Signs of Contradiction

As the month of the Rosary comes to a close, here's a glimpse on the history of the Hail Mary and the Holy Rosary. 1213 AD. Our Lady appears to St. Dominic and giving him the Holy Rosary, instructs him on how to pray it. We celebrate October as the month of Holy Rosary since the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary falls on October 7th. There is a triumphant, historic event behind this feast. In the 16th Century, when the mighty Ottoman Muslims marched into Europe to capture the Christian countries into the empire, Pope Pius V exhorted all Christians to beg the intercession of the Blessed Virgin through praying the Rosary. Through Mary’s intervention, on October 7, 1571 Christian forces defeated the naval power of the Ottoman Turks in a great sea battle at Lepanto. In thanksgiving to this great Marian intervention in the history of Christianity, in 1573 Pope Gregory XIII declared that day of victory as The Feast of Our Lady of the

What are some of THE most important things in human life? I suspect the most truthful answers come from someone who has had enough time to meet death face to face and dialogue with it and comes back to tell the story! In the last two months some such profound answers emerged from the lips of 33 ordinary men - Chilean mine workers as they were rescued from 2300 feet under the earth after the longest underground entrapment in human history at the collpsed mine of San Jose. OUTSIDE - What it evoked in the world... - One of the first things the miners’ relatives did at the pithead, while it still looked as though they must be all dead, was to set up a statue of St Lawrence, patron saint of miners. The Chilean president, Sebastian Piñera, named the rescue mission Operation San Lorenzo, in honour of St. Lawrence. - Employers asked forgiveness to the miners for the mishap. - Each miner recived a rosay blessed by Pope Benedict XVI, who said he is constantly praying for them. In thank