October

A Rosary a day for thirty-one days.

October is the month of the Rosary, keyed to the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on 7 October — instituted after the victory at Lepanto in 1571, which Pius V attributed to the Rosaries prayed across Europe that day.

How to Keep the Month

• Pray five decades daily. If that is too much, pray one decade and keep it.
• Follow the traditional cycle: Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious, with the Luminous on Thursdays.
• Pray it as a family for at least part of the month, even if only on Sundays.
• Keep 7 October, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

The Prayer of the Feast

O God, whose only-begotten Son,
by His life, death and resurrection,
has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life:
grant, we beseech You,
that meditating upon these mysteries
in the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
we may imitate what they contain
and obtain what they promise.
Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

About This Month

Pope Leo XIII wrote eleven encyclicals on the Rosary and asked that it be prayed daily throughout October in every parish — a request that has never been rescinded. If you have been meaning to establish a daily Rosary, October is when to start: the month gives you a beginning and an end, and by 31 October it is a habit.