October is known as the Month of the Holy Rosary. This tradition was promoted by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. She wanted everybody to pray the Rosary for peace. At the time when the three children saw the Blessed Virgin, World War I, also known as the Great War, was in full swing. Our Lady predicted the end of the war through people praying the Rosary. She said that the Rosary had the power to end wars. But she did not just predict that the Great War would end, she said that it would end soon, but if the people did not repent, there would be an even more devastating world war to follow. 

How is it that three children could claim such things? Yet all these things came to pass. These three children predicted much more than this. At first, many people did not believe them. Lucia’s own mother did not believe her, and would even abuse her because she thought Lucia was lying to gain attention. But everything that was predicted came to happen. Lucia believed what Our Lady told her and did what she asked of her. The Miracle of the Sun happened on October 13, 1917, before over seventy thousand people at the site, and could be seen for a little over twenty miles around. It was even in the atheists’ newspapers. They were at odds as to come up with an excuse to explain the phenomena of Fatima.
How did the children know what was going to happen? Our Lady told them it would. The Blessed Virgin came to warn us of our indifference to Jesus and the true faith in Jesus. If Our Lady was correct about the events that have come to pass, then why should we not believe her about the power of the Rosary? She said it has the power to end wars and bring peace.
If you stop and think about what the rosary is, we can see why, by its nature, it would be inclined to peace. The rosary is a meditation on the Gospels. We meditate on the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. If we do that, it is not a far stretch to say God adds His blessing to these prayers. He would be pleased that we make the effort for spiritual growth and respond with giving us the graces we need.
Jesus does not want to just give us His graces and so save us. He wants to transform us from within. This means the way we think and interact. The meditation of the Rosary takes a thought process. It gives us the ability to think differently than we would when thinking of things of this world. Because it is a prayer, He can enter into our thought process and give us new ideas that raise us up and bring us to a higher way of thinking. It can really transform our lives by the way we look at our problems that we face every day. It has done so with me. In fact, the Rosary, along with daily Mass, are the very things that give the ability to dedicate my life to Jesus as a priest. The promises of the Rosary are a daily reality in my life. I can only hope that it becomes a daily reality in yours.
“Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary…” (Our Lady said at Fatima 1917)