us a glimpse of power beyond compare.