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​October: Month of the Rosary
The month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary, one of the best known of all Catholic devotions. October includes the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7). 
 The best way to celebrate the month is, of course, to pray the Rosary.

But why is it that on October 7th the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary? On October 7, 1571, a great victory over the mighty Turkish fleet was won by Catholic naval forces primarily from Spain, Venice, and Genoa under the command of Don Juan of Austria. It was the last battle at sea between "oared" ships, which featured the most powerful navy in the world, a Moslem force with between 12,000 to 15,000 Christian slaves as rowers.

The patchwork team of Catholic ships was powered by the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct material disadvantage, the holy pontiff, St. Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory.

We know today that the victory was significant, prevented the Islamic invasion of Europe, and evidenced the Hand of God working through Our Lady.

At the hour of victory, St. Pope Pius V, who was hundreds of miles away at the Vatican, is said to have gotten up from a meeting, went over to a window, and exclaimed with supernatural radiance: "The Christian fleet is victorious!" and shed tears of thanksgiving to God. What you may not know is that one of three admirals commanding the Catholic forces at Lepanto was Andrea Doria.

He carried a small copy of Mexico's Our Lady of Guadalupe into battle. This image is now enshrined in the Church of San Stefano in Aveto, Italy.

Not many know that at the Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Spain, one can view a huge warship lantern that was captured from the Moslems in the Battle of Lepanto.

In Rome, look up to the ceiling of S. Maria in Aracoeli and behold decorations in gold taken from the Turkish galleys.

In the Doges' Palace in Venice, Italy, one can witness a giant Islamic flag that is now a trophy from a vanquished Turkish ship from the Victory.

At Saint Mary Major Basilica in Rome, close to the tomb of the great St. Pope Pius V, one was once able to view yet another Islamic flag from the Battle, until 1965, when it was returned to Istanbul in an intended friendly token of concord.

At Lepanto, the Victory over the Moslems was won by the faithful praying the Rosary. Even though they had superior numbers, the Turks really were overmatched. Blessed Padre Pio, the Spiritual Father of the Blue Army, said: "The Rosary is the weapon," and how right he was!

The Battle of Lepanto was at first celebrated liturgically as "Our Lady of Victory."
Later, the feast of October 7th was renamed "Our Lady of the Rosary" and extended throughout the Universal Church by Pope Clement XI in 1716 (who canonized Pope Pius V in 1712).

And with that we are back to Fatima, Portugal where Our Lady, when asked her name, said: "I am the Lady of the Rosary." At Fatima, Our Lady taught us to pray the Rosary every day.

Heaven presented its peace plan at Fatima and truly gave us hope for the world.
Conversions were promised at Fatima: the conversion of sinners; the conversion of Russia; and what also appears to be the conversion of Islam.

Our Lady of the Rosary, Pray for us!

​Saints & Observances
October 1: St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
October 2: The Holy Guardian Angels
October 4: St. Francis of Assisi; First Friday
October 5: St. Faustina Kowalska, Virgin; Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, Priest
October 6: Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
October 7: Our Lady of the Rosary
October 9: St. Denis, Bishop, and Companions, Martyrs; St. John Leonardi, Priest
October 11: St. John XXIII, Pope
October 13: Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
October 14: St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr
October 15: St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
October 16: St. Hedwig, Religious; St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin
October 17: St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
October 18: St. Luke, Evangelist
October 19: Sts. John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs
October 20: Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
October 22: St. John Paul II, Pope
October 23: St. John of Capistrano, Priest
October 24: St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop
October 27: Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
October 28: Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles
November 1: ALL SAINTS' DAY; First Friday
November 2: All Souls' Day; First Saturday

Saint John Paul II: The following is from VaticanNews.va
​The school of sufferingKarol Wojtyła – “Lolek” to his family and friends – learned a great deal from suffering. The boy, born in 1920 in Wadowice, Poland, lost his mother when he was nine. When he was twelve, his elder brother died. He enrolled at university in Krakow at the age of nineteen to study his passion, Polish literature, but a year later Germany invaded Poland, the university was closed, and the professors deported to concentration camps.
In the hungry, bleak years of the German occupation, Karol, the aspiring actor who staged clandestine theater performances with his friends, came to know the world of manual laborers, the hardness of their lives as well as their great dignity, becoming a laborer himself in a stone quarry and a chemical plant.
There was light even in this dark time. His father, a man of profound prayer, taught him how to invoke the Holy Spirit. A friend, the tailor Jan Tyranowski, showed Karol the beauty of the interior life. Loss struck again: Karol’s father died in 1941, leaving the young man alone in the world. But with this new grief came illumination: “God was calling me to be a priest.”
Priest and bishopKarol studied for the priesthood in Krakow’s clandestine seminary and was ordained in 1946. His bishop noted the young priest’s intellectual and spiritual gifts and sent him to complete a doctorate in Rome. After some time as pastor of a parish and a university chaplain, Fr. Wojtyła became a professor of moral theology and ethics at Krakow and Lublin, where a group of students often accompanied him on hikes in the mountains.
There, far from the prying ears of Poland’s communist regime, the young people discussed philosophy, theology, the Christian life, and often, their marriages with “Wujek,” “uncle” – the title they gave to Fr. Wojtyła on their outings to disguise the fact that he was a priest. It was experiences such as these, Wojtyła would later say, that made him “fall in love with human love.” They would become the living basis for his “theology of the body,” or theology of human love.
On one of these outings, in 1958, Wojtyła received news that he would become a bishop. The communist authorities had approved his appointment, believing that a “philosopher and poet” would not cause them much trouble. They would soon learn otherwise. This young bishop whom they supposed to have his head in the clouds was a powerful preacher who began annually celebrating Christmas midnight Mass in a field for the inhabitants of Nowa Huta, a worker’s neighborhood that authorities had deliberately built without a church.
Soon great events were taking place in the Church: a new ecumenical Council, convoked by Pope John XXIII to help the Church to carry out her mission in the modern world. From 1962-1965 Bishop Wojtyła participated extensively in Vatican Council II, contributing to the drafting of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes and to the document on religious freedom, Dignitatis humanae. In 1967 he became a Cardinal.
“Be not afraid!”In 1978, Albino Luciani was elected Pope John Paul I, but died a month later. The shocked Cardinals entered a conclave to elect a pope for the second time in a year. Thousands of people’s attention was riveted on St. Peter’s when the new pope’s name was announced, then people turned to one another in confusion: Who? A non-Italian? For the first time in 455 years?
The new Pope “from a far country” had been prepared for his task through his own suffering and the suffering of his people. He knew what it was to face fear. So, on October 22, 1978, at the inaugural Mass of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II cried out to the whole world, “Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ!” To Christ in whom alone the human being understands himself, to Christ the Redeemer of Man.
This Pope from afar would go far, traveling some 1,100,000 kilometers around the world to show people the love of this Redeemer of Man, and to invite them to let go of their fear.
“Totus tuus”On May 13, 1981, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, the Pope would find a different way to show the world what it means to face fear, armed only with the love of God, the power of forgiveness, and the protection of the Mother of God. During that day’s papal audience, an assassin aimed and fired. St. Peter’s Square erupted into panic as the Pope fell. He came close to death, saying later that the Mother of God, to whom he had entrusted his pontificate, had protected him on her feast day; he made a pilgrimage to Fatima to place the bullet in her crown. He made another pilgrimage, too: to prison, to forgive the “brother who shot me” face-to-face.
A tireless defender of human dignityJohn Paul II was a prolific author and tireless preacher, always convinced that the human person is “the way of the Church” and that “the splendor of truth shines forth … in a special way, in man, created in the image and likeness of God” (Veritatis Splendor 1). The Pope who had experienced two forms of totalitarianism firsthand was outspoken whenever he encountered any ideology that threatened the dignity of the human person, from dictatorships to Marxism to unbridled capitalism. The Solidarity movement in his own country drew strength from his words and example, which helped precipitate the fall of communism throughout Eastern Europe.
From the beginning of his pontificate, John Paul II sought to heal the divisions between the Christian churches, especially with his Orthodox brothers and sisters. He was convinced that the wound of division was contrary to the will of the Lord and weakened Christian witness.
In everything he did as a defender of human dignity and shepherd of the People of God, John Paul II was conscious of his task of leading the Church and the world to a celebration of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ and, through this, into the new millennium. The Great Jubilee of the year 2000 was a privileged moment when believers praised the Holy Trinity for the Redeemer who “became our companion on life’s path … in the journey we make together … towards the new heaven and the new earth.”
“…to my Father’s house”In the 1990s, John Paul II was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. So began the final chapter of his pontificate and mission, in which the energetic preacher who had traveled the world had one more “homily” to give, not with words but, as he gradually lost the capacity to speak, with silence. As his successor Pope Benedict XVI observed, this “master of words” still had, not to say, but to show that “the Lord redeemed us with his cross, with the passion, as an extreme act of love.” In the last years of John Paul II’s pontificate, he consoled the sick with his sickness; in the last months – including a mute blessing given to the crowds from his window – he showed what it meant to live the realities of suffering and death in Christ, as part of his Body.
On April 2, 2005, the vigil of the feast of Divine Mercy, John Paul II died. His last words were whispered, “Let me go to my Father’s house.” Some 3 million people came to Rome for his funeral, and millions more followed on television. They had heard when this Pope had told them not to be afraid, and they understood that in those last years and months, he had told them this in the most profound way possible. In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI beatified his predecessor, and in 2013, Pope Francis declared him a saint.

Dedicate a Mass  in “Memory” or in “Honor” of a loved one. 
Dedication of Masses are limited to two weekend and two Wednesday evening Masses per intention for a particular member. Daily Masses are also available.  If you would like to dedicate a Mass in “Memory” or in “Honor” of a loved one, please call the Church Office 425-1590.  Whatever moves you to become part of this Mass is what you can donate.

Altar Flowers

Would you like to purchase flowers for the Altar in Memory or in Honor of a loved one for a weekend? The Flower Sign-up Board is located in the Kitchen airlock.  Cost:  $50.00​

Sanctuary Light

If you wish to have the Sanctuary Lamp burning in memory or honor of a loved one, to honor a special occasion, or a special intention, make arrangements with the Parish Office, 425-1590.

The Prayer for Vocations
Heavenly Father, Bless your church with an abundance of holy and zealous priests, deacons, brothers and sisters. Give those you have called to the married state and those you have chosen to live as single persons in the world, the special graces that their lives require. Help those who have embraced the consecrated life to live up to their promises. Form us all in the likeness of your Son so that in Him, with Him and through Him we may love you more deeply and serve you more faithfully, always and everywhere. With Mary we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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