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Title: |
Octobri Mense
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Descr.: |
On The Rosary
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Pope: |
Pope Leo XIII
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Date: |
September 22, 1891
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To
Our Venerable Brethren the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops,
Bishops, and Other Ordinaries Having Grace and Communion with the
Apostolic See.
Venerable
Brethren, Greeting and Apostolic Benediction.
1.
At the coming of the month of October, dedicated and consecrated
as it is to the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary, we recall with
satisfaction the instant exhortations which in preceding years We
addressed to you, venerable brethren, desiring, as We did, that
the faithful, urged by your authority and by your zeal, should
redouble their piety towards the august Mother of God, the mighty
helper of Christians, and should pray to her throughout the month,
invoking her by that most holy rite of the Rosary which the
Church, especially in the passage of difficult times, has ever
used for the accomplishment of all desires. This year once again
do We publish Our wishes, once again do We encourage you by the
same exhortations. We are persuaded to this in love for the
Church, whose sufferings, far from mitigating, increase daily in
number and in gravity. Universal and well-known are the evils we
deplore: war made upon the sacred dogmas which the Church holds
and transmits; derision cast upon the integrity of that Christian
morality which she has in keeping; enmity declared, with the
impudence of audacity and with criminal malice, against the very
Christ, as though the Divine work of Redemption itself were to be
destroyed from its foundation - that work which, indeed, no adverse
power shall ever utterly abolish or destroy.
2.
No new events are these in the career of the Church militant.
Jesus foretold them to His disciples. That she may teach men the
truth and may guide them to eternal salvation, she must enter upon
a daily war; and throughout the course of ages she has fought,
even to martyrdom, rejoicing and glorifying herself in nothing
more than in the occasion of signing her cause with her Founder's
blood, the sure and certain pledge of the victory whereof she
holds the promise. Nevertheless we must not conceal the profound
sadness with which this necessity of constant war afflicts the
righteous. It is indeed a cause of great sorrow that so many
should be deterred and led astray by error and enmity to God; that
so many should be indifferent to all forms of religion, and should
finally become estranged from faith; that so many Catholics should
be such in name only, and should pay to religion no honor or
worship. And still sadder and more beset with anxieties grows the
soul at the thought of the fruitful source of most manifold evils
existing in the organization of States that allow no place to the
Church, and that oppose her championship of holy virtue. This is
truly a terrible manifestation of the just vengeance of God, Who
allows blindness of soul to darken upon the nations that forsake
Him. These are evils that cry aloud, that cry of themselves with a
daily increasing voice. It is absolutely necessary that the
Catholic voice should also call to God with unwearied instance,
"without ceasing;"(1) that the Faithful should pray not
only in their own homes, but in public, gathered together under
the sacred roof; that they should beseech urgently the
all-foreseeing God to deliver the Church from evil men(2) and to
bring back the troubled nations to good sense and reason, by the
light and love of Christ.
3.
Wonderful and beyond hope or belief is this. The world goes on its
laborious way, proud of its riches, of its power, of its arms, of
its genius; the Church goes onward along the course of ages with
an even step, trusting in God only, to Whom, day and night, she
lifts her eyes and her suppliant hands. Even though in her
prudence she neglects not the human aid which Providence and the
times afford her, not in these does she put her trust, which rests
in prayer, in supplication, in the invocation of God. Thus it is
that she renews her vital breath; the diligence of her prayer has
caused her, in her aloofness from worldly things and in her
continual union with the Divine will, to live the tranquil and
peaceful life of Our very Lord Jesus Christ; being herself the
image of Christ, Whose happy and perpetual joy was hardly marred
by the horror of the torments He endured for us. This important
doctrine of Christian wisdom has been ever believed and practiced
by Christians worthy of the name. Their prayers rise to God
eagerly and more frequently when the cunning and the violence of
the perverse afflict the Church and her supreme Pastor. Of this
the faithful of the Church in the East gave an example that should
be offered to the imitation of posterity. Peter, Vicar of Jesus
Christ, and first Pontiff of the Church, had been cast into
prison, loaded with chains by the guilty Herod, and left for
certain death. None could carry him help or snatch him from the
peril. But there was the certain help that fervent prayer wins
from God. The Church, as the sacred story tells us, made prayer
without ceasing to God for him;(3) and the greater was the fear of
a misfortune, the greater was the fervor of all who prayed to God.
After the granting of their desires the miracle stood revealed;
and Christians still celebrate with a joyous gratitude the marvel
of the deliverance of Peter. Christ has given us a still more
memorable instance, a Divine instance, so that the Church might be
formed not upon his precepts only, but upon His example also.
During His whole life He had given Himself to frequent and fervent
prayer, and in the supreme hours in the Garden of Gethsemane, when
His soul was filled with bitterness and sorrow unto death, He
prayed to His Father and prayed repeatedly.(4) It was not for
Himself that He prayed thus, for He feared nothing and needed
nothing, being God; He prayed for us, for His Church, whose
prayers and future tears He already then accepted with joy, to
give them back in mercies.
4.
But since the salvation of our race was accomplished by the
mystery of the Cross, and since the Church, dispenser of that
salvation after the triumph of Christ, was founded upon earth and
instituted, Providence established a new order for a new people.
The consideration of the Divine counsels is united to the great
sentiment of religion. The Eternal Son of God, about to take upon
Him our nature for the saving and ennobling of man, and about to
consummate thus a mystical union between Himself and all mankind,
did not accomplish His design without adding there the free
consent of the elect Mother, who represented in some sort all
human kind, according to the illustrious and just opinion of St.
Thomas, who says that the Annunciation was effected with the
consent of the Virgin standing in the place of humanity.(5) With
equal truth may it be also affirmed that, by the will of God, Mary
is the intermediary through whom is distributed unto us this
immense treasure of mercies gathered by God, for mercy and truth
were created by Jesus Christ.(6) Thus as no man goeth to the
Father but by the Son, so no man goeth to Christ but by His
Mother. How great are the goodness and mercy revealed in this
design of God! What a correspondence with the frailty of man! We
believe in the infinite goodness of the Most High, and we rejoice
in it; we believe also in His justice and we fear it. We adore the
beloved Savior, lavish of His blood and of His life; we dread the
inexorable Judge. Thus do those whose actions have disturbed their
consciences need an intercessor mighty in favor with God, merciful
enough not to reject the cause of the desperate, merciful enough
to lift up again towards hope in the divine mercy the afflicted
and the broken down. Mary is this glorious intermediary; she is
the mighty Mother of the Almighty; but - what is still sweeter -
she
is gentle, extreme in tenderness, of a limitless loving-kindness.
As such God gave her to us. Having chosen her for the Mother of
His only begotten Son, He taught her all a mother's feeling that
breathes nothing but pardon and love. Such Christ desired she
should be, for He consented to be subject to Mary and to obey her
as a son a mother. Such He proclaimed her from the cross when he
entrusted to her care and love the whole of the race of man in the
person of His disciple John. Such, finally, she proves herself by
her courage in gathering in the heritage of the enormous labors of
her Son, and in accepting the charge of her maternal duties
towards us all.
5.
The design of this most dear mercy, realized by God in Mary and
confirmed by the testament of Christ, was comprehended at the
beginning, and accepted with the utmost joy by the Holy Apostles
and the earliest believers. It was the counsel and teaching of the
venerable Fathers of the Church. All the nations of the Christian
age received it with one mind; and even when literature and
tradition are silent there is a voice that breaks from every
Christian breast and speaks with all eloquence. No other reason is
needed that that of a Divine faith which, by a powerful and most
pleasant impulse, persuades us towards Mary. Nothing is more
natural, nothing more desirable than to seek a refuge in the
protection and in the loyalty of her to whom we may confess our
designs and our actions, our innocence and our repentance, our
torments and our joys, our prayers and our desires - all our
affairs. All men, moreover, are filled with the hope and
confidence that petitions which might be received with less favor
from the lips of unworthy men, God will accept when they are
recommended by the most Holy Mother, and will grant with all
favors. The truth and the sweetness of these thoughts bring to the
soul an unspeakable comfort; but they inspire all the more
compassion for those who, being without Divine faith, honor not
Mary and have her not for their mother; for those also who,
holding Christian faith, dare to accuse of excess the devotion to
Mary, thereby sorely wounding filial piety.
6.
This storm of evils, in the midst of which the Church struggles so
strenuously, reveals to all her pious children the holy duty
whereto they are bound to pray to God with instance, and the
manner in which they may give to their prayers the greater power.
Faithful to the religious example of our fathers, let us have
recourse to Mary, our holy Sovereign. Let us entreat, let us
beseech, with one heart, Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, our
Mother. "Show thyself to be a mother; cause our prayers to be
accepted by Him Who, born for us, consented to be thy
Son."(7)
7.
Now, among the several rites and manners of paying honor to the
Blessed Mary, some are to be preferred, inasmuch as we know them
to be most powerful and most pleasing to our Mother; and for this
reason we specially mention by name and recommend the Rosary. The
common language has given the name of corona to this manner of
prayer, which recalls to our minds the great mysteries of Jesus
and Mary united in joys, sorrows, and triumphs. The contemplation
of these august mysteries, contemplated in their order, affords to
faithful souls a wonderful confirmation of faith, protection
against the disease of error, and increase of the strength of the
soul. The soul and memory of him who thus prays, enlightened by
faith, are drawn towards these mysteries by the sweetest devotion,
are absorbed therein and are surprised before the work of the
Redemption of mankind, achieved at such a price and by events so
great. The soul is filled with gratitude and love before these
proofs of Divine love; its hope becomes enlarged and its desire is
increased for those things which Christ has prepared for such as
have united themselves to Him in imitation of His example and in
participation in His sufferings. The prayer is composed of words
proceeding from God Himself, from the Archangel Gabriel, and from
the Church; full of praise and of high desires; and it is renewed
and continued in an order at once fixed and various; its fruits
are ever new and sweet.
8.
Moreover, we may well believe that the Queen of Heaven herself has
granted an especial efficacy to this mode of supplication, for it
was by her command and counsel that the devotion was begun and
spread abroad by the holy Patriarch Dominic as a most potent
weapon against the enemies of the faith at an epoch not, indeed,
unlike our own, of great danger to our holy religion. The heresy
of the Albigenses had in effect, one while covertly, another while
openly, overrun many countries, and this most vile off spring of
the Manicheans, whose deadly errors it reproduced, were the cause
in stirring up against the Church the most bitter animosity and a
virulent persecution. There seemed to be no human hope of opposing
this fanatical and most pernicious sect when timely succor came
from on high through the instrument of Mary's Rosary. Thus under
the favor of the powerful Virgin, the glorious vanquisher of all
heresies, the forces of the wicked were destroyed and dispersed,
and faith issued forth unharmed and more shining than before. All
manner of similar instances are widely recorded, and both ancient
and modern history furnish remarkable proofs of nations saved from
perils and winning benedictions therefrom. There is another signal
argument in favor of this devotion, inasmuch as from the very
moment of its institution it was immediately encouraged and put
into most frequent practice by all classes of society. In truth,
the piety of the Christian people honors, by many titles and in
multiform ways, the Divine Mother, who, alone most admirable among
all creatures, shines resplendent in unspeakable glory. But this
title of the Rosary, this mode of prayer which seems to contain,
as it were, a final pledge of affection, and to sum up in itself
the honor due to Our Lady, has always been highly cherished and
widely used in private and in public, in homes and in families, in
the meetings of confraternities, at the dedication of shrines, and
in solemn processions; for there has seemed to be no better means
of conducting sacred solemnities, or of obtaining protection and
favors.
9.
Nor may we permit to pass unnoticed the especial Providence of God
displayed in this devotion; for through the lapse of time
religious fervor has sometimes seemed to diminish in certain
nations, and even this pious method of prayer has fallen into
disuse; but piety and devotion have again flourished and become
vigorous in a most marvelous manner, when, either through the
grave situation of the commonwealth or through some pressing
public necessity, general recourse has been had - more to this than
to even other means of obtaining help - to the Rosary, whereby it
has been restored to its place of honor on the altars. But there
is no need to seek for examples of this power in a past age, since
we have in the present a signal instance of it. In these times -
so
troublous (as we have said before) for the Church, and so
heartrending for ourselves - set as We are by the Divine will at the
helm, it is still given Us to note with admiration the great zeal
and fervor with which Mary's Rosary is honored and recited in
every place and nation of the Catholic world. And this
circumstance, which assuredly is to be attributed to the Divine
action and direction upon men, rather than to the wisdom and
efforts of individuals, strengthens and consoles Our heart,
filling Us with great hope for the ultimate and most glorious
triumph of the Church under the auspices of Mary.
10.
But there are some who, whilst they honestly agree with what We
have said, yet because their hopes - especially as regard the peace
and tranquility of the Church - have not yet been fulfilled, nay,
rather because troubles seem to augment, have ceased to pray with
diligence and fervor, in a fit of discouragement. Let these look
into themselves and labor that the prayers they address to God may
be made in a proper spirit, according to the precept of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And if there be such, let them reflect how unworthy
and how wrong it is to wish to assign to Almighty God the time and
the manner of giving His assistance, since He owes nothing to us,
and when He hearkens to our supplications and crowns our merits,
He only crowns His own innumerable benefits;(8) and when He
complies with our wishes it is as a good father towards his
children, having pity on their childishness and consulting their
advantage. But as regards the prayers which we join to the
suffrages of the heavenly citizens, and offer humbly to God to
obtain His mercy for the Church, they are always favorably
received and heard, and either obtain for the Church great and
imperishable benefits, or their influence is temporarily withheld
for a time of greater need. In truth, to these supplications is
added an immense weight and grace - the prayers and merits of Christ
Our Lord, Who has loved the Church and has delivered Himself up
for her to sanctify her...so that He should be glorified in
her.(9) He is her Sovereign Head, holy, innocent, always living to
make intercession for us, on whose prayers and supplication we can
always by divine authority rely. As for what concerns the exterior
and temporal prosperity of the Church, it is evident that she has
to cope with most malicious and powerful adversaries. Too often
has she suffered at their hands the abolition of her rights, the
diminution and oppression of her liberties, scorn and affronts to
her authority, and every conceivable outrage. And if in their
wickedness her enemies have not accomplished all the injury they
had resolved upon and striven to do, they nevertheless seem to go
on unchecked. But, despite them the Church, amidst all these
conflicts, will always stand out and increase in greatness and
glory. Nor can human reason rightly understand why evil,
apparently so dominant, should yet be so restricted as regards its
results; whilst the Church, driven into straits, comes forth
glorious and triumphant. And she ever remains more steadfast in
virtue because she draws men to the acquisition of the ultimate
good. And since this is her mission, her prayers must have much
power to effect the end and purpose of God's providential and
merciful designs towards men. Thus, when men pray with and through
the Church, they at length obtain what Almighty God has designed
from all eternity to bestow upon mankind.(10) The subtlety of the
human intelligence fails now to grasp the high designs of
Providence; but the time will come when, through the goodness of
God, causes and effects will be made clear, and the marvelous
power and utility of prayer will be shown forth. Then it will be
seen how many in the midst of a corrupt age have kept themselves
pure and inviolate from all concupiscence of the flesh and the
spirit, working out their sanctification in the fear of God;(11)
how others, when exposed to the danger of temptation, have without
delay restrained themselves gaining new strength for virtue from
the peril itself; how others, having fallen, have been seized with
the ardent desire to be restored to the embraces of a
compassionate God. Therefore, with these reflections before them,
We beseech all again and again not to yield to the deceits of the
old enemy, nor for any cause whatsoever to cease from the duty of
prayer. Let their prayers be persevering, let them pray without
intermission; let their first care be to supplicate for the
sovereign good, the eternal salvation of the whole world, and the
safety of the Church. Then they may ask from God other benefits
for the use and comfort of life, returning thanks always, whether
their desires are granted or refused, as to a most indulgent
father. Finally, may they converse with God with the greatest
piety and devotion according to the example of the Saints, and
that of our Most Holy Master and Redeemer, with great cries and
tears.(12)
11.
Our fatherly solicitude urges Us to implore of God, the Giver of
all good gifts, not merely the spirit of prayer, but also that of
holy penance for all the sons of the Church. And whilst We make
this most earnest supplication, We exhort all and each one to the
practice with equal fervor of both these virtues combined. Thus
prayer fortifies the soul, makes it strong for noble endeavors,
leads it up to divine things: penance enables us to overcome
ourselves, especially our bodies - most inveterate enemies of reason
and the evangelical law. And it is very clear that these virtues
unite well with each other, assist each other mutually, and have
the same object, namely, to detach man born for heaven from
perishable objects, and to raise him up to heavenly commerce with
God. On the other hand, the mind that is excited by passions and
enervated by pleasure is insensible to the delights of heavenly
things, and makes cold and neglectful prayers quite unworthy of
being accepted by God. We have before Our eyes examples of the
penance of holy men whose prayers and supplications were
consequently most pleasing to God, and even obtained miracles.
They governed and kept assiduously in subjection their minds and
hearts and wills. They accepted with the greatest joy and humility
the doctrines of Christ and the teachings of His Church. Their
unique desire was to advance in the science of God; nor had their
actions any other object than the increase of His glory. They
restrained most severely their passions, treated their bodies
rudely and harshly, abstaining from even permitted pleasures
through love of virtue. And therefore most deservedly could they
have said with the Apostle Paul, our conversation is in
Heaven:(13) hence the potent efficacy of their prayers in
appeasing and in supplicating the Divine Majesty. It is clear that
not every one is obliged or able to attain to these heights;
nevertheless, each one should correct his life and morals in his
own measure in satisfaction to the Divine justice: for it is to
those who have endured voluntary sufferings in this life that the
reward of virtue is vouchsafed. Moreover, when in the mystical
body of Christ, which is the Church, all the members are united
and flourish, it results, according to St. Paul, that the joy or
pain of one member is shared by all the rest, so that if one of
the brethren in Christ is suffering in mind or body the others
come to his help and succor him as far as in them lies. The
members are solicitous in regard of each other, and if one member
suffer all the members suffer in sympathy, and if one member
rejoice all the others rejoice also. But you are the body of
Christ, members of one body. (14) But in this illustration of
charity, following the example of Christ, Who in the immensity of
His love gave up His life to redeem us from sin, paying Himself
the penalties incurred by others, in this is the great bond of
perfection by which the faithful are closely united with the
heavenly citizens and with God. Above all, acts of holy penance
are so numerous and varied and extend over such a wide range, that
each one may exercise them frequently with a cheerful and ready
will without serious or painful effort.
12.
And now, venerable brethren, your remarkable and exalted piety
towards the Most Holy Mother of God, and your charity and
solicitude for the Christian flock, are full of abundant promise:
Our heart is full of desire for those wondrous fruits which, on
many occasions, the devotion of Catholic people to Mary has
brought forth; already We enjoy them deeply and abundantly in
anticipation. At your exhortation and under your direction,
therefore, the faithful, especially during this ensuing month,
will assemble around the solemn altars of this august Queen and
most benign Mother, and weave and offer to her, like devoted
children, the mystic garland so pleasing to her of the Rosary. All
the privileges and indulgences We have herein before conceded are
confirmed and ratified. (15)
13.
How grateful and magnificent a spectacle to see in the cities, and
towns, and villages, on land and sea - wherever the Catholic faith
has penetrated - many hundreds of thousands of pious people uniting
their praises and prayers with one voice and heart at every moment
of the day, saluting Mary, invoking Mary, hoping everything
through Mary. Through her may all the faithful strive to obtain
from her Divine Son that the nations plunged in error may return
to the Christian teaching and precepts, in which is the foundation
of the public safety and the source of peace and true happiness.
Through her may they steadfastly endeavor for that most desirable
of all blessings, the restoration of the liberty of our Mother,
the Church, and the tranquil possession of her rights - rights which
have no other object than the careful direction of men's dearest
interests, from the exercise of which individuals and nations have
never suffered injury, but have derived, in all time, numerous and
most precious benefits.
14.
And for you, venerable brethren, through the intercession of the
Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, We pray Almighty God to grant you
heavenly gifts, and greater and more abundant strength, and aid to
accomplish the charge of your pastoral office. As a pledge of
which We most lovingly bestow upon you and upon the clergy and
people committed to your care, the Apostolic Benediction.
Given
at Rome, St. Peter's, the 22nd day of September, 1891, in the
fourteenth year of Our Pontificate.
Endnotes:
1.
Thes. 5:17 | 2. 2 Thes. 3:2 | 3. Acts 12:5 | 4. Lk. 22:44 | 5.
III. q. xxx, a. 1 | 6. Jn. 1:17 | 7. Ex sacr. liturg | 8. S.
August. Epi CXCIV al 106 Sixtum, c. v., n. 19 | 9. Eph. 5:25-27 |
10. S. Th. II-II, q LXXXIII, a. 2, ex S. G. reg. M | 11. 2 Cor.
7:1 | 12. Heb. 5:7 | 13. Phil. 3:20 | 14. 1 Cor. 12:25-27 | 15.
Cf. ep. encycl. Supremi Aposcolatus officio (September 1, 1893);
ep. encycl. Supreriore anno (August 30, 1884); decree S. R. C.
Inter plurimos (August 20, 1885); ep. encycl. Quamquam pluries
(August 15, 1889)
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