How to Preserve the Home & Achieve Family Peace

There is one way to have peace at home and in one's family - and ONLY one way. It is this:

"There is no surer means of calling down God's blessings upon the family....than the daily recitation of the rosary." -Pope Pius XII

"If families will listen to my message and give Our Lady ten minutes of their twenty-four hours by reciting the daily family rosary, I assure them that their homes will become, by God's grace, peaceful, prayerful places - little heavens, which God the Author of home life has intended they should be!" -Father Peyton

(source: The Secret of the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort. Opening inside cover quote)

My family prays the rosary together, not every night, but most nights. Generally it takes about 25-30 minutes rather than the above stated 10. This is a blessed time for us and I often picture Mary there with us, standing before us as Our Lady of Grace showering us and our home with graces. I can tell you that this promise is true - for family who recite the rosary, however faultily and with distractions, peace and love with permeate your home. I have found that friends of our children, many of whom are not Catholic, will join us and after some initial resistance, they will on subsequent visits LOOK FORWARD to this time of prayer together. When I say resistance I do not mean that we coerce anyone to pray with us, nor do we demand anything. Its more like this "Ok everyone, its time for the rosary!" and the kids all gather together in various kneeling/sitting positions on pillows on the floor of our prayer room. No other activity is offered for guests, they are simply and without words invited to join us. We keep extra rosaries around for all the various friends who frequent the home.

We have gone to some lengths to assure that this room of our whole house is the most inviting, most beautiful and attractive place; warm soothing colors, rich woodwork, statues, candles, blessed incense - the works. We are not rich, but we placed our greatest efforts into this small, converted porch in order to be the center, the heart of our home.

If you make the Lord the more important person in your life and family, He will shower all of you with His abundant graces. I tell you this from my own experience.

May Mary's prayers go with you always. Amen+

Heaven's Promises ~ The Rosary

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

Today I'm kicking off a new sort of series. I'm going to briefly review several Catholic devotions that have promises given by God for those to faithfully practice them. It is my intention to give honor to God for His abundant generosity to us poor sinners.

Let us be faithful to our spiritual exercizes, trust in our Lady's intercession and pray the rosary daily. Click here for a great resource in how to pray the Rosary. It takes only 20 to 30 minutes a day. The Holy Father John Paul II asked that every Catholic pray the rosary every day. If all Catholics were faithful to this pious practice, the devil would be bound by the chain of Mary to the foot of the cross and would have no power over the world. Have faith, pray the rosary and the rewards will be great. NonCatholics may also pray the Rosary, just get one and say the prayers, Mary will take care of obtaining your salvation.
The following are the Promises given by Heaven for those who pray the Rosary faithfully:
1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the rosary, shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the rosary.
3. The rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the rosary, shall not perish.
6. Whoever shall recite the rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God and become worthy of eternal life.
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the rosary.
10. The faithful children of the rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the rosary.
12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all Members of the Rosary Confraternity shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
14. All who recite the rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only son Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion of my rosary is a great sign of predestination.
~Revealed to the Dominican Blessed Alanus de la Roche, by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the 15h century. For myself, I would have to say the promise that I have experience most strongly is that part of number four: "It will draw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things." Since becoming "reverted" and a devotee of the Rosary this detachment from the world (not perfectly!) and desire of life eternal has been granted my poor soul. Many of the things I once cared about, I care not a wit for now (i.e popular music, lively social life, wanting to liked/popular and such). Many of the things I cared not bit about, I now care deeply about (being in God's grace, charity, sacrifice, virtue, mortification, etc.). I invite you to share what promises you have seen revealed in your soul in the combox. Let us rejoice in God's generosity!

The Great Promise of the Rosary

"If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins 'you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory.' Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practise black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if-- and mark well what I say-- if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death." ~St. Louis de Montfort