Pray the Rosary: Bind Satan, Obtain Peace
“Do not be conformed to the present age,” St. Paul warns us in Romans 12:2, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” Good advice, certainly, but how do we avoid being conformed to the present age, especially in the modern world when we are immersed in the flood of information that flows over us daily from our screens? There is a tidal wave of information that comes each day; some true, some false, most of it meaningless. How are we to sort through it all? How are we to avoid drifting along with the current of popular opinion? How to keep oil in our lamps? How do we remain tethered to Heaven in a world spinning wildly out of control? Clearly, we must make an effort to remain rooted in the Heavenly truths of our faith. There is no surer means available than the daily recitation of the Holy Rosary to help us remain anchored to Divinely revealed truth.
In times past, Bibles were not widely available and most people could not read. For centuries, the vast majority of humanity was illiterate. Many Christians learned the basic truths of the faith and the important events in the life of Jesus by learning the mysteries of salvation through the daily prayer of the Holy Rosary. There is no quicker and no surer way to learn the basics of the Christian faith than by the prayer of the Rosary, a prayer that both children and adults can master. The Rosary is the Bible in the form of a prayer. The mysteries of the Rosary present the history of salvation in outline form. Our meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary allows us to penetrate ever more deeply into what God has done and how He has accomplished these mysteries in human history through the agents of His creation.
This truth was confirmed at Lourdes where the Blessed Mother appeared in 1858 with a golden Rosary in her hands and prayed the Rosary with Bernadette at each appearance. Bernadette called the Rosary ‘the sweet chain linking us to Heaven.’ Describing the encounters, Bernadette once said, “The Blessed Virgin held a beautiful rosary in her hands at Lourdes, and from her example I learned to love it. The Rosary is a sweet chain linking us to Heaven. It is the prayer of the simple and the great alike. I have found no surer way to maintain a spirit of recollection and peace of heart than to meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary. It is Our Lady’s school, where her children learn the secrets of the Gospel through her eyes and heart.”
St. Pius X also described the Rosary as a chain that links Heaven and earth. He wrote: “The Rosary is the most beautiful and the richest in graces of all prayers; it is the prayer that touches most the Heart of the Mother of God. If you wish peace to reign in your homes, pray the family Rosary. If you wish for the conversion of sinners, offer the Rosary. It is the chain that links heaven and earth, binding hearts to the heart of the Immaculate. By this holy prayer, Mary protects the Church and her children, even in the darkest of times.”
Some might argue that the reading of the Holy Scripture can serve the same purpose. Others might suggest alternative forms of prayer: Lectio Divina, Centering Prayer, the Daily Office, and other forms of prayer and meditation. While all forms of Christian prayer are certainly important, useful and good, they lack one essential feature when compared to the Rosary. Those who engage in these other forms of prayer will certainly benefit but they cannot be said to be obedient to the insistent call of Our Lady. At nearly every major apparition over the last two centuries, Our Lady has been pleading for us to pray the Rosary. At her final appearance at Fatima, on October 13th, 1917 she identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary and she stated that peace in the world was connected to the daily recitation of the Holy Rosary.
Remember the healing of Naaman in Second Kings. Naaman became angry when Elisha told him to go and wash himself in the river Jordan. But his men convinced him to do it by pointing out that if the prophet had asked him to do something dangerous or heroic, he would certainly have complied. Well, since the prophet was asking something simple of him, it made sense to just do it. And in his obedience to the directive of the prophet, Naaman was healed of his leprosy. In a similar way, the Blessed Mother has been asking something simple of us to obtain peace in the world: the daily recitation of the Holy Rosary. Could it really be that simple? We should not underestimate the power of obedience. Naaman could not have known that plunging into the waters of the Jordan prefigured the life-giving effects of baptism. We cannot possibly know all of the benefits and graces that will flow from complying with the humble request of the Blessed Mother to pray the Rosary daily.
Some might claim that the recitation of the Rosary is exactly the type of vain repetition that the Bible forbids. Anyone who has tried to learn a foreign language will attest that repetition is an effective means of learning. In addition, Our Lady has continuously called for us to pray with the heart and not just with the lips. On December 2nd of 2017, Our Lady of Medjugorje told us: “My children, give the gift of the rosary, the roses which I love so much. My roses are your prayers pronounced with the heart and not only recited with the lips.”
Our Lady also reminded us of the importance of the Rosary in our daily combat with Satan. On August 8th, 1985 she told us: “Today I call you especially now to advance against Satan by means of prayer. Satan wants to work still more now that you know he is at work. Dear children, put on the armor for battle and with the Rosary in your hand defeat him!”
And finally, on Oct. 7th, 1983, Our Lady revealed the importance of the Rosary to Fr. Stefano in binding Satan in the End Times: “The prayer of my predilection is the Holy Rosary. For this reason, in my many apparitions I always ask that it be recited. I unite myself with those who say it; I request it from all with solicitude and maternal preoccupation. Why is the Holy Rosary so efficacious? Because it is a simple prayer, a humble one, and it forms you spiritually in littleness, in meekness, in simplicity of heart. Today, Satan is successfully conquering everything with the spirit of pride and of rebellion against God, and he is terrified by those who follow your heavenly Mother along the road of littleness and humility. While this prayer is despised by the great and the proud, it is recited with so much love and so much joy by my little ones, by the poor, by children, by the humble, the suffering, by the many, many faithful souls who have welcomed my invitation. Satan’s pride will again be conquered by the humility of little ones, and the Red Dragon will find himself decisively humiliated and defeated when I bind him not by a great chain but by a very frail cord: the Holy Rosary.”
