Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
October 7, 2023
The seventy-two disciples returned rejoicing and said to Jesus,
“Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.”
Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.
Behold, I have given you the power
‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions
and upon the full force of the enemy
and nothing will harm you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you,
but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
At that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said,
“I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows who the Son is except the Father,
and who the Father is except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Turning to the disciples in private he said,
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
Reflection
Today is the 63rd anniversary of the consecration of Archbishop Theotonius Ganguly, C.S.C., as Bishop. He was the first native Bengali priest to be named Bishop in Bengal in 1960. On the day of his consecration, the then Archbishop Lawrence Graner, C.S.C., introduced Archbishop Ganguly to the vast crowd present for the episcopal ceremony as a “Day Star,” signifying that the first Bishop of Bengal not only shines as a star in the darkness but he shines more as star during the day.
In today’s gospel, Jesus says: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.” Yes, we are blessed because we see today Archbishop Ganguly as a precious gift from God, a holy person to us, as a Servant of God now in the process of his canonization.
Archbishop Ganguly, right after his ordination to the priesthood on June 5, 1946, always felt an inner urge to help the people who are in need, to go to the people living far away in the periphery, traveling on foot or cycle, or taking any means of transports like rickshaws, trains, or pulling carts.
Once, he was going by train, and there was no way to enter the train because of the crowd and the train was moving away. He immediately jumped and stood on the joints of the two wagons of the train, traveling with his cassock on.
Even at the time of his life on earth, he was popularly considered “a living saint” because of his kindness and gentleness, humility and meekness, simplicity, charitable and gentle behavior towards all.
Archbishop Ganguly has been given to us so that the church becomes holy by following his example. So many follow and imitate Archbishop Ganguly, pray, and receive God’s favors through his intercessions. His sainthood is like a hidden treasure that needs to be uncovered, exposed, and lifted high for the good of the church.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, Rejoicing in the Spirit and untied with Jesus in the gospel today, we “give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike.” Lord, for the glory of your Holy Name and good of the church, make your servant, Archbishop Ganguly, Blessed; increase our love for him; and let his life inspire us to follow his examples. Amen.
Saint of the Day
The rosary has been a popular, Scripturally-based set of prayers invoking Mary's intercession since the Middle Ages. The most widely accepted legend of the rosary's origins holds that Mary appeared to Saint Dominic when he was struggling with preaching in the early 13th century and instructed him in this new prayer practice. In this apparition, Mary told him to encourage people to pray the rosary, and Dominic found subsequent great success in his preaching once he began spreading this devotion. Given that the earliest recording of this story dates from three hundred years after these events supposedly took place, the legend of Mary's appearance to Dominic is highly apocryphal. But it is true that the rosary grew in prominence in popular piety through the protection and support of Dominic and his Dominican friars.
Why is the rosary such a fitting Marian devotion? In its essence, the rosary is a marriage of scriptural meditation and formulaic, repetitive prayers, whose aim is to facilitate the prayer practitioner's contemplation of the events of Salvation history narrated in Scripture. The prayers and their accompanying "mysteries" allow those who pray them to meditate on the events of salvation history that occurred in Mary and Jesus' lives. This prayerful contemplation of God's actions imitates Mary's disposition of openness to God's will (Lk 1:38) and continual pondering of God's actions in her life (Lk 2:19). Thus, the rosary is the Marian devotion par excellence, as it aims to instill in the devotee the very disposition of the Marian figure he or she contemplates in prayer.
October 7th was chosen as the feast for celebrating Mary as Our Lady of the Rosary due to her intercession for the European naval forces in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Originally, Mary was honored today under the title "Our Lady of Victory," to celebrate the aid she gave to the European navy. For on the day of the battle, Pope Pius V called upon Christians all over Europe to pray the rosary in anticipation of the cataclysmic naval battle, asking for Mary’s intercession in battle. After the victory, the Pius V instituted a feast day to Our Lady of Victory, commemorating the power of the rosary in obtaining Mary's intercession. Three years later, the name of this feast was changed to Our Lady of the Rosary, and its presence in October led the entire month of October to be celebrated still by many Catholics as the month of the rosary.
Our Lady of Victory figures prominently in stained glass windows in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus. An entire side chapel in the Basilica features windows containing images of our Lady of Victory, the Battle of Lepanto, and her shrine in Paris. A famous Marian shrine in Paris, Notre-Dame des Victoires, is named after Our Lady of Victory. In 1832, an association of people began to gather at this Paris shrine to dedicate themselves to Mary through the reception of the Miraculous Medal and praying for the conversion of sinners. Miracles and great wonders occurred, and soon, tens of thousands people journeyed to the shrine. Eventually, the communities of prayer who gathered at the shrine evolved into the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The confraternity and the centrality of this popular Marian shrine in nineteenth-century France partially explains the prominence of Our Lady of Victory in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus: when Father Edward Sorin, C.S.C., left France as a missionary priest with the Congregation of Holy Cross to found the University of Notre Dame in the nineteenth century, this devotion was at the height of its popularity.
Despite the rosary's mythical beginnings, and the spectacular origins of today's feast, the rosary's real power is not in the miracles worked through it, but in its gradual and gentle transformation of the hearts of those who pray it to model the obedient, courageous heart of Mary. And, finally, in its conversion of our vision to see God's saving work not as history locked in ancient texts, but as a palpable, tangible reality in our own lives, today.
Our Lady of the Rosary, who helps us see the saving work of God in our own lives—pray for us!