Chaining the Devil

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  We pray the rosary every evening as a family, although it is not exactly what you would think of as a time of family prayer.  In truth, it is sometimes a bit more like a barnyard with no fences.  Gemma has learned what every previous baby eventually discovered:  that she has an audience gathered around during rosary, so she can put on a show and pull out all the stops.  This is just too irresistible for the kids to ignore.  Dominic can't stay still for too long, but I have noticed that he and Adrian are trying harder to join us.  Anyway, the Blessed Mother sees our efforts, and I hope she is just as charmed by the little ones' antics as our big kids are.

Today, in celebration, we will have a cake and try to decorate it with a rosary of the edible variety.  I don't really care for cakes from mixes, but it is not bad having a few on hand for last-minute feast day celebrations, especially if, like me, you lack planning skills.

I will most likely print out a few coloring pages, like this one, or this one from City Wife, Country Life or this one from Waltzing Matilda.  Kimberly of Pondered in My Heart has this fantastic idea for keeping little ones occupied during the rosary which I am dying to try, but alas, I do not crochet.  I also have this book to read, if the kids will stay still for it...maybe I'll read it while they eat cake!

"The rosary is the scourge of the devil" - Pope Adrian VI.

"The rosary is a treasure of graces" - Pope Paul V.

Padre Pio the stigmatic priest said "The Rosary is THE WEAPON."

Pope Leo XIII wrote 9 encyclicals on the rosary.

Pope John XXIII spoke 38 times about Our Lady and the Rosary. He prayed 15 decades daily.

St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort wrote: "The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart of Jesus, Our Redeemer, who loves His Mother."

"One day through the Rosary and the Scapular I will save the world."      

Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Dominic 

"Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world."

Our.Lady.of.Fatima 1917 

                                                                                    

"The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary."                                

 St. Francis de Sales            

  

"If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I assure you that in spite of the gravity of your sins, you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory. Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in Hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if  and mark well what I say -- if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon of your sins."          

St. Louis de Montfort

"Those who say the Rosary daily and wear the Brown Scapular and who do a little more, will go straight to Heaven."                      
St. Alphonsus Ligouri

"Among all the devotions approved by the Church none has been favored by so many miracles as the devotion of the most Holy Rosary. "                          

Pope Pius IX

"If there were one million families praying the Rosary every day, the entire world would be saved. "                                      
Pope St. Pius X

"There is no surer means of calling down God's blessing upon the family than the daily recitation of the Rosary."                                                                 

Pope Pius XII

"We put great confidence in the Holy Rosary for the healing of evils which afflict our times."                                          
Pope Pius XII

"The Rosary is a school for learning true Christian perfection."
Pope John XXIII

"No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary. Either he will give up the sin or he will give up the Rosary"      
Bishop Patrick Boyle

"Those who say the Rosary frequently and fervently will gradually grow in grace and holiness and will enjoy the special protection of Our Lady and the abiding friendship of God."                                                                              

 Bishop Hugh Boyle

"The Family that prays together, stays together."                                     

 Father Patrick Peyton

"If families give Our Lady fifteen minutes a day by reciting the Rosary, I assure them that their homes will become, by God's grace, peaceful places.           

Father Patrick Peyton 

"If our age in its pride laughs at and rejects Our Lady's Rosary, a countless legion of the most saintly men of every age and of every condition have not only held it most dear and have most piously recited it but have also used it at all times as a most powerful weapon to overcome the devil, to preserve the purity of their lives, to acquire virtue more zealously, in a word, to promote peace among men."
Pope Pius XI  

(h/t to Catholic Bible 101 for the quotes)