In the second promise of Our Blessed Mother’s rosary promises, she states: “I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who pray the rosary.” Do you want to be protected from the demons? She has the power to crush their proud heads, Gen. 3:15: ”She shall crush thy head.” Because of this tremendous power that God has given her, she is that woman who the demons greatly fear, terribe like an army in battle array. “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?” Canticles 6:9 . She has the power to protect you from their temptations, and physical harm. But in order to merit this protection, you must pray the rosary everyday. You must do your part. There is an incredible story about some airplane pilots in the 2nd world war, who were taught to say their rosary everyday, by their commander, even the non-Catholics. Before they went out to fight, he gave them all a rosary and said, “Men, I promise you, if you will say this rosary everyday, and keep it with you, we will all get back home safe to Canada.” And the gentleman relating this story to a nun in the 1950’s said, “At times we were in mortal danger up there, and the Captain would come on the radio praying the Hail Mary. We must have said hundreds of rosaries while we were up there. And it was noted at the end of the war, ours was the only plattoon that never lost a plane, nor never lost a man!”
Another example: One evening a lady was driving home, while her husband had gone to Wednesday evening Mass. Afterwards, he went over to the hall with the Legion of Mary ladies, praying the rosary with the ladies and the Legion prayers. Meanwhile, his wife came upon two deer in the road, a very close call, and almost hit them.
However, she narrowly missed them, preventing harm to herself and the vehicle. She related the story to her husband when she got home, and how afraid she was of having an accident. Was the Blessed Mother protecting her because of the rosary? No doubt.
Did You know, the rosary is a powerful armour against hell? This is what the Blessed Mother said in her rosary promises, number 3: ”The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.” A powerful armour against hell, and it will destroy vice, and defeat heresies. How is it so powerful? Because it draws the Blessed Mother into battle against the serpent for us, and she has the power to crush his proud head: ”She shall crush thy head.” Gen. 3:15. He is utterly powerless when she comes in. We see that in a marvelous story in the early Church, taken from the MYSTICAL CITY OF GOD, where the demon had deceived a woman into thinking that this new religion, the Catholic faith was evil, and especially that woman (the Blessed Virgin Mary), and drew her away from the faith. One of the disciples heard about it, and went to talk to her, but could not persuade her to come back to the church. So he informed St. John, who went to see her, and the devils retreated when he went in, but he could not convince her neither. So he went to the Blessed Mother and informed her. She therefore went to the woman, who was very ill and about to die, to bring her back to the faith. When the Blessed Mother entered, the demons did not retreat, no, they scattered! In human terms, THEY GOT THE HELL OUTTA THERE!!! The Blessed Mother took the woman by the hand, and as she did so, the poor woman was healed. Our Lady informed her that the woman who persuaded her to leave the Church was a demon in human form, helped her prepare for confession, and die in the true Church in peace. Here is the story.
The kind Mother bewailed this simple sheep, thus deceived by the bloodthirsty infernal wolf; and prostrate upon the floor She prayed for her rescue.
The Most Blessed Mary continued for some time in this petition; but She received no answer from the Lord, in order that Her invincible heart and Her charity toward Her neighbor might be put to the proof. The most prudent Virgin bethought Herself of what had happened to the prophet Eliseus (4 Kings 4:34), who had vainly sent his staff with his servant Giezi to resuscitate the boy and had found that he himself must touch and stretch himself over his body in order to restore him to life. Neither the disciple nor the Apostle were powerful enough to awaken from sin and from the stupor of satan that unfortunate girl; therefore the great Lady resolved to go and heal her in person. This resolve She recommended to the Lord in Her prayer, and, although She received no answer, She considered that the work itself was a sufficient warranty to proceed. She arose therefore to leave Her room and to walk with Saint John to the dwelling of the sick woman, which was at some distance from the Cenacle. But no sooner had She taken the first steps than the holy angels, at the command of the Lord, approached to bear Her upon the way. As God had not manifested His intention, She asked them, why they thus detained Her; to which they answered: “There is no reason why we should consent to Thy walking through the city, when we can bear Thee along with greater propriety.” Immediately they placed Her upon a throne of resplendent clouds, on which they bore Her along and placed Her in the sick-room. The dying girl, being poor and now speechless, had been forsaken by all and was surrounded only by the demons, who waited to snatch off her soul.
But as soon as the Queen of Angels made Her appearance all the evil spirits vanished like flashes of lightning and as if falling over each other in their dismay. The powerful Queen commanded them to descend into hell and remain there until She should permit them to come forth, and this they were forced to do without the least power of resistance. The kindest Mother then approached the sick woman and taking her by the hand and calling her by her name, spoke sweetest words of life. Instantly a complete change came over the girl, and she began to breathe more freely and recover herself. Then she said to the heavenly Mary: “My Lady, a woman came to me, who persuaded me to believe that the disciples of Jesus were deceiving me and that I had better immediately separate myself from them and from Thee; otherwise, if I should accept their way of life, I should fall into great misfortune.” The Queen answered: “My daughter, she, who seemed to thee a woman, was thy enemy, the devil. I come in the name of the Most High to give thee eternal life; return then to His true Faith, which thou hast received, and confess Him with all thy heart as thy God and Redeemer, Who, for thy salvation and that of all the world, has died upon the Cross. Adore and call upon Him for the pardon of thy sins.”
“All this,” the patient answered, “I have believed before; but they told me it was very bad, and that they would punish me if I should ever confess it.” The heavenly Teacher replied, “My friend, do not fear this deceit; but remember that the chastisement and pains which are really to be feared are those of hell, to which the demons wish to bring thee. Thou art now very near death and thou canst avail thyself of the remedy I now offer thee, if thou wilt only believe Me; and thou shalt thus free thyself of the eternal fire, which threatens thee on account of thy mistake.” Through this exhortation and the graces procured for this poor woman by Mary, she was moved to abundant tears of compunction and implored the Blessed Lady further to assist her in this danger, declaring herself ready to obey all Her commands. Then the loving Mother made her openly profess her faith in Jesus Christ and elicit an act of contrition in preparation for Confession. At the same time She sent for the Apostles to administer the Sacraments to her. The sick girl, repeating the acts of contrition and love, and invoking Jesus and Mary, who was directing her, happily expired in the arms of her Protectress. This was also a fulfillment of her promise to assist at death with the sacraments of the Church, although the lady was not praying the rosary.
As you can see, the demons ”vanished like lightning,” it says, because of the great power God had given her. She is that woman terrible as an army in battle array: “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?” Canticles 6:9. So the rosary is a powerful army against hell, and if we want to be protected from the evil spirits, we need to obey Our Lady of Fatima, and say it every day. ”Every day,” she said. “It was through Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is through her He gives us all graces,” according to the words of St. Louis de Montfort. She is the channel,the aqueduct , St. Alphonsus says, and if we close up that channel, the devil soon overcomes us. How do we close up the channel? By having little or no devotion to her. We open up this channel by praying the rosary every day, and , wearing the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. These two devotions are a must, they obtain for us great graces, and at Fatima she insisted on the daily rosary, and at the last vision, she held out the brown scapular to the world. Sr. Lucy said, ”She wants everyone to wear it.” We need her protection to help us stay in the grace of God, and if we have family members, we need to pray it for them, and they also need to pray it themselves. St. Alphonsus, in his book, THE GLORIES OF MARY, says it is morally impossible to be saved without devotion to Mary.
She said praying the rosary will destroy vice. If we are in sin, but take up the daily rosary, it obtains for us great graces whereas we are able to confess our sins often, and persevere in grace afterwards. It also decreases sin in us by helping us to avoid sins we committed in the past, and to advance in virtue. Imagine for a minute you needed extra money to fix up your home but didn’t have it, and the only way to get it was borrow, which you don’t want to do, or get a second job to raise the money. In like manner, when we take up the daily rosary, we get the extra graces we needed that we didn’t have before, to increase in virtue. Lastly, in this promise, she says it will defeat heresies. A very important promise, because if we fall into heresy like so many Catholics have, and leave the Church and do not repent, we are damned. St. Paul said: ”A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid: Knowing that he, that is such an one, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment.” Titus 3:10-11. I myself can attest to this. I almost fell into heresy, but I was praying my rosary every day, and she kept me in the Church. Praise be Jesus and Mary. Now and forever. Amen
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