October is a wonderful month to celebrate our Blessed Mother. Oct. 7 marks the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and Oct. 13 is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, two amazing celebrations that bring the Mother of God into focus as the triumphant queen of heaven and earth.
It was on Oct. 7, 1571, when forces assembled by Pope Pius V, set sail from Messina, Sicily, in 200 warships to meet a fleet of 300 from the Ottoman Navy. It was a desperate battle only undertaken to stem the tide of invasions of Catholic countries by the Ottoman Empire, and the rosary was employed as a last resort to overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds. Christians throughout Europe gathered in their churches to implore Mary’s intercession on behalf of soldiers risking their lives to defend them — and soldiers aboard those ships prayed the rosary as they headed into battle. It was the Battle of Lepanto, and the outcome is the stuff of legend as only 13 of the 300 Ottoman ships survived, handing a decisive victory to those brave soldiers and glory throughout Europe to our Blessed Mother, whose intercession the people unanimously credited for the victory.
One can only imagine the overwhelming relief the people of those countries of Christian Europe must have felt, when a time of immense fear over invasion and subjugation was put to rest and peace finally secured. It should hardly surprise Christians after 2,000 years to learn of such stories of Mary’s intercession. It’s been her role to care for us ever since Jesus, during his crucifixion, said to Mary and to John the apostle, “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold, your mother!”
These are the words upon which so much of our theology about Mary is based, and how fitting it is that we should place such weight upon those words spoken from the cross. Catholics throughout the centuries with their backs to the wall have needed only those last words to know that Mary has been given to each and every one of us as our mother to watch over us and protect us in our hour of need.
Fast forward from that dramatic scene in 1571 to Oct. 13, 1917, in Fatima, Portugal, where tens of thousands of people witnessed the Miracle of the Sun. World War I was raging in Europe, and Portugal had fallen under the spell of an atheistic regime. Portuguese soldiers were dying on the battlefield, people were starving at home, and persecutions had beset the church, with public expression of religion banned, and priests, monks, and nuns targeted for attacks and sometimes even murdered by anti-Christian groups.
It was into this climate that Mary came to three shepherd children in a series of apparitions that culminated in the miracle that cut through a rainy October day with the sun dancing in the sky and instantaneously drying people’s clothing and the ground they stood upon, piercing hearts hardened by struggle and despair.
Fatima remains a reminder to the world that God has not abandoned humanity. He still sends our Blessed Mother to intercede for us in our hour of need and to point us towards Jesus Christ as the answer to our troubles. We need only turn to him with the utmost trust, and all things can be transformed and made new thanks to his sacrifice for us on the cross.
For free copies of the Christopher News Note PRAY WITHOUT CEASING, write: The Christophers, 264 West 40th Street, Room 603, New York, NY 10018; or email . Fr. Dougherty is on the Christophers’ board of directors.
Maryknoll Father Edward M. Dougherty (CNS photo)
