Today's Rosary | Holy Rosary University

Friends of the Rosary, When our will is aligned with the divine will, we become the conduits of the grace of God. As Bishop Barron writes, “Faith is an attitude of trust in the God who is always holding out new possibilities to us." "When our lives and hearts are aligned to the God who creates the universe when our wills are directed according to his purposes, we become the conduits of e...

Friends of the Rosary, In today’s Gospel (Mark 9:14–29), Jesus drives a demon from a deaf and mute child. The boy fell to the ground, was rolling around in convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and grinding his teeth. A mute spirit possessed him. Since childhood, he has often thrown himself into the fire and into the water to kill him, as the account of the Gospel of Mark. The disciples were unable t...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, we learn in the gospel (Luke 6:27-31) that we must do all in our power to rid our minds of hatred. "Jesus said to his disciples: To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, February 22, we celebrate the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, renewing our assent to the Church's magisterium and unity. This feast, celebrated since the early Christian era, commemorates the day Saint Peter delivered his first sermon in Rome. It celebrates the papacy and St. Peter as the first bishop of Rome. St. Peter's original name was Simon. He was marri...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, Friday 21, is the Memorial of St. Peter Damian (1007-1072), Doctor of the Church and one of the greatest reformers of the Middle Ages. In his poem, the  Divine Comedy,  Dante places Damian in the “seventh heaven.” That was his place for holy people who loved to think about or contemplate God. Men admire Damian, the scholar, for his wealth of wisdom; Damian, the preach...

Friends of the Rosary, Peter rebuked Jesus for speaking openly about his Passion and death, as we read today (Mark 8:27-33) "Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned arou...

Friends of the Rosary, In today’s Gospel (Mark 8:22-26), Jesus heals the blind man. The Lord cures our inability to see the world and the Creation as it is, and never from the standpoint of our self-elevating ego. Spiritual blindness means loss of holiness. We are spiritually weak because we spend a lot of time in the noise of the world. Christ Jesus told the blind man, “Do not even go into the vi...

Friends of the Rosary, Christ Jesus responded to Peter's concerns about how much the apostles were giving up by following the Messiah, as we read yesterday (Matthew 19:27-29): "Everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life." What Christ Jesus sai...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, February 17, the Church honors the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order. They were seven noble Florentines who, in the thirteenth century (1240), banded together to penance and meditation on the sorrows of our Lady in the passion of our Savior. Continuing with yesterday’s reflection, we were revealed that material goods don’t satisfy the hunger in our souls, as we...

Friends of the Rosary, In today's Gospel (Luke 6:17, 20-26), Christ Jesus gives us the Beatitudes through His apostles, inviting us to place our hearts in God. It’s Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, less known than Matthew’s but more to the point. It all hinges on detachment from worldly values that have become a substitute for God's ultimate good. The first beatitude is a model for all: “...

Friends of the Rosary, One of today's commemorations is Our Lady of Paris, one of the names given to the Blessed Mother. This devotion, dating to the first century, relates to St. Paul's travels around France then. The statue of Our Lady of Paris can be venerated in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Our Lady wears a beautiful dress and a crown on her head, symbols of royalty. She is ho...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, February 14, we celebrate the memorials of St. Cyril (827-869), a priest and a philosopher and his brother St. Methodius (826-885), and St. Valentine, Bishop and Martyr of Rome (died c. 269), patron saint of engaged couples, happy marriages, lovers, etc. In ancient Rome, Emperor Claudius issued a decree forbidding marriage, believing that single men would be better so...

Friends of the Rosary, To prevent loneliness from afflicting man, the Lord created a suitable partner for him, as we read today in the Book of Genesis (2:18-25). Lord God brought Eve to Adam, and the two became one flesh. The foundation for marriage is the way for the continuation of human life. The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.” "G...

Friends of the Rosary, Four years after the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX (1854), the Blessed Virgin appeared eighteen times to Bernadette  Soubirous in 1858 in Lourdes, France. On the feast of the Annunciation, March 25, the Most Holy Virgin announced her name, "I am the Immaculate Conception." Soon, a Shrine was erected, and since that time, cou...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, February 11, we celebrate the Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, with her message of calling to personal conversion, prayer, and charity. On a day like this 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to fourteen-year-old Marie Bernade Soubirous, St. Bernadette. Between February 11 and July 16, the Immaculata appeared eighteen times and showed herself to St. Bernade...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, February 10, the Catholic Church honors St. Scholastica (480-547), a nun who was the twin sister of St. Benedict, the “father of monasticism” in Western Europe. The twins’ mother died at their birth, around 480, in Umbria, Italy, Under Benedict’s direction, Scholastica founded a community of nuns near the great Benedictine monastery Monte Cassino. Inspired by Benedict...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, in our central reading of the Gospel (Luke 5:1-11), we see Jesus in the Lake of Gennesaret climbing into Peter's boat without asking permission. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on, you will be catching men." "This represents something of an enormous moment: the invasion of grace," explains Bis...

Friends of the Rosary, The Lord Jesus responds to our petitions, corrects them, and delivers us precisely what we need on our road to perfection, and never for our destruction. The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit care how we think, speak, and act. The Holy Trinity wants us to be worthy sons and daughters. The Divinity does what’s possible without contradicting our free will to bring us the perfec...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, the First Friday of the month, the Roman Catholic Church commemorates Blessed Pius IX (1792-1878). Pius IX [in the picture] defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on December 8, 1854 . He also celebrated the First Vatican Council from 1869 to 1870, representing the dogma of papal infallibility. The Immaculate Conception doctrine reve...

Friends of the Rosary, In a recent reflection, Pope Francis emphasized how Jesus Christ reveals the ultimate criterion by which all history is judged: love. "Whoever loves lives, whoever hates dies," the pope told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord. "God is present among his people; he lives as a man among men." Jesus em...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Agatha (d. 250), who died to defend her purity, in Catania, Sicily. Since ancient times, Agatha’s virginal martyrdom has been commemorated on this date. Her purity and innocence commended her to young women in the Middle Ages, who frequently invoked her alongside the virgins Agnes and Lucy. In his 1994 letter to child...

Friends of the Rosary, In today's central reading (Mark 5:21-43), we see Our Lord healing the hemorrhaging woman. "The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.” Christ Jesus also cured the daughter of one of t...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, February 3rd, the Catholic Church honors two saints: Blaise and Ansgar. The fourth-century saint Blaise (or Blase) was a physician and Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia. He is widely venerated due to many cures attributed to him, especially illnesses of the throat, and notably that of a child who was suffocating through a fishbone. Blaise, who also had a reputation for cur...

Friends of the Rosary, Today, February 2, forty days after the Nativity of Jesus, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas Day, since the blessing and procession of candles are included in the liturgy. Jesus’ presentation signifies God’s entrance to His temple. The Son of God entered His temple, presenting Himself to those searching for Him....

Friends of the Rosary, Our faith in Christ assures us that amid waves of life and even violent storms, he will enable us to cross to the other side, heaven. In the Gospel today (Mark 4:35-41), we see Christ's dominion over nature when the disciples were in the boat with him, and a violent squall came up, and waves were breaking over the ship. "They woke him and said to him, "Teacher,...