All about the Rosary on this feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

Wield Your Spiritual Weapon

From a Christian victory at sea to your daily struggles, the rosary is designed to overcome evil

By Gerald Korson

Informed by a heavenly sign, the pope in Rome knew that the rosaries devoted to the Blessed Mother were key to the victory of the Holy League over the Ottomans in the sea of Lepanto. The feast day commemorating that pivotal civilizational triumph is October 7, Our Lady of the Rosary. 

It is with this battle in mind that the Church dedicates the entire month of October to the rosary. The observance serves to remind us that just as the rosary aided Christian forces in that epic naval conflict of 1571, it also can strengthen us today as we do spiritual battle in our daily Christian life. St. Padre Pio attested to the value of the rosary when he characterized it as “the weapon against the evils of the world today.” 

That’s why every new member of the Knights of Columbus receives a special rosary along with a reminder to invoke the Blessed Mother in life’s battles. The Order, in fact, has fostered devotion to Mary from its founding, exhorting Knights to carry a rosary, to pray it frequently on their own and with their families, and to encourage fellow Catholics to do likewise.

We’ve got a long and proud history in promoting the rosary.

Our founder, Venerable Father Michael McGivney, was raised in an Irish Catholic family and was devoted to praying the rosary. The rosary that was pressed into Father McGivney’s hands at his burial, recovered when his body was exhumed in 1982, is on display in the reliquary room at the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven. 

Over the course of two World Wars and the more recent conflicts in the Middle East, the Knights of Columbus distributed tens of thousands of rosaries to U.S. and Canadian soldiers. The Order has conducted numerous pilgrimages to Marian shrines, including the annual International Military Pilgrimage to Lourdes, and has sponsored several Marian Prayer Programs encouraging the devotion. In 2010, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson committed his administration to the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe and urged Knights everywhere to pray a rosary variant, the “Rosary of Guadalupan Love,” for the intention of building a “civilization of love.” 

Ambassadors for the rosary today

The Order today continues to promote the rosary through its programs and published materials.

The Knights of Columbus Rosary Program encourages councils to work with their pastors to promote rosary devotion in families and parishes through regular rosary prayer services. These services are to be publicized in the parish and in the wider community so as to encourage as many people as possible to participate.

The Order’s Catholic Information Service also offers booklets on the rosary that can be downloaded or read online. These include “A Guide to Praying the Rosary” (#4772), “How to Pray the Rosary” (#1877), and “A Scriptural Rosary for the Family” (#319). 

With all the troubles, temptations and confusion we confront in the world today, the rosary remains our strong ally, our “spiritual weapon.” It worked for the Catholics at Lepanto, and it can work for us too. 

To be a faithful Knight means to be a man of the rosary. If you have not already done so, make a habit of praying it regularly.

About the Author

Gerald Korson, a veteran Catholic journalist, is a member of the Knights of Columbus in Indiana.