First Friday, Our Lady of the Rosary--and of Guadalupe

Today is the First Friday of the month so my husband and I will attend Noon Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception here in Wichita, followed by a Holy (Half) Hour after Mass and Benediction. Today is also the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, which commemorates the Battle of Lepanto. Earlier this year, I had the great experience of hearing Christopher Check tell the story of the Battle of Lepanto--and then recite from memory G.K. Chesterton's great poem of "Don John of Austria/ . . . riding to the sea" (he only faltered once!).

Check cited a little known fact and includes it in this telling of the story at Catholic Answers:

Gianandrea Doria carried on his galley a gift from the king of Spain, an image that is now displayed in the Doria chapel in the cathedral in Genoa. Exactly forty years before the battle of Lepanto, the Blessed Virgin appeared to a peasant boy leaving a miraculous image of herself on his smock. The bishop of the region immediately commissioned an artist to paint five copies of the image, and he touched each one to the original. Our Lady of Guadalupe was present at Lepanto.

He also provides this timeline for the feast:

• In thanksgiving for the victory at Lepanto on the first Sunday of October 1571, Pope St. Pius V ordered that a commemoration of the Rosary should be made on that day.
• At the request of the Dominican Order, in 1573 Pope Gregory XIII allowed the feast to be kept in all churches with an altar dedicated to the Holy Rosary.
• In 1671, the observance of the feast was extended by Pope Clement X to the whole of Spain.
• Pope Clement XI extended the feast to the universal Church after the important victory over the Turks gained by Prince Eugene on August 6, 1716, the feast of our Lady of the Snows, at Peterwardein in Hungary.

Carl Kemme, our Bishop, has asked all the parishes in our diocese to pray the Rosary tomorrow, according to our Catholic Advance newspaper:

Bishop Carl A. Kemme has invited the faithful of the Diocese of Wichita to gather for a rosary to celebrate the Memorial of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.

The bishop has asked that they gather at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, in their churches or chapels, wherever the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, to pray five decades of the rosary. Bishop Kemme will lead a rosary at that time in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita.

Praying a daily rosary brings us innumerable graces to live our faith more fully, Bishop Kemme wrote in a letter to his priests and others in the diocese, and helps “to battle the temptations of the devil and to grow in sanctity.”

The bishop said he is hopeful that the diocese comes together to pray the rosary for the intercession for our country this election year.

Our home parish, Blessed Sacrament, is complying of course and we plan to be there.

The image above shows God the Father painting the portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe. When then Secretary of Saint Hillary Clinton visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, she asked who painted it, according to this Catholic News Agency story from 2009:

Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.

After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”