Hey this is Aditya Tawde. After the Horrible attacks that took place in Mumbai on 26/11 last year, the entire  city is in shock . I recently visited the restaurant named ‘Leopold’ where the terrorists had their food & after a few moments began firing . I saw the holes made by the bullets in the walls & glass of the window which is still kept as it is  in the restaurant as a sign of remembrance of this horrible attack . According to most Indians,  Mumbai is the safest place in India ; but are we really safe out here ??? What are we supposed to do ??? Can’t sit in our houses 365 days so that we can be safe . We need to take our Shield( the Brown Scapular) & our Weapon( The Rosary) with us & use it daily .

THERE’S SOMETHING MORE POWERFUL THAN THE AK47

An American couple caught up in the Mumbai massacres has revealed how praying the rosary saw them through the ordeal.

As gunmen wandered the Taj Mahal hotel shooting indiscriminately, William and Geraldine Stadelmann of Boston followed security advice and sealed their room before hiding under the bed where they turned to their faith to cope with unfolding events.

In an interview carried in The Pilot, the Boston archdiocesan newspaper, the Stadlemann’s related how, when they dared not venture out to fetch a rosary from Mrs Stadelmann’s bag, she began to keep count of her prayers on her knuckles.

”Of the 15 hours, my wife was saying the rosary for, I’d say, 14 and a half hours,” Mr Stadlemann said.

Throughout that time, Mr Stadelmann added, the couple listened as the gunman worked along their corridor, seeking hidden guests. ”They would blow the door open and start shooting everyone inside,” he said.

As the siege continued, Mr Stadelmann was able to use his laptop to contact relatives and friends in the United States, who also offered prayers for their safety. Then, as the battle eventually turned against the attackers, and with the hotel ablaze, it was Indian commandos who finally reached the Stadelmann’s and escorted them to safety.

On the way, Mr Stadelmann explained, they moved past the bodies of shooting victims, some of them known to the couple. Mrs Stadelmann insisted on stopping to make a sign of the cross over each one before they finally reached the safety of police lines.

Attributing their survival to the power of prayer, Mr Stadelmann said, ”We have a tremendous faith and we were getting prayers from all over the place.” In all, over 170 people perished in the three days of fighting launched by 10 militants.

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EVIDENCE FROM THE PAST

1.  St. Dominic got the revelation from Mary & crushed the Albigensian heresy only through the recitation of the ROSARY

2 . The Battle of Lepanto 1571 was miraculously won by the recitation of the ROSARY. Historians still can not find why the turks who were thrice in proportion to the small Catholic fleet could not win the battle . In between a meeting with the cardinals Pope Pius V interrupted the meeting & went to pray the ROSARY. At the end of his prayer he came & announced the Victory of the Catholic Army over the turks . How did he know they had won ???? Cell phone ?? there were none at that time . It was Divine revelation

3. When the saintly Pius VII was taken captive by Napolean & subjected to indignities & sufferings, it was our Divine Mother that consoled & strengthened him , so that on 24th May 1814 he was able to return in triumph to his See in Rome . The pope in gratitude for delivery from his bondage,established the feast of “Mary Help of Christians” on 24th May. Again the Queen of the ROSARY comes in picture

4. Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, 1917 – The most well known miracle which is associated with the Rosary is the miracle related to the appearances of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal in 1917. Here three children claimed a lady appeared to them on multiple occasions, referring to herself as the “Lady of the Rosary”, asking that they “pray the Rosary every day” and asking the three children to give other messages to the people of the world. Since people would most likely not believe the children regarding these appearances, the “Lady of the Rosary” promised to perform a public miracle as proof. At her final appearance to the children in October 1917, over 70,000 people gathered at the site of the appearances in expectation of the miracle the children mentioned she would perform. That afternoon, an unexplainable miracle of the sun was experienced by over 70,000 people. This was printed in Fatima newspapers the following day which gave credence to the message the Virgin Mary gave to the three children.

5. Rosary Miracle at Hiroshima – August 6th, 1945 – There was a home eight blocks (about 1 kilometer) from where the A-Bomb went off in Hiroshima Japan. This home had a church attached to it which was completely destroyed, but the home survived, and so did the eight German Jesuit missionaries who prayed the rosary in that house faithfully every day

6. Russians Pullout of Austria, 1948 – After World War ll. the Allies turned over Catholic Austria to communist Russia. For three years the Austrian people endured this tyranny. Then, a Franciscan priest, Father Petrus, remembered how the Christians although greatly outnumbered had defeated the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto through the Rosary, and he launched a Rosary crusade. Through it 70,000 people, one tenth of the Austrian population, pledged to say the Rosary daily for the Soviets to leave their country. Austria was valuable to the Russians because of its strategic location, rich mineral deposits and oil reserves. Yet on May 13, 1955, the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima, the Russians signed the agreement to leave Austria, and they did so without one person being killed and without one shot being fired. It is the only time that the militant atheistic forces of Marxism have ever peacefully left a country in which they held power. Military strategists and historians are baffled as to why the Russians pulled out. But we are not – it was the power of the Rosary. This is just one of countless stories about the power of the Rosary!

7. The Country That Saved Itself – Brazil 1962 – In 1962 there was a looming threat of communist takeover in Brazil. A woman there named Dona Amelia Bastos was known to have formed a Rosary rally among the Brazilian women there to do their part in opposing the looming threat. Their goal was simply to pray the Rosary in large groups asking the Virgin Mary for help in opposing the Communist takeover which the President of Brazil was leaning toward at the time. In Belo Horizonte 20,000 women reciting the rosary aloud broke up a Communist rally. In Sao Paulo, 600,000 women praying the rosary in one of the most moving demonstrations in Brazilian history, caused the President of Brazil to flee the country and not a single death was encountered, sparing the country from Communist takeover.

LAST & MOST IMPORTANT EVIDENCE : THE MOTHER OF JESUS PROMISED ST. DOMINIC THAT, “ONE DAY THROUGH THE ROSARY & SCAPULAR I SHALL SAVE THE WORLD !”
&
AT FATIMA 1917 SHE SAID : ” PRAY THE ROSARY DAILY TO OBTAIN PEACE IN THE WORLD & END OF WAR “

- – - written by Aditya Tawde

On 16th October of 2002, His Holiness John Paul II began the 25th Anniversary of his Pontificate by publishing an Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (RVM), in which he inaugurated the Year of the Rosary, to last from October 2002 till October 2003. In this Letter the Pope also introduced five new mysteries of the rosary to be included with the traditional ones. These new mysteries, which he called The Mysteries of Light, or Luminous Mysteries, refer to the public life of Our Lord.

Saint George Preca and the Mysteries of Light

This addition to the decades of the rosary – which had been left untouched for over 400 years – has aroused a great deal of interest. Though the Letter contains enlightening and fresh teaching on the Rosary, it would seem that the media were almost exclusively interested in these new Luminous Mysteries. International journalists, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, gave prominence to them, adding that “the idea of the Pope could have come from the writings of a Maltese priest whom the Pope declared Blessed in 2001, Blessed George Preca.” Thus wrote The Guardian (16th October 2002), The Universe, The Tablet and other news agencies.

It is not yet known whether these new mysteries were actually taken from those proposed by Dun Gorg (as the new Blessed is affectionately known in Malta). But it is certainly a curious fact that, apart from some small differences, the five mysteries are identical to those proposed by Fr Preca. Interesting as well is the fact that the Pope has called these mysteries from Christ’s public life “the Mysteries of Light”, the same title given originally by Fr Preca when he first proposed them in 1957.

How did the Pope get to know about them?

If these new mysteries of the rosary have actually been taken from Saint George Preca, the question still remains: how did they reach the Pope so that he could introduce them in his Apostolic Letter on the Rosary? Various suggestions have been offered, including the use of the Internet. In fact, some Catholic websites in the English language on the rosary refer to the Mysteries of Light, which could have been put there by some Maltese user living abroad, probably in the United States.

It all started way back in 1957

Saint Preca (1880-1962) founded a society of lay people to study the Christian doctrine and teach it to children and adults. He called it the Society of Christian Doctrine. In 1957 the Society celebrated the 50th anniversary of its birth, and Fr Preca was against any external celebrations: “it is enough to sing the Te Deum as a thanksgiving,” he said. But his collaborators persuaded him to have some modest celebrations as an encouragement to the Members.

Hence Fr Preca wanted that year to be an occasion of a deeper intimacy with God, and so he published his well-known Colloquies with God – sixty short but penetrating invocations which give us a good insight into Fr Preca’s interior life. During that same year he came up with the idea of these additional mysteries to the Rosary, taken from the public life of Our Lord. Originally Fr Preca had them published in a small leaflet for the private use of the Members of his Society.

Was this an original initiative?

I still remember quite vividly how our Founder introduced these mysteries during one of our weekly meetings with him. His face clearly showed the joy in his heart as he proposed these episodes from the public life of Jesus. Fr Preca did not say how they originated, whether they were his idea or taken from other reading. In the latter case he would have started, as usual, by saying: “See what I have found for you…” So it would seem the idea was completely his own. He told us that it was useful to meditate on the entire life of Christ, and that the Rosary was lacking this public ministry of the Lord. Fr Preca added that he really enjoyed praying these ‘new’ mysteries and reflecting about Him who said that He is “the Light of the world” (Jn 8,12).

The Mysteries of Light became “public property” in Malta after two publications in 1973 and 1987. As already mentioned above, they were later also put on the internet on websites regarding the Rosary.

The Mysteries of Light according to Saint Preca and the Pope

The following are the Mysteries of Light as proposed by Fr Preca, and by the Pope, respectively.

According to Fr Preca:
When Our Lord Jesus Christ, after his baptism in the Jordan, was led into the desert.
When Our Lord Jesus Christ showed, by word and miracles, that He is true God.
When Our Lord Jesus Christ taught the Beatitudes on the mountain.
When Our Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured on the mountain.
When Our Lord Jesus Christ had his last Meal with the Apostles.

According to the Pope:
Jesus’ Baptism in the river Jordan;
His self-manifsestation at the wedding at Cana;
His proclamation of the Kingdom of God, with his call to conversion;.
His transfiguration before the Apostles on Mount Tabor.
His institution of the Eucharist, as the sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery.

If we compare the two versions we cannot fail to notice a great similarity between the Mysteries of Light as proposed by Saint George Preca and as proposed by the Pope 45 years later. The differences between them are not as significant as may appear at first sight.

In the First Mystery, Fr Preca adds, after the baptism in the Jordan, that Jesus went to the desert to spend 40 days in preparation for his mission. Those who know Saint Preca well may as well guess why he added this pericope from the life of Jesus. Since Fr Preca composed these mysteries for the use of the Members of his Society, he probably wanted them to realize the importance of preparing oneself for the mission of evangelization.

In the Second Mystery, Fr Preca proposed that we meditate how Jesus showed his divinity by word and miracles. The Pope proposes only one miracle, the wedding at Cana in which Jesus “revealed his glory” (John 2:11).

In the Third Mystery, Dun Gorg brings in the Beatitudes, which have been called the “Constitution” of the Church he was to found. With the Beatitudes Jesus also “proclaimed the Kingdom of God”, and challenged us to change our style of living if we intend to follow him.

The teaching of Saint Preca on the Rosary and RVM

Besides the new Mysteries of Light, in RVM there are other points which remind us of Fr Preca’s teaching on the rosary. For instance, the Pope suggests a moment of silent reflection after the mystery is mentioned (RVM, par. 31). Fr Preca not only practised this himself, but he recommended it to others as well.

Fr Preca used to call the rosary “A school of learning”, especially because of the meditation on the mysteries of the life of our Lord. It is interesting to note that His Holiness in his Apostolic Letter refers five times to the rosary as a school of Mary (pars 1, 3 ,5, 14, 45).

Fr Preca composed various prayers to Mary, each one referring to a virtue connected with the mystery to be contemplated, which was to be recited before the Our Father. In RVM (par 35) the Pope also suggests a similar prayer after the Gloria Patri.

Conclusion

We cannot exclude the fact that Fr Preca was also familiar with the writings of St Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort. Hence several insights must have come to him through this Marian saint. But, whatever the case may be, the providential and official inclusion in the Rosary of the Luminous Mysteries by the Pope does echo beautifully the other constant aspect of Fr Preca’s spirituality: his attachment to the Pope as universal Shepherd of the Catholic Church. Had Fr Preca been around, he would have rejoiced enormously!

He would have made the Pope’s message his own and would have encouraged us all to sing to Mary “Rejoice, for you have found great favour with the Lord!”

Fr Preca would have emphatically passed on these pressing words of the Holy Father: through the Rosary, “Mary helps us to learn the secret of Christian joy, reminding us that Christianity is above all ‘euanghelion’ — good news — which has its center, indeed its very content, in the person of Christ.”

A new set of 12 Virgin Mary pictures are given above. Click on the thumbnails to see the original images in full size.

If you watch each pic closely, that grace on her face will become visible to you. I believe in Virgin Mary and I also know that there are many who don’t believe in Virgin Mary. I am not going to start a debate with you guys but I think you should read this great article on ‘Should we pray to Virgin Mary?’

Just go through the page linked to the above link and please feel free to express your comments about the article there on that page. For those among you who strongly believe in Mother Mary’s intercession power, here are some more Virgin Mary pictures for you.

More Virgin Mary Pictures Here:-

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