I. THE NAME OF THIS DEVOTION

“I was exalted as a rose plant in Jericho.”—­Eccles. xxiv, 18.

My dear brethren, when Pope Pius ix, on May 23, 1877, gave audience to a number of pious pilgrims he said to them:  “Have courage, my dear children!  I exhort you to fight against the persecution of the Church and against anarchy, not with the sword, but with the rosary, with prayer and good example.”  This Pope, who with great wisdom and strong hand has guided for thirty-two years the bark of Peter, which in many violent storms had been rocked to and fro, he who well knew the great dangers of our times, regarded the rosary as a conquering weapon.

What great confidence his successor, Pope Leo xiii, placed in the veneration and invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by means of the rosary!  He exhorted all Christianity to pray the rosary daily during the month of October, in order to obtain assistance in these distressing times.  In his brief on this occasion Leo xiii says:  “It has been a favorite and prevalent custom of Catholics, in times of need and danger, to take refuge in Mary, and to seek consolation from her motherly concern.”

Thus the firm reliance and confidence rightly placed by the Catholic Church in the mother of God is stanchly avowed.

As a matter of fact, Mary, the immaculate Virgin, free from original sin, the chosen mother of God, is endowed with such power by her Son, as no other creature, man or angel, has ever received or can receive.

The efficacy of this great devotion to the great Queen of Heaven had been demonstrated especially when false teachings, depravity, or other great enemies threatened disaster to Christians.

History, early and recent, relates how public and private devotion to the mother of God was held in times of calamity and distress, and how these prayers were heard, and help was granted.  Thus originated the exalted titles which Catholics give to the Blessed Virgin, such as Help of Christians, Refuge of Sinners, etc.

To these titles was added another, when under date of December 10, 1883, Leo xiii directed that the title “Queen of the Rosary” be added to the Litany of the Blessed Virgin.  In his brief the Holy Father expresses the desire that all the faithful practise daily the devotion of the rosary.  If, therefore, the rosary is considered of such great power and efficacy by the head of the Church, the representative of Christ, it is befitting that we heed his words and pray often and devoutly by means of the rosary.

If this prayer were better understood it would be prayed with more devotion, and greater benefit would come from it.  In order, then, to spread a better knowledge, and to urge the devout recital of the rosary, let us contemplate this devotion in a course of instructive addresses.  The name rosary may be the subject of to-day’s discourse.