Many Catholics are familiar with the vision known as "The Dream of Don Bosco." In this famous dream, the Italian saint saw a Pope at the helm of a great ship. The ship was being tossed to and fro on a turbulent sea, risking capsizing and having its passengers thrown into the depths of the great abyss that lay below. At the same time, the great ship was coming under attack from several smaller vessels that were closing in on it. The ship was the Barque of Peter (the Catholic Church), and the stormy waves and hostile boats were the enemies of Christ's Church.
In this great vision of Don Bosco, the Pope was able to steer the Barque of Peter to safety to a distant port, guiding it between two pillars that miraculously appeared on the waves. These pillars were the Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin: these are the two great pillars of the Catholic Faith.
Today (October 7, 2024) commemorates the 453rd anniversary of the victorious Battle of Lepanto. In 1571, the Turkish (Muslim) navy was invading Europe from the south, and the Pope knew that the naval forces of Catholic Europe would not be able to withstand the attack, humanly speaking, for the Catholic side was vastly outnumbered. If Europe fell, Catholicism on the Continent would come to an end; it would undoubtedly be replaced by the religion of Islam. The Holy Father, Pope St. Pius V, knew that he could not stand by and allow this to occur. For the sake of preserving the Catholic Faith, he implored all Catholics to fall on their knees and pray the Holy Rosary, imploring the Blessed Virgin to save Catholic Europe. And though the Catholic naval forces were vastly outnumbered, they were able to defend the Continent and repel the Islamic invasion. Catholicism in Europe survived. The holy Pope knew that this victory had to be attributed to Our Lady and to her Holy Rosary, and so he instituted a feast in the universal Catholic Church to be celebrated every year on October 7: the Feast of Our Lady of Victory. This feast day was later renamed the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1969, after Vatican II, the Novus Ordo liturgical calendar renamed it Our Lady of the Rosary, downgrading it to the status of a mere memorial.
The victory at Lepanto was undoubtedly the result of the faithful's devotion to the Holy Rosary. Our Lord directed the Catholic Holy League Navy to victory, since the faithful had recourse to the powerful intercession of His Blessed Mother.
In the vision of Don Bosco, there were two pillars that guarded the Barque of Peter to safety across the turbulent seas. One was Our Lady, and the other was the Holy Eucharist. In a similar way, the Catholic Church today, which is on an infinitely more turbulent sea, is also being tossed to and fro as she seeks to lead souls to the port of salvation. The seas of today take on the names of Godless ideologies: atheism, paganism, modernism, indifferentism, relativism, as well as the countless ideologies against life, family, gender, and marriage as they were instituted by God. And although Islam is still a great threat to the Catholic Church, it appears to many that this great enemy of the Catholic Church is nothing compared to the Masonic and atheistic ideologies that dominate today in the post-Christian West.
It has often been said that the Holy Rosary is the great weapon given to the Church by Our Lady to help us obtain victory in our troubled times. And indeed this is so. But there is also another weapon, also given to the Church in this world, to conquer the forces of evil definitively. And this weapon is even greater than that of the Holy Rosary. What gift or weapon could Our Lady possibly give us that is more powerful than the Holy Rosary, you might ask? It is the gift she gave us at the Annunciation and ultimately at Christmas: the gift of the Son of God!
While the Holy Rosary is a powerful weapon that makes the demons in hell tremble with fear, Jesus Christ (the Incarnate Word) is an infinitely greater Weapon against evil, for the Incarnate Word is the source of all grace and holiness. This is why I belive that the Holy Eucharist needs to be explored more in depth as the greatest spiritual weapon given by God to His Church.
The Blessed Sacrament contains Jesus Christ Himself. Since Christ is God, and God is Supreme Goodness, this means that the presence found in the Blessed Sacrament is the presence of the greatest Good, the most resplendent Beauty, and the most sublime Truth. Truth, Beauty, and Goodness have their fullest presence in the Blessed Sacrament, since the Sacred Host is God Himself in the flesh. Evil always takes flight in the presence of Good; the ugliness of sin and rebellion against God cannot stand to be where there is true Beauty and obedience to God; and the darkness of error and lies (expressed today through the many ideologies of the Woke West) flee in terror wherever they encounter the sublimity of Truth.
As a result, we Catholics in the 21st century need to explore more deeply the theological significance of the Blessed Sacrament as a Divine Weapon given by God to His Church through the Holy Virgin Mary. Since it is Our Lady who gave birth to the Incarnate Word, without her there would be no Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ. Without her Yes to God at the Annunciation, there would be no Holy Eucharist: no Body and Blood, no human Soul of God the Son. And this is why the Blessed Virgin's FIAT is the most terrifying word every spoken by a human being, from the perspective of the devil.
The next time you find yourself in a dimly-lit church before the gentle flicker of the red sanctuary lamp indicating the Real Presence of Jesus in the Tabernacle, remember that you are before the greatest Power that ever existed. We can sometimes be misled by the gentleness and the humility of Our Blessed Lord's hidden Presence; yet we must never forget that this is the Presence that made all things come into being out of nothing!
The devil and his agents are no match for the Holy Eucharist, and this is why they hate it with a passion. This is why they attempt to destroy the Catholic Mass and why they hate the Holy Sacrament of the Priesthood (there would be no Mass without priests) more than anything else.
So, on this 453rd anniversary of the Victory of Lepanto, let us never forget to use frequently the two greatest Spiritual Weapons given to us from Heaven: the Blessed Sacrament and the Holy Rosary. Both of these sublime weapons of spiritual warfare are given to us through the Woman whose heal crushed the head of the ancient serpent (Gen. 3:15).
