{"id":446,"date":"2015-09-23T00:25:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T06:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=446"},"modified":"2020-02-26T00:19:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T06:19:53","slug":"time-to-get-serious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/time-to-get-serious\/","title":{"rendered":"Time To Get Serious!","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary
\nto obtain peace in the world…
\nfor she alone can save it.<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n\u2014apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, July 13, 1917<\/span>
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IT <\/strong>is long overdue\u00a0to take these words seriously… words which require some sacrifice and perseverance. But if you do, I believe you will experience a release of graces in your spiritual life and beyond…<\/p>\n

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JESUS — THE CENTER OF THE ROSARY<\/p>\n

The focus, the very center of the prayer of the Rosary, is the face of Christ:\u00a0 Jesus<\/em>. This is why the Rosary is so powerful. When we contemplate the face of God, we are changed inside.<\/p>\n

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We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Cor 3:18)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But there is something more… something about this Lady who holds our hand as we pray (I think of the Rosary beads as being our Lady’s hand). Since she is the mother of the “whole Christ”, both Body and Head, she is uniquely able to distribute to us graces for our sanctification by virtue of the Holy Spirit within her; she who is “full of grace,” pouring out grace upon her children:<\/p>\n

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With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary<\/em> and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer. \u2014<\/strong>JOHN PAUL II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae<\/em>, n. 1<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And yet, there is even more. This “woman clothed with the sun” is also the same woman engaged in a battle with the ancient serpent, the devil or Satan (Gen 3:15, Rev 12). She has a fight to pick with a snake who’s been messing with her children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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At times when Christianity itself seemed under threat, its deliverance was attributed to the power of this prayer, and Our Lady of the Rosary was acclaimed as the one whose intercession brought salvation.<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014Ibid, n. 39 <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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THE POWER OF ONE HAIL MARY<\/p>\n

Listen, dear friends… I am not interested in starting a Rosary club. Rather, it is my hope that we will recognize one of the greatest weapons ever given to the Church in the Rosary<\/em>, and take it up like a sword. I am certain that right now many sincere Christians are undergoing strong and sustained attacks from the enemy. There is a darkness and oppression that has grown exponentially. It can lead to anxiety, depression, feelings of guilt, anger, and division in our families. Many of the letters I receive are from souls who are feeling a sense of desperation in their situations. Furthermore, the signs of the times<\/em> speak of the need to intercede for our world as judgment once again hangs over it like a flaming sword<\/em>\u00a0(see The Hour of the Sword<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n

I am also receiving more and more letters from men, good men, who nonetheless are struggling with the terrible demon of lust and the wicked snare of pornography (see The Hunted<\/a><\/em>). There is nothing more powerful, however, than the combination of\u00a0prayer<\/em> and\u00a0fasting<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>especially that prayer of\u00a0the Rosary. For through it, you are entrusting your purity to the intercession of the Immaculate one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary: either they will give up sin or they will give up the Rosary.<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014Bishop Hugh Doyle, ewtn.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Don’t give up, dear brother! Don’t despair, dear sister! If the battle is hard, it is because it is indeed a battle<\/em>. But as St. John reminds us, “the victory that conquers the world is our faith.” [1]<\/sup><\/a>1 John 5:4<\/span><\/span>