"ARM YOURSELF WITH MY ROSARY"

The Beauty and Power of Most Holy Rosary

Our Lady did not merely ask that the Rosary be prayed. She taught Christina how to pray it 'from the heart' and She requested that she teach others to pray it at the House of Prayer as She had taught her.

When Christina shares her experience of Our Blessed Lady teaching her, she relates the deep impact made upon her when Our Lady Herself prayed the 'Our Father' during an apparition. Christina has never - before or since - heard the Our Father prayed as Our Lady offered it. In an attempt to describe the experience, Christina said Our Blessed Mother was loving God with Her entire being through each phrase of the 'Our Father'. It was a total surrender of love. As she prayed Christina could see a heart slowly take shape in front of her - first in outline, then with a gauze - like texture forming and finally pulsating. This, Christina knew, was the Heart of Jesus alive and pleading before the Father as Our Lady's powerful rendering of Jesus' own prayer activated Her Son's intercession.
The precise teaching imparted by Our Blessed Mother began very simply when, one day, she intervened and stopped Christina as she prayed. Christina, it should be remembered, was inclined like so many of us were, to hurry through the Rosary, rhyming off the prayers. She had never known any other way of saying it. As she herself put it, once,

On May 22, 1988, three months after the first of her apparitions, Our Lady said to Christina:

"I would like you to pray the Rosary to me from your heart. Offer each Hail Mary as a beautiful white rose or precious jewel, and the Lord's Prayer as a very fine red rose or special jewel, to clothe me in. But you must know that you cannot have precious jewels that will not sparkle, or beautiful roses that are only ready to be thrown away. My child, if you do not pray the Rosary from your heart, with love and joy, the roses or jewels you offer to clothe me in will be lost forever. Pray the Rosary with love and joy and it will last for all eternity. Please, my child, do not disappoint me. Let it be a garment that will sparkle. . . pray my beautiful Rosary."

It is when prayed from the heart that the Rosary vanquishes the devil. How he must hate it! Our Lady remarked to Christina,

"It can defeat him when prayed from the heart."

In fact, Christina's own appreciation of the depth and power of the Rosary, is often captured in her personal advice to people:

"In the Joyful Mysteries we see the reality of our Blessed Mother's surrender to God, her 'yes' to God and her 'yes' for our redemption. It is her surrender.
"In the Sorrowful Mysteries, we see the ugliness of sin and what we did to Christ through sin, yet God in His Love and Mercy redeems us in our disobedience.
"The Glorious Mysteries bring us to a great awareness that if we say "yes" to God, we can also be raised up to share in the glory of the Risen Christ - to the home prepared by our Father. Most assuredly, the value of meditation on the mysteries is the key to the power contained in the Rosary.

Our Lady told Christina:

"My child, the calamity has started. The influence of the Prince of Darkness is all around you. Arm yourselves with my Rosary. My Church will be shaken, even to its very foundation. My children who want to be saved must repent. Repent, I say, to all my children. Arm yourselves with my Rosary. Let it never be out of your hearts. My chosen children, you are now like lambs among wolves. Stand firm, have no fear, for the Hand of the Mighty One is with you. ."

Our Lady in separate messages indicated to Christina many specific intentions for the recitation of the Rosary including the consolation of Her own Heart:

"I want if offered for peace and for the conversion of sinners."
"I desire you to pray the Rosary more often."
"It will protect them during the times of trial and suffering."
"I plead with you, arm yourselves with my Rosary."
"I love it when my children pray the Rosary."

"Pray the Rosary for some of my lost souls. . . . . Remember I am with you. There are some troubles ahead of you, but your cross will not get too heavy for you. You will be able to carry it. Pray, pray for strength to overcome darkness. Pray to My Heart. Console My many wounds there. You are close to my Wounded Heart. Always stay close to My Heart and the Heart of My Divine Son. Be not afraid. . ."

THE ROSARY UNITES TO THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS AND MARY

Once when Our Lady was revealing through Christina how a particular priest was destined to suffer for present day abuses of the Blessed Eucharist all over the world, She showed Christina a Rosary of tears with each of the five decades on the Rosary Beads representing one of the five continents of the world.

THE ROSARY'S POWER FOR THE WORLD

On another occasion as Christina prayed the Rosary she was shown the power it permitted Our Blessed Mother to draw to Her Immaculate Heart, Her children of the world. Christina could see people of different nationalities rapidly drawn upwards into Our Lady's outstretched hands and she could receive them in limitless numbers. They would vanish into Her Heart.
Christina says,

'Once, Our Lady referred to the Rosary and said,
'When you speak to a person, you know what you say.' I said, 'yes.' And then Our Lady said, 'When you speak to me, know what you say. In the Rosary, you can live the mysteries of my life with Jesus.' The Rosary is a very powerful prayer because Jesus said to me at another time: 'The Rosary acts as a shield - to protect you.' If you have this awareness and you pray the Rosary from your heart and in conversation with God or Our Holy Mother, meditating on the mysteries, then, in your heart, you're bringing about the Reality of Jesus as truly as if you're living in the time of Jesus and Our Blessed Mother. This is because you're allowing God's grace to enter your heart and increase your awareness. You also receive that protection Jesus spoke of. There is a great protection, from Heaven, through the Rosary.

There is not a time limit. Our Lady showed me that I should say the Rosary and pray it properly. Sometimes I would sit down or kneel down to do it. Then Our Holy Mother would appear and say, 'My Child, pray, pray, pray...' inviting me to pray the Rosary from the heart. Often I thought, 'Holy Mother, you know I can't be constantly praying the Rosary because I have to do my work if I'm to keep my life in any way normal. My life wouldn't work any other way.' So then, I started to offer my work as a prayer as well as the Rosary. When I would wash the dishes, I would invite Our Blessed Mother to receive the act of washing the dishes as a prayer, or when I was sweeping or washing the floor or whatever work I was doing, I would ask Our Lady to receive it as a prayer and I would offer it to Jesus. Our Holy Mother never contradicted me in that. This meant to me that Our Lady was obviously satisfied with what I had done. It's not the amount of prayer that is important, it's to be constantly aware of offering it to Jesus or Our Blessed Mother. Make your life a prayer and offer everything to Our Holy Mother, and, in return, She will offer everything to God.
When we can't pray a Rosary and we have to get on with our work, we then need to bring Jesus and Our Blessed Mother into our hearts and our minds as we work. We need to offer everything we do as a prayer.

THE FIFTEEN MYSTERIES DAILY

When someone remarked to Christina that it was difficult to fit in the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary each day, Christina replied with this very impressive illustration,

Some people feel they can only pray five decades of the Rosary each day, but if you had a beautiful treasure in your house, and the house had fifteen windows, you would not say that you only had time to close five of the fifteen windows; surely you would make sure to close all fifteen windows. In the same way we have within us the beautiful treasure of our immortal soul redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus. Satan desires to attack and plunder this treasure. Our Blessed Lady can shield us through the weapon of the Most Holy Rosary when we share these mysteries with Her. She can ward off the attacks of Satan in the various approaches he makes to our souls. The body represents the house and the fifteen decades represent the fifteen windows. As we pray each decade, we close a window.
In early January, 1994, Our Lady said to me, during Mass, that She desired to give many gifts to her children but their hearts remain closed. That is why the world has so much suffering. As Our Blessed Mother said this, She lowered her hands and white rays came from Her Hands and Heart as she uttered the words, 'I desire to give many graces to my children.'

THE ROSARY AS A PRAYER TO GOD

     We are wrongly inclined to associate the Rosary only with Our Lady, but She Herself invited us (in Her message of February 4, 1988) to offer it to the Holy Spirit for enlightenment and to Her Son's Heart.
     In a message on September 24, 1988, Jesus specifically requested Christina to pray the Rosary to Him: "Pray the Rosary to My Heart for souls who are in great darkness. Offer all your pain to My Merciful Heart. You have experienced the greatest pain of the crown of thorns. Do not fear when you suffer pain, I am close to you. . ."
     Again, during Lent (March 1988) Our Lady said, "When you pray My Rosary, pray it at this time to My Son's Heart..."