Our Lady of the Rosary

The south of France in the 12th century found itself in religious conflict with the rise of a new religion called Albigensianism. When the Church failed at overcoming this new philosophy through the exercise of ecclesiastical authority or forcible repression, St. Dominic in 1208 turned to Our Lady in prayer. She told him the following:

"Wonder not that you have obtained so little fruit by your labors, you have spent them on barren soil, not yet watered with the dew of Divine grace. When God willed to renew the face of the earth, He began by sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic Salutation. Therefore preach my Psalter composed of 150 Angelic Salutations and 15 Our Fathers, and you will obtain an abundant harvest." (from The history of St. Dominic, founder of the Friars Preachers by Augusta Theodosia Drane)

As devotion to the Rosary through St. Dominic's extraordinary efforts spread, Albigensianism faded throughout the region.

What is Albigensianism? Like so many "new" religions that come onto the scene throughout history, Albigensianism is actually rooted in a much older (3rd Century) Persian religion called Manichæism, which is "purported to be the true synthesis of all the religious systems then known, and actually consisted of Zoroastrian Dualism, Babylonian folklore, Buddhist ethics, and some small and superficial, additions of Christian elements.(www.newadvent.org.)"

Take a look at some key Manichæan principles:

• The co-existence of two mutually opposed forces: "good", the source of the spiritual; and "evil", the source of the physical. Because the physical is innately evil, the body is evil, all of creation is a prison and liberation of the spirit, which is divine, comes with death.

• Because a "good" god could not come to earth in a body else be imprisoned himself by evil, he created Jesus Christ, whose teachings were redemptive, not his suffering and death. The Holy Spirit is also a creature.

• Man is a living contradiction, thus liberating the spirit from the body is a righteous end to life. Both marriage and procreation are abhorred and believers discouraged from marrying and having children, because this world is a punishment, and freedom from this world returns humanity to his divine nature.

• There are two classes: perfect and hearer. The perfect, possessing all knowledge essential to achieve divinity, were bound by every "moral law", whereas the hearer could pick and choose until ready to undergo initiation, at which time they must either bind themselves to the moral law or die. (Death bead initiations among Albigensian "believers", the Manichæan "hearer" equivalent, very common, as was suicide by starvation or assisted with poison.)

A casual observer can easily see how these ancient, erroneous principles have taken root today. Environmentalism, the New Age, secular humanism and various other contemporary philosophies share in the idealism behind these same principles. The specifics may be different, but the foundation is the same.

So is the remedy.

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Our Lady of the Rosary, Pray for us.