Today’s Readings – Our Lady of the Rosary

Our Lady of the Rosary is a title of the Virgin Mary related to the prayer of the Rosary, whose origin has been attributed to an apparition of Our Lady to St Dominic in 1208 in the monastery church at Prouille, near Carcasonne in the south of France.

Pope Pius V instituted the feast of “Our Lady of Victory” to commemorate the naval victory of Don John of Austria over the Turkish fleet at Lepanto on 7 October, 1571, the first Sunday of the month. The victory was attributed to the help of the Mother of God, because a rosary procession had been offered on that day in St Peter’s Square in Rome for the success of the League in preventing Muslim forces from overrunning Western Europe. Two years later, at the request of the Dominican Order, Pope Gregory XIII, in 1573, allowed this feast … Continue

Yesterday’s Readings – Sunday of Week 27 of Ordinary Time (Year B)

Commentary on Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16

We touch today on a very topical, very sensitive and very painful reality of life in our time—the question of divorce. Similarly, today’s Gospel indicates that it was a controversial question in Jesus’ time and in his soc … Continue