Today's Rosary | Holy Rosary University

Friends of the Rosary, In today’s reading (Matthew 5:38-42), Christ the Lord, in the Sermon on the Mount, exhorts us to nonresistance to evil. By the way, this passage deeply influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. From a Catholic perspective, the ordinary way to face evil and resist demonic attacks is through a deeper union with Christ, and never through fear or engagement with the d...

Friends of the Rosary, As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states (863), the Church is, and remains, apostolic through the successors of St. Peter and the other apostles. All the faithful share a vocation to the apostolate of spreading Christianity on earth. We read today (Matthew 9:36—10:8) how Christ the Lord summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority to cure the sick from any dis...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, Saturday, June 13, the day after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we celebrate the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Immaculate Heart of Mary reminds us of purity, love, and devotion. It symbolizes Mary’s unwavering faith, compassion, and deep connection to God’s will. Her heart, untouched by sin, is a model of holiness for all. Through her hear...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, June 12, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, a feast designated the Friday after the Second Sunday of Pentecost. In the late 17th century, St. Marguerite Marie Alacoque, a cloistered nun of the Visitation Order, received several private revelations of the Sacred Heart. The devotion to the Sacred Heart calls for an “attitude of conversion and...

Friends of the Rosary, Today is the Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle. Born in Cyprus, he embraced the faith soon after Christ's death and became a member of the original Jerusalem community. He was a Hellenist, that is, a Jew who lived outside of Palestine and spoke Greek. His first name was Joseph; Barnabas (etymology: "son of consolation") was a surname. Barnabas first noteworthy...

Friends of the Rosary, Today's Gospel presents (Matthew 5:17-19) Jesus saying to the disciples: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoe...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, the feast of Saint Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor of the Church, the Lord Jesus is saying in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt 5:13-16) to his disciples — and the entire 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...

Friends of the Rosary, Today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 5:1-12) recounts the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus offers the Beatitudes, subverting worldly values. Just as Moses went up the mountain to receive the Law, Jesus ascended the mountain to give the New Law: the Beatitudes—a roadmap for a complete change in mind and heart for spiritual peace. These teachings are meant for e...

Friends of the Rosary, Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, known as Corpus Christi, a feast honoring the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. It emphasizes the joy of the Eucharist, traditionally celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday The feast dates back to the 13th century. It was instituted following the Eucharistic visions of St. Juliana of Liè...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, the Feast day of St. Norbert, Bishop, Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, and the eve of the Solemnity of the Corpus Christi, we see in the Gospel (Mark 12:38-44), the contrast between the religious show and the hidden, total self-gift of the poor widow who gives everything by love. “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contribut...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Boniface (c. 673-680-754), Bishop and Martyr, a Benedictine monk in the Middle Ages who was chosen by divine Providence to become Germany's great apostle and patron. Catholic Germany still venerates him as its father in the faith. The famous abbey of Fulda, where his body lies, has remained the national shrine of...

Friends of the Rosary, Christian love is an act of the willing – the willing of the good of the other. "Love your neighbor as yourself," as the Lord says, and we read today in the Gospel (Mark 12:28-34). Love is not primarily a feeling or an instinct; it is a radical self-gift, living for the sake of the other. It's moving beyond the black hole of oneself and, yes, it's acting fo...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs, we read in the Gospel (Mark 12:18-27) how Jesus answers the Sadducees’ trap about the resurrection by pointing them back to Scripture and to the living power of God: “He is not God of the dead but of the living.” Christian hope is not vague optimism. It is confidence that God’s life is stronger than death. And...

Friends of the Rosary, At that time, as we read today (Mark 12-13-17), some Pharisees and Herodians tested Jesus by asking whether it was lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar. He amazed them: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Jesus went deep by putting every loyalty in its proper order: the coin bears Caesar’s image, so it may be returned to Caesar; the hum...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, the Feast of St. Justin, the Gospel (Mark 12:1-12) presents the parable of the landowner who leased a vineyard to tenants. This vineyard stands for Israel and the whole world. But God's people miserably failed in their duty. The landowner sent his servants to the tenants to obtain the produce, and these were beaten, killed, and stoned. Then he sent his beloved son...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, Sunday, May 31, we observe the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, a dogma of faith which states that there is one God — eternal, incomprehensible — with three Divine Persons: Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. The Father is not more God than the Son, nor is the Son more God than the Holy Spirit. The Father is the first Divine Person; the Son is the second Divine Person, b...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, the Catholic Church commemorates St. Joan of Arc (1412-1431), the patron saint of France. In her day, the English were allied with the Burgundians in a war against the rest of France. Joan was compelled by the voices of her favorite saints — Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret — to take up arms in defense of her country. Dressed in a suit...

Friends of the Rosary, In today’s Gospel (Mark 11:11-26), we see the cleansing of the temple. What was supposedly holy — the temple of the Holy Spirit — was dominated by the trading of merchants. Jesus, therefore, began to “drive out those selling and buying there,” condemning them for turning a sacred space of prayer into a chaotic and exploitative marketplace. In fact, we ourselves are meant to...

Friends of the Rosary, In many countries, including England, the Netherlands, Spain, and Poland, on the first Thursday after Pentecost, the faithful observe the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest, according to the order of Melchizedek. Christ the Lord is the compassionate and trustworthy high priest (Hebrews 2:17), ever-living to intercede for humanity before The Father (Hebre...

Friends of the Rosary, This week, Pope Leo XIV presented his first encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity) , which focuses on how mankind should respond to the rise of AI and the broader digital revolution. The Pontifex argued that AI is not merely a technical revolution but a civilizational shift, comparable to the Industrial Revolution, as addressed by Pope Leo XIII in 1891...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, May 26, is the Memorial of St. Philip Neri (1515-1595), a gracious, cheerful saint, and Rome's apostle of the sixteenth century. Born in 1515 to a wealthy Florentine family, the young Filippo Neri was brought up with a classical education by the Dominicans of the Monastery of San Marco. His unique charism was his burning love of God, a love that he communicated to...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, May 25, is Memorial Day in the U.S., the day after Pentecost. Pentecost, we celebrate the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. In today's Gospel (John 19:25-34), we read, "Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his ­mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there wh...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, May 24, is Pentecost Sunday, the feast of the Holy Spirit and the end of the Easter Season. It’s the public solemn descent of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, on the Christian Church. This solemnity marks the completion of the work of redemption, the fullness of grace for the Church and its children, and the gift of faith for all nations. In Mass, we recite or sing th...

Friends of the Rosary, Christ the Lord is the union and reconciliation of divinity and humanity, and the promise of eternal life. We are called to follow Jesus. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away” (Rev 21:4). Bishop Barron writes, “Think of the oceans of tears that have been shed by suffering hu...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, May 22, is the Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia (1381-1457), patron saint of the impossible, difficult, and hopeless causes. Like St. Jude, many turn to St. Rita for her intercession in times of desperation, heartbreak, and disease. After eighteen years of married life, St. Rita lost, by murder, her husband and her two sons to an old enemy. Called afterward to the relig...