Our Spiritual Weapon: The Rosary, 2nd installment, part 1

In the year of the COVID 19 Pandemic
May 2, 2020

Pray the Rosary every day!

While sleeping Jane of Aza had a dream which was disturbing and at the same time prophetic. Upon waking she understood that the dream was describing her giving birth to a dog. Yes, you are reading that correctly a dog. If that is not odd and terrifying enough the dog, which leapt from her womb was holding in its mouth a burning torch and seemed to set the whole world on fire. This prophetic dream occurred before she conceived. This dream came to fruition in the year 1170 when Jane of Aza gave birth to a child who was named Dominic de Guzman.

Around the year 1233 Blessed Jordan of Saxony in his work Libellus wrote the interpretation of that dream: “This was to signify that her child would be an eminent preacher who, by “barking” sacred knowledge, would rouse to vigilance souls drowsy with sin, as well as scatter throughout the world the fire which the Lord Jesus Christ came to cast upon the earth.”

In writing this was Blessed Jordan of Saxony referring to Luke 12:48? These are the words of Jesus: "I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!

St. Dominic indeed set the world ablaze with his preaching. So much so that in 1216 he founded the Order of Preachers which today is known as the Dominicans. But prior to that in 1214 he would need all the skill of preaching and also something more to combat Albigensian heresy, which was communicated to him by Blessed Mother Mary.

The Albigensian heresy, which was spreading in southern France and Northern Italy is described as dividing the world order into two parts; Good and Evil. Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., in his article titled Albigensianism, expands on this duality. “They asserted the co-existence of two ultimate principles, a good deity (the God of the New Testament) who created Spirit and Light, and a bad deity (the God of the Old Testament) who created Matter and Darkness.” Further he writes, “the Albigenses claimed that Christ was merely a created being, who never really took on a human body and never actually died on the cross.”

St. Dominic was struggling in his fight to stop the heresy of Albigensianism so in 1214 he withdrew into the forest to pray and fast for three days. He was asking God what he could do to stop this heresy. Something extraordinary occurred. As described by Fr. Daniel Couture in Asia District’s newsletter, Apostle (article #37), this is what occurred:

Our Lady appeared to him after he had been praying seriously and doing severe penance for many days in order to know how to fight the heretics. She said to him:

Dear Dominic, do you know what weapon the Most Holy Trinity wants to use to reform the world?"

St. Dominic replied:

O my Lady, you know it much better than I do, because, next to your Son, Jesus Christ, you have always been the instrument of our salvation."

Our Lady continued:

I want you to know that in this kind of warfare the ‘battering ram’ has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the corner stone of the New Testament. So, if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them to God, preach my Psalter!"

What was this Angelic Psalter which was communicated to St. Dominic? The “Angelic Salutation” is the “Hail Mary” prayer and the Psalter is the 150 Psalms. Thus, she wanted 150 Hail Mary’s – which is what the Holy Rosary is.

When Our Lady describes the Angelic Psalter as ‘the corner stone of the New Testament’ I believe that she is referring to how it all began, with a visit from the Angel Gabriel. It is important to note that as Catholics and you are reading this in a Catholic Group Forum, we may be challenged on prayers used in our faith. The Hail Mary has always been one of those prayers challenged by non-Catholics. In my novice and humble opinion this prayer is indeed the corner stone of the New Testament as noted by Our Lady.

End of part 1