"Two" are the "reasons for praying and thinking" provided by the first Sunday in October: "the memory of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary", which fell yesterday October 7th, and "the missionary commitment to which this month is especially dedicated". It was mentioned yesterday morning by Benedict XVI, before introducing the Angelus prayer from Saint Peter’s Square. "The traditional image of the Virgin of the Rosary commented the Pope portrays Mary holding the Baby Jesus with one arm and giving the rosary to Saint Dominic with the other. This significant iconography shows that the Rosary is a way given by the Virgin to contemplate Jesus and, by meditating on His life, to love Him and follow Him more and more faithfully". This is, he explained, the "task the Virgin left, even in some of Her apparitions. I am thinking in particular of that of Fatima, which took place 90 years ago. To the three little shepherds Lucia, Giacinta and Francesco, saying she was ‘the Virgin of the Rosary’, she repeatedly recommended that they should say their rosaries every day for the war to finish". (continued)
