Episode Transcript  

One

The Stage is Set 

In the 1500s, the Muslim Ottoman Empire dominated the Mediterranean and pressed hard against Christian Europe. By 1571, a fleet of 300 Ottoman ships gathered in the Gulf of Lepanto, ready to invade and destroy the Christian faith on the continent. Pope St. Pius V saw the danger clearly. He pleaded with Europe’s rulers to put aside their rivalries and unite in defense of Christendom. But they were too busy building their own kingdoms. So the Pope turned to the people of God and urged them to take up the Rosary as their weapon.

At last, Don Juan of Austria answered the call. With about 200 ships, he formed a smaller Christian fleet. Giovanni Andrea, the Genoese admiral, commanded the armada and carried aboard his flagship a rare image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, touched to the original Tilma.

On the eve of battle, Don Juan ordered every sailor and soldier to pray the Rosary, while in Rome, Pope Pius V himself led the Rosary at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. He knew that Europe could not be saved by numbers or by might, but only by the power of the Mother of God through the prayer of her Rosary.

Two

The Battle

On October 7th, 1571, the Christian and Muslim fleets entered into Battle in the bay, south of the town of Lepanto in Greece. 

The Muslim fleet, led by Ali Pasha, arranged in the formation of a massive quarter moon. The Christian fleet was arranged in the shape of a cross, divided into three squadrons: left, center, and right. The battle started badly for the Christians. The Muslim fleet broke through the left and center squadrons, heading right for Admiral Doria’s ship. Doria slipped down to his cabin, where he had hung the painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, fell on his knees, and began to pray the Rosary. At that moment, the winds shifted against the Islamic fleet and scattered it. The Christians regrouped and destroyed two-thirds of the Ottoman armada. It is said that the sea was red with blood for miles around by the end of the battle. 

In Rome, Pope Pius V knew the Christians were victorious before a message could possibly have reached him. During a meeting in the Vatican, the pope suddenly rose up and gazed out the window, saying, “This is not a moment for business; make haste to thank God, because our fleet this moment has won a victory over the Turks.” 

When the official news reached Rome, Pope Pius V gave credit to the Virgin Mary. He declared October 7th the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, which we celebrate today as the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, because Our Lady came down through the Rosary and sent the enemy packing.

Three

The Real Enemy 

While Islam is an enemy of Christianity, especially in places like Nigeria, St. John Paul II, in his encyclical letter to the world on the Holy Spirit, identified the main enemy today as materialism in the form of the deadly sin of sloth. Sloth is the vice, the deadly habit of stuffing ourselves with so much busyness and entertainment that we are no longer hungry for God. When you have no hunger for God, then you make the choice not to feed your soul with God by prayer and sacraments and spiritual things. 

That choice is despair. I’m not talking about the feeling of despair, the feeling of discouragement. I’m defining the sin of despair as the choice not to do anything to feed our souls with God. That is the sin of our culture. Sloth kills the hunger for God that leads to the choice not to seek Him. That is the sin of despair. 

Are you resisting sloth that makes you so busy and then so exhausted that you veg with entertainment? Do you hunger for more? 

Four

Hunger and Thirst for Holiness

Sloth is the enemy, so what’s the plan to defeat it? In January of the year 2001, Pope John Paul said, I’m going to lay out the plan to overcome the sloth and despair that is killing souls. He did so in a letter to the world called Novo Millennio Ineunte, the beginning of the new millennium. 

He said that we don’t need any new programs. (Novo a. 29) Political programs, military programs, and even Church programs will fail. We need Jesus. Only Jesus can fix us, and only Jesus can fix the world. What the world needs is Jesus, and the most immediate way to reach him is by prayer. 

So, John Paul said the plan to save your own soul and help your loved ones to heaven is this: Lead people to meet Jesus in prayer! John Paul wrote, “If Christians don’t develop this deep life of prayer, then they can’t reach holiness and they will be not only mediocre Christians, but worse, Christians at risk.” Because without prayer, they will be defeated by materialism that makes them so busy and distracted that they forget about God. 

Five

The Rosary 

John Paul said all our parishes should become schools of prayer, training people in the art of prayer. And since Mary is the greatest teacher of prayer is Mary so, John Paul said we should sit at the School of Mary every day in the Rosary.

At the approved apparition of Our Lady Queen of the Rosary in San Nicolas, Argentina, in the 1980s, Mary said, “The weapon that has the greatest influence on evil is to say the Rosary…The Holy Rosary is the weapon which the enemy fears. It is also the refuge of those who look for relief for their sufferings, and it is the door to enter into my heart.”

The battle for souls rages. The weapon is the Rosary. What are you going to do about it? 

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