Can you imagine a doctor telling someone that he had a deadly disease and giving him a medicine that would cure it, and the patient responding with reluctance because "I'm just too busy to bother with something like that"? We would presume that the patient either had a death wish or some mental problem. None of us would intentionally choose to avoid something that can cure a sickness unless we had an extremely good reason.
Now translate this scenario to the spiritual realm. What if the Lord revealed to us what to do to help overcome some of our greatest struggles, and which would also help others around us with their problems? Would any of us knowingly choose to ignore it and instead just go on with our lives? It is sad, but this very thing has happened. God has given us a great remedy for many of our own and society's ills, but most have come up with excuses and avoided doing what our Lord wants.
Our Lady in her apparitions at Fatima told us that we needed to say the rosary every day. Some have followed this pattern, but many (if not most) Catholics do not follow this advice. We can look at history over the next fifty years after Fatima and see how things did not get better, but worse. This means that people were not heeding her counsel. Instead, for whatever reason, most just went about with their daily lives and presumed that they did not need to pray the rosary more frequently.
There are many proofs from history (many more than the battle of Lepanto) that show us the incredible power of the rosary. It was given to us, after all, to battle evil and to help us overcome the devil and the world. Why do we not use it more? Why is it so often treated as an unnecessary extra in the religious life? It was the demons who infested Anneliese Michel (go look up her story if you do not know it) that, when forced to speak the truth by the exorcist, said that the loved it that people thought of the rosary as something "for old women" and that they feared the rosary more than any other weapon given by God.
Why would we not take advantage of this great source of holiness more than we do? Some of the excuses that I have heard are shocking, and can only be justified in a mind that is focused more on self-gratification than holiness. It is likely that the only reason is a horrible demonic influence that has clouded the minds of many Catholics and makes them think little of the great sacramentals that have been given to us by God through His Church. Certainly, our gracious Lord would never discourage us from holiness.
This is not to say that no one is saying the rosary on a daily basis. Yet, if there were more saying it, then we can be assured that it would have more impact on society and on the Church. It is much like physical health, if a large percentage of a community were to have a poor level of health, then the few who are healthy would be more likely to catch various sicknesses. Are we truly committing ourselves to the specific forms of holiness that have been pointed out to us in some of the most clear ways?
I know of a few parishes where there is a "rosary group" that gathers to say the rosary on a regular basis (though sadly, most today are only women -- we need some men showing their faith as an example to the boys!). There are also still some parishes where the rosary is said before every Mass. I would like to see that happen more often. If it did, can you imagine the impact that it would have on those parishes, especially if it was more than just one or two of the faithful who gather to say it?
As St. Pope John Paul II said, the rosary is the whole gospel. Pray it so that the gospel can influence you more and more every day. Pray it so that you can influence others each day. Pray it so that we can offer up the prayers necessary to help bring our society, and our Church out of problems that it is spiraling into. Pray it for the salvation of the world.
