Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Luke (11: 5-13) in which Jesus says ‘Ask and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you’. After reading the Gospel Fr Paul shares a little about the memorial we celebrate today, Our Lady of the Rosary.

This feast was instituted by Pope Pius V to celebrate the defeat of the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571.  This defeat ended the threat of Muslim domination of the Mediterranean and was in part put down to the prayers and processions of the Rosary Confraternity in Rome.

As we celebrate this memorial today, particularly given that our theme yesterday was the ‘Our Father’, the theme today is the persistence in prayer, and the theme over these day is prayer, Fr Paul says, we might also spare a prayer for Our Lady.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!