“When a million children pray the Rosary, then the world will change.”
St. Padre Pio
THE ROSARY HOUR PODCAST NEWSLETTER | “A SPECIAL INVITATION”
"If we open the eye of our understanding with a will to know you, we know you, for your light enters into every soul who opens the gate of her will. For the light stands at the soul's gate, and as soon as the gate is opened to it, the light enters, just like the sun that knocks at the shuttered window and, as soon as it is opened, comes into the house. So the soul has to have a will to know, and with that will she has to open her understanding's eye, and then you, true Sun, enter the soul and flood her with the light that is yourself'
(Prayer -- by St. Catherine of Sienna, 1347-1380).
The Rosary Hour Podcast Newsletter in Porto, Portugal
is read across 31 US states and 28 countries. Pray the Rosary every day.
CARDINAL D. ANTÓNIO MARTO’S INVITATION TO PRAY FOR PEACE
18 OCTOBER 2024 [a.k.a. 9 weeks and 4 days until Christmas Day!]
FEAST OF ST. LUKE THE EVANGELIST
JMJ+To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance!
It is one year since Fr. Charles suggested that all Rosary Hour Podcast readers learn more about the Million Children Praying event which occurs each October 18 on this special day in the liturgical calendar.
The “1 million children praying” Rosary movement was inspired by St. Padre Pio’s argument that
“When a million children pray the Rosary, then the world will change.”
Conducted on the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, this October 18 Rosary act of entrustment is one that we felt should be posted to our readers so they might participate in and also mark as important this same day in 2025.
We invite you to take a moment to listen to all of CARDINAL D. ANTÓNIO MARTO’s1 presentation and his reiteration of the power of prayer in his October 2024 address, reposted for educational use purposes only and fair use to promote this Holy Rosary event via ACN Portugal as it is unavailable on the English websites. In many ways, this short but important reflection by the Cardinal builds upon Our Lady of Fátima’s urgent and repeated requests, including those from May 1917 to October 1917 in which she specifically asked of St. Jacinta, St. Francisco and Venerable Lúcia:
“Rezem o Terço, todos os dias, para alcançarem a paz para o mundo”.
Why should Children of God “Pray the Rosary” every single day for Peace?”
The prayer for the salvation of the world is not superstitious: it is interconnected with the true challenge of the miracle of persevering prayer to be in contact with the transcendent reality that enables our resultant capacity for becoming authentic instruments of God’s Divine Providence. Some would call this reparative act of entrusting our lives to Him a process of stripping away of that which prevents God’s presence in our lives, blazing a pathway with sincere hearts entrusted to Our Lady (which includes allowing consecration to her care a means through which we might order our lives rightly to God). This path of holiness is enabled through the Sacraments of the Church, and which ultimately transform our lives in unimaginable ways when we converse with Jesus in the depths of our hearts.
In this sense, Fr. Elias Mary Mills, FI, and Fr. Josemaria Barbin, FI, have reminded us over multiple conversations that the sixth apparition of Our Lady of Fátima which culminated in the Miracle of the Sun should be arguably categorized, not as private revelation, per se, but as “Public Prophecy”, primarily because private revelation is linked to the subjective reality of the individual.2
And in contrast, the Miracle of the Sun was a miraculous event that occurred publicly before 70,000 people in Portugal and for which even before these supernatural events in Fátima convinced Popes and priests of ages past that God’s hand was operating in human history.3
For instance, prior to October 13, 1917, according to the Miracle Hunter:
October 13, 1884, Pope Leo XIII had just finished celebrating Mass in a chapel in the Vatican. Afterwards he composed the prayer to St. Michael and later instructed that it be promulgated to the world. He claimed that he heard the voice of Satan boasting to Our Lord:
“I can destroy your Church.”
Our Lord responded: “You can? Then go ahead and do so.”
Satan replied, “To do so, I need more time and more power.”
The Lord said, “How much time? How much power?”
“75 to 100 years, and a greater power over those who will give themselves over to my service” was Satan’s reply.
Our Lord said, “You have the time, you have the power. Do with them what you will.”
According to his his own testimony, Pius XII (1958) witnessed in 1950a miracle of the sun four times,but never saw an apparition.He saw this as divine encouragement for his proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption.Apart from this, there is no modern Pope or contemporary figure in this list.
NOTE:“Marian apparitions to Popes are officially approved by definition as there is no higher authority to rule on their authenticity.”
Source:
Laurentin, Rene and Sbalchiero, Patrick. Dictionary of the Apparitions of the Virgin Mary. 2010 Edizioni ART. pp. 562 - 563
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
What could Our Lady’s message to pray the Rosary for peace mean for children today? And how might this message assist us in helping children grasp why they need to ask Heaven for peace through reparative prayer?
There are many interpretations, but the most important is the reality that if three little children with Faith could lead the Rosary in 1917 with childlike abandonment and pure hearts, what might happen when 1 million try to do this together? God’s ways are not our ways.
Having been previously formed in Eucharistic Adoration by the Angel of Portugal, the three shepherd children developed an interior and prayerful daily desire to sacrifice their time for the sake of souls. This practice of the Rosary allowed them to reflect profoundly on the essence of scripture embedded in the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary — and this great force of prayer brought about their capacity to inspire an entire nation under the reality of a political dictatorship how they might still witness the presence of God where God was removed from the public sphere.
The Miracle of Fátima truly reminds us, in many ways, that the force of prayer arising from trust in the Real Presence has the miraculous power of bringing Heaven upon the Earth and that when we console the Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Our Lady, we might participate in helping to more quickly advance in our times the promise of the prophetic words of the “Our Father” articulated by Our Lord who teaches us to Trust that God will keep His promises:
“Thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
It is within that context of childlike dependence on God’s Divine Providence that His Eminence’s global invitation to unite in prayer of the Rosary today on October 18th might help each of us to better approach the task of inspiring even more people and children around the world to join in this fervent appeal to Our Lady for her intervention into human history, especially as we request humbly that God grant even the people in our times, so afflicted by darkness and loss of conscience, the great grace of the vision of God’s light, mercy, joy, and love. We ask therefore that God might bring about through this Rosary — not just offered today, but every day — a time of renewed peace in all hearts, peace among our families, and peace throughout the world.4
SUPPORTING NOTES FROM OUR CHANNEL:
Fr. Anthony Gramlich, MIC further speaks of the power of prayer to impact human history (according to St. Faustina) in the following video story of St. Faustina and the Angel of Wrath:
Fr. Anthony also talks about the power of the Rosary and the Blessed Mother in his booktalk on “The Secret of the Rosary" authored by St. Louis Marie de Montfort in his popular YouTube video below:
Embedded this week’s post is the 1st edition translation of Cardinal Marto’s urgent appeal to the world to pray the Rosary in a special way for the gift of peace.
Let us heed this call to each of us from the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal: let us be reminded that Our Lady is a sign of hope for the Church — for this Mother assists and protects each of us who call to her — covering us with her Heavenly mantle and bringing us to her Son.
Below is the TRANSCRIPT of CARDINAL MARTO’S INVITATION TO PRAYER FROM FÁTIMA, PORTUGAL. We are grateful to AIN’s newscast which captured this important speech earlier on.
“First of all, before I give my greatest congratulations on this initiative of “Aid to the Church in Need”, which for several years has been fulfilling and responding to a request from Our Lady here in Fátima, for the little shepherds to pray the Terço (a third of the Rosary) for peace.5
Eu quero antes de mais congratular-me com esta iniciativa da Ajuda à Igreja que Sofre que desde há vários anos vem realizando e correspondendo anum pedido de Nossa Senhora aqui em Fátima, aos pastorinhas para rezarem o Terço pela paz."
We are experiencing a dramatic and tragic situation worldwide with the real threat of a world war, already in episodes, which enters our homes through television screens and that makes us see the horrors of war to which no one can remain indifferent.
Estamos a viver uma situação dramática e trágica a nível mundial com a ameaça de facto de uma guerra mundial já em episódios, que nos entra pela casa dentro através dos ecrãs da televisão e nos faz ver os horrores da guerra diante dos quais ninguém pode ficar indiferente.
This spectacle that we are given to see profoundly touches the heart, and it makes us feel a pain within our hearts. And that is why it becomes more urgent to accept Our Lady's request as Mother and Queen of Peace, as how Saint John Paul II said, here, in Fátima, also that it was the pain of a mother that caused her to speak because here the fate of her children is at stake. And today, in a particular way, the same thing is happening as well.
Esse espectáculo que nos é dado a ver toca profundamente o coração, faz-nos sentir a dor do coração. E por isso se torna mais urgente acolher o pedido de Nossa Senhora como Mãe e Rainha da Paz, como também disse São João Paulo II aqui em Fátima, foi a dor de mãe que a fez falar porque está em jogo a sorte dos filhos. E hoje, de uma maneira particular acontece o mesmo também.
We cannot resign ourselves to war, nor can we become be defeated by war, and even if we are not camped upon the battlefield, we are here, in the rear position, and we must do the least we can and to do that which we are called to do as Christians — that is, to listen to the cry of the victims and to raise our supplication to Our Lady to hear this plea that rises from the hearts of children who still have a pure and unarmed heart, but also of the young, the poor, of all those who want to join in this prayer for peace.
“Não podemos resignar-nos à guerra, não podemos deixar-nos vencer pela guerra, e mesmo que não estejamos no campo de batalha, estamos aqui, na rectaguarda, e fazemos pelo menos aquilo que podemos e somos chamados a fazer como cristãos, de ouvir o grito das vítimas e levantar a nossa súplica a Nossa Senhora para que escute esta súplica que sobe do coração das crianças que têm ainda um coração puro e desarmado, mas também dos jovens, dos pobres, de todos aqueles que se querem associar a esta oração pela paz."
After we have surpassed the magic number of 1 million registered participants, which means that there will probably have been more people, as many never sign-up for this type of initiative, our objective this year is to grow this journey of prayer, bringing together more faculties, catechesis groups, parishes, families, making this day a huge cry for peace in the world.
Depois de teremos ultrapassado o número mágico de 1 milhão de participantes inscritos, o que significa que terão sido provavelmente mais pessoas, pois muitas nunca se inscrevem neste tipo de iniciativas, o nosso objectivo este ano é fazer crescer esta jornada de oração, juntando mais colégios, grupos de catequese, paróquias, famílias, fazendo deste dia um enorme clamor pela paz no mundo”,
This prayer is also a sign, it is a cry that rises from earth to Heaven and at the same time it is a sign because it is a link of communion, of solidarity, because the initiative is called “One Million Children for Peace”, and with the children parents, grandparents, siblings, all family members, all men and women of good will are also united.
Let us not let our arms fall!
Let us not let ourselves be overcome by war, and let us ask the Lord that Love overcomes the hatred that separates people, that divides them!
May forgiveness and reconciliation overcome offense and may peace overcome war!”
Esta oração é também um sinal, é um grito que sobe de terra ao Céu e ao mesmo tempo um sinal porque é um elo de comunhão, de solidariedade, porque a iniciativa intitulai-se “Um Milhão de Crianças pela Paz, e com as crianças estão também unidos os pais, os avós, of irmãos, todos os familiares, todos os homens e mulheres de boa-vontade. Não deixemos cair os braços, não nos deixemos vencer pela guerra e peçamos ao Senhor que o Amor vença o ódio que separa os pessoas os povos, que os divide. Que o perdão e a reconciliação vençam a ofensa e que a paz vença a guerra. PART II: ON “BEING” APOSTOLATE
by: The Rosary Hour Podcast
HOW CAN I BE PART OF TELLING OTHERS ABOUT
THE ROSARY FOR PEACE TODAY?
What is the purpose of the Church?
St. John Paul II reminds that its purpose is
“to make all men, through the spreading of the Kingdom of Christ on earth to the glory of God the Father, share in the salvation brought about by redemption, and through them in turn to orient the whole world to Christ.”
Can you make a tiny sacrifice of five minutes of your time today to promote Our Lady’s Rosary?
How might you find a way to teach others about the Rosary for Peace so as to be “apostolate” and “Live” apostolate as St. John Paul II suggests?:
“All the activity of the Mystical Body organized to this end — [orienting the whole world to Christ] — is called the ‘Apostolate,’ which the Church exercises through all its members, naturally in different ways; the Christian vocation is in fact by its nature a vocation also to the ‘Apostolate’.
Make your lives, therefore, a generous gift of Apostolate, an effort to win over others; pray, too, for the conversion of those who are, unfortunately, far from the grace of God, and petition Our Lady that she may obtain for the Church itself from her divine son these great goals.
We ask that through your faith in the bosom of your families, among your contemporaries, you spread this form of prayer. The Pope exhorts you to do so by the force of example and also with that persistence which is proper to your age.
Jesus is with you,
Our Lady is with you;
they will hear you and insure peace in your families and in the world.”
(May 7, 1981 pledge to the Mother of God by St. John Paul II).
OUR LADY’S PROMISE TO THOSE TO PROPAGATE THE HOLY ROSARY
If you require an incentive to be “apostolate” and tell others about the Rosary for Peace today, read Our Lady’s promises to Blessed Alan, for anyone who “propagates” her Rosary6:
“shall be aided by [Our Lady] in their necessities”
and“I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of their death.”
TODAY’S OCTOBER 18 ROSARY APOSTOLATE CHALLENGE
Each of us can “be a generous gift of apostolate” by using our creativity to find new ways each day to tell others about the power of praying the Holy Rosary.
As a last minute idea, since there are still many minutes left today, why not take a moment to think of creative ways you can apply your writing skills to use some of those minutes to tell others about your own participation in today’s 2024 Rosary for Peace?
YOUR ARE SENT AS APOSTLES OF THESE TIMES
On the Feast of St. Luke, we reflect on the example of the apostles of Christ who became generous gifts of Apostolate and still inspire today a model for “winning over others” as we are instructed with that great goal upon hearing the conclusion of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:
“Go forth the Mass is ended”.
These powerful words are taken from the Latin
“Ite Missa est”
which translates into
“Go you are sent.”
Bruce Croteau notes that “Pope St. John Paul II, in his encyclical on the Eucharist (Ecclesiae de Eucharistia) wrote:
“By its union with Christ, the people of the New Covenant, far from closing in upon itself, becomes a ‘sacrament’ for humanity, a sign and instrument of the salvation achieved by Christ.”
THE MISSIONARY NATURE OF THE CHURCH
Pope Benedict XVI in his apostolic exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis,” stated that the words of dismissal “Ite Missa Est,” “succinctly express the missionary nature of the Church” and correspondingly selected additional options to use when dismissing the assembly at Mass in order to highlight this notion even more so.
Thus, the following words were added to the Latin Missal and the English Missal:
“Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord”
and
“Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life,”
to which the assembly replies,
“Thanks be to God.”7
RHP SORROWFUL MYSTERIES RESOURCES
Below are some RHP resources for English speaking countries participating in the Rosary for Peace in 2024 to 2025.
A PRAYER CARD WITH SCRIPTURAL MEDITATIONS FOR TODAY
SORROWFUL MYSTERIES: AN EDITABLE DOCUMENT FOR TODAY
Use this google doc to PRAY WITH ONE OTHER PERSON.
This “Editable document” can be downloaded and changed as would be helpful to your local parish. Laity can speak with the pastor first to ask spiritual direction on which prayers could be best recited in forming children to be effective Rosary leaders in a Sunday School. Alternatively, children can take turns leading the decades of the Rosary 45 minutes to 1 hour before the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass Mass on a Friday, on a Tuesday, on November 1 / 2, etc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gLASl0kr0Vkkm9CIO_ZBGU_OlVFQK3ktARGActyNAH4/edit?pli=1&tab=t.0
Need the Sorrowful Mysteries in other language? Link here to the Vatican sites:
SPANISH: https://www.vatican.va/special/rosary/documents/misteri_sp.html
FRENCH:
https://www.vatican.va/special/rosary/documents/misteri_dolorosi_fr.html
GERMAN:
https://www.vatican.va/special/rosary/documents/misteri_dolorosi_ge.html
PORTUGUESE: https://www.vatican.va/special/rosary/documents/misteri_dolorosi_po.html8
ITALIAN:
https://www.vatican.va/special/rosary/documents/misteri_dolorosi_it.html
PRAY ONE DECADE NOW WITH FR. PETER TURRONE, IMC who asks in this video for “PEACE IN OUR HEARTS & PEACE IN THE WORLD”.
Share this EASY-TO-FOLLOW VIDEO to help children understand how easy it is to participate in the CHORUS STYLE of the Rosary. Families can encourage newly weds, first communicants, families with young children to pray the Rosary together in the public Rosary format recommended by St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s “The Secret of the Rosary”:
LISTEN TO FR. ANTHONY TEACH THE ROSARY HERE:
HAVE YOU WATCHED OUR PREFACE TO SEASON 3 FEATURING FR. THAD LANCTON, MIC and FR. CHRIS ALAR? CLICK ON THE LIVE RECORD LINK HERE TO REFLECT ON “TRUE JOY”:
PREFACE: "Sanctity and the Secret of Joy"
FOOTNOTES
1st Edition Reviewed by Karen Rocha and Izzy Nunziato, Executive Producer of the Rosary Hour Podcast. We will improve the wording in this subscribers only edition later today for the cross-post to Rosary on the Camino and update the translation for next year’s event. We thank AIN Portugal for their efforts to spread the Rosary and capture Cardinal Marto’s invitation for 2024 and encourage all readers to sign-up to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries today.
More recently, Fr. Peter Turrone has been also striving to explore the phenomenon of Marian Apparitions, the history, and by visiting many pilgrim sites with his parishioners to help them understand the historical resonance of these stories. Fr. Alar has been posting his Marian Apparitions videos to YouTube for First Saturday Devotions, and helping us to understand the difference between myth, legend, and Vatican approved apparitions.
According to the Miracle Hunter’s excellent website recommended by Fr. Peter:
“The earliest known claim was from St. James the Greater who saw the Virgin Mary while he was in preaching on the banks of the Ebro River in Saragossa, Spain in 40 A.D. Today, apparition reports occur more frequently. Some scholars estimate the total number of apparition claims throughout history to be approximately 2,500 (with about 500 of those coming in the 20th century alone). According to the Dictionary of Apparitions of the Virgin Mary, throughout history 308 apparitions are attributed to Saints or Blesseds. They are generally unofficially recognized by Church authorities (or at least the orders and congregations that they have founded or belonged to). Only 7 Popes throughout history have witnessed Marian apparitions.”
ALSO:
”The most famous apparitions have been those reported in Guadalupe, Mexico (1531), Rue du Bac, France (1830), Lourdes, France (1858), Fatima, Portugal (1917), and Medjugorje, Bosnia-Hercegovina (1981).
The most recently Vatican recognized apparitions are those from Le Laus, France (1664) which were approved in 2008. The most recently occurring apparitions with Vatican recogntion are those from Kibeho, Rwanda which ended in 1989. The apparitions in Itapiranga, Brazil (specifically those from1994-98) were declared to be supernatural by the local bishop in 2009 but that decision was later reversed. The 1859 Robinsonville, WI, USA apparitions which were declared authentic on December 8, 2010 are the first and only episcopally approved apparitions in the history of the United States. The most recent approval by a local bishop was that of the Bishop of San Nicolas, Most Reverend Hector Cardelli, who In May 2016 approved the apparitions received by Gladys Quiroga de Motta as supernatural from the years 1983 -1990 (although the messages continue to this day)”c.f. https://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/index.html
Represented for Educational Use Only and Fair Use Purposes to promote this October 18 Rosary in the effort to move the numbers to 1 million by the end of the day. ACN material is gladly shared with permission to reproduced entirely or in part. We thank “Aid to the Church in Need” (ACN) Portugal for providing footage for this broadcast.
Please help Cardinal Marto to spread the word, and find a way to invite children to pray the Rosary every day before October 18, 2025, a great goal in the school of the Living Rosary. May we learn from today’s recitation of the Sorrowful Mysteries how to climb Mount Calvary with Jesus and Our Lady, and how to accept the crosses in our lives which God has invited us to carry.
Note, for those new to the Rosary that a full Rosary would be 20 decades of the Rosary after the Apostolic Letter of 2002 was authored by St. John Paul II: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/2002/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mariae.html, ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE. CLICK HERE to read in PORTUGUESE:
Prior to 2002, the Rosary consisted of 15 decades, making 1/3 of the Rosary 5 decades.
15 Promises to those who pray the Holy Rosary:
1. Those who faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. The recitation of the Rosary will cause virtue and good works to flourish. It will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God. It will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
6. Those who recite my Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. In His justice, God will not chastise them; nor shall they perish by an unprovided death, i.e., be unprepared for heaven. Sinners shall convert. The just shall persevere in grace and become worthy of eternal life.
7. Those who have a true devotion to the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who faithfully recite the Rosary shall have, during their life and at their death, the light of God and the plenitude of His graces. At the moment of death, they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
11. By the recitation of the Rosary you shall obtain all that you ask of me.
12. Those who propagate the holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of their death.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my beloved children and the brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion for my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
By Bruce Croteau, Special to the Florida Catholic, January 05, 2023
https://www.orlandodiocese.org/e-scroll/archive/the-meaning-of-the-mass-the-concluding-rites-go-forth-the-mass-is-ended/#:~:text=The%20simplest%20form%20of%20dismissal,as%20if%20on%20a%20mission.
See Fr. Nuno’s Rosary before the Mass outline as led by children on odiario.substack.com.
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