Today's Rosary | Holy Rosary University

Friends of the Rosary, Today, we honor the First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church, the nameless great multitude of followers of Christ, brutally killed by the mad Emperor Nero in July and August in 64 A.D. in Rome. These Christians in Rome were put to death, making them into living torches to light the road for the chariot of Nero, who hated the human race. This demon would commit suicide in A.D....

Friends of the Rosary, Today, June 29, the faithful venerate the two Apostles Peter and Paul, Apostles (d. 64-67), on whom the Church was built. Peter, the head of the apostles, and Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, have been remembered together on this date since ancient times. Under God's guidance, they were led to make Rome, the capital of the Empire, sanctified by their martyrdom, the cen...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, on the Saturday following the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we celebrate the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. From the beginning of Christianity, the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary have early attracted the attention of the faithful. Simeon's prophecy paved the way for devotion when he said that the heart would be pierced with a sword. In 1944...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, on the Friday after the Second Sunday after Pentecost (Corpus Christi Sunday), is the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, signifying that Christ loves every one of us, without exception, with a human heart. "The Son of God... loved me and gave himself for me"  (Gal 2:20). The Catechism of the Catholic Church (478) explains,  "Jesus knew and lov...

Friends of the Rosary, The Catholic Church honors today St. Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975), a contemporary Spanish saint who founded Opus Dei and opened a new path of holiness by helping the faithful to sanctify themselves through performing ordinary work and daily duties with a Christian spirit. Pope John Paul II canonized the founder of Opus Dei in 2002. The Holy Father said,  "St. Josemaría...

Friends of the Rosary, We are invited to become good trees and bear good fruit. The Lord Jesus is telling us, as we read in the Gospel today (Matthew 7:15-20). "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit." "Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them." The grace of Christ...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, June 24, is the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist, the precursor and forerunner of the Lord. Along with Jesus and Mary, John the Baptist’s nativity is one of the three birthdays on the Church’s calendar. John had a special place in God’s salvific plan. His conception was a miracle; he was sanctified and cleansed of original sin in the womb of his mother, E...

Friends of the Rosary, After the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ yesterday, we continue today to reflect on the significance of Corpus Christi and the symbolism surrounding the institution of the Eucharist. The symbol for the Holy Eucharist is a chalice with a host rising out of it. The consecrated bread (the host) and wine (in the chalice) represent the body and blood of Chris...

Friends of the Rosary, Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi, when we commemorate the institution of the Eucharistic sacrament and celebrate our faith in the Eucharist. Saint John Paul II reminded us, “the Church solemnly bears in procession the Eucharist, publicly proclaiming that the sacrifice of Christ is for the salvation of the whole wo...

Friends of the Rosary, In today’s first reading (2 Corinthians 12:1-10), we see how Paul begged the Lord to remove "a thorn in the flesh", which was torturing him. We don't know what kind of suffering it was (a blindness, a disease, a remorse of the past...).  God responded:  “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Then St. Paul understood that Christ...

Friends of the Rosary, Christ Jesus wants us to redirect our attention to the treasures of eternity in heaven, as we are reading today in the Gospel (Matthew 6:19-23): “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where you...

Friends of the Rosary, In today’s reading (Matthew 6:7-15), Jesus Christ gives us the Lord’s Prayer, which is constantly on our lips throughout the day. When we say,  “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,”  we implore that Heaven interpenetrates our earthly, sinful reality. Heaven is the field of our Trinitarian God, the Virgin Mary, the angels, and the saints, and among...

Friends of the Rosary, In April 2005, Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, warned against the "dictatorship of relativism" in which we live. This week, during the first hearing of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, Bishop Robert Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, echoed Pope Benedict XVI’s warning, highlighting how  "relig...

Friends of the Rosary, We continue reflecting upon the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:43–48). In today's reading, Christ the Lord invites us to show merciful love to those who offend and attack us, and be perfect, just as our heavenly Father. "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for th...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, in the reading of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38–42), Christ the Lord says: "You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.” Christianity teaches us how to face evil.  Mahatma Gandhi and Mar...

Friends of the Rosary, Today is the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity. This feast, which falls on the first Sunday after Pentecost, originated in the ninth century to honor the Most Holy Trinity, our Triune God. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is a synthesis of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. It reflects our inner desire to share the life of God, as baptized in the name of th...

Friends of the Rosary, All the great theophanies in Christ's life occurred during the course of prayer. After His baptism, when Jesus was praying, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove. Likewise, it was during prayer that the transfiguration took place on Mount Tabor. It was while Mary was praying that the Angel Gabriel delivered his message, and the Holy Spiri...

Friends of the Rosary, Today is the Feast Day of St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231), also known as St. Anthony of Lisbon, one of the most popular saints in the Church, patron of lost objects, the poor, and various other causes. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, he was a forceful and eloquent preacher with a penetrating power of conviction. Pope Gregory IX called him the  Arca Testamenti , meaning "the...

Friends of the Rosary, Our Lord is urging us to change our way of knowing, seeing, and perceiving reality. With him, the divine and human have met, and we are invited to be transformed in the Holy Spirit. Our minds, eyes, ears, senses, and perceptions have to be opened up and revitalized. It’s a new state of affairs. In this regard, in today’s Gospel, Christ Jesus is teaching (Matthew 5:20–26) abo...

Friends of the Rosary, Today is the Feast Day of St. Barnabas the Apostle, designated by the Holy Spirit to expand Christianity beyond the Jewish world. Born in Cyprus, he was a Hellenist, that is, a Jew who lived outside of Palestine and spoke the Greek tongue. Barnabas embraced the faith soon after the death of Christ, becoming a member of the original Jerusalem community. His first noteworthy d...

Friends of the Rosary, In today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:13-16), Jesus calls his followers — all of us — salt and light, exhorting them to keep themselves radiant before all the world. "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." You are the light of the world. A city...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, on the day after Pentecost, is the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church,  B. Mariæ Virginis, Ecclesiæ Matris. This feast was inserted into the General Roman Calendar in 2018 by decree of Pope Francis. The Decree on the celebration of the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church stated,  “This celebration will help us to remember that growth in the Chri...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, June 8, is Pentecost Sunday. In this Solemnity of Pentecost — one of the greatest feasts of Christianity alongside Christmas and Easter, we commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, Mary, and the Disciples, as well as the fruits and effects of the completion of the work of redemption. As we read in Acts 2:1-11, When the time for Pentecost was fulfi...

Friends of the Rosary, The opening sentence of St. Luke's description of the Visitation is: And Mary, rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah.   [Lk. 1:39] We see the sudden urgency of love that sent Mary hurrying over the hills. She rose on that impulse when Christ was being formed in her. This impulse of pure kindness on an expecting woman was Christ’...

Friends of the Rosary, Christ Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him, as we read today (John 21:15 19). It was an opportunity to be reconciled with the Lord for the denial that would take place later. Jesus himself is the reconciliation of divinity and humanity. His whole ministry is about restoring humanity to adoring and giving thanks to the Lord. As Bishop Barron writes, “He is the heale...