The month of October every year is devoted by the Holy Mother the Church to the veneration of our Blessed Mother Mary through the recitation of the Holy Rosary because of the feast of Our Lady of Holy Rosary and the celebration of Mission Sunday.
During her apparitions in Fatima our blessed mother instructed the three children Jacinta, Lucia and Francisco to recite the Rosary because through this devotion and weapon it was easy for all believers to obtain favours, forgiveness, mercy and graces from her Son Jesus Christ. The devotion of the Holy Rosary has always thereafter taken an important role and place in the life of the Church and we can vividly see it also in Lourdes the pilgrims praying at with unction and fervour. Month of May is also dedicated to the recitation of the rosary and in October above all since the feast of Holy Rosary is celebrated on seventh.
The command of Our Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples before He ascended in to heaven was to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world. In order to fulfill this command of the Lord the Apostles went all over preaching the Good News and witness to it even by shedding their blood for Christ. The Church there for has kept her missionary role and dimension before her always and has continued and continues to spread and proclaim the message of the Gospel to all through the missionaries who are the messengers of the Good News. Therefore while celebrating Mission Sunday in October the Church reminds us, all believers, of our obligation to pray for the mission of proclamation and evangelization and for all those who are engaged in making Christ known to all and everywhere .
Let us therefore seek the intersession of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary – Our blessed Mother Mary through the recitation of the rosary to make us effective missionaries of the proclamation of the Good News of Our Lord Jesus Christ who is truly the Savior of the World.
XGerald Isaac Lobo
Bishop of Udupi