I told you last month about Bishop Oliver Doeme’s vision of Christ in the adoration chapel, telling him that Boko Haram could be defeated with the Rosary:
Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme, head of the Diocese of Maiduguri in Nigeria’s Borno State, was in a chapel praying before the Blessed Sacrament last December when, he says, something extraordinary happened: Jesus Christ appeared holding a sword, which He offered to the prelate.
According to Bishop Dashe, the moment he took the sword from Jesus’ hands, it transformed into Rosary beads. He then heard Christ repeat three times, “Boko Haram is gone.”
The bishop recalls, “I didn’t need any prophet to give me the explanation. It was clear that with the Rosary we would be able to expel Boko Haram.”
Yesterday, the Radical Catholic blog observed a fascinating coincidence. Or is it?
Fast-forward one month, and the position of Boko Haram in Nigeria appears to have all but collapsed. Gbenga Akingbule, reporting for the Wall Street Journal, describes the sudden and surprising turn of events:
Boko Haram has abandoned so many hundreds of kidnapped women and girls recently that Nigerian officials tasked with bringing them back into society on Sunday said they were looking to open a second rehabilitation camp, a nod to how fast the tide of abductions has reversed. In the past few weeks, as troops from Nigeria and surrounding countries have punched deep into Boko Haram territory, soldiers said they have rescued about 1,000 women and girls, hostages the Islamist insurgency left behind. They include about 275 that army pickup trucks brought into the city of Yola on Saturday night and 260 rescued on Sunday.
Of course, Boko Haram has not been thoroughly defeated, and the Christians of Nigeria are still undergoing horrible trials and tribulations. But I cannot help but be reminded of the words once spoken by Blessed Pope Pius IX:
There’s no way to say for certain, but countless people read the story of Bishop Doeme’s vision. It was, as Radical Catholic noted, the recipient of “coverage on nearly every major and quite a few minor Catholic news outlets and blogs”.
This week, we published an article advocating for a Novena to Our Lady of Fatima for the conversion of Muslims. It is one of our most-shared stories ever published, with over 16,000 shares on Facebook alone in just the past three days. In the wake of the ISIS attack in Texas this week, the timing seems as though it could not have been more appropriate. Christians want to fight back.
This is how they can.
Our Lady has told us, again and again, that the Rosary is a weapon. “The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.”
Keep the pressure on. Mary and her Legions are unstoppable – and the Rosary is more powerful than most of us can comprehend.
Thank you for the very kind mention, 1P5. I noticed this after my traffic meter exploded, and I went in search of the cause. A very pleasant surprise indeed.
Good post, I would also add, don’t forget about Our Lady of Ransom (now known as Our Lady of Mercy) which founded the Mercedarians, whose purpose is to ransom Christians from Islamic capitivity.
You may want to read the Collect for the Feast Day of Our Lady of Ransom in the pre-Vatican II Roman Missal., no fuzzy words there.
You can get the white scapular of Our Lady of Ransom imposed by a priest with the pre-Vatican II Rituale Romanum and dedicate yourself to pray for Christians in captivity.
Or, pray to Our Lady of Good Remedy and read the Story of Juan de Mata (John of Matha) who co-founded the Trinitarian order (Order of the Most Holy Trinity) to ransom Christians from the Moslems. The order and the Rule were provisionally approved on December 17, 1198 by Pope Innocent III and fully approved in 1209.
The Trinitarians preceded the Mercedarians, since the Mercedarians were founded in 1218 and Pope Gregory IX approved the order in 1235. One of my favorite saints of the Mercedarians was Raymond Nonnatus, who, after ransoming nearly 400 captives between 2 places, went to a 3rd place and exchanged himself for another 28 captives when he ran out of money. Legend states that, in captivity, the Moors bored a hole through his lips with a hot iron, and padlocked his mouth to prevent him from preaching. Only after an extended period was he finally ransomed by his Order and returned to Spain. St. Raymond is the patron saint of the unborn and of gossips (put a lock on it). Let’s pray that through the intercession of St. Raymond Nonnatus, those women who have been released and are pregnant not be pressured by United Nations funded NGOs into abortions and that Christian organization support these women to choose life.
Redemption of captives is listed among the corporal works of mercy…
Historically, Jews were taught that it was a mitzvah or religious duty to ransom fellow Jews, Under Islam, as under Roman rule, Jews also ransomed fellow Jews from the Moslems. In the OT, during the Jubilee Year (see Lev 25), debt slaves were freed, financial debts were cancelled, the land was allowed to lay fallow, and land was returned to its original owner. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus comes to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, releasing captives and setting at liberty those who are oppressed; He frees people from sin and Satan, and, by His passion, death, and resurrection, cancels and releases from the debt due to sin freeing people to worship God and enter eternal life… “after this our exile”…
Great article, Steve. We desperately need a new and sustained rosary crusade. I believe Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Father Payton saved us from atomic war, and, later, JPII saved us from nuclear destruction through their emphatic instruction to pray the rosary. A renewal of the Battle of Lepanto is now upon us. Only the rosary can save us now.
The Bishop’s vision of the sword which transforms into a rosary reminds me of the story in 2 Maccabees 15 when Judas Maccabeus trusts with all confidence that he will get help from the Lord and encourages his men preparing for battle to look for the victory which the Almighty would give them and he relates to his men a dream. In the dream, he sees the now deceased Onias who had been a righteous high priest praying with outstretched hand for the whole body of the Jews, and, also with Onias was the prophet of God, Jeremiah, who stretches out his right hand and gives Judas a golden sword addressing him thus: “Take this holy sword, a gift from God, with which you will strike down your adversaries.”
The Blessed Virgin Mary did indeed hand the bishop the golden sword of the rosary.